Dr. Paula Cruise
Enterprise Transformation & Change | Coaching Leaders Through System Shifts
Admissions Committee at City & St George - University of London
Works at Benedict Anthony
Successful clients at
Available Monday
Starting at 5:00 PM UTC
I coach senior leaders, consultants, and transformation executives across the globe, including USA, Europe, Asia, and the Pacific Coast. My availability is structured to support global enterprise clients, with dedicated morning ET windows for Asian and European leaders and afternoon ET windows for Pacific Time executives. I work privately and selectively with clients navigating complex organizational, cultural, and system‑level shifts.
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Dr. Paula's Offerings
Custom hourly · $355/hr
Get help with AI Fundamentals, Business Strategy Development, and Negotiation Skills.
Dr. Paula also coaches for Executive Coaching and Management Consulting. View all.
Dr. Paula’s Business Operations & Strategy Qualifications
Coaches professionally
Experience level: Executive
Dr. Paula has helped clients get into these companies:
I’ve spent over a decade advising global banks, consulting firms, and complex enterprises through high‑stakes shifts - M&A, restructuring, culture change, AI disruption, and leadership transitions. Since 2007, my work has combined organizational psychology, behavioral science, and transformation architecture, giving me a deep understanding of how systems behave when pressure increases and expectations multiply. I’ve coached senior leaders, founders, leadership experts, and high‑potential talent inside transformation programs, succession pipelines, and enterprise change initiatives. I am a certified Organizational Change and Transformation Coach, supporting leaders and enterprises as they architect and implement change journeys, adoption programs, and learning pathways. I bring a structured, governance‑aligned approach that helps leaders embed governance guardrails, anticipate risks, and streamline cross‑functional impacts during periods of significant change.
Dr. Paula can help with:
AI Fundamentals
Business Strategy Development
Negotiation Skills
Dr. Paula also coaches for Executive Coaching and Management Consulting. View all.
About Dr. Paula
I’m an executive coach, advisor, and organizational psychologist with 16 years of experience supporting senior leaders through high‑stakes change - M&A, restructuring, AI disruption, culture shifts, and enterprise transformation. My work sits at the intersection of behavioral science, governance, and leadership judgment, helping leaders align people, operations, and strategy when the pressure is highest. I bring deep expertise in leadership development, decision architecture, and transformation design, shaped by roles leading Behavioral Science at Barclays, contributing to Deloitte’s human capital and transformation work, developing leadership and succession solutions for top financial institutions and teaching graduate‑level psychology at Cambridge University. Leaders work with me because I combine scientific rigor with executive‑level insight. I help them see around corners, strengthen judgment, pre‑empt bottlenecks, and operate at the altitude of the next role while mobilizing and aligning the layers below. My coaching is structured, governance‑aligned, and designed to create clarity, capability, and measurable impact.
Why do I coach?
I’ve spent my career inside the moments where leadership becomes consequential - the moments where leaders rise, and the moments where they get blindsided. In my advisory work building high‑potential pipelines and succession plans for global banks and complex enterprises, I saw the same pattern repeatedly: leaders step into a new role believing the challenge is technical, but the real challenge is human and systemic. Organisational dynamics shift overnight. Expectations multiply. The job description never captures the political weight, the cultural undercurrents, or the judgment calls that define success. Leaders often don’t see these forces until they’re already in the role and by then, the stakes are high and the margin for error is thin. I coach because leaders deserve a space to think at altitude - to understand the system they’re walking into, strengthen their judgment, and build the clarity required to lead through complexity. My work helps leaders see around corners, anticipate cross‑functional impact, and operate with the kind of strategic discipline that aligns people, operations, and strategy. At its core, my coaching is about equipping leaders to navigate high‑stakes environments with confidence, capability, and foresight - not by working harder, but by seeing more clearly.
Work Experience
Founder - Principal Executive Coaching & Advisory
Benedict Anthony
June 2025 - Present
I work with senior leaders, boards, and organizations navigating high‑stakes transitions, new roles, strategic pivots, M&A, restructuring, rapid scaling, or culture change. What I do: • Executive coaching for senior leaders and founders facing visibility, power, and identity shifts. • Leadership team alignment for organizations undergoing transformation or post‑merger integration. • Behavioral systems design to ensure culture, incentives, and structures support the strategy. • Workforce strategy advisory focused on future skills, AI, and ethical talent decisions. My work spans financial services, professional services, healthcare, and high‑growth technology. Examples of impact (anonymized): • Coached a newly appointed C‑suite leader through a high‑visibility role transition, resulting in improved board confidence and a more cohesive leadership team. • Advised a financial services organization on aligning culture and leadership behavior with a new risk and growth strategy. • Supported a founder‑led company in evolving its leadership model and governance as it scaled internationally. My clients describe me as a calm, incisive partner who can hold both the human and the systemic dimensions of change. Executive Coaching, Corporate Governance and +9 skills
Human Capital Asset Strategy Leader
Deloitte
January 2022 - May 2025
As a Human Capital Strategy and Assessment Leader at Deloitte, I guided senior executives through some of their most complex, high‑stakes transitions - from M&A integration and large‑scale transformation to leadership realignment and culture redesign. I specialized in translating ambiguous human capital challenges into clear, data‑driven strategies that accelerated adoption, reduced risk, and strengthened leadership capability across global organizations. I led cross‑functional teams to architect talent, assessment, and workforce strategies that supported multi‑stage M&A, ERP implementations, and enterprise transformation programs. My work spanned validated assessment design, leadership architecture, behavioral insights, and change readiness, ensuring leaders had the clarity, capability, and confidence to navigate disruption. I collaborated closely with transformation sponsors, business unit leaders, and cross‑functional steering committees. Key contributions included building AI‑enabled learning and adoption assets for 200,000+ consultants, shaping Deloitte’s Human Capital Asset Strategy 2030, and elevating Business Chemistry as a critical product within the firm’s transformation portfolio. I partnered closely with CFOs, CHROs, and transformation sponsors to deliver board‑ready insights, future‑ready leadership systems, and measurable behavior change at scale. Divestiture Change Management, Mergers & Acquisition People Integration and +6 skills
Head of Behavioural Science
Barclays
October 2018 - January 2022
Established and led Barclays’ first People Science function, integrating behavioral science, advanced analytics, and regulatory‑aligned workforce insights into leadership, culture, and risk decisions. Highlights: • People Science function build: Designed and scaled a new behavioral science capability, partnering with HR, Risk, and business leaders. • Employee listening transformation: Drove a 45% increase in engagement survey participation, improving the quality and credibility of workforce insights. • Leadership and culture analytics: Developed models and frameworks to understand leadership behavior, inclusion, and culture, informing executive decision‑making and board reporting. • Diversity and inclusion insights: Pioneered new approaches to measuring and understanding inclusion, supporting more targeted and effective interventions. • Succession and leadership pipelines: Implemented behavioral‑science approaches that integrated leader competencies, values, and performance to strengthen succession decisions and build more seamless leadership pipelines. I built governance frameworks that strengthened the defensibility, audit‑readiness, and consistency of behavioral insights across HR, Risk, and Compliance. I partnered with Risk and Compliance leaders to embed behavioral insights into workforce risk appetite, conduct expectations, and leadership accountability. This role cemented my belief that transformation succeeds when leaders are willing to look honestly at behavior, power, and culture, not just structures and processes. Strategy Consulting, Mentoring and +17 skills
Consultant | Leadership, Entrepreneurial Capability, and Workforce Development
Inter-American Development Bank
February 2016 - June 2016
Project ATN/ME‑13394‑JA - Equitable Access to Finance: Scotiabank Enterprise‑Wide Risk Management & Financing Program for SMEs Led a multi‑functional project team to identify, assess, and build the leadership and entrepreneurial capabilities required for high‑growth SMEs to scale, attract investment, and prepare for IPO readiness. This work focused on strengthening the human and organizational foundations that enable early‑stage and growth‑stage companies to accelerate product development, expand into new markets, and meet investor expectations. I designed and validated capability frameworks that integrated leadership behavior, financial acumen, operational discipline, and founder decision‑making under pressure. These frameworks informed targeted development pathways for founders and senior operators, helping them navigate complexity, strengthen governance, and build the strategic acumen required for sustainable growth.
Consultant
The World Bank Group
February 2015 - July 2015
World Bank | Foundation for Competitiveness and Growth (FCG/CON016) Led a national‑level capability initiative funded by the World Bank to strengthen leadership development, organizational effectiveness, and workforce readiness across 17 high‑competitive industries. The project focused on building the leadership and entrepreneurial capacity required for sectors and companies identified as high‑potential economic drivers. I partnered with government agencies, industry bodies, and private‑sector leaders to develop frameworks that aligned leadership behavior, values, and operational capability with national competitiveness goals. The program strengthened succession pipelines, improved organizational alignment, and equipped high‑potential companies with the leadership capacity needed to scale and compete globally. This engagement reinforced the importance of evidence‑based leadership systems in economic development, ensuring that investment in high‑potential industries translated into stronger organizations, more resilient talent pipelines, and sustainable national growth.
Consultant - Global Assessment Product Standards | Workforce Psychometrics & Validation
Central Test
May 2014 - July 2015
Led the validation of Central Test’s premier personality assessment across three emerging markets, strengthening its scientific defensibility, cross‑cultural reliability, and commercial credibility. I directed a multi‑country team through rigorous psychometric analysis, evidence reviews, and standards alignment, resulting in the assessment becoming the only French professional scale registered with the British Psychological Society (BPS). This work elevated the company’s global product standards and reinforced the scientific integrity behind the solutions I bring to organizations and leaders today.
Director / Principal Consultant
PPM Ltd
November 2012 - October 2018
Hiring Manager
Engaged as an equity partner to build and lead a boutique human capital advisory firm serving global banks, multilateral institutions, and high‑growth organisations across Europe and the Americas. Directed global leadership and talent strategy programs across Europe and Latin America, strengthening succession pipelines and improving readiness for mission-critical roles. Built a $30M portfolio delivering predictive talent and capability frameworks, succession strategies, and learning architectures for global banks and multilateral institutions. Governed psychometric assessments used by 250,000+ candidates annually, improving predictive accuracy and reducing leadership selection risk. Designed internationally accredited assessment products and ESG‑aligned capability models supporting IPO readiness.
Head of Product Research & Development
The Myers Briggs Company
February 2012 - November 2012
Brought on board as a behavioural science and people‑assessment expert to lead product research, governance strategy, and portfolio modernization for the firm's suite of assessment and learning products. Directed global product strategy and validation frameworks for MBTI, FIRO‑B, 16PF, and TKI, strengthening defensibility and alignment with learning and development best practices. Launched three new assessment products in five months, expanding leadership development offerings and accelerating capability building across US and UK markets.
Managing Consultant
People | Portfolio
July 2011 - October 2018
I partnered with founders, senior operators, and high‑growth business units to build the leadership, financial, and operational capability required for scale, investment readiness, and new‑product acceleration. I led diagnostic assessments, coached executive teams, and designed targeted development programs that strengthened decision‑making, commercial acumen, and cross‑functional execution. My work focused on preparing leaders and organizations for pivotal inflection points - IPO readiness, product launches, market expansion, and operational restructuring. I evaluated leadership bench strength, built entrepreneurial capability frameworks, and coached executives to navigate complexity with precision, discipline, and strategic foresight. Across engagements, I helped organizations translate ambition into operational reality by aligning people, processes, and performance systems. The result: stronger leadership pipelines, more resilient operating models, and teams equipped to scale with confidence. This work laid the foundation for my current advisory practice, where I help leaders de risk transformation and build future ready organizations. Strategy Consulting, Mentoring and +14 skills
Adjunct Faculty - Psychology, Education, Psychometrics (MSc, MEd, PhD)
University of Cambridge
November 2007 - July 2017
Hiring Manager
Taught and conducted research at the intersection of criminology, psychology, and organizational behavior, with a focus on trust, dysfunctional leadership, and how systems influence human behavior. My work examined the socio‑cognitive and behavioral mechanisms that drive decision‑making, misconduct, and organizational dynamics. I led research on personality, attitudes, and cross‑cultural assessment validation, and supported the development of evidence‑based frameworks used in both academic and applied settings. This included work in applied psychometrics, measurement design, and the evaluation of behavioral models across diverse populations. This academic foundation directly informs my commercial practice. It underpins the scientific rigor I bring to leadership assessment, culture diagnostics, and transformation design. The methods I used in research - both quantitative and qualitative (structured inquiry, critical analysis, and evidence‑based modeling), now shape how I help organizations strengthen decision quality, reduce behavioral risk, and build leadership systems that are both human and high‑performing. My work today integrates this scientific grounding with real‑world transformation experience, enabling leaders to navigate complexity with clarity, discipline, and a deep understanding of how systems, incentives, and context shape behavior at scale. Human Capital, Negotiation and +8 skills
Education
City & St George - University of London
PhD, , Organisational Psychology
2003 - 2009
Admissions Committee Experience
I served on the admissions committees for the MSc in Organizational Psychology, MSc in Organizational Behaviour, and MSc in Psychometrics, where I evaluated candidate readiness for advanced study in applied psychology and behavioral science. My responsibilities included reviewing academic portfolios, assessing research capability, conducting structured interviews, supervising graduate theses and determining overall program fit. I contributed to the governance of admissions criteria, ensuring fairness, defensibility, and alignment with accreditation standards, while shaping cohort composition to reflect diverse professional backgrounds and international representation. This experience strengthened my ability to identify high‑potential candidates, evaluate complex profiles, and make balanced, evidence‑based selection decisions.
University of Cambridge
Post Doc, Applied Psychometrics
Activities and societies: Clare College. Member of the Post-doc Society, Conference Organiser for the 74th Annual Meeting of the Psychometrics Society at St Johns College
4 Reviews
Overall Rating
5.0
Dr. Paula has helped clients get into these companies: