Niall Foster
Brought in to restore performance and deliver results, fast.
Hands-on executive leadership to stabilise operations, reduce costs and execute change.
Interim Executive working with boards, CEOs and private equity investors to:
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Stabilise underperforming divisions
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Deliver cost reduction and productivity improvement
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Recover stalled or high-risk transformation programmes
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Provide executive leadership during critical periods
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Aligning Organisational Elements
I work with organisations to align the five drivers of sustainable performance
- leadership, strategy, customers, processes, and people. This enterprise-wide alignment enables clarity, focus, and momentum, delivering sustained growth, stronger margins, deeper customer loyalty, and a high-performance culture.
Leadership
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Design a flexible culture to fulfil the strategy
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Develop exemplary leadership
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Implement governance and regulatory compliance
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Improve shareholder value
Strategies
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Resolve strategy alignment bottlenecks
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Translate strategy into performance employees are trained/rewarded to do
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Facilitate skills development, career planning, in-house behavioural training, executive coaching and mentoring
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Assess leadership and functional competencies
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Deliver competency-based recruitment and onboarding
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Clarify talent and succession planning
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Identify reward strategies
Customers
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Deliver processes and procedures to meet customer needs
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Enhance customer focus and service
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Ensure consistent service standards and behaviours
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Clarify what customers care about
Processes
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Improve performance and control
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Define consistent operational standards
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Manage forecasting, planning, measuring and reporting
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Implement the Balanced Scorecard
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Streamline and digitise processes and procedures
Employees
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Align employees with business vision, values, strategies and processes
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Ensure consistent employee behaviours
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Maximise employee potential and improve morale
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Improve stakeholder collaboration and buy-in
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Create culture for all employees to maximise their potential
About
I work with organisations and senior leaders navigating complexity, transformation, and uncertainty - when experienced leadership, sound judgement, and decisive action are critical.
My work spans three integrated areas within the Five Elements framework: interim leadership, strategic consulting, and executive coaching and behavioural development - flexed to meet the needs of each situation.
Alongside my advisory work, I serve as a visiting MBA lecturer at leading international business schools, including Edinburgh University Business School, ISG Paris, the Baltic Management Institute and Kyiv Economic
University.
Testimonial
“A rare combination of strategic thinking and operational delivery.
Niall quickly established credibility at board level and brought clarity and discipline to a complex transformation.”
Richard Macklin, Global Vice Chairman, Dentons
Sample Projects
Below are selected examples of my work. Confidentiality limits what can be shared publicly - further detail is available on request.
Interim Leadership During Organisational Transition
Context
My client was experiencing leadership transition and operational uncertainty during a critical period.
Challenge
Maintain stability, rebuild confidence, and ensure momentum continued while longer-term leadership plans were developed.
My Role
I became an interim director for 12 months supporting the board, leading a change team, and guiding organisational priorities.
What I Did
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Stabilised the structure and decision-making.
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Clarified priorities and short-term objectives.
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Supported key stakeholders through the transition.
Outcome
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Confidence restored across leadership and staff.
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Clear direction re-established.
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Smooth handover to permanent leadership.
Consulting on Strategy and Organisational Performance
Context
A leadership team wanted sharper strategic focus and improved organisational alignment.
Challenge
Too many priorities, unclear direction, and limited execution traction.
My Role
Strategy and performance advisor to senior leadership.
What I Did
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Facilitated leadership discussions to clarify priorities.
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Challenged assumptions and sharpened decision-making.
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Helped translate strategy into actionable plans.
Outcome
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Clearer strategic direction.
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Stronger leadership alignment.
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Practical actions that led to measurable progress.
Executive Coaching
Context
A senior executive was navigating role complexity, pressure, and organisational expectations.
Challenge
Build confidence, strengthen judgement, and maintain effectiveness under pressure.
My Role
Executive coach and confidential sounding board.
What I Did
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Provided structured, reflective coaching sessions.
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Supported decision-making on complex leadership issues.
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Helped strengthen leadership presence and confidence.
Outcome
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Improved confidence and clarity.
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Stronger leadership impact.
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Better decision-making in challenging situations.
Sample Clients
I've worked with some of the world’s most iconic brands.
My experience stretches across a diversity of cultures, channels and functions worldwide.
I help you to get and keep all the vital elements of your organisation – leadership, business strategies, customers , processes, and employees – aligned and headed in the same direction at the same time to obtain breakthrough results including sustained growth and profit, loyal customers and a high performing workforce.
Technical Competencies
Context
A multilateral development bank with headquarters in the City of London͘ requested that I create and embed functional competency frameworks in a number of their departments.
Challenge
The Bank wanted to clarify the technical competencies that apply to all department staff. These competencies are the skills, attitudes and knowledge that can be observed as behaviours and that contribute towards how employees should perform their jobs.
My Role
The Bank required me to design a model of best practice to show how the competencies should be used to develop a career, maximise employability and align employee objectives with performance expectations.
What I Did
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I designed a competence framework that clarified what each competency was and was not as it applied to department staff at each hierarchical level.
Outcome
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All training and professional development activities are more productive, goal oriented and cost effective.
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Employees have clear job performance and behavioural expectations.
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Improved employee mobility, greater flexibility, scale and flex.
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Enhanced clarity and feedback in recruitment, training and appraisals.
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Enhanced employee development and promotional paths.
Strategy Audit
Context
A telecommunications regulatory authority in the Middle East required a current state assessment and gap analysis of their strategies.
Challenge
The authority wanted to go beyond TQM and reengineering and create a new aligned approach that linked their strategy with employee objectives, customer needs and continuous improvement of operational processes and procedures.
My Role
Provide focus on the critical elements of organisational leadership to ensure consistency of their vision, strategies, ways of working, performance and reward mechanisms.
What I Did
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I audited their strategies and organisational design
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Provided a clear framework for improving the way they aligned and linked the crucial elements that build and sustain organisational success.
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I provided tools and benchmarked measures to help the authority get and stay on a best practice track.
Outcome
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Better focus on the critical elements required by leaders to deliver clearer strategic direction.
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Clarity of their strengths and areas for improvement.
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Stronger leadership alignment.
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Practical actions to help employees to relate their activities to the authority's vision and strategic objectives.
Recruitment and Onboarding
Context
The client was undertaking a major IT-enabled business transformation.
Challenge
Their existing IT function lacked the strategic leadership and specialist capabilities required to support the transformation and deliver sustainable business outcomes.
My Role
I designed and led the end-to-end recruitment process: candidate identification, assessment, selection, offer negotiation and onboarding.
What I Did
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Clarified role accountabilities and competencies.
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Conducted a comprehensive market scan, including domestic and international competitors.
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Assessed and interviewed candidates.
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Created innovative benefits and remuneration packages.
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Designed and facilitated the delivery of an onboarding programme to accelerate integration and productivity.
Outcome
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Successful recruitment and integration of 40 senior executives critical to the transformation programme.
