Chris Roebuck

Chris Roebuck, BSc, MBA, FCIPD, CCMI is a British economist and expert on leadership and organisational performance. He is Visiting Professor of Transformational Leadership at Cass Business School in London, a position he has held since 2009. He advises organisations on maximising performance through effective leadership, in particular developing lean leadership and entrepreneurial leadership. To enable this to be implemented, he works with leadership groups, runs masterclasses and works within organisations.
Roebuck has held senior Human Resource and organisational transformation roles at London Underground, KPMG, HSBC, and UBS. In 2011, 2012 and 2013, he was nominated by HR Magazine as one of the top 20 Most Influential HR Thinkers. Roebuck advises the Chartered Management Institute, and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, business groups such as the Corporate Leadership Council, and the media, such as The Times, Wall Street Journal and the BBC.

Roebuck studied Economics and Geography at University College London where he chaired the Students Union commercial enterprises committee, whose operations turned over in excess of £1m in 1976 and employed 32 staff . He later chaired the Union Council, overseeing the constitutional governance process, elections, and negotiations with the UCL senior leadership team and Provost. Roebuck graduated in 1977 with a BSc in Economics.

Roebuck served with the Royal Engineer sub unit of the University of London Officer Training Corps and was commissioned into the Territorial Army. During this period he led the team that blew up the 150 ft high chimney at the old pottery at Sandford near Wareham in Dorset to make way for a new housing estate. Roebuck was subsequently commissioned into the regular Army Royal Engineers via the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He was the Best Young Officer on his Course at the Royal School of Military Engineering. During his service in Germany, Roebuck developed the modern pipe fascine, now used by the British Army in operations globally to rapidly cross small gaps and obstacles that restrict mobility of armoured and other units.

After leaving the Army, Roebuck used his knowledge of leadership to help SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) develop their leadership capability as he found they often lack resources or knowledge to achieve this. He frequently worked with entrepreneurs, helping them develop better leadership skills to take their businesses forward. This later fed into his work with larger organisations, particularly UBS, around developing entrepreneurial leadership.

In 1992 he received his MBA from Cass Business School in London. His final dissertation on organisational communication was featured in The Times, on BBC Television and was published worldwide in the International Journal of Strategic Management.

After his MBA he was asked to develop performance improvement initiatives in organisations such as Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Bank of New York, Bank of England, Arts Council of England and Wales, legal firms, and the UK Government amongst others.

In the late 1990s Roebuck lectured at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and the Joint Services Command College on utilising the best of both military and commercial leadership techniques for the benefit of military officers. In 1996, he also advised on updating the course at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

In 1999, Roebuck was invited to be a member of an expert panel on improving leadership in British business in order to enhance competitiveness, reporting to the UK government

After roles with the executive team at London Underground developing the Public Private Partnership, the largest Public Finance Initiative to date in the UK, he then worked to build a new business line for KPMG based on providing outsourced services. He then moved on to building a business driven core leadership management system for HSBC investment bank. In 2002, Roebuck moved to Zurich at the request of UBS where he worked until 2006.

At UBS, Roebuck and colleagues led the delivery of a new development and leadership strategy for the bank’s top 500 leaders. They subsequently co-ordinated the strategy via the business divisions for the other 70,000 employees. This underpinned a new corporate alignment, culture and brand, improving the bottom line and the position of UBS in the global banking rankings through entrepreneurial leadership. In 2004, he was appointed Global Head of Talent and Leadership. The project at UBS progressed well with top management support and, as a result, in 2005 UBS won the title "Best Company for Leaders Europe"and the "Best New Corporate University" awards, the "Corporate University Best Practice" and "Excellence" awards in 2006/7, and was ranked one of the top 10 best companies in Europe in 2007.

The UBS talent and leadership initiative now forms a key part of a Harvard Business School Case Study "UBS: Towards the Integrated Firm" on supporting strategic business change, realignment and improvement via talent and leadership activity. This case is also reviewed from the organisational culture and performance perspective.

During his time at UBS, Roebuck built on his experience of entrepreneurial leadership in SMEs to enable it to be used at UBS as a catalyst for improving organisational performance. He also developed the initial concept of Entrepreneurial HR to support this, which he continues to expand on and refine.

Since 2006, Roebuck has helped develop leadership and values based high performance working with or in organisations as diverse as the British National Health Service (1.4m staff), and in sectors including international logistics, finance, legal, transport, facilities, media, pharmaceutical, and not-for-profit.

Roebuck was part of the expert group developing the 2009 report on Employee Engagement "Engaging for Success" for the UK Government to improve performance in British Business. He also subsequently worked on its implementation. In 2011 he was commissioned by the King's Fund, the UKs leading Health Sector think tank, to deliver a report and recommendations on developing leadership in the NHS to enhance patient care for their Commission to the UK Government.

He was a member of the Executive Committee of the European Coaching and Mentoring Council 2004 -6 and also is an expert on developing leadership via mentoring. He is also an executive coach and business mentor.

Roebuck presents at international conferences, business schools and to professional and management groups such as NHS Chief Executives, the Institute of Directors CEO Summit, Confederation of British Industry and the All Party Parliamentary Committee on Management.

Roebuck is asked to present and run masterclasses on leadership and organisational performance focused on his new approach to leadership – Mach 2 leadership – at international conferences, business schools and to professional and management groups such as NHS Chief Executives, the Institute of Directors CEO Summit, Confederation of British Industry, the All Party Parliamentary Committee on Management and other groups across the world. These have been in the USA, Europe, India and Asia, including for the Red Cross in Myanmar, the China Aeronautical & Scientific Corporation (Chinese Space Programme) in Beijing, NASSCOM Congress in India and the Project Management Institute (PMI) Congress in Dubai.

Roebuck has written books on leadership, communication and delegation. His book on "hands on" leadership was a global best seller, translated into 11 languages and was used as a best practice guide by the American Management Association.

He had regular columns in CEO and HR Magazines for a number of years and has written for publications such as Health Service Journal, Governance Magazine, Management Today, Law Society Gazette, Chartered Institute of Management Accountants Magazine, and other business titles.

His work has been quoted globally, for example in the UK national press, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Time Magazine, Chicago Tribune, Huffington Post, Le Monde, Times of India, Vancouver Sun and more than 50 other business titles.

In May 2014, Roebuck published a combined guide to both organisational and individual leadership introducing a new model of leadership – Mach 2 leadership – in his new book 'Lead to Succeed - The Only Leadership Book You Need.' Mach 2 leadership enables the maximisation of employee effort and the application of that effort onto activities that maximises organisational performance. The book also focuses on the effective, engaging, ethical and entrepreneurial elements of leadership that underpin world class performance.

Roebuck appears regularly on both global TV and radio as a leadership expert, including BBC News, BBC World Business, BBC Breakfast, The Money Programme, Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN, Sky, Al Jazeera, Swiss and Russian National Television, BBC UK, World Service and Australian Radio channels. His total television audience to date is estimated to be in excess of several billion viewers.

In December 2011, Roebuck became a Freeman of the City of London.

In May 2012, he was invited to become a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute, in recognition of his work over many years in leading the improvement of leadership and management practice in organisations globally.