Gareth Newbery

Founder

Founded April 2026. Newbery Advisory provides senior advisory to mid-size professional services firms on people strategy, talent operating models, and AI adoption — typically 12–16 week engagements, delivered directly.

EMEA Senior Manager

Baker McKenzie's EMEA region ran across 30+ offices in markets with sharply different cultures, legal frameworks and management norms. The organisation needed people programmes that could land consistently across that diversity — on inclusion, on leadership development, on cultural change — without a standardised framework or a mandate that Partners had agreed to follow.

• Designed and ran a four-year EMEA Mentoring Circles programme spanning gender, ethnicity, disability and LGBTQ+ strands — 150–170 mentees and 25–30 mentors per cohort, with 80%+ satisfaction scores sustained across every cohort
• Rolled out Inclusion Plans across all 30+ EMEA offices, achieving full regional participation for the first time — shifting ownership from central programme delivery to embedded local accountability in each market
• Provided behavioural assessment, business case input and candidate coaching across 20+ partner promotion processes — the highest-stakes career decision in any law firm, and one where the quality of the people input matters
• Acting Director 2023–24 (~10 months): stepped up with full accountability for programme governance, stakeholder alignment, annual planning and budget across the region
• When I left, the region had something it hadn't had before: a consistent framework that people in 30+ offices had actually adopted, not just been sent

Recruitment Manager

In a 950-person London office, I worked alongside one other recruiter to drive a more direct, more data-leaning hiring model — reducing agency dependency, improving quality of hire, and building something closer to a genuine advisory relationship with Partners.

• Delivered approximately £1m in annual recruitment cost savings as a two-person team, through direct headhunting, talent mapping and a structured reduction in agency reliance across practice groups and business services
• Used Pirical to bring data rigour to legal hiring: market intelligence, diverse candidate pool tracking, and sharper advice to Partners on where the best available talent actually was
• Drove EMEA-wide talent initiatives from the London seat — referral programme redesign, inclusive job description standards and diverse sourcing frameworks — work that carried forward directly into the regional P&C role
• By the end, agency spend was down by approximately £1m+, the direct sourcing rate was significantly higher, and the recruitment team had become something Partners actually sought out for hiring counsel

Founder & Director

Purchased, rebranded and ran a boutique TEFL recruitment and training business, connecting teachers with schools across Europe and Asia — primarily China, Vietnam and Thailand. Managed all aspects of operations, client relationships, candidate support and online training delivery. Business sold in 2019 to pursue senior in-house roles.

Regional Talent Acquisition Manager, EMEA

Led the regional Talent Acquisition function across EMEA for a global immigration law firm — 9 offices, a geographically dispersed team and a high-volume, multi-disciplinary recruitment portfolio.

• Delivered 280 hires in one year, 85%+ via direct sourcing — significantly reducing agency spend and improving time-to-hire
• Led rapid-scale hiring for a new UK office launch — 40+ hires within two weeks, coordinating sourcing, assessment and onboarding at pace
• Introduced competency-based interviews, hiring manager training and psychometric assessments to strengthen fairness and quality of hire

Talent Acquisition Partner

Delivered approximately £150k in annual savings through increased direct sourcing and reduced agency reliance. Supported rollout of a new recruitment model across multiple divisions. Delivered recruitment training to hiring managers, improving in-house capability.

Talent Acquisition Lead – Operations

Delivered end-to-end recruitment across Sodexo's UK operations, sourcing middle-management to Director-level talent across six multi-million-pound business segments.

• Achieved 85%+ direct hire rate, delivering approximately £200k in annual cost savings
• Averaged 13 hires per month across operational, functional and leadership positions ranging from £25k to £100k
• Designed and delivered assessment centres for senior roles

Career Break — Volunteering

Full-time voluntary work at a children's home in Belize — providing day-to-day support, supervision and care for 36 children aged 3–16. Built the cross-cultural communication, empathy and calm-under-pressure capabilities that have underpinned the People & Culture work that followed.

Managing Consultant — Professional Services

Led one of the company's highest-performing teams within one of the UK's largest recruitment agencies — four-person team across Insurance and Financial Services. Personal annual fee income of approximately £200k. Early signal: led a cross-organisation project to design and implement a new employee appraisal and performance management system.