Bernard Ross

Bernard is an internationally regarded expert in strategic thinking, organisational change and personal effectiveness. He works in Europe, USA, Africa and South America.

His assignments have involved a wide range of not-for-profit organisations over 25 years. Those in the UK include British Red Cross, NSPCC, Macmillan Cancer, and the Science Museum. He has also consulted for a number of universities including Oxford and the Sorbonne. International agencies on his assignment roster include ICRC, IFRC, Amnesty International, Greenpeace International, UNICEF, and MSF.

At the moment

I’ve just finished writing a new book on behavioural economics with Omar Mahmoud, Global Head of Knowledge at UNICEF International. It’s based around our consulting work with a number of charities and public bodies, looking at how to apply some of the latest thinking on behavioural change to organisations concerned with campaigning and fundraising. It complements other books on strategy, innovation, and influence written with my colleague Clare Segal. I enjoy writing- it forces me to think about what’s fundamental, and forces you to identify key principles. I’m also actively involved with a number of INGOs in their work on strategy – helping them re-imagine and re-engineer the way they tackle the big issues they confront.

Before =mc

After completing a long and unbelievably arch university thesis on aesthetic theories in the work of Sylvia Plath (!) I decided to do something more socially relevant. So I became a community worker in Edinburgh with a special interest in using arts and culture to engage communities in social and economic justice. I retain that fascination with transformative power of arts and culture through assignments with organisations as diverse as Poetry London and the Paisley Museum.

I then worked in community work around the UK. The high point was launching a community cable TV experiment in Gateshead run by a team of local volunteers. Using borrowed equipment and a small grant from the arts council we produced two hours of locally made and relevant TV weekly for two months. The programming included the first ever breakfast TV programme in the UK, and a children’s version of the movie Ben Hur with the famous chariot race done with supermarket trolleys.

In 1988 Clare Segal and I set up =mc. Since then I’ve worked with a diverse range of ethically-driven organisations, spoken at international conferences, and helped develop the =mc international partner network. I’m really proud of how we’ve built the business in terms of reputation and reach over the last 25 years.