David Pendleton

David Pendleton

Associate Fellow

Saïd Business School 
University of Oxford 
Executive Education Centre 
Egrove Park 
Oxford 
OX1 5NY 

Profile

David Pendleton is a chartered psychologist with a doctorate in psychology from the University of Oxford.

He is Professor in Leadership at Henley Business School and an associate fellow of the British Psychological Society, alongside his role at Saïd Business School.

David specialises in leadership, assessing and coaching senior executives, and developing their abilities to lead change and create high-performance cultures.

After teaching psychology in several academic and professional institutions, David became a consulting psychologist in 1985. In 1995, he returned from a two-year consulting assignment in Hong Kong to launch the Edgecumbe Consulting Group. David was the company’s Executive Chairman until June 2015. He now works as a Director of Pendleton King Ltd, an affiliate of the Edgecumbe Group. 

As a consultant, David has worked with a wide range of clients from the power, airline, hospitality, retail, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and professional and financial services sectors in Europe, Asia and America.

David has also completed a two-year secondment as Director of People and Organisation Development at Innogy (a FTSE 100 power company, now npower), while continuing his role as Chairman of Edgecumbe.

David was made an honorary fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners in 1997 and appointed to its Trustee Board in 2016.

Research

David conducts research into the lessons on experimentation and improvisation that may be learned from jazz music and incorporated into organisations undergoing change. His most recent book, written with Adrian Furnham, is Leadership: all you need to know, published in 2016.

During his early career, David published several books on the effective provision of medical care. His award-winning book on the subject is The Consultation, written with Theo Schofield, Peter Tate and Peter Havelock.

Teaching

David co-founded the Oxford High Performance Leadership Programme with Tim Morris. He has made a major contribution to the Oxford Advanced Management and Leadership Programme. He contributes to leadership development programmes for a broad range of companies operating internationally.