Introducing Gary Brown

Gary Brown — Leadership Mentor & Strategic Advisor

Helping leaders and organisations thrive through collaboration, clarity, and commercial insight.

Gary is passionate about building high-performing, sustainable businesses by developing and enabling what matters most — people. A seasoned leader and strategic advisor, Gary brings over three decades of international experience in engineering, product innovation, business transformation, and executive leadership.

After graduating as an engineer, Gary began his career at Ford, where he held various engineering and strategic roles. This early foundation, coupled with an MBA and a curiosity about how businesses operate at their best, propelled him into executive leadership positions across a range of industries — from building materials and heating technology to automotive and smart technology.

Gary’s career is defined by his ability to build and lead healthy, aligned teams that create lasting business value. He combines deep commercial understanding with empathy-driven leadership, ensuring that both people and performance are prioritised. Whether leading business units, overseeing global sales and marketing, or mentoring emerging leaders, his focus remains clear: helping organisations function better and grow sustainably.

In 2013, Gary relocated to Sweden with his young family and quickly became known as a values-led leader with a gift for removing politics and enabling effective collaboration. This reputation led to roles with several international businesses seeking transformation, and ultimately to his appointment as CEO of Mont Blanc Group. There, he developed a successful business turnaround to increase EBITDA by 7 percentage points while aligning operations and brand for long-term growth. More recently, Gary led the largest division at CTEK, a global leader in vehicle charging solutions, managing international teams across sales, marketing, product, and support. Throughout, his advisory and mentoring work has remained a cornerstone — supporting executives, SMEs, and purpose-led organisations to find clarity, focus, and momentum

Selected Experience

Board & Advisory Work

• Senior Advisor and Mentor – Supporting leaders and businesses across sectors | International (2020–Present)
• Non-Executive Director – The English School Gothenburg | Sweden (2017–2020 & Present)
• Mentor – Warwick Business School | International (2013–Present)
• Consultant – The Table Group (Patrick Lencioni’s firm) | 2017
• Innovation Advisor – Hiscox | UK (2016–2017)

Notable Achievements

• Mont Blanc Group: Delivered a full business turnaround with a +7% point EBITDA improvement, launched new products, transferred production, and implemented a global reorganisation for sale-readiness.
• Fletcher Building: Led a global digital transformation unifying business units, improving customer service, eCommerce capability, and knowledge retention through smart web/data systems.
• The English School Gothenburg: Strengthened the school’s future by improving staff retention, digitising learning and communications, and aligning the school community with a clear, shared vision.

Style of Work

Gary’s clients and colleagues often describe him as empathetic yet commercially astute — someone who sees the bigger picture without missing the people in it. He brings clarity where there’s confusion, bridges gaps between teams, and helps leaders build resilient, values-led organisations.

Whether mentoring ambitious founders, advising boards, or embedding a culture of health and high performance, Gary’s approach is always people-first, purpose-led, and pragmatically focused on results.

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  Podcast Guest Kit
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  Reflection Series Q&A
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  Charity Boardroom Lessons That Shape Better Business Leadership