Incomplete leader and complete team: Nick Borwell OBE & Jonathan Bowman-Perks MBE: Inspiring leadership interview

Nick Borwell OBE – Principal Civil Service Leadership Academy.

He and I both love the principle of “the Incomplete Leader leading the Complete team.”  As leaders we are never the finished article we are always work in progress. Once you begin to think that you are perfect and beyond reproach then that is when you start to have problems.
Nick Borwell is Principal of the Civil Service Leadership Academy (CSLA) delivering programmes predominantly to senior Civil Servants from all departments.

Until 2019 he was the Director of the Government’s Project Delivery Profession within the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) which is part of the Cabinet Office. During this time Nick transformed the Government’s project delivery capability. A key plank of this success was the development of the Major Projects Leadership Academy (MPLA) delivered by Said Business School. In the years prior to joining the Cabinet office, Nick was variously programme director, chief operating officer or transformation director in Mott MacDonald, Serco and BT. In 2011 he gained an MSc in Major Programme Management from Said Business School, University of Oxford, where he is now an Associate Fellow.

Nick left the British Army in 2005 having served a full career in the Infantry and as a staff officer principally in operations and planning. He was commissioned into the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment and went on to command it from 1999-2002 for which he was awarded an operational OBE. His stories of operations in Bosnia were epic and definitely worth listening to.

Currently Nick is:

Co-founder and Director, Oxford8 Ltd, specialists in major programme delivery. “Execution is everything”.
On temporary assignment back with the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA).
Cohort Programme Director for Cohort 26 of the Major Projects Leadership Academy (MPLA).
Deployable Civilian Expert (DCE) with the Government’s Stabilisation Unit.
NED / Senior Advisor to the Office for Civil Society (OCS) Management Board.

From March-June 2020 Nick was assigned in support of the Office for Civil Society (OCS), Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), to provide programmatic advice and support for its response to the Covid-19 crisis. Until March 2020, Principal of the Civil Service Leadership Academy (CSLA) delivering programmes predominantly to senior Civil Servants from all departments. Until 2019, Director of the Government’s Project Delivery Profession within the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA), part of the Cabinet Office. During this time Nick transformed the Government’s project delivery capability.

His main areas of expertise are: in the leadership of major programmes and projects; as an experienced COO; in leading business transformation; in leadership development and; as a keynote speaker and panel member.