Laura Watkins
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Partner
Laura specialises in helping senior leadership teams to clarify and execute their priorities, work effectively together and lead their organisations. She also designs and delivers leadership development programmes at a range of experience levels from senior executives through to student leaders. She has a deep interest in how adults develop their effectiveness to lead change and how to accelerate this development, and this knowledge forms the foundation of her leadership programmes. In her time at The Cognitas Group she has worked primarily with clients in the UK, France, Switzerland and the US. Her clients cover a range of sectors, including banking, insurance, pharmaceuticals, retail, industrial, utilities, central government and intergovernmental.
Laura is passionate about all young people having good access to educational opportunities. She has advised many education non-profit organisations and is Chair of Governors at Haverstock School in North London.
Before Cognitas:
Laura was a principal at The Trium Group. She founded and ran the London Office and led consulting engagements to design and deliver leadership programmes, build senior executive teams and support clients in leading cultural change. Her clients included AXA, a major high-street bank, HM Treasury, the European Investment Bank, Lifelong Learning UK and Barclays Global Investors. Before Trium, Laura spent six years at McKinsey, where she joined as a general consultant and later specialised as a leadership/organisation expert. During her time at McKinsey and Trium, she worked in Europe, Africa, Australasia, North America and the Middle-East.
Laura holds a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience from Cambridge University and an MA in Physiology and Psychology from Oxford University. She has several psychometric/coaching qualifications including in Myers-Briggs (MBTI), the Leadership Development Framework (LDF) and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). She speaks fluent English and French, intermediate Italian and rusty German and Spanish.
When not at work:
Laura loves: mountains and hills; seas, lakes and rivers; running, swimming, cycling, winter sports, hiking, walking and pilates; learning anything new; writing children's books; and baking bread.
Other members of our team: