Eden McCallum promotes Emily Gowers and Jamie Roberts
Eden McCallum has named Emily Gowers and Jamie Roberts as Associate Consultants in its UK wing. The pair have been promoted from being Analysts, after two years in the firm’s analyst programme to train the next generation of consulting talent.
Founded in 2000, Eden McCallum is a consulting partnership complemented by a network of more than 1,500 independent consultants. The firm runs an analyst programme for entry-level recruits, which aims to equip new staff with the tools and skills required to be a successful strategy consultant, or to boost career prospects of whatever career path they are aiming for in the long-term.
The analyst programme includes building problem definition and problem solving approaches; qualitative and quantitative research techniques; analysis and business modelling skills; communication and presentation skills; and managing client and stakeholder relationships. After an initial two years as an Analyst, the strongest performers are promoted to Associate Consultant.
Emily Gowers has made just such an ascension, having joined Eden McCallum as a graduate in 2018. Having studied a degree in Neuroscience at the University of Oxford, Eden McCallum helped build upon the strong analytical and problem solving skills she had honed during her academic career, by helping her to strengthen her interpersonal skills with clients, and bolstering her business experience. During her analyst training, for example, she covered how to conduct a good client interview, including everything from writing a good interview guide to dealing with hostile interviewees.
This was put to good use when Gowers joined a project for a global education provider. The team travelled to multiple education centres in the UK and interviewed numerous people to uncover what daily activities they were doing that were time-wasting.
Gowers added, “It was great to take their concerns in a structured form to senior leadership and help formulate an initial plan about how to reduce workload for these stressed teachers and administrative staff. In the last year, I’ve also received training sessions on finance and accounting, strategy and operational frameworks and quantitative skills in Excel and Tableau to name just a few. It’s great to know I’m investing in skills that will make a difference, deliver real value to clients and contribute to my career development.”
Jamie Roberts has also earned a promotion from Eden McCallum’s analyst programme, having similarly come to consulting from a drastically different background. Following the completion of a Masters in Energy, Sustainability and Environmental Engineering at Cambridge University, Roberts spent a year as a researcher with NASA, before working briefly as an Analyst with UMAI Restaurant Reservations and Hudson Clean Energy.
Roberts joined Eden McCallum in 2018, and after finishing the initial comprehensive training period, he was immediately moved onto a large transformation project for a mid-cap FTSE250 company. This involved working on a team with no less than five senior consultants, and two more senior analysts. These senior consultants had a broad range of impressive backgrounds, a couple of which included a partner level position at MBB, and a European director for a FTSE100 company – enabling Roberts to get on-the-job training and coaching from seasoned professionals.
Speaking on his training, Roberts said, “Coming from an engineering background, I had always been used to receiving feedback in the same sort of way: getting an ‘X’ next to a question on a problem sheet or maybe a referral to a book for more detail. However, feedback is key at Eden McCallum and is part of the culture. Whether this takes the form of regular meetings with your manager, mentor, or members of your project team or whether it is just written comments on a slide. Every piece of feedback is vital to your personal and professional growth and will form the foundations upon which you can grow project upon project.”
