GAVIN FENN-SMITH
Founding Partner at the River Group
Gavin is a Founding Partner at The River Group. He has twenty years experience as a advisor to CEOs and senior executives, and as an expert in leadership and organizational development. He has consulted to organizations across the US, and has worked in many countries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Before forming The River Group, Gavin was a Senior Partner at Equinox Organizational Consulting. He was a co-founder of Kemp and Watson, a nonprofit consulting firm that is now part of The River Group. He is a member of the Board of Saroga, the nonprofit leadership forum, which creates leadership development solutions for nonprofit executives.
Earlier, Gavin was a founding member of the London office of Mercer Delta Consulting (now part of Oliver Wyman), and the Boston office of Smythe Dorward Lambert, a change management firm. Gavin holds an MBA from Warwick Business School and a BA (Hons) Political Science from the University of East Anglia. He lives in Massachusetts, USA.
Th River Group publishes an annual CEO study by the River Group is called EXCHANGES. After years of consulting to CEOs, the study formed the hypothesis that there would be many common experiences among leaders making that transition to the role of the CEO for the very first time.
The River Group had in-depth conversations with 75 CEOs during 2015. These CEOs worked for organizations large and small, public and private. In the study Gavin asked the CEOs: “How prepared were you?” “What were the biggest surprises?” “What are the best and worst parts of the job?” “In what way is the job different from other leadership roles?”
Presenter at Tamakkan
