Neilson Mentoring
We recognise every human being is different. Our mentoring is designed around your unique needs.
As the Principal of Neilson Mentoring, I have years of senior management and board experience to draw upon. My team and I work with individuals and groups at all levels of an organisation and across a wide spectrum of consumer, service, and industrial settings.
As a mentee you could benefit in one of the following ways:
Skills development which may include technical knowledge, functional knowledge and behavioural competences.
Career outcomes, which may include progression to the next level in an organisation or a career move.
Become a better leader
Access to a wider network of contacts
Mindset/emotional outcomes - Improvement in self-belief, confidence, self-awareness.
For those seeking career direction we have designed the Neilson 10 Step Career Guidance Process. This helps individuals to identify career development steps in preparation for the challenges that lay ahead.
NEILSON 10 STEP CAREER GUIDANCE PROCESS
Mentor Profile : Stuart Neilson
Summary of Expertise
General management
Strategy creation
Sales Excellence
Marketing Excellence
Talent development
Coaching
Born in Yorkshire now living in Winchester,Hampshire
Stuart is a highly insightful and results orientated experienced international leader with over 30 years of experience across a variety of industries spanning from FMCG to Medical Devices. He has worked for a number of global organisations including Cadbury Schweppes, Boots Healthcare International, Novartis, Sonova AG and The Sivantos Group (formerly Siemens Hearing). More recently Stuart has supported a number of private equity backed start-ups and used his talents to turnaround underperforming organisations.
A strong believer in results through people Stuart is passionate about the importance of authentic and respectful leadership and how transformational leadership drives employee engagement and optimum business performance.
As an international leader he has vast experience of managing large global teams from different cultures and a successful track record of leading multiple Country Turnarounds. In his Management Board role as Vice President of The Sivantos Hearing Group (£1Bn Turnover) he was based out of Munich with responsibility for leading 17 x Country Managing Directors and business in over 70 countries. During this period he played a key role as part of a high performing leadership team resulting in driving revenue growth at 4x the market rate.
Stuart graduated in Business Studies at Leeds University before embarking on a stellar commercial career. He built his career mainly through the Sales function where he rose through multiple levels from Sales Representative with Cadbury Schweppes to Sales Director at Novartis. His success in sales comes from a belief that strong customer collaboration comes from how as a supplier you can truly ‘add value’ and sharing ‘out of the box’ solutions to business problems.
In his role of UK Managing Director with the Sonova Hearing Group he applied a transformational approach to leadership fully embracing talent management, leadership development, agile working, flexible benefits and the importance of diversity. As a consequence of the outstanding results , the approach became a global leadership model for the group and led to 4 of his management team to becoming Managing Directors in their own right.
His outstanding results and success at developing leaders at Sonova resulted in him being offered an annual role mentoring high potential future leaders from around the world.
Stuart is one of 25 global Partners at the Future Work Forum Think Tank, a not-for-profit organisation shaping and influencing the future of work. Linked In and his participation in the forum has provided Stuart with the platform to share and promote his values and belief in the importance of respectful leadership.
Driven by his passion for developing and helping others achieve their potential Stuart recently set up his own Mentoring business.
Summary of Behavioural Strengths
Driven
Empathetic
Leadership
Active listening
Relationship building
Creativity
Problem Solving
Core Industry Expertise
Optical industry
Hearing industry
Medical Devices
Grocery industry
FMCG
Company Experience
Sonova Hearing Group
Novartis
Boots Healthcare
WSA (Sivantos/Siemens Hearing)
Cadbury Schweppes
Mark Ennovy Custom Contact Lenses
Duncan & Todd Optical Retail Group
Testimonials
“A few years ago I had a great honour and pleasure to have Stuart as my mentor.
During our mentoring journey, I had the privilege of benefiting from Stuart’s wealth of knowledge, expertise, and unwavering dedication to my personal and professional growth.” - Senior Director
“Throughout our mentorship, Stuart demonstrated a genuine commitment to my success, generously sharing his time, expertise, and network to help me achieve my goals. His mentorship has had a profound impact on my professional development, and I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have learned from Stuart” - Senior Director
“I have no doubt that Stuart will continue to inspire and empower others through his exemplary mentorship.
I wholeheartedly recommend Stuart as a mentor without reservation to any individual or organization seeking guidance and support in their career journey.” - Director
“Stuart is an inspirational leader and mentor. He engages teams in an empowering way which creates a positive, can do culture. With a wealth of experience he can guide people to think differently and out of the box. People and customers are at the heart of Stuart’s philosophy..... and having fun!” - Senior Account Manager
“I was fortunate to work closely with Stuart on several projects and throughout the process I was mentored and guided, gaining the benefit of Stuart’s experience and knowledge, knowing that I can still count on him for honest advice/critique/feedback whenever needed.
Stuart is a leader who lives by his values, with integrity, spirit and indeed a sense of fun…. I believe I’m one of the lucky ones who have had the opportunity to work with Stuart and to have travelled part of life’s journey together!!” - Partnership Manager
“Stuart's ability to build and nurture relationships is truly remarkable. He understands the importance of fostering connections, both internally and externally. As a leader, he has an innate talent for engendering trust within his team, bringing them along on the journey toward shared goals.” - HR Director
“Stuart has the great talent mentoring his direct reports but also colleagues willing to listen to his leadership insights. Talking with Stuart on his inspiring views on talent development, leadership skills and how to create high performing teams was an absolute delight and resonated with my personal views.” Legal Advisor/Director
“Stuart has always had a high performance attitude through inspiring others and helping people be the best they can be. This mindset creates emotional loyalty and with his sharp commercialism have helped him to get great results.” - Consultant
“Stuart is highly approachable and easy to talk with. He shows respect to all employees at all levels. Together with his strong set of personal values this makes Stuart being very much trusted by people. In conversations and presentations Stuart is highly inspiring. And as Stuart is also empowering people by coaching them at the same time, he has the rare talent to make his people grow and go the extra mile!” - Chief Commercial Officer
“As a member of the Board Stuart took time out to mentor junior staff and focus on leadership development. I too was fortunate to have several one-on-one conversations with him and received mentor-ship and guidance on my leadership skills, style and gaps. I continue to work on the feedback he provided and use his guidance to shape my leadership journey.- Senior Commercial Strategist
“As a SVP I was sincerely impressed with Stuart’s openness, warmth and easiness of creating connections with the teams, while he was keeping an eye on the business priorities and making sure the people deliver on it. I would recommend Stuart to any organization interested in investing in people leadership and to all individuals looking for career mentorship or coaching.” - VP Marketing
“I am grateful and blessed to have learned from Stuart, that true leadership is human - look after your people and the success follows.” - Trainer