We are delighted to welcome Penny Baker who recently joined us as a Principal Consultant in our Leadership and Talent Consultancy Team. Her focus will be the oversight of our partnership with the Cabinet Office on the psychometric and behavioural assessment of Senior Civil Servants.
Penny’s induction to date has been 100% virtual, and it’s been great to see how the design of our virtual onboarding process and investment in our systems, technology and design has paid off; quickly becoming our new normal. While Penny has yet to shake a hand, she is very quickly getting up to speed!
Penny’s career started in the Civil Service in what was the Department of Environment (now Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government), with her first role sponsoring the London Docklands Development Corporation. In her 13 years in Central Government she worked across environment and local government policy areas, writing a National Waste Strategy, being seconded to the Local Government Commission during the John Banham review and working on the legislation that became the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 200. Her final role was leading a “Senior Civil Service HR” team for that Depart so she has some experience of, and insight into, the environment many of our client’s work within. It was here that she became involved in behavioural and psychometric assessment and decided to complete her Master’s degree in Occupational Psychology at Birkbeck, University of London.
Penny moved into consultancy to apply her Msc. and work towards Chartership, she has worked in several leading consultancies. In these roles she has gained extensive experience of all areas of assessment and development, from technical behavioural measurement to managing global development programmes. Across the 15 years she has been in consultancy she has worked with Central and Local Government (England, Scotland and Wales), Government Agencies, NHS Trusts and NHS England, Regulatory bodies, Universities, Charities and a wide range of businesses from global pharmaceuticals to start-ups.
Penny is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist, qualified and experienced in a range of psychometric tools and fascinated by the measurement and development of leadership behaviour. Moving to GatenbySanderson she will be ensuring that our partnership with the Cabinet Office delivers the highest quality assessment service support to the selection of Senior Civil Servants. In summing up her move, Penny comments,
“I am so excited to be returning to a focus on public services at such an important time. I feel that I have moved full circle and can bring with me and apply everything I have learnt from my experience with such a wide range of organisations and approaches to support GatenbySanderson in our mission to find and develop leaders that build a better society.”