Our Team

We employ the most able, practical negotiators as our consultants and then train them to deliver our highly developed, participative, skills courses.

In terms of the professional background of Scotworks tutorial staff, all are experienced negotiators with extensive first hand knowledge of business & commercial issues having had personal experience in major negotiations at a senior level.

In terms of intellectual & academic attainment most are educated to at least Masters level. The tutors selected to work on any project with a client would be those with the most suitable experience to meet the target groups needs.

The seniority of our tutorial staff enables senior managers to feel comfortable that they are been taught by people who are at the very least their peers. They can also rely on the feedback from the tutors being based on real world experience, as is any specific advice given on particular problem areas participants may face. 

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Mark Simpson, MBA, BA (Hons), Dip. Trg. Mgt., Chartered MCIPD, Managing Director

Mark has a wealth of international experience assisting clients achieve outstanding results in major commercial and industrial relations negotiations. He has been involved with Scotwork for over eighteen years working in the UK, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Europe, USA, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Mark combines a strong commercial background with an ability to tune into and understand organisational, individual and cultural issues to support clients in developing objectives, effective strategy and manage the negotiating process to achieve satisfying win win outcomes at both organisational and individual levels.

One of Mark’s many strengths is his flexible consultancy style which enables him to work comfortably with staff at all levels within client organisations. He acts as consultant and advisor to a number of organisations, assisting them in preparing for, conducting and reviewing performance in large commercial and industrial relations negotiations.

Mark has tutored on the Henley M.B.A. programme teaching both corporate and human resource strategy. His academic qualifications include the Management M.B.A. from City University Business School in London. He is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (UK).

Outside of work Mark’s leisure activities include scuba diving and clay target shooting. Mark is actively involved and passionate about animal welfare and a contributor to a number of animal welfare organisations. He is currently National Chair and major sponsor of marine mammal welfare organisation Project Jonah NZ

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Dave Thompson, Principal Consultant

Dave has worked as a trainer for Scotwork since August 2007 and has run numerous courses in New Zealand and Australia.

His background is more than 20 years in the I.T. industry. He has held various senior management roles, including Director of Services for Microsoft New Zealand. He was a business coach at The ICEHOUSE (a business incubator in association with Auckland University and NZTE). Dave also has experience in the Telco, Banking and Airline industries.

In addition to his Scotwork training responsibilities, Dave also works as head of Business Intelligence (data warehousing) in the Finance division of Bank of New Zealand.

Dave holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Auckland University.

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Adam Sands, Principal Consultant

Adam’s role includes the development of Scotworks New Zealand business, and the delivery of negotiating skills training and consulting services to our clients.

Adam has extensive experience in business to business sales, sales management and profit centre management. A long career progressing through Rentokil Initial in the UK, and more recently in New Zealand with OfficeMax, has provided Adam with frequent and significant negotiating opportunities, these include; employee relations, large complex sales with public and private sector clients, relationship management in key accounts, usually in the role of seller or manager, but occasionally as a buyer too. The numerous internal negotiations occurring in corporate life have also helped hone Adam’s skills.

In 2007, whilst at OfficeMax, Adam moved into a Performance Development role involving sales and management training and coaching. Adam’s association with Scotwork started shortly after when OfficeMax were seeking to develop the negotiation skills of key members of their team. Having experienced firsthand both the quality of Scotworks training and the significant returns on investment achieved, Adam joined Scotwork with the aim of helping New Zealand business people become world class negotiators.

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Dr. Roger O’Brien, PhD, BSc(Hons), MIM. C. Eng, Principal Consultant

Roger is a highly experienced director, manager and consultant. He spent 28 years in the international oil industry with field and management experience in the UK, Holland, New Zealand, and Australia both on and offshore. 2 years direct experience in the electricity transmission industry in New Zealand and 5 Years independent consulting in energy and other industries, including practical contract management, tendering, contract negotiations, outsourcing, partnering, progress measurement and documentation/information systems. He has acted as an advisor to the government of East Timor on a number of fuel and energy development projects.

In 2008 Roger completed a role as Interim CEO and Chief Operating Officer for the CCT Motorway in Sydney Australia, a A$1 billion transport utility in receivership. Supporting the previous CEO and working with the receivers, Roger was responsible for post handover contractual completion, restructuring and rebuilding the organisation and day-to-day management, integration of IT, Tolling, Asset Management and O&M contracts.

Roger was also the Chief Executive Officer for Norwest Energy NL, a small scale global oil and gas exploration and production company based in Perth, Western Australia.

Roger has worked with Scotwork in both New Zealand and Australia since 2002.