Career Pathway: Business Consultant to Manufacturing Industry Director
" One of my career highlights was the work I did with Watson Marlow. I became Industry Expert Lead for Manufacturing last year and recently got promoted to Manufacturing Industry Director this year"
Toby's Career Path at Columbus
2019 - 2021: Business Consultant
2021 - 2022: Principal Business Consultant
2022 - 2025: Principal Advisor
2025 - Date: Manufacturing Indusrty Director
The Beginning of My Journey
I graduated in 1996 from the University of Brighton with a degree in Electronic & Computer Engineering, from here I spent 4 years as a Field Service Engineer at a subsidiary of Davy McKee Engineering which involved installing measurement equipment on steel mills worldwide.
I was headhunted from this job by a start-up in San Francisco for a remote position (home-working) to help them break the European market for their steel measurement equipment - this involved both selling and implementing solutions.
Different Industries
In 2003 I joined a process engineering firm in Poole called Aeroform, as a Business Development Manager. We designed, built and sold autoclaves (pressure ovens) to aerospace and Formula 1 motorsport companies for projects such as the A380 aircraft at Airbus and the 787 Dreamliner at Boeing and several projects at McLaren. My remit was to develop sales and assist in the design and compliance testing of a tobacco expansion processing machine. I spent 6 years travelling worldwide, building up a revenue stream for this product.
The recession at the end of 2008 caused me to leave and join the RNLI in 2009, where I headed up the maintenance function - I was responsible for a team of 75 people who maintained and repaired lifeboats and lifeguard equipment at 240 lifeboat stations around the UK and Ireland. In 2014, I joined the ERP project team to implement AX2012 at the RNLI. I enjoyed the project and working with the implementation partner. As a result of this, at the end of the project, I left the RNLI and joined Columbus in 2019.
Joining Columbus
Since joining Columbus, I started as an Associate Consultant and worked on a couple of projects. I was then asked to join the Essentra team as the Test Manager. Following this, I began talking to our UK CEO, Chris, about how we could improve our relationships with our customers by focusing on their business value and the changes required to deliver value. Shortly afterwards, Ian Kingstone was appointed, and we formed the Strategy & Growth team in the UK, and I was moved up to Principal. I worked with Ian on creating the Value First Framework and training materials for the Columbus Academy. I also volunteered as an Academy coach for 18 months.
Career Growth
Over the last few years, I worked on many recent projects and pre-sales activities, helping our customers identify and deliver value. One of my career highlights was the work I did with Watson Marlow. I became Industry Expert Lead for Manufacturing in November last year and Manufacturing Industry Director in April this year.