Alistair joined the Clarks team at the initial implementation stage of building one global operating model to enable our Company vision of becoming the world's leading everyday footwear brand. As an interim communications consultant, Alistair quickly grasped and understood the outcomes needed to be achieved and worked with both the Programme team and senior leaders to prepare and implement communications solutions to support this major change initiative.  

Throughout my time of working with Alistair, he has proven to be grounded, pragmatic and offers commercial solutions to any given situation. Alistair is able to work across an organisation in respect of both hierarchy and geography, being well attuned to the people dimensions and the differing needs this can bring.  

During his time with Clarks, Alistair implemented immediate short term strategies on communication channels and media mix to enable people to engage with the globalisation journey and then carried out an internal and external longer term communications review to help shape the organisations thinking in how to take communications forward.  

I would thoroughly recommend Alistair to any organisation as he brings an experienced and refreshing outlook in his field of expertise.

Alistair came into Clarks in October 2011  to support the development and implementation of our communications plan for our company wide change/transformation programme. He was able to hit the ground running and started adding value very quickly through his ability to understand the needs of stakeholders and establish effective and pragmatic communications channels.  

Alistair has a wealth of experience in both setting up and managing communications, he has established a lot of credibility across all levels of the business through his experience and the way that he positively interacts with people. I have found Alistair a  really useful sounding board with great insights into how organisations and people operate and comes up with great solutions as to how we address communications challenges. He is able to work at a strategic level but is also practical enough to ensure that detailed content and organisation planning are spot-on.  

I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Alistair and have no hesitation in recommending him to other organisations.

I worked with Alistair for a year at Electrocomponents. Initially, he was interim Head of European Internal Communications, managing communications across our biggest division which encompassed around 1,200 employees ranging from Scandinavia to Portugal. Alistair enjoyed the confidence of the senior management team there and developed the current internal communications strategy as well as inducting the new European Internal Communications manager.

Latterly, he managed the communications for the development and subsequent launch of our global values project, which covered 6,000 employees across 30 countries. Alistair managed the many different internal stakeholder groups and external creative agencies with great aplomb and diplomacy. Alistair's involvement in the project encompassed designing the communications plan from employee consultation to a successful launch.

I have no hesitation in recommending Alistair for any senior internal communications role.

Alistair is simply one of the best communication professionals I have ever worked with. He has the ability to provide great strategic insight with the capability to deliver tactical every day activity. Alistair has a warm and friendly style which makes him good to have around any team.

Alistair joined the European business of Electrocomponents in an interim position - providing support whilst we were looking for a permanent Internal Communication Manager.

I very much enjoyed working with Alistair. He brought a lot of experience and best practice to the table. I particularly liked the way he introduced this to our company: he was very good at taking stock of what we already had in place and where he could add real value, rather than reinventing the wheel.

With Alistair, we had gained a 'safe pair of hands': he sat down with his customers, gained a thorough understanding of their needs and then rolled up his sleeves and put things in place. Alistair is very much down to earth and pragmatic. He has a great ability to connect with people across all levels, age groups and various nationalities - and he has a great sense of humour.

I really valued Alistair's support and would love to work with him again in the future should an opportunity present itself.

Alistair worked with me and my team on the creation and implementation of a pan European Communication strategy.

Alistair came across as a top professional who quickly grasped the challenge and provided hugely useful insight. With his strong contribution we made significant measurable improvements to communication, in particular on the employee engagement side.

I would recommend Alistair at any time without hesitation.

Alistair initially joined Sage in October 2009 for a three month period until we had a permanent Head of IC in place. After a few weeks it became apparent that the area we needed most help was with putting an internal event together for our leadership team. The event was due to take place early Feb 2010 so I extended Alistair's contract until early Feb.

Alistair has a great deal of experience in events management. He was creative in helping us with compiling a video as well as lots of useful thoughts and ideas for the session. He had a team who supported him to pull it all together. Alistair was organised, very focussed and had good attention to detail which all helped to make the event a great success.

Alistair Wilson became the National Trust's Interim Internal Communications Director for six months, to manage and help us review the function. He managed a lively team of 5 and was highly effective in overseeing all the National Trust's internal communications channels (the monthly staff newsletter and team briefing process, the intranet and various electronic bulletins) and managed a major and highly successful staff conference for some 400 senior managers in the Trust.  As well as ensuring the smooth running of the department, he gave the Senior Management Team a thought-provoking and intelligent report on options for the way ahead. 

Alistair Wilson is a highly effective, empathetic and canny person, with plenty of drive and talent. His inter-personal skills are second to none and he has an enviable ability both to fit in and to challenge.  He would be an asset to any organisation, and has certainly provided a brilliant service to the Trust.

Alistair joined us on an interim basis to manage internal communications in September 2007. He was able to hit the ground running and helped to manage our management conference in November 2007 as well as keeping our internal communication team motivated and productive during this time. He is a good people manager with a calm, measured, positive approach. He is also seasoned in dealing with very senior people and is skilled in challenging pre-conceived ideas effectively in tactful and diplomatic ways.

He is extremely experienced in internal communication matters and demonstrated this in providing a thorough review of our approach to internal communications which has helped to shape our actions moving forward. He has lots of creative and innovative ideas and is able to suggest these in appropriate situations to suit particular circumstances or particular communication issues. He also helped us to recruit our permanent successor and did so in a timely and professional manner.

I would recommend Alistair's services to anyone.

Alistair came to the Trust as our interim Head of Internal Communications for six months, with a brief to keep the show on the road while conducting an audit of internal communications across the organisation.  

He quickly got to grips with and understood what is a pretty complex organisation with multiple and competing communication priorities, and was able both to fit into the culture whilst retaining a really useful challenging perspective drawing on his wide experience. In my area of work in particular, Alistair's input into a major national conference was invaluable and one of his legacies will be a big change in the way we think about large - scale face-to-face communication.  

Alistair  somehow manages to combine persistent good humour with an incisive diagnostic ability and an energetic and decisive approach to finding solutions. I know the intranet team have benefited from that in particular, through a refreshed intranet strategy which is now being implemented.  

Most important from my perspective is what I've learnt from Alistair, who's given our team a real chance to grow, quickly and insightfully recognising where we were each strongest and giving us the space and support to step up and take new opportunities. As a result, in just 6 months he's leaving behind a much more rounded and confident team, which I'm certainly grateful for!

Alistair has had a major positive impact on the way we approach internal communications in E.ON Retail. I engaged his services to conduct a complete review of the effectiveness of internal communications in April 2006. His review covered our channels, the competency of our staff, the resources and budget and included a detailed benchmarking exercise with other blue chip companies of similar size and scale. This review was extremely comprehensive and was carried out to budget and within the required tight time scales.

I then asked Alistair to come back into our business in July 2006 to implement the recommendations contained in the review. This required Alistair to work as our interim internal communications manager with full responsibility for centralising and up-skilling our IC team as well as rebalancing our channel mix and helping us gravitate towards the intranet as a principal channel of communication.

Alistair has been extremely effective in this role and we have made a successful step-change in the way we manage internal communications as a business. Other parts of E.ON are now interested in the way we have moved things forward, the structural model we have adopted and other innovative processes and ways of working we now deploy. In short, I was very satisfied with the work Alistair carried out on our behalf. He is a good guy to work with: at once very knowledgeable about the subject of internal communications but at the same time pragmatic and sensible about what works within a given set of circumstances or the specific environment such as ours. He is also a good people manager and has helped the new team gel and work as a motivated unit. Quite simply, he brought the experience, perspective and expertise you look for in communications consulting services.

During his time here Alistair has designed and implemented an integrated Retail Internal Communications team, consisting of a business partner model. The structure is now well established and is running successfully. The business partner model has allowed us to work closely with the business areas and the relationships are continuing to grow.

Alistair is great to work with, he brings all of his experience and best practice from his many roles working in Internal Communication at large organisations, but is always willing to work collaboratively with the team and take on feedback. Alistair has spent time developing the team and individuals, and is very supportive. He has dedicated a lot of time to successfully influencing stakeholders and building the team's relationship with them. I have learnt a great deal from the time I have spent working with Alistair and feel that all organisations would benefit from his practical and professional approach to Internal Communication.

Alistair's vision for this new way of working at E.ON and his tenacity for seeing it through means he has left behind at E.ON a well established, competent and professional internal communication team — which has in only a few months, with Alistair's guidance and support, gained the credibility and respect of the business.

Alistair used his in depth understanding of best practice internal communication and his knowledge of the value that it adds to a business to remain focused on the desired outcome. He engaged with the most senior stakeholders in the business and provided a high level of support to his team to ensure a unified approach which means the team is well on the way to becoming the required centre of excellence.

On a personal level, Alistair has been great to work with and I have gained great insight from him in terms of what truly constitutes best practice in internal communication. I hope I get the opportunity to work with him again!

Alistair has been working with E.ON since June 06, firstly carrying out a review of Retail internal communication practices and then as the interim Retail Internal Communication Manager.

Alistair built the IC strategy based on his research within the business and knowledge of internal communication best practice. He is an excellent relationship manager and has influenced some of the key Retail senior managers, who are often very challenging. He brings a wealth of practical internal communication experience and knowledge which has helped build the reputation of the Retail Internal Communication team.

As well as recommending the IC strategy he has influenced the senior team to provide the appropriate budget for the structure to support the strategy. He has built the team with key external appointments and by encouraging the development of existing team members.

Personally I have been in the role for several years and Alistair has guided me to develop my internal communication professional skills; encouraging me to build up networks with other internal communication professionals. He has supported my development and assisted with key stakeholder management issues, which is often the key to successful internal communication.

As well as his experience and knowledge Alistair's inter personal skills are fantastic, he always ensures the team are kept on board with developments and everyone has a clear direction of what our purpose is and key objectives/deliverables. He also has an excellent sense of humour which helps when things maybe fraught.

Overall, I have really enjoyed working with Alistair he always looks at things from a cup half full perspective; he gives you inspiration but has a sense of what is practical and achievable.

Alistair joined Norwich Union Life (NUL) as our interim head of internal communications in 2004. I enjoyed working with him and learned a lot from him during the time which I have subsequently been able to apply when I was promoted to the permanent head of internal communication role in July 2005.

He did a great job in putting together a new corporate strategy for internal communication across the business. This was an extremely complex task involving some very tricky negotiation between different business areas. It also involved balancing the communication needs of the whole business against those of its constituent parts. The project involved some very comprehensive research which Alistair organised & managed successfully. This provided the bedrock for our strategy for which I've now picked up responsibility.

Alistair continued to help us on a retained basis for the rest of 2005 with aspects of strategy implementation. His main focus has been on leading a major recruitment exercise designed to enhance our strategic capability. With his help, we've been able to build an excellent management team to take internal communications forward over the coming months.

I would heartily recommend the services of Wilson Gallagher to others. Alistair's in-house experience gives him the edge over others in the sense that he can really empathise because he's been there and has 'got the t-shirt'. His advice is always pragmatic and practical, based on sound common sense.

Alistair has worked with Norwich Union Life since November 2004 with the specific brief to refresh and further develop an effective communication strategy for the organisation and at the same time lead and develop the existing communications team.

Alistair quickly formed meaningful business relationships, won the confidence of the senior Human Resources team and the Internal Communications team and contributed to the organisations challenging change agenda.

Successes have included researching, exploring and finally articulating communication strategy, delivering a meaningful and motivational conference for the top 200 senior managers and playing a key role in leading, driving and supporting the communications team.

Alistair is great to work with and is hugely supportive of colleagues at all levels while challenging current thinking and suggesting alternative ways of doing things. Alistair is constructive in all his working relationships and will speak out if he believes something will not hit the mark.

I would have no hesitation in recommending Alistair as an experienced and seasoned senior Internal Communications professional who will significantly enhance the communications approach of any organisation. Alistair involves all stakeholder groups, grasps and plays back the current state, suggests solutions which are based on clear evidence and feedback, and produces sustainable implementation plans.

We look forward to working with Wilson Gallagher in the future.

Recruitment is always a challenge and yet the formation of a centrally resourced internal communication team at Norwich Union Life has been a resounding success. This process was led by Alistair Wilson of Wilson Gallagher Ltd. Thanks to Alistair, the recruitment process has matched the personalities, skills, knowledge and experience of new recruits to further enhance and complement the existing team and the wider business it serves.

I worked closely with Alistair Wilson on the re-branding of Amersham PLC in 2001. I had responsibility for customer communication aspects of the project and he for employee communication. He worked extremely effectively to ensure that the feelings and sensitivities of our global workforce were taken into account as part of the re-branding exercise. He also worked well as a team player with me and with other project group members to ensure that there was synergy in our brand communications to all stakeholder groups.

Wilson Gallagher are very sensitive to cultural differences. As a native Swede I was always conscious of the fact that a great effort was made to ensure that employees who spoke English as a second language were well catered for in the suite of internal communication media he developed for the organisation. Alistair Wilson is a good person to have on your team as he is very creative, but practical at the same time and uncommonly possesses a lot of common sense.

He is not frightened to express his opinion and on matters of employee and change communication his judgement is invariably right.

Alistair built a durable framework for global internal communications in his four years with the company. This was a global Biosciences business with a workforce of 4500 staff based mainly in the US, UK and Sweden with sales offices scattered across the world. He was faced with a blank sheet of paper when he joined and succeeded in developing a credible multi-channel approach to internal communications, which supported our values and business strategy. He worked flexibly to agreed budgets and timetables and the work was always of a high standard. He also succeeded in putting internal communication on the radar of the most senior managers of the organisation – a major achievement in itself in most organisations.

His judgement on employee communication issues is usually spot-on. Alistair helped the senior management team to handle various potentially difficult employee communication issues, including reorganisations, rebranding and the introduction of a new business strategy. His advice was always timely, effective and practically oriented.

Alistair is sensitive to cultural differences in terms of language and ways of working and used this knowledge to great effect in designing and implementing communication solutions which met the needs of our global workforce.

I first started working with Alistair soon after he joined Amersham PLC in 1998.

For a multi-national company in a rapidly changing, high-tech market, the need for effective, timely internal communication is critical to provide focus and sustain the commitment of staff globally.

From the outset, Alistair demonstrated a strong commitment to understanding the issues through engagement with individuals and teams across the organisation. He actively sought input from his various internal target audiences as well as from other support functions, such as HR, in the formulation of the style, content and distribution route for communication. This approach was particularly valuable in establishing widespread understanding of a new business strategy for Amersham Biosciences and the subsequent global organisational changes that followed.

Throughout this period of change for the company, Alistair was sensitive to the diversity of cultures in the organisation, and travelled extensively to work with local senior management, both to develop their local communication plans and support their delivery. This was particularly valuable in the European and Japanese Regions where different channels and languages were needed.

He established a well-earned reputation as a champion of communication, ready to seek and take advice, and with the determination to see a project through. Alistair is a good team player, always ready to contribute, constructive in his argument, and ready to listen. He has a collaborative interpersonal style with a strong achievement orientation.

Alistair was one of the first within our company to recognise the need for the intranet to serve the business, and recruited me to develop a brand new site. He provided guidance and support to me in developing an intranet strategy and in getting buy-in to that strategy from all levels of the business. His knowledge of the business and his ability to provide proactive support, as well as his excellent interpersonal skills, ensured that the intranet initiative was endorsed and implemented swiftly.

He acted as an excellent sounding board for new ideas and developments and encouraged me to develop my role into managing broader aspects of internal communication work. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Alistair and feel that his creative and knowledgeable approach to internal communications would benefit any organisation.

I worked with Alistair in developing a network of communicators across our UK-based organisation. Through his leadership we created a strong team-like atmosphere amongst a very disparate group of people with different bosses reporting into different parts of the organisation. This was no easy feat! Alistair was also a great source of advice and guidance to me in my role in helping our UK HR organisation through a critical period of change.

We are a global pharmaceutical business of 61000 staff with around 12000 in the UK. We went through a major transformation process in the UK in 2003 and Alistair provided excellent advice and guidance to the senior management team of AstraZeneca UK on the critical employee communication elements. He provided us with a detailed communications action plan, as well as writing and editing the materials we published and presented, working closely with a diverse range of senior staff. This involvement was critical in keeping our workforce committed and motivated during the period of change.

Alistair led the development of our external website in the UK during 2003. As a consequence of his intervention and project management skills, in leading a diverse range of managers representing different areas of the business, our .co.uk website is a true reflection of the UK's position in our global organisation. This was achieved against the backdrop of managing stakeholder relationships in our matrix organisation and was delivered on time and to budget. More to the point, hits on our website have increased tenfold as a consequence of our improved web presence.

Alistair's approach is results-oriented and he well understands the challenges of working with senior teams to communicate business change. He is one of the new breed of professional internal communicators, capable of demonstrating how internal communications adds business value through increased employee engagement – in a strategic way.

Alistair worked with the newly formed management team, and me in preparing for the launch of a new organisation, employing around 1300 staff. His contribution naturally covered the communications component of our plans, but Alistair also made a significant contribution to the broader business agenda.

Alistair managed internal communications at a critical period in the company's development. It was at a time when Rolls-Royce and Bentley Motor Cars were produced at our factory in Crewe and the company was put up for sale by our parent company, Vickers PLC. His role was important in helping to keep the workforce informed of developments with the sale process and helping executive colleagues keep the workforce motivated at an important time in its history.