Susan Martin is MD of Greenstone Consulting, a change and and transition management firm. After a long career in the public sector, culminating in a CEO role at a financial services business, she now holds a number of director roles and works as an executive coach.

Our conversation tracks Susan’s childhood and early career, and how she became used to frequent change and adaptation. This led to her becoming a committed change advocate and consultant. We talk about the challenges of change – the need to sometimes pause to allow change to settle, and how to mobilize an employee body behind a change initiative without fear.

As a generalist who has worked in a range of industries we talk about the tension between generalists and specialists and the role that interpretation and intuition play in this case. We turn then to what makes a valuable director or chair of a Board, and how diversity contributes to the richness of this discussion.

Series 4 is brought to you with the kind support of Federated Hermes, Inc., a leading global investment manager. Guided by their conviction that responsible investing is the best way to create wealth over the long term, their investment solutions span equity, fixed-income, alternative/private markets, multi-asset and liquidity strategies and a range of separately managed accounts, distributed through intermediaries worldwide.