Oliver Deacon

Oliver is a former Microsoft Finance Director and an executive leadership and innovation coach. Although technology has been at the centre of Oliver’s career since obtaining his ACA within the big four, Oliver’s true career passion has been building world class teams and coaching individuals to achieve their full potential. This combination of leadership experience and future insight benefits his clients today, as he helps them to develop the leadership skills, organizations and careers of the future. Oliver has worked in the UK and US, leading and coaching international teams across UK, US and Europe, at companies including Skype, Best Buy Europe and Deloitte. As a Finance Director at Microsoft in Seattle, Oliver experienced cutting-edge technology before it was unleashed into the wider world. He also led culture programs for 250-person finance teams, was a member of an interviewing panel chartered with hiring high potential diverse talent into finance and facilitated development workshops for finance teams.

Oliver has over 1,000 hours of client coaching experience with big tech companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Stripe, finance professionals from all the Big 4 firms and tech startups. He partners with them to thoughtfully grow their impact, organizations and careers in rapidly changing environments. Oliver’s clients describe his coaching style as energetic, pragmatic and inspiring – with a focus on leadership, impact and organizational development, to get results. Oliver specializes in working with aspiring and new finance leaders, helping them to understand their strengths, goals and development areas, partnering with them to set their own individualized growth plans. Oliver is a Professional Credentialed Coach (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation, the global gold standard for coaching, a ICAEW Fellow Chartered Accountant and gained his Earth Sciences Master’s degree from Oxford. Whatever stage a client is at in their career, Oliver brings energy, a fresh perspective and approachability. His mission is to provide clients with the tools they need to thrive, whatever the future brings.

What Oliver’s clients say about him…
“I can honestly say that Oliver was transformative in step changing my career trajectory. To anyone in finance thinking of working with a coach, I would strongly recommend talking to him for an hour. You will not be disappointed.” — FINANCE DIRECTOR, GOOGLE
“Oliver coached me as I grew my team and personal leadership brand as a first-time director… With his coaching, I was able to deliver success in a challenging and growing business, while building a resilient and inclusive team.” — FINANCE DIRECTOR, MICROSOFT
“Oliver has proven to be an invaluable sounding board, helping us to instill best practice in building out the Nivaura finance function… He gets to the heart of issues very quickly, so sessions are always very productive. I would highly recommend him as a coach and mentor.” — GAVIN YOULL, CFO, NIVAURA (FINTECH START-UP)