Jon Davidge
Jon’s background lies in a 25-year long business career spent mostly in the publishing and media industries. After early and highly formative experience in diverse international markets, he was given his first leadership post in his mid twenties when he set up and ran an overseas subsidiary for Harlequin Corp – better known in the UK as the publishers of Mills & Boon.
He served at Board level for more than a decade, running a number of businesses as managing director.
Looking back, Jon still takes a special pride in the winning performances of the vibrant teams he built and had the privilege to lead.
He became convinced early in his career that individuals had a lot more to offer than was often evident in their work and set out on a quest to find ways of reducing the unfavourable effects that organisations can unwittingly have on their people. In the late 1980s Jon found a leadership programme that transformed his approach and was subsequently honoured to support the work of The Leadership Trust as a visiting tutor and, more recently, as a Course Director and Coach Supervisor.
In 2001, as a direct consequence of “9/11”, Jon was forced to take the conferences business he was running into administration. With the support of his family, and the coaching of his wife particularly, he decided to dedicate the rest of his career to “firing up and supporting people who want to make the most of their talent” and embarked upon the year long “Prometheus” coaching development programme at The Institute of Human Development. After graduating, Jon helped to redesign and deliver subsequent programmes for the Institute.
Jon founded The Ascent Coaching Company in 2002 and, alongside a team of carefully selected associates, continues to serve clients in the publishing, financial, educational, pharaceutical and charitable sectors as well as the NHS.
Jon expanded his coaching and facilitation horizons further in 2007 when he enrolled on Bath Consultancy Group’s certificated programme of Coaching Supervision. He is now an accredited supervisor of groups, teams and individuals.
He is additionally accredited by Richard Barrett’s Values Center as a Cultural Transformation ToolsTM practitioner and by Genos International in the application of their emotional intelligence diagnostic and development methodology.
