I am Tony Shafar. I am an executive and business coach with over 20 years business experience working in senior positions for FTSE 100 companies and also smaller owner managed businesses and technology start ups.
Below are some of the companies that I have worked for throughout my career
Professional Background
Finance & Management
After studying Accountancy and Business at Strathyclyde University, I qualified as a Chartered Accountant working for Grant Thornton in Glasgow. Upon qualification, I moved to the London office specialising in Corporate Finance.
From there, my career progressed with me working for a number of large organisations namely Morrisons, Virgin Media and Ogilvy (part of WPP) in senior finance roles progressing to Finance Director level.
Most recently within the blue chip world, I spent 10 years working as a Finance Director for Ogilvy where I was a key member of the senior management team, managing the P&L, negotiating with clients, and working alongside the CEO managing staff and other key stakeholders.
In addition to having experience working for large organisations, in the last few years, I have also worked as a part time Finance Director for a number of smaller organisations including owner managed businesses and technology start ups, where my role was very broad, not only including managing the finances and helping with fund raising but also having operational responsibilities in helping manage the business.
Coaching
Throughout my career, I have spent many years working alongside, advising and coaching CEOs, Directors and Executives who may be experiencing leadership challenges or simply seeking to get to that next level. With many years experience in leadership positions myself, I am well placed to understand and identify with many of the business obstacles and opportunities that executives face on a daily basis. In addition, through past close working relationships, my experience has given me much insight as to what holds many people back from taking action, setting and achieving goals and maximizing our potential to be truly successful and fulfilled. This is something which has been hugely beneficial to my clients in my coaching business. I am an accredited coach through the Association for Coaching, having completed a Diploma in Transformational Coaching.
Why I Coach?
I am immensely passionate about helping people not only be successful, but also fulfilled. Adding real value to them is key to this. Positive feedback from my clients constantly reminds me what I am achieving as a coach, which gives me an immense amount of satisfaction and helps me continually strive to deliver the best results for my clients. Being coached myself on a regular basis, I personally have experienced the great benefits from coaching and it is no surprise to me of the statistics that show coaching for executives provides an average return on investment of almost six times the cost.
