Cornerstone launches “Capability Building Initiative”:      Field-Tested Expertise for Ultra Complex Environments

on 23 June 2010

Cornerstone Global Associates have launched the “Capability Building Initiative” to help entities, from states to organizations, transform and make themselves resilient to the ever-changing challenges of the 21st Century. The Initiative is led by Lucian J. Hudson, Partner and Managing Director at Cornerstone Global Associates. It will draw on the expertise of a number of the company’s team in various areas, to help address both specific problems from a holistic perspective, and more general ones.

The areas of focus under the initiative are Civil Society, Nation Branding, Economic and Trade Policy, Sustainable Development and Health Programmes. The team includes members who have hands on practical experiences in various countries and regions around the world, as well as cutting edge researchers working with the world’s leading research centres.

Amongst Cornerstone’s team who will be providing consultancy through the initiative are:

  • Alan Anstead, Senior Consultant and a highly regarded former career diplomat, has worked on putting strategies for the UK’s Foreign Office and Department for International Development, working at ambassador-level in London and in British diplomatic missions around the world.
  • Howard Bloom, Senior Consultant with Cornerstone and one of America’s most accomplished thinkers. Howard persuading skills have helped blue-chip organizations around the world generate over US $28 billion of business by identifying and building on their capabilities and potential.
  • Dr David Cook, Senior Consultant, has almost 30 years of experience working countries on trade policy and political economy, and was the trade coordinator for the Government of Alberta during the US-Canada free-trade talks.
  • Peter Horn, Senior Consultant with extensive experience as former Director at the UK’s Department of Health and Chief Executive of various NHS trusts, has worked on transforming  public health organizations in the UK.
  • Lt Col (Ret) Robin Matthews, Senior Consultant with a long track record at the UK’s Ministry of Defence and with the British Army on peace-building and strategic communications in various parts of the world including Sierra Leone, Iraq and Afghanistan.
  • Dr Greg Martin, Partner, has worked in many developing countries on developing and implementing health strategies including with the World Health Organization.
  • Dr Mark Somos, Partner, Political scientist formerly at Harvard and Cambridge Universities with a  track record on developing and adapting political thought to practical areas. His latest paper and its focus on civil society building has already received considerable acclaim.

Lucian will be deploying his skills as a strategic enabler to help entities realize their potential through thought leadership and with the assistance of our highly capable team, create and implement effective, bespoke and targeted strategies to create results and add value. 

“Lucian handles complexity brilliantly, and combines highly astute judgment with grit and determination.  His great skill is in building consensus and getting the best from people at every level of the organization”, commented Thomas Highes-Hallett, Chief Executive of the Marie Curie Cancer Care, one of the UK’s biggest non-profit organizations.

Ghanem Nuseibeh, Co-founder, partner and director, will work with the initiative to ensure results are sustainable and are aligned and optimized to the short and long-term benefit. With a track record in sustainable development and managing development projects of over £ 2 billion, Ghanem will advice on ensuring results are achieved in the shortest time and are sustainable.

Cornerstone’s ethos of creating innovative, bespoke but proven strategies will be reinforced through our strategic partnership with the non-profit Centre of Public Innovation. They have an impressive hands-on expertise in the areas of social policy, health and education. 

Jordan MacLeod, Co-founder, partner and director and author of the highly acclaimed book “New Currency” and with a track-record in strategic brand-building and value systems, will assist in ensuring the initiative’s work carries the buy-in to ensure long-term success.

Alan Anstead, Senior Consultant at Cornerstone and formerly of the UK’s Department for International Development and Foreign Office commented: “Many organisations are tackling big, global issues. Issues that can only be solved by working in partnership with like-minded organisations. Cornerstone takes the existing skills, experience and knowledge within an organisation and develops this capability, using its experts from different sectors of society and from different parts of the world to bring the most relevant and innovative partnership approach to the issue.”

Cornerstone has already been working on various capacity building initiatives with clients around the world. The “Blue Paper” on Yemen, is an example of the scope of services offered to nations. Other projects in capacity building Cornerstone are working on include the implementation of the World Health Organization’s HIV-fighting IMAI programme in South Africa and work with the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, Royal Academy of Engineering and others.

“Cornerstone is the perfect collegial environment in which we can penetrate the profession's cliches, and revisit the roles and possible capacities of NGOs, human development, social capital, trust-building, stakeholder society, microloans, anti-capitalist sentiment, post-paternalism, and other civil society-based theoretical notions against our multifarious, challenging, and highly rewarding practical experience with transplanting and implementing the best of these notions in widely divergent social, cultural, economic and political circumstances.”, said Dr Mark Somos, Partner at Cornerstone and a member of the Initiative.

For further discussion of the Capability Building Initiative, please email contact@cstoneglobal.com for a no-obligation meeting.