Derek Thomson

Language: English
Nationality: British
Region: Europe
City: Edinburgh

Profile

Derek Thomson is an accomplished executive coach and leadership development expert with over 25 years of international across four continents. Known for his insightful and incisive coaching style, he supports senior executives, board directors, and high-potential leaders in achieving sustainable success through greater self-awareness, agility, and strategic impact.

Combining deep operational experience with extensive coaching expertise, Derek brings a rare balance of empathy and challenge. In addition to his core work with senior leaders, Derek also has a strong record of coaching senior technical experts, academics, and business leaders transitioning into high-profile leadership roles.

Before focusing full-time on coaching in 2007, Derek held senior and executive roles for over two decades in a FTSE-listed global corporation, including Operations Director and Global Executive Leadership Team member. A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Derek also holds a Diploma in Coaching and Mentoring from the University of Strathclyde Business School.

Areas of Expertise: Executive Coaching, Team Coaching, Leadership Development, Organizational Development, Change Management, Action Learning Project Coaching

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Executive Coaching

One-to-one coaching that helps senior leaders reflect, grow, and make better decisions. It combines personal clarity with business impact, ensuring sustainable results. Trusted worldwide, it empowers leaders to reach their full potential.

Our services include:
    • Access to top executive coaches nearly anywhere in the world
    • Matching of coach and coachee
    • Briefing of coaches
    • Quality, ethical assurance and evaluation of the entire process
    • Psychometric tools if appropriate such as Hogan Assessment, Leadership Circle Profile, MBTI, Eneagramm, …
    • Stakeholder interviews or 360° feedback if required
    • Evaluation of coaching at the end of the process
    • Real-time reporting of assignment status and financials
    • Key account management to resolve all questions and administrative issues with one contact person.

The Global Coaching Group guarantees global reach and fast access to top coaches

    • Our coaches speak the language of our clients. They know their business, local markets and cultures
    • One of our key assets is the set of trusted personal relationships with and between our coaches. We have established these relationships over many years through community building and mutual support, sharing and learning.
    • We also offer coaching via video-conferencing and typically recommend a mix of face-to-face and video coaching.
    • Together with our clients, we co-create global coaching programs. We configure our best practice processes and tools to serve our clients’ specific and ever-changing needs for today and tomorrow.

Sebastian Witte

After 13+ years in different management positions in the manufacturing industry I dare to say that I found my home at GCG in 2023. On the one hand, it is the entrepreneurial way of working that I am drawn to since I grew up in a family run business. Working ‘out of the box’, serving customer needs, fail, learn, and rise again – now all of this is part of my profession.

On the other hand, it is coaching! Being Christa’s (founder of GCG) nephew, I was able to join a GCG conference in 2012 and learned how “good leadership and people management” can foster business success and growth. Having been in studies of Business Coaching & Change Management at that time I was fascinated by the content and real experience cases. Throughout the years on the job, I asked myself more often how we collaborate, what drives people, what makes them follow a leader, what makes them develop themselves. I understood that coaching can play a key role in people’s and organizational success. The idea of having an impact on people and being rewarded by their mastery, that is what I enjoy. Hence, coaching is the second part of my profession.

Since joining GCG it has developed from profession to passion: coaching and collaborating with clients. I have discovered how akin these two are. It’s about exploring, discovering, creating awareness, challenging perspectives – and about a common goal: enabling growth.

I have the privilege of doing this kind of human-to-human work every single day and I genuinely love it.

Tanja Filtgen

Since 2015, I have been part of the Global Coaching Group, specializing in the fields of finance and controlling. My professional journey began with a degree in Business Administration from Munich, followed by experience in the tourism management sector. This gave me a unique perspective on global business dynamics and strengthened my passion for exploring different cultures, which laid the foundation for my expertise in financial management and strategic planning.

When I’m not working, you’ll often find me running or hiking in the Bavarian Alps, activities that keep me grounded and energized, values I bring into my professional life.

I believe in blending precision with approachability, and I strive to create meaningful connections in every project I undertake. I look forward to collaborating with you to achieve impactful results.

Tom Schmidt

I often say my job is to make great work possible. For me, that means creating the conditions, where people can focus on what matters: connecting, growing, and making an impact.

My journey started more than ten years ago at inspeyer, where I learned by doing — from office management through project coordination to leading operations. Along the way I discovered something essential: organization isn’t about checklists and processes (though I love a good checklist). It’s about people. About trust. About giving space and structure so that others can shine.

In 2024 I joined the Global Coaching Group as Global Operations Officer. Here I work with an inspiring community of coaches to bring transformative leadership development to a global stage. My role may often be behind the scenes, but when needed that's where I feel at home: making sure our values — co-creation, partnership, responsibility — are lived in how we collaborate, not just in what we say.

I believe work can be meaningful, human, effective, and even fun. I bring a mix of depth and lightness to what I do — sometimes with structure and strategy, sometimes with humor or outright silliness, always with curiosity. At the heart of it, I care about helping leaders, teams, and colleagues discover their best selves — and enjoy the journey along the way.

“This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
(Polonius in Hamlet, Act I, Scene iii)

Training

Practical, targeted learning delivered directly to teams. We design curricula that fit business needs and skill gaps. Knowledge turns into capability — and capability into impact.

 Our training services include:

    • Needs analysis to define skill gaps and learning objectives

    • Custom-built training modules aligned with business priorities

    • Interactive delivery formats combining input, practice, and feedback

    • Integration of tools and methods that can be applied immediately

    • Evaluation and follow-up to ensure transfer into daily practice

Team Building

Stronger relationships create stronger results. Our team building formats build trust and mutual understanding. Teams leave more connected, motivated, and ready to perform. We help turning groups into cohesive, high-performing units.

We offer:

    • Experiential workshops and activities to enhance mutual understanding

    • Reflection sessions on roles, strengths, and collaboration styles

    • Practical exercises to deepen trust and psychological safety

    • Tailored interventions that fit organizational culture and team maturity

    • Clear action planning to sustain stronger relationships back at work

Facilitation

Teams or Groups often need structured dialogue to cut through complexity. We design and lead conversations that bring clarity and focus. The process enables alignment and clear next steps everyone owns.

This includes:

    • Designing and facilitating structured conversations around strategy, goals, and collaboration

    • Using proven methods to unlock collective intelligence and ensure all voices are heard

    • Guiding teams through decision-making processes with focus and neutrality

    • Ensuring outcomes are clear, actionable, and owned by the team

    • Providing documentation and follow-up to sustain results

Leadership Culture Transformation

When strategies and values change, leadership must evolve too. We guide organizations in transforming leadership culture when new principles, values, vision, or strategies require a next-level approach. The transformation ensures leaders align culture with business ambition.

 Our services include:

    • Joint definition of the desired leadership culture and behaviors

    • Diagnosis of the current leadership culture through interviews, surveys, or workshops

    • Co-creation of transformation roadmaps with key stakeholders

    • Role-modelling and cascading new leadership principles throughout the organization

    • Anchoring through training, coaching, and change facilitation to ensure sustainability

Leadership Development Interventions

Targeted workshops designed to strengthen specific leadership skills or support leaders in adapting to new challenges. They deliver practical tools and reflection that leaders can apply immediately. Quick, focused, and impactful — designed for today’s challenges.

We provide:

    • Tailor-made workshop formats addressing defined leadership competencies

    • Practical tools and methods for immediate application

    • Group reflection and peer learning to embed insights

    • Flexible formats (in-person, hybrid, or virtual) to meet business needs

    • Direct link to organizational context and strategy to maximize transfer

Leadership Development Programmes

Structured journeys that blend coaching, learning and hands-on experieces. Leaders grow step by step, building on each milestone to reach the next level. Programs are tailored to context, ensuring measurable and lasting progress.

Our understanding is to cooperate with you from an early stage, from and co-creation of the programme best suited to your needs, to the after-care phase. Our services include:

    • Need analysis by measurement or given data
    • idea generation and sparring
    • co-design of the programme
    • delivery of modules
    • impact assessment
    • follow up to sustain long-lasting impact

Coaching Enablement

We bring a coaching mindset into the very hearts of organizations. By equipping leaders and internal coaches with skills and supervision, coaching becomes the "new normal".
The result is a culture where growth and reflection become everyday practice.

We offer:

    • Coaching skills programs for leaders, managers and mentors
    • Coaching supervision for internal coaches, consultants and mentors
    • Coaching culture development in your organization

Executive Team Coaching

A guided process for senior teams to build trust and align around shared goals. It unlocks collective intelligence and strengthens collaboration at the top. Teams move from coordination to true synergy, creating lasting impact.

Similar to individual coaching, team coaching spans a period of time. With a coach at their side, teams:

    • Meet several times
    • Work on both business and cultural topics
    • Align priorities and ways of interacting
    • Learn to tap into their collective intelligence
    • Focus on being a team

In our experience team coaching works best if it is combined with individual coaching for the team lead.

Our coach selection proces

Our selection criteria include:
  • Passion for our profession which translates into “care beyond contract” for clients and colleagues
  • Connectedness to our shared values and identity
  • Minimum of 5+ years of experience as senior manager or entrepreneur in a high-performance multinational environment
  • 5+ years as a business coach or 10+ years as an executive coach of experience and success in a corporate environment
  • International experience and background by working or living in a foreign country/culture
  • Graduation from a recognized coach training program
  • Certification from the International Coaching Federation as a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) or a Master Certified Coach (MCC) or equivalent
  • Continuous education and learning
  • Fluency in their coaching languages and in English
Our rigorous selection process is built on:
  • Referral from a GCG coach or thorough research for a potential coach
  • Initial interview with Key Account Manager and/or Leadership Team
  • Standardized questionnaire to document coach’s beliefs, experience and expertise
  • Second interview based on the questionnaire
  • Formal contract between coach and GCG