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Marisa Knowles

Managing Director

Thames Ditton, United Kingdom

Work history

Marisa has an extensive professional HR background having spent over 20 years’ working with and influencing business leaders across a broad range of industries and functions, working with start-ups through to Blue-Chip Corporations. Marisa started her career at Walters Kluwer Publishing during which time she held several roles, including UK Training & Recruitment Manager and SAP Change and Training Lead before moving into FMCG and Pharmaceuticals where she spent 13 years at GlaxoSmithKline starting in Recruitment and moving into numerous HR leadership positions including HR Business Leader for Global Manufacturing and End to End Supply for over 13 GSK Sites, 150 external supply sites, 4000 employees and with 13 direct reports.  Over the last 5 years Marisa has been immersed in the world of start-ups and scale ups as well as corporates often finding ways to bring the learnings form both worlds together to stretch companies mindset and perspectives.

Marisa’s strengths and expertise lie in organisation design, strategic talent management, cultural transformation, developing high performing teams and Management & leadership training & coaching

Consulting, coaching and facilitation approach

Marisa coaches with a collaborative style – working with individuals to understand the specifics of what they want to achieve and adapting her coaching to ensure results. She uses a blend of reflective and challenging coaching techniques interchangeably, as required by the coachee.

Marisa uses a creative and encouraging style when working with teams, encouraging them to be bold and imaginative in relation to meeting their desired objectives. She focuses on transformational coaching, where the entire system of a team can improve over time, thus having an impact on the wider organisation which they lead.

Marisa’s facilitation style, like her coaching style, involves working with the team to enable them to achieve collective results. She makes use of her extensive experience to provide leadership and positive guidance to teams.

Marisa brings significant experience in consulting on leadership and talent development, in order to drive high performance, often during times of change. Marisa has experience of designing and delivering high impact, strategic yet highly pragmatic interventions that truly make a difference to the talent, team performance or organisation cultural agenda. Marisa’s working style is dynamic, insightful and honest – never afraid to hold up the mirror to teams or organisations alike

Education and qualifications

Accreditations

Working languages

English