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Welcome to The Experience Network
A unique group of independent charity consultants

Steve Wyler

VLUU L200 / Samsung L200

Steve is an independent consultant in the field of social change and innovation.

He works with third sector and public sector organisations, and specialises in:

Recent clients include:

Steve is  co-convenor of the Better Way initiative, and a writer. Recent publications include:

Over the last twenty years Steve has played a leading role in the fields of localism, community ownership, community enterprise, social enterprise, and social investment.

In 2017-18 he was a panel member of the Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society

As CEO of Locality, he grew the country’s largest network of community enterprises,  delivering national programmes on community organising, neighbourhood planning, community asset ownership, and neighbourhood budgets.

Over the previous fifteen years Steve worked for voluntary agencies and independent grant-makers. For example in the 1990s, working with homeless agencies, he ran Homeless Network, co-ordinated the Rough Sleepers Initiative in London, and set up Off the Streets and into Work.

Steve has been a member of various Government advisory groups on localism, social enterprise, and the third sector (Cabinet Office, Department for Communities and Local Government, Ministry of Justice). Steve helped to establish Social Enterprise UK and the Adventure Capital Fund (parent body of the Social Investment Business). He was awarded an OBE in the 2011 New Year Honours List.

Contact details:

Hilary Barnard

Hilary Barnard is a strategy, change and organisational development consultant.  He works across the third sector, and with statutory and private sector partners in the UK and internationally.

In today’s challenging conditions, with insight and creativity Hilary helps organisations to find strategies and sustainable solutions that ensure effective delivery of charites’ expertise, services and campaigns.  He works with clients on rethinking and reinventing business models and approaches to ensure continued relevance and sustainability.

Relevant assignments include:

Hilary is a  a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, a member of the Organisational Development and Innovation Network, and a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.  He has been a Senior Visiting Fellow at Cass Business School and  the external examiner for the MSc in voluntary and community sector studies at Birkbeck College, University of London.

Hilary has written widely on leadership, strategy, governance and organisational development in the sector for Civil Society Finance, Civil Society Governance, Leader to Leader, Network, Governance & Compliance and Caritas.  He is the author of Step Change (Cass CCE 2012), Improving Equality & Diversity: A guide to Third Sector Chief Executives (ACEVO 2011), Whose Localism? (Cass CCE 2011), Big Society, Cuts & Consequences (Cass CCE 2010), Really Intelligent Commissioning (ACEVO 2009), Vertical Integration (NCB/VCS-Engage 2007), Added Value, Changing Lives: a social capital study (VAW 2006), and Design For Health (Mind 2003).  He is a regular book reviewer on strategy and governance for Governing Matters (NGA).  Hilary’s evaluation report (2015) of the TimeBank Talking Together programme can be accessed on the TimeBank website.  He is the co-author of Improving Equality & Diversity: a guide for third sector Chief Executives (ACEVO 2011) and Strategies for Success (NCVO 1994).

He collaborates regularly with Ruth Lesirge, also a member of the Experience Network, under the umbrella of HBRL Consulting.

Marcus Ward

Marcus is a highly experienced and accredited management consultant and former charity CEO, with well-developed strategic, income-generating, financial and operational management skills. He is a creative and innovative thinker who originally studied law, and worked as a Director in the commercial sector, prior to spending the last 20+ years working for and with charities and social enterprises as CEO and then consultant.

Marcus is a partner in Peach Consultancy, which has undertaken work in almost every discrete area of the voluntary sector, and conservatively raised over £50 million for civil society organisations. Peach Consultancy works with many funders, and is probably the most widely accredited voluntary sector consultanty in the UK.

We specialise in:

Previous larger national clients include:

Previous SME clients include:

We are, or have previously been approved/recommended consultants for:

In addition to direct work with many civil society organisations, Marcus has also undertaken a wide range of organisational development and capacity building projects for representative and umbrella groups, and public sector agencies including Local Authorities, and Health Agencies.