Avril Millar

Avril Millar started working life as a Civil Engineer in Glasgow in the early ‘70s when her children were young. She taught Maths and Physics to Oxbridge entrance level, before retraining for a new career in finance in her mid-thirties. Over the next twenty-plus years, she built a successful Wealth Management business. During that time, she got interested in how our minds and emotions work at work, especially under stress, and qualified as a Master NLP Practitioner, Hypnotherapist, Thought Field Therapist, and Executive Coach. She is also a PRINT® consultant.

Since 2009, having exited the business on its sale, she has worked extensively with a large number of different clients, often in turnaround situations which come with myriad business issues and the accompanying emotional toll. Currently, she works closely in Med Tech, Regulated Investment, and Technology companies, and is a NED/Board advisor for several others. Her clients tend to be C-suite, Boards or Founders, and her work is sector-neutral.

Avril focuses on helping people navigate the various interwoven challenges of business, people, and life, in as elegant a way as possible, with humour and a dash of candour.

Avril is a highly experienced Non-Executive Director and Executive Coach with deep cross-sector expertise and an outstanding portfolio career of driving business growth and profitability both for established leaders and high-growth SMEs in industries that span financial services, technology, healthcare, consultancy, leisure, oil and professional services. She is experienced in delivering shareholder value, guiding development of Board-level strategy across sectors, markets, and geographies; engaging executive teams and investors in ambitious visions; she possesses extensive experience in working with both new and established entrepreneurs and leaders.

Avril’s areas of expertise lie in driving business transformation; enhancing efficiency, cost control, scalability and customer service through change to policies, processes and people. She draws on a wealth of expertise in refining sales and business development, financial control, governance, risk and compliance, fundraising and business operations across sectors.

Avril can help with optimising Board governance and effectiveness; she is well-versed in navigating complex dynamics of diverse teams and turnaround of underperformance. She presents a highly compelling, pragmatic, and commercial voice, who builds consensus and ensures sound decision-making on major business activity.