…exceptional leader
“Gray’s intellect, pragmatism, and ability to build consensus and engender and influence change across organizations make him stand out as an exceptional leader. Having worked closely with Gray for 4 years I can easily recommend him as a great business partner and leader, that consistently delivered outstanding results for the organization.
Greg Miner, Financial Controller, Apple
…invaluable to achieving key initatives.
Gray has been involved in leadership development and change management within my group with great success. Gray has an ability to quickly see challenges from a different perspective and provide creative solutions that are both practical and challenging the status quo to achieve real long term benefits. He is a great sounding block and had been invaluable to achieving a number of key initiatives within the EMC ANZ Customer Service team. I look forward to continuing this successful working relationship for many years to come. Thanks for your input Gray to achieve awesome results that we have in the last 2 years.”
Top qualities: Great Results, High Integrity, Creative
Mark Jobbins hired Gray as a Business Consultant in 2010, and hired Gray more than once.
…exceedingly good yet modest and affable
Gray is one of those rare people who is both exceedingly good at what they do and yet modest and affable in his dealings with people. I have had the pleasure of working with Gray for about 8 years in a variety of roles and capacities, most recently partnering with his new specialist consulting business “Summation”.
The first thing you will notice is that Gray has an exceptionally analytical mind, and he is able to take complex and ambiguous situations, and break them down into a set of well-structured actions that make sense to everyone. This ability to bring order to chaotic situations is immensely valuable in both the business and technical issues he works on. I have seen him apply this skill to planning, negotiations, sales, contracts and business analysis. In each of these settings he is able to introduce structure and priorities that form the foundation for all future work.
The second thing you will notice when you work with Gray is that he has a vast working knowledge of strategies and tactics that have been used in different organisations around the world. He derives this knowledge from both formal post graduate study and a voracious appetite to learn through reading and talking to other people about their experiences. This results in his being able to bring an amazingly broad set of ideas and options to a working situation – and combine them in novel and innovative ways.
These technically focussed strengths can overshadow what is possibly one of his greatest strengths – his ability to work with and motivate people. Gray has a profound understanding of how to align, unify and motivate groups of people towards a common objective. He is always easy to talk to and is able to quickly build rapport with people from widely different backgrounds. For all his “IQ” I suspect his “EQ” is even greater
There are many other terrific things about working with Gray, not the least his sense of humour. All these traits combined make Gray and the work he did at Microsoft, and the work he does now in Summation, a uniquely valuable and motivating person to work with .
James Simpson, CTO SolveXia.
….a knack for getting results
“I have worked with Gray in a number of guises over the years, and find him to be a man possessed of sharp intellect, great humor, a strong work ethic and a knack for getting results. I have no hesitation in recommending him and would welcome to opportunity to work with Gray again.”
David Downs, Services Director, Microsoft
…strategic insight and pragmatic approach
“Gray brings a great combination of strategic insight and pragmatic approach to his work. He has a talent for process as a business enabler that delivers clarity and efficiency. His people oriented approach has earned him the respect of the teams he has worked with year after year.”
Catherine Thomas, Services Practice Manager, Microsoft
….passionate, focussed and dedicated
“Gray is a passionate, focussed and dedicated business leader, with a genuine regard for his people, and an ability to cut through ambiguities and get things done.
I have worked with Gray for 2.5 years, and come good or bad, could always rely on Gray for crystal clear thinking, dedicated support and a focus on execution that drove our team and our business to success.”
John-Paul Burgess, Services Sales Manager, Microsoft Australia
…an ability to drive growth
“Gray brings tremendous energy and a keen understanding of business strategy to his work. He consistently demonstrated an ability to drive growth and build trust with customers that gave us opportunities to tackle exciting and high-value projects.”
Donald Coward, Principal Consultant
…outstanding
“In today’s competitive environment, it is crucial for people and organisations to have the ability to adapt. Gray Thompson has been outstanding at providing support in order to achieve this.”
Chris Taylor, Managing Director, CT&A