Executive Coaching for UK CEOs and MDs – From a Leader Who's Actually Led

Executive Coaching for UK CEOs and MDs – From a Leader Who’s Actually Led.

I work alongside CEOs, MDs, and senior leaders as their strategic partner and trusted confidant, the one relationship that combines adviser, coach, and sounding board. Someone who understands the weight of leadership and what you need, often before even you say it out loud yourself.

I’m Trevor Parker, an executive coach and operational adviser who’s actually held the leadership chair. I work with senior leaders who want support from someone who’s walked the same path, and who still operates in the thick of it today.

Executive Coaching with Real-World Edge

I’ve scaled a listed company from £50M to £150M. I’ve led turnarounds as Executive Chair. I’ve raised tens of millions, navigated refinancing, and steered businesses through growth and stress. Because I continue to take on active interim roles in high-pressure situations, I stay close to the real issues leaders face. My coaching is never abstract. It’s grounded in the same pressures, trade-offs, and decisions you are making right now.

I know what it feels like when everything rests on your shoulders, when customers, your team, and stakeholders are all looking to you for answers.

That’s the difference.

Experience that underpins my executive coaching

Former Interim CEO, Executive Chair, and Operational Advisor

Turned around underperforming businesses ranging from £10M to £100M+

Successfully led a company rescue as Executive Chair, stabilising and exiting the business profitably

Raised over £80M in growth capital (£30M from private investors, £50M from institutions)

Grew an AIM-listed business from £50M to £150M

Led restructures, growth strategies, and crisis interventions across multiple sectors

Worked with family-run firms, VC/PE-backed companies, and high-growth scale-ups

Led refinancing processes and covenant negotiations with banking and lender stakeholders

Executive Coaching with Teeth – UK Based, Battle-Tested

Based in the UK, I’ve supported CEOs and MDs across the length and breadth of the country and abroad.

I offer discreet 1:1 advisory support for senior leaders who don’t need more theory, they need clear thinking, real feedback, and actionable direction

Sessions are built around your reality – not off-the-shelf coaching models

More about Trevor

Trevor Parker is a board-level business leader with deep expertise in growth, turnaround, and operational performance. He has scaled an AIM-listed company from £50M to £150M, led successful rescues as Executive Chair, and supported businesses through refinancing, restructuring, and operational disruption.

Who I work with

CEOs, MDs and senior leaders who are:

Leading businesses through growth, change, or challenge

Scaling after investment or facing increased stakeholder expectations

Carrying the full load of operational and team leadership

Looking for a trusted advisor who has actually done it before

Preparing for leadership succession or stabilising during transition

Whether you’re driving an ambitious growth plan or navigating a complex restructuring, I offer seasoned perspective and judgement that helps leaders keep their edge.

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The Reality of Leadership

Whether you’re scaling fast or fighting fires, the weight of leadership creates feelings that most people simply don’t understand. You might be experiencing:

Feeling the weight but pushing through anyway, that quiet exhaustion only other CEOs really understand

Going through the motions but feeling disconnected from the energy that used to drive you

Battled through crisis or pressure and now feel… flat, even when things are improving

Experiencing that emotional numbness that comes from carrying intense responsibility for too long

Feeling worn down in ways that are hard to explain to anyone who hasn’t been in the chair

This isn’t weakness. It’s the reality of carrying everything on your shoulders, whether your business is thriving or struggling. The pressure is just different, but the weight on you as a leader can be identical.

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Why Most Executive Coaching Misses the Mark

Most executive coaches come from HR, L&D or consulting backgrounds. They are good people with valuable frameworks, but they have never actually carried the full weight of running a business when everything was on the line.

They don’t know what it feels like when:

The questions keep coming and everyone is looking to you for answers
Your team expect clarity while you are still working things through yourself
You are carrying the weight of people’s livelihoods and the future of the business
Success brings its own pressure that is every bit as intense as crisis

Because I continue to take on active interim roles in high-pressure situations, I stay close to the real issues leaders face. My coaching is not abstract. It is grounded in the same pressures, trade-offs and decisions you are making right now.

The difference is not just experience. It is understanding the emotional reality of leadership that only comes from having lived it.

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When Executive Coaching Isn’t Enough

Some situations demand more than encouragement or theory. They call for clarity, judgement and grounded support from someone who has lived the same pressures.

Managing stakeholder pressure and expectations

Rebuilding after a poor run of results or failed initiative

Aligning a senior team after rapid growth

Chasing an ambitious growth plan

Scaling following a fundraise

Preparing for a capital raise or strategic exit

Leading a restructure, M&A, or turnaround

These are not abstract challenges. They are the same situations I continue to face in my active interim roles. That is why my coaching carries weight. It is informed by real-time experience of what works under pressure and what does not.

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Why I Do This

I do this because I love business. The cut and thrust, the challenge, the opportunity to get stuck in with good people trying to do something difficult, I thrive on it. But beyond that, I understand what drives most leaders at this level, you’re not just building a business, you’re securing a future. For your family, your people, the things that matter most. That responsibility adds weight to every decision, and it deserves support from someone who gets what’s really at stake.

And this is why I believe all serious business leaders should have a coach. Your goal is too important not to. No serious athlete competes without a coach. Business leadership carries even more weight, so why face it alone?

I’ve worked with coaches throughout my career and I got something from each of them, but one of the frustrating things is that most in the profession tend to come from HR, L&D, financial, or psychological backgrounds. All good people, but they didn’t truly get what it’s like to carry the full weight of leadership, people’s jobs, and operational responsibility.

Eventually, I had the benefit of being coached by John Webster, a senior and highly respected advisor. Like me, he believed in coaching. He brought real gravitas, and I got a lot from it. He’s retired now. Such experience is extremely rare in a coach.

A Few Words From a Client

“It has been a real pleasure, first of all, meeting Trevor and secondly engaging and working with him. For an ex-military man, he is surprisingly empathetic and perceptive. He is also practical and down to earth and seems to be able to get to the nub of an issue pretty quickly. He doesn’t let you off either; you have to show engagement and action, and he will hold you to account. If you can persuade him to coach you, and he is selective, then you have done yourself and your business a favour.”

— Stephen Waud, Group Chief Executive – Business Enterprise Fund

I spent a decade learning professional leadership in the Royal Marines, then thirty years applying those principles in business. That combination – formal leadership training followed by decades of commercial experience – shapes how I work with senior leaders today.

That’s why I do this now. To be the advisor I always needed, someone who brings commercial judgement and lived leadership experience, not just frameworks or advice from the sidelines.

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Based in the UK, Trevor provides strategic executive coaching for CEOs and MDs across the United Kingdom. His coaching is grounded in real operational experience, not theory, making him a trusted advisor to leaders facing growth, complexity, or pressure.

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Many CEOs tell me they do not need another consultant. What they need is clarity, calm direction and a trusted sounding board who understands both investors and operations. That is where I step in. I work alongside leaders to bring focus, steady the team and move the business forward when the pressure is on. If that sounds useful, the next step is simple: book a short call to see if we are a fit.

Executive Coaching for UK CEOs and MDs – From a Leader Who's Actually Led