Supporting Leadership in a Changing World
Oxford HR is a Global Leadership Consultancy, purely focused on the purpose-led sector.
Driven by a passion for positive change, we search for and support the exceptional leaders that can make that happen. An organisation’s potential for impact depends on the effectiveness of its leaders, its culture and the way people work together.
Oxford HR helps organisations get these right.
Our consultants all come from the purpose-led sector, leading to an impressive breadth and depth of experience and a true understanding of the leadership qualities our clients, and the sector, need for advancement.
Global Highlights
Washington office
With the appointment of Dr Karna Cohen as our Managing Director, Americas, we were delighted to formally launch our presence in the United States, Canada and Latin America. With a team working out of Washington D.C., New York, Ontario and Bolivia, we have enhanced our understanding of our clients’ needs in this vibrant social and environmental impact market.
Impact report
2023 saw the publication of our first impact report . Being impactful is at the core of who we are as a business so it now seems right to measure our impact in a tangible manner and hold ourselves accountable as we grow. We are also excited to be progressing through the BCorp process with an aim of becoming certified by the end of the calendar year.
Publishing research
We published two research papers this year, based on original findings from our consultants. The first was ‘Addressing the Challenge of Impact, Image and Income’ , which focused on NGO challenges in the Asia Pacific region, featuring qualitative data collected from our networks in the region and interviews with prominent figures in the space.
We then published ‘Co-leadership: The Future of Leading? ’ following a surge in interest for the co-leading model. This research delved into the best practices regarding hiring, assessing and onboarding co-leaders, from our experience with our clients and from conversations with co-leaders operating in the social and environmental impact sector.
Escape100
Book chapter
The NGO Whisperer’s latest book ‘Fit for the Future’ was published in 2023, featuring Oxford HR’s chapter on Founder-CEO Transitions. Fit for the Future is a practical guide for nonprofits to thrive in our changing world, with case studies and exercises that challenge organisations to embrace new ways of doing business. Our chapter focuses on the pivotal transition of a Founder-CEO out of a purpose-led organisation, featuring the personal experience of our Consultant, Dominic Bond, and that of others in our network. You can purchase the book here and watch our keynote speech at the 2023 Global Summit here.
In Loving Memory
December and January were sad months for Oxford HR as two of our dear colleagues passed away. Mukami Mbogoh passed away on the 24th of December after a long, brave battle with cancer and Toby Weaver, who passed away on the 3rd of January after a short hospital stay due to complications from pneumonia.
Having been with Oxford HR since January 2022, Mukami was based in our Nairobi office. Working across our communications and then business development team, she was always positive, always smiling and passionate about furthering herself, but also affecting change in the world that we live in. She will be very sorely missed by all of Oxford HR, and in particular our Africa team.
Toby had been with Oxford HR for ten years and, to many, was the embodiment of what we as an organisation believe in – passionate about our sector, knowledgeable, respected and liked by everyone he came into contact with. Even more importantly, he was incredibly kind and thoughtful, always putting others first, and we will all miss him dearly.
Diversity, Sustainability and Inclusion
BCorp application submitted
At the end of 2023 we finally submitted our B Impact Assessment in order to progress to the next stage of the BCorp certification. B Corp certification serves as a powerful testament to a company’s commitment to social and environmental responsibility, and we are excited to continue along the rigorous path of evaluation, with the aim of being BCorp certified by the end of 2024. We have found the assessment process inspirational and look forward to implementing more changes and improving our score with time.
EDI training (internal)
We recognise the growing importance of fostering an inclusive and equitable culture. By increasing internal EDI training over the past 12 months, we aim to cultivate a supportive environment where every individual feels valued, respected, and empowered to contribute their unique perspectives and experiences. Through various training initiatives led by our internal Leadership & Change team, we not only enhance awareness and understanding of EDI principles but also equip our team members with the necessary tools to actively champion diversity, challenge biases, and foster meaningful inclusion across our operations and our external facing projects. Investing in internal EDI training aligns with our core values and also ensures that we continue to evolve as an organisation that celebrates diversity and embraces the strength of our collective differences.
EDI services (external)
Building a culture of inclusion is essential for social and environmental impact organisations. Not only do inclusive and diverse organisations reach their goals faster than their counterparts, but EDI is also key to positioning an organisation for long-term success. We launched our EDI services in 2023 to support our clients to implement authentic cultural transformation and attract and retain engaged employees. You can learn more out our services here.
JUST ONE Tree
Our longstanding partnership with JUST ONE Tree continues into 2024 as we have now planted over 6000 trees. A large percentage of our trees have been planted in the Ankilahila, a mangrove plot, helping to expand habitats for species such as lemurs, crocodiles, fossa, in addition to a host of bird and fish species. Mangroves account for around 14% of carbon sequestration globally and also contribute to the protection of island communities as they buffer against coastal erosion and extreme weather. We look forward to planting even more trees on behalf of our clients and candidates in 2024 and beyond.
Events
Sankalp
Our Africa Business Development team spent two days at the Sankalp Africa forum at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies. We were fortunate to network with inspiring organisations, attend thought-provoking sessions and understand more about the social enterprise landscape on the African continent. A particular emphasis was placed on women; how women have the power to unlock the entire population, but that female founders only receive 2% of African capital, which is 1% globally. This social capital is key, particularly in rural areas, so the ecosystem needs to grow and further engage policymakers on these important issues. From the sessions across the two days, it was clear that there is untapped potential for social impact. We already have the knowledge to create the tools and solutions we need.
New York Climate Week
Our Americas team represented Oxford HR at New York Climate Week. Against a backdrop of devastating climate change realities, it was inspiring to be amidst so many dedicated individuals and organisations seeking to innovatively address critical issues in funding, policy, awareness, response and resiliency programming. What really struck us was the incredible leadership among the nonprofit, multilateral, and private sectors to drive the kind of urgent change needed to mitigate against the growing multifaceted challenges.
WINGS
Our team in Nairobi attended the WINGSForum, a three-day gathering that brought together philanthropic leaders, practitioners and innovators and sought to ignite a spark of transformation in the philanthropic sector. The theme for this year was based on the need for us to Transform ourselves and our ways of working to address the scale, complexity, and urgency of the global polycrisis.
OXygen
Our design team OXygen also attended a myriad of events, such as the Creatives for Climate meetup in Singapore, the Creative Changemakers Festival, The NGO Marketing Summit and “Diversifying Design” as part of London Design Festival’s Global Design Forum
Net Zero Festival
Zoe Greenwood, Head of Practice for Environment, Climate and Conservation, attended the Net Zero Festival, hosted by Business Green. There were over 100 speakers including corporate leaders, scientists, celebrities, politicians and campaigners exploring a multitude of topics related to the tricky business of reaching net zero (which means no longer adding to the total amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere). Multi-sector panels and speaker sessions made the point time and again that this is about so much more than carbon, cautioning a “tunnel vision” focus on carbon reduction in sustainability plans.
Skoll
We were excited that 2023 was our first opportunity to engage with Marmalade festival, an ecosystem of events that takes place alongside the Skoll World Forum. We hosted two panel discussions on the crucial topic of Founder-CEO transitions, in collaboration with the Vitol Foundation, PEAS and STiR Education. Bringing together an audience of founder and successor CEOs, senior leaders from founder-led organisations and funders interested in supporting grantee partners through these transitions, we covered many key dynamics of the founder transition in a short space of time, and these points were supplemented by the feedback from the group discussions which crowd sourced the wisdom of the room. You can read more about it here.
WILD
We attended the 2023 WILD Forum, running a panel discussion on co-leadership. The session was facilitated by our Head of Practice for Environment, Climate and Conservation, Zoe Greenwood, and she was be joined by Roisin Taylor, Co-Director at UK Youth for Nature and Tatu Hey, Co-Director at Fair Share of Women Leaders. We also led a Community Conversation, with our Director of Learning and Change, Jenna Pilley, facilitating a conversation on ‘knowing yourself through psychometric assessments.’
Our clients
SDG 1 – No poverty
SDG 2 – No hunger
SDG 3 – Good health and wellbeing
SDG 4 – Quality education
SDG 5 – Life on land
SDG 6 – Clean water and sanitation
SDG 7 – Affordable and clean energy
SDG 8 – Decent work and economic growth
SDG 9 – Industry, innovation and infrastructure
SDG 10 – Reduced inequalities
SDG 11 – Sustainable cities and communities
SDG 12 – Responsible production and consumption
SDG 13 – Climate action
SDG 14 – Life below water
SDG 15 – Life on land
SDG 16 – Peace, justice and strong institutions
SDG 17 – Partnerships for the goals
2023 in numbers
14,891
Candidates registered
1765
trees planted with JUST ONE Tree
170
assignments
70
Clients Worked With
of our appointed candidates identified as female
Leadership & Change
224
assessments in the past year, an 122% increase from the previous year
31
Clients worked with
new clients
repeat business
increase in our coaching and consulting projects
Our appointed candidates are:
Online
4,500
new LinkedIn followers
4,400
new email subscribers
130
web users
