Andrew Armes

Andrew Armes is a leadership expert and organisational development specialist who helps leaders understand how self-awareness drives sustainable performance and cultural transformation. With over 25 years at executive level, including senior roles at AstraZeneca, Invensys and Roche, he has shaped talent strategy across global organisations and contributed to Roche's recognition as the UK's Best Big Company to Work For. As founding partner at Emei Consulting, Andrew equips audiences with practical tools to recognise how personal patterns influence leadership effectiveness, enabling them to navigate complex change, build genuinely inclusive cultures, and lead with authenticity that delivers measurable impact across their teams and organisations.

During his tenure at Roche, Andrew Armes helped transform organisational culture so profoundly that the company earned recognition as the UK's Best Big Company to Work For in The Times Top 100 rankings. That achievement reflected a core insight that has defined his career: sustainable performance is not built on strategy alone but on leaders who understand how their own unresolved patterns and blind spots shape the very challenges they seek to overcome. With more than 25 years working at executive level in global organisations including AstraZeneca and Invensys, Andrew has consistently challenged the idea that leadership development can succeed without deep self-awareness. His work addresses a persistent gap in how organisations approach change, demonstrating that leaders who fail to examine their own influence often undermine the transformations they are tasked with leading.

Andrew's credibility stems from substantial corporate achievement and measurable impact across multiple sectors. As Vice President for Talent Management and HR Strategy at Invensys and Head of Resourcing and Talent Management at AstraZeneca, he introduced fresh thinking that inspired people to discover greater meaning and purpose in their work. In response to the global financial crisis, he co-founded The Spring Project, a leadership and personal development social enterprise that supported individuals navigating profound uncertainty. He has also served as a director at Common Purpose, designing and delivering cross-industry leadership programmes that connected diverse professionals across organisational boundaries. A respected author, executive coach and facilitator, Andrew has won multiple awards in recruitment and employer branding and has twice been recognised among the Top 100 Most Influential HR Professionals by HR Magazine. His expertise is grounded not in theory but in the lived experience of shaping culture, talent strategy and leadership capability within complex, high-stakes environments.

Today, as a founding partner at Emei Consulting Ltd, Andrew works with leaders and organisations worldwide to unlock high performance through deeper self-awareness, stronger relationships and more human-centred leadership. His approach challenges the transactional nature of traditional leadership development, equipping audiences with practical tools to understand how their personal histories influence their leadership style and organisational outcomes. Whether speaking to large audiences or facilitating intimate workshops, he creates environments where leaders confront difficult truths about themselves and emerge with renewed clarity and confidence. Audiences leave with actionable strategies to navigate complex change, build cultures rooted in genuine inclusion, and lead with authenticity that creates lasting impact for individuals, teams and entire organisations. Andrew's sessions do not simply inspire reflection; they provide the frameworks and self-awareness necessary for leaders to transform how they show up, make decisions, and create the conditions for others to thrive.