Belden M Menkus

Belden is the founder and Managing Director of MenKus & Associates, specialists in helping businesses create strategic value by responding quickly and effectively during turbulent times. 

For more than 25 years, he has advised business leaders on issues of business direction and strategy implementation.

Belden started his career with McKinsey & Company, where he worked with clients in the UK, Europe, US and Japan across a wide range of service and manufacturing industries.  Subsequently, he was recruited by CSC Index to help create and deliver a breakthrough methodology for business re-engineering. The results of his innovative approaches led to being asked to help open and then run the CSC Index office in Tokyo.  After almost 7 years at CSC, he was recruited by Nextera Enterprises to be head of Business Development in the UK and Europe.

He founded MenKus & Associates in 2003 to help clients who were wrestling with something that didn’t fit the existing models for strategy or business change. Through his work with clients and extensive additional research, he has identified the forces that create this unprecedented Age of Discontinuity – and developed new approaches to strategy and change that respond to new demands for momentum and alignment in spite of uncertainty and ambiguity.

A published author, Belden has been quoted as an expert on strategy and innovation in the FT, Director, American Banker, New Media Age, and other trade titles. He speaks regularly to business groups about The Age of Discontinuity and it’s implications for management. 

Belden has British and American passports.  He lives in London with his wife and four very energetic children. 

Francois Gall

Francois’s work for clients has focused on addressing strategic, operational, organisational and transformation issues; formulating entry and development strategies; and initiating, evaluating, negotiating and closing cross-border M&A transactions. He has been particularly successful in obtaining results in situations involving cross-functional, cross-border or multi-cultural issues in a wide range of industries.

Francois is a graduate in Business Administration with a postgraduate diploma in International Trade and an MBA gained at Insead.

Michael C. A. Lange

Michael works with small and medium enterprises as well as divisions of large organisations. For them, he has led projects for turnarounds, joint ventures, and acquisition due diligence from initial concept to final completion.  Michael has developed and implemented strategic and regulatory audits, cost reduction initiatives, marketing/distribution reviews (especially for mature product lines) and “best in class” customer service.  His experience covers the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, Ireland, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Africa. 

Michael is a graduate of the University of Texas with a degree in Business Administration and Finance.  He has completed advanced finance, regulatory and management courses at Rice University, the New York Institute of Finance and is a graduate of the Advanced Management Programme from INSEAD, in Fontainebleau, France. He speaks conversational German and has knowledge of Spanish.

Michael and his family are based in London.

John Howells

John’s track record for transforming customer-facing service businesses commenced at the P&O Group, where hesuccessfully transformed regional retail operations and engineered the launch of a new regional P&O Corporate Services business.

From P&O, John moved to American Express Europe, where he held increasingly responsible roles. In 1998 he joined the EMEA Foreign Exchange Team, assuming responsibility for American Express’ UK & Ireland forex distribution and in 2000 joined the Global Management Team, headquartered in New York.

John has a post-grad degree in Management, is a member of Cranfield Management Association, Chartered Management Institute and the Institute of Directors.

Neil Britten

Neil has consulted internationally to Boards and senior executive teams, primarily in the Financial Services, Oil and Gas, Chemicals, Electronics, Telecommunications and Manufacturing sectors. Currently as founder of Britten Partners, and previously as Director at BLN Associates, Vice President at CSC Index and Principal at Gemini Consulting, he focuses on strategy, performance improvement and major change programmes. Prior to his consulting career he was an executive with Burmah Oil and member of the executive board of Castrol Australia. He started his career as a designer of computer chips with Texas Instruments in the UK and France.

He is Member of the Institute of Directors, and Chairman of the Buckinghamshire branch, where he lives with his wife and three sons. He holds a number of executive and non-executive directorships and works with start-ups, new ventures and private equity firms. When the snow falls he heads for the slopes to indulge his passion for off-piste skiing. He is Chairman of the Council of the Ski Club of Great Britain.

He has a B.Sc. in Engineering, is an MBA graduate of INSEAD and a Chartered Director.