Our vision is to be seen and respected as a leading customer focused consultancy that works in partnership with people and organisations to realise their potential in an ever-competitive market.
We work closely with you, to understand the uniqueness of your business, and your people, and ask the honest and forthright questions that others can’t – to bring together the vision for the business with the reality of performance. We bring global experience, across a range of industries and backgrounds, providing a wealth of knowledge that aids in accelerating your business.
Duncan Cawdell,
Founder and Managing Partner
Duncan Cawdell has a wealth of senior sales management experience both in the UK and abroad. Duncan has sat on both sides of the table, as buyer and as seller, which provides a rounded perspective on effective selling .
His career started in Asda, one of the UK’s largest grocery retailers, as a Business Unit Manager where he learnt the fundamentals, such as people management, inventory management, range and layout and retailer execution. He progressed to Product Group Manager at Somerfield, deepening his knowledge in the importance of commercial strategy and product and margin mix. During that time, he bought across multiple categories for supermarkets, convenience stores and discounters. These roles provided the depth and breadth needed to be successful in his move from buyer to seller, first at Gerber Foods as Commercial Operations Controller and then in his international role as Sales Director at Bon Bon Buddies Europe.
Duncan, is not only a commercial driven individual, he has always had a passion for working with and developing people. This led to him leveraging his sales expertise to work for Weben Consulting, leading the sales capability arm of the organisation, providing sales training programmes for major corporations across the globe, as well as some time back in retail with Pick N Pay (Southern Africa’s largest retailer). It was in this capacity that Kerry Foods asked Duncan to join them as Field Sales Director for the Van Sales Division, and then later as the Sales Capability Director GB&I at a Group level.
His career path, passion for people and drive has since led him to be the Founder and Managing Partner for Pure Blue Ocean. Duncan is able to draw on his experiences working with diverse companies and people to ensure that his clients are successful in their own space, moving from the red ocean and into the blue.
Annelise Bbora,
Partner
Annelise is an executive coach with a background spanning entrepreneurship and senior leadership roles from start-ups to Deloitte Consulting. Having founded and led organisations herself. she understands first hand the weight of complex decisions, the isolation of senior leadership and the challenge of navigating transformation whilst maintaining clarity and confidence.
As an Ashridge-accredited executive coach with a Masters in Executive Coaching and EMCC Senior Practitioner status, she excels at helping senior leaders, founders, women in leadership, and leaders in transition to make sense of complexity, uncover new perspectives and move forward with sustainable strategies that feel authentic to who they are.
Central to her practice is creating calm, confidential sanctuary where leaders can think deeply, be completely honest about what’s not working, and discover their own path forward through attunement, awareness and practical integration.
James Stok,
Partner
James is passionate about helping individuals, teams and businesses to unlock their potential and to do it with a smile. He has over 20 years’ experience working in a wide range of commercial roles in FMCG companies including Unilever, Diageo and Coca Cola Hellenic.
His extensive commercial experience includes leading the development and global roll out of revenue growth management frameworks and capability, customer facing sales (on and off trade), category management, commercial strategy, planning and performance management, leading system & process change implementation projects as well as coaching and leading commercial teams.
He has worked in local, regional and global business roles with and has experience of working with markets all over the world. He is used to working cross-functionally and with all levels of an organisation from GMs and their leadership teams down.
James has recently completed his Diploma in Personal, Business and Executive Coaching and is a member of the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC).
Jo Chapman,
Partner
Jo Chapman is an effective business woman who has over 25 years of FMCG senior management experience, starting her career in leading FMCGs PepsiCo and Diageo. Her fast track career path has helped her to build deep knowledge and experience in key functional areas such as Marketing, Innovation, Sales, Commercial Marketing and Procurement. Her successful career and wide-ranging experience has equipped her with a deep and diverse skillset that will add value to any business.
Regarded as someone who can make things happen, Jo has demonstrated outstanding ability to drive permanent change, tackling organisational and cultural barriers, and successfully embedding new ways of working.
It is this skill set and her ‘trouble shooting’ reputation that has led Jo to so many diverse and organisationally critical roles.
Whether the task at hand is building a brand, implementing a new process, or building a relationship with a customer, Jo is able to quickly get to the nub of the problem, identify a range of solutions and implement the change; providing end-to-end strategic change management and delivery.
Dave Lamport,
Partner
Dave has an extensive background sales leadership roles in the UK FMCG market, building most of his experience with alcohol & soft drinks brands.
Developing his own skills as he progressed through the classic sales route of Sales Representative to Director roles, Dave led teams covering every channel: Wholesale through to Multiple Grocery, Convenience and the On Trade, rounding out 360 degree experience of the UK drinks market for brands including Stella Artois, Magners, WKD and Shloer.
Following the early part of Dave’s career was spent in the combative frontline of pre-Grocery Code account handling with Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda & Morrisons, Dave came to find great satisfaction in learning the mechanics & techniques of a collaborative mindset that unlocked greater customer relationships, embedding a “sales as a science” in his approach to team development. Pure Blue Ocean became a trusted partner in learning delivery for his teams over a number of years
Dave is a realist with a pragmatic approach to selling, grounded in what happens in real-world seller/buyer interactions. A scientific approach to understanding what makes people tick, developing empathy and connections is core to his philosophy.
Dave is now part owner of a successful NHS medical supply business.
Paul Townsend,
Partner
Paul Townsend is a consultant with a background in communications, digital learning, and software development. Paul spent the first 10 years of his career in the IT industry, holding several roles including developer, presales consultant, account manager, and operations director.
Paul joined PBO in 2017 and has subsequently developed e-learning and ‘blended’ training courses for a wide variety of projects such as Storytelling, Field Marketing, Trade Pricing, Price Elasticity, and Revenue Growth Management.
He focusses on content, technology, and the target audience – acting as chief advocate for the user. His project philosophy is one of holding the learning experience at a premium and aligning the content and technical solutions in support of that experience.
Ann Marie McCabe,
Partner
Ann Marie’s entire career has centered around turning data into actionable insights to drive results.
She spent 5 years as a VP at Nielsen and a few more as a VP at IRI (Circana) before starting her own business dedicated to working with all the top CPG companies in North America and around the globe on leveraging their vast disparate data resources to turn into insights and compelling stories that drive results.
Over the last 2-plus decades she has trained over 5,000 sales, category, and marketing professionals in North America and globally from the retailer and manufacturer community, including companies such as Unilever, Pepsi and P&G, to build expertise in Omni channel data and analytics, Shopper insights to action, and how to create insight base commercial arguments.
Nicky Stapleton,
Partner
Nicky started her FMCG career in recruitment 30 years ago and 10 years ago became an accredited Insights Discovery Practitioner, as she recognised the need to aid the overall recruitment process through better communication and individuals needing a better understanding of themselves.
Nicky works with leaders to help them understand themselves, their teams and create a ‘start line’, beginning with the Insights Discovery® programme. With over 10 years experience working with organisations across the UK and Europe, and delivering results. Removing perception is key and the height of emotional intelligence, if you understand yourself you’ll be better equipped to understand others.
Paul Whittaker,
Partner
Paul is an accomplished learning professional who brings experience of over 30 years in FMCG and Retail to facilitation and consultancy. Before joining Pure Blue Ocean he spent 8 years in Learning Development with Mars Wrigley, developing and facilitating the Sales Curriculum both locally and globally. Prior to joining the L&D Team he had roles in National Accounts, Customer Marketing and Category Management at a Senior Level.
Paul’s career spans all elements of customer management with previous roles in Supply Chain, Product Development and Account Management at one of the UK’s major Own Label manufacturers.
He also spent over 15 years in the Buying environment with key roles being held; Trading Director, The Co-op and Chilled Food Controller for Spar.
He brings all of this experience and the skills developed, to support Pure Blue Ocean Clients and delegates.
Sam Mead,
Partner
Sam lives his purpose of ‘unlocking growth’ to ‘enrich lives’. He has more than 20 years’ experience across various industries and functions including Strategy, Brand & Shopper Marketing, Innovation, Sales, Strategy, People and Culture.
Sam leverages a depth of retail and FMCG industry experience from his time at Diageo, Woolworths & Human Synergistics. A collaborative, passionate and self-reflective leader with a natural and engaging style, yet direct and intuitive with an ability and willingness to engage in a robust debate. He is a divergent thinker who is quick to recognise opportunities to optimise performance.
Sam has a Bachelor of Communications from CSU and is also an LSI accredited practitioner, Neuro TREAD accredited facilitator and Extreme Thinking accredited practitioner.
Emer Brady,
Partner
Emer has over 25 years of experience in the corporate world in both sales and HR. Starting out as a Sales Representative, Emer then went on to do many of the typical sales roles of Account Manager, Category Leader and Line Manager. She then discovered the world of Learning and Development and never looked back. Emer has experience of leading a global L&D function and understands the unique needs of emerging markets v developed markets. She has trained thousands of salespeople over her career but her true passion lies in developing the skills of sales line managers.
Emer has a unique profile of working many years in sales but an equal amount in HR and Talent and this blend of experience lends itself to having a holistic view when it comes to building capabilities in organisations.
Tori Haller,
Partner
Tori is a commercial marketing leader and advisor with 25 years experience across the UK, Europe and Global markets, partnering with business leaders to translate insights into actionable strategies and drive sustainable growth through commercial marketing excellence, business transformation and high performing team development.
Tori excels at building the capabilities needed for sustained success across diverse international markets and teams, through her natural coaching style and developing & delivering high impact capability programmes that enable teams to execute consistently & confidently.
Tori’s areas of expertise include:
- Global Strategic Planning & Execution
- Enterprise wide Business Transformation and Change Leadership
- Commercial Planning & Integrated Business Operating Rhythm
- Category Development & Execution
- Shopper Marketing Programme Development and Execution
- Route-to-Consumer Optimization
- Building Functional and Leadership Capability & developing High Performing Inclusive Teams
Fiona Smith,
Partner
Fiona has held board-level HR director and non-executive roles across financial services, healthcare, and government, navigating complex leadership landscapes. Her experience spans global organizations like Allianz, Barclays, Mercedes-Benz, and Vodafone, as well as public sector and charitable bodies.
Fiona specialises in individual, team, and leadership coaching and development, with a practice grounded in relational coaching principles and systemic thinking. Her passion for coaching is rooted in a deep curiosity about human potential and a belief in our ability to adapt, grow and transform. In today’s fast-paced world, she offers a safe, reflective, and exploratory coaching space that supports meaningful, lasting personal and organisational change. Fiona brings a systemic perspective, helping clients understand how their leadership is shaped by the wider context of their teams and organisations. Central to her practice is enabling clients to identify patterns in their thinking and behaviour, experiment with new approaches, and create sustainable change
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