Paul Crook

Having built a career in his own family, niche, business before moving into business consultancy, MSME advisory as well as productivity work, Paul undertook a two-year sabbatical in Sudan and Kenya as a British volunteer working with the informal sector. He became involved with relief work in Somalia where he was the only man in a women’s movement challenging local warlords. He went on to work in several managerial positions with notable NGOs undertaking project management in countries across Africa responding to crises in Angola, Burundi,Rwanda and Sudan as well as working on more positive development work in Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya. Paul worked for the European Commission, heading the office in Somaliland engaging with a government unrecognized politically but delivering practically for people.

He returned to organizational and management education in The Gulf delivering managerial courses for two universities and a mentoring company. Brought back to Africa to manage the set-up of what became a US$450 million funding operation covering two Global Fund operations, recovery programmes and the largest humanitarian funding Africa.  Going on to work for the International Labour Organization developing fragile state initiatives, including the first Somalia Decent Work approach and leading IGAD and AU’s Employment for Peace strategy. Inclusion is built on the dignity of self-sufficiency and community; philosophies ingrained in Paul’s motivations.

Paul continues to use his knowledge, expertise and experience to support quality programming across related to displacement and climate change. Working mainly on livelihood and associated work on enterprise development, he has naturally returned to governance aspects as local economic development evolves. He has also used his knowledge to support humanitarian response and resilience work where holistic programming is of critical importance. He supports local initiatives across the Middle East and Africa as well as the UK where he is a trustee and advisor fora number of specialist organisations.

Paul is involved with the Oxford Futures Forum, an initiative to look at how we can best develop our strategic capabilities given the complexity of our World.This builds on previous work with Henley Business School where Paul gained his MBA and continued working on Leadership for Senior Managers. Work with MSMEs continues with practical and insightful work linked to Entrepreneurship in memory of Prof Gibb Durham Business School  and ICSB. The Cambridge Circular Economy Sustainability Strategies gaining further insight into shared value and the circular economy.      

‍