OUR TEAM
BARRY HEDLEY - CHAIRMAN
Barry has taught commercial strategy courses over more than twenty years at the Judge Business School, Cambridge University. For the last ten years or so these courses have been based entirely on Dialectyx methodology and case material and have contributed to its development. He is a life Emeritus Fellow at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, where he was Senior Bursar and Director of Management Studies after he left Deloitte.
Barry’s early business experience was as one of the team that established The Boston Consulting Group’s first office in London in the 1970s. He was later European founder and subsequently Global CEO of Braxton Associates, an international strategy and financial consulting firm which merged into and became the global strategy practice of Deloitte Consulting. Under his leadership Braxton grew to around 1000 people worldwide. At Deloitte, Barry was also a member of the Global Management Committee directing its then ~$4 billion consulting business. He has First Class degrees in both Mechanical and Chemical Engineering from Cambridge University; and an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar.
Barry’s professional concentration for many years has been on linking commercial strategy formulation and execution processes to the creation of stakeholder value. This led him to his role at Dialectyx, where he worked closely with Stephen Arnold in founding the company, subsequently serving as its Chairman. He has also assumed the role of Acting Managing Director since Stephen’s death earlier this year. Throughout his time as Chair Barry has participated in product development and programme delivery, as well as the company’s management. He is also an extensively diversified angel investor and has been active in Private Equity for over thirty years.
ANDREW BACKHOUSE - OPERATIONS & FINANCE DIRECTOR
Andy supported the Dialectyx founders in establishing the company and has been in his current role since 2015. He combines his senior Operations and Finance responsibilities with active involvement in programme design and delivery, both on-line and in “blended” face-to-face and on-line settings. His extensive experience in delivering Dialectyx programmes has ranged from the UK to Africa and the Middle East, and both university and corporate clients.
Andy’s early business experience was as Group Financial Controller and Company Secretary of Softa, a consulting and software company that specialised in business strategy development and maintenance based on an innovative software platform. He supported the sale of Softa to Deloitte in the late 1990s. Prior to joining Dialectyx, from 1996-2013 he worked with Oxford Analytica, a global analysis and business advisory firm, as Chief Operating Officer; and then from 2013-2015 he performed the same role for the Institute for Fiscal Studies in London.
Andy qualified as a chartered accountant with Arthur Andersen & Co. where he became a Manager in their corporate services group before joining Softa. He has a BSc Hons in Managerial and Administrative Studies from the University of Aston in Birmingham.
JACK WALLER – MARKETING & OPERATIONS MANAGER
As Marketing & Operations Manager, Jack is currently in charge of product development for Dialectyx and oversees all client service operations as well as sales and marketing.
Jack joined Dialectyx when the company was still in its infancy, focussing on product gamification supported by animations which he developed personally. His responsibilities expanded over time to include marketing as well as product development – and supporting programme delivery operations both in the field and on-line.
Jack holds a BA in 3D Digital Animation from the University of Hertfordshire
PETER McINERNEY - COMMERCIAL LEGAL COUNSEL
Chambers Guide to the UK Legal Profession has described Peter as a "fantastic lawyer", and "an excellent sounding board for strategic advice". Head of the film TV and sports practices at Sheridans, we are delighted that he brings his unusual combination of skills to bear on our behalf at Dialectyx.
Peter has particular expertise in structuring international co-productions and the licensing of formats and sports rights. He also advises clients on effective rights management, rights audits and the clearance and exploitation of archives.
RAJIV NADKARNI – TECHNICAL DIRECTOR AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PARTNER
He started his career as a Software Consultant with Tata, and from 1985 through 1997, Rajiv worked for Blue Star Limited, becoming Group Project Manager responsible for complete delivery management for multinationals such as 3M, HP and Boots. He then joined Mastech Systems, a US based global software consulting company, and was their Head of Technical Resourcing for Europe.
Rajiv is an Electrical Engineer with Post Graduate qualifications in Software Technology from the National Centre for Software Technology, a Government of India initiative.
Rajiv has over 23 years experience in Software Development Services, primarily in Offshore Outsourcing. Rajiv has worked in India, USA & EMEA, and is now leading Microsap, delivering software services from its offshore centres, with Dialectyx as a major partner.
Rajiv has set up large-scale offshore relationships, managed accounts with team sizes of more than 100 people and managed the complete delivery of large projects with teams of 50+ people.
IN MEMORIAM - STEPHEN ARNOLD
Stephen Arnold founded Dialectyx and established it as a company working closely with Barry Hedley. The company was partly based on commercial strategy concepts that had been developed originally at Stephen’s prior company, which he also founded, called Softa. Softa was a consulting and software company that specialised in business strategy development and maintenance based on an innovative software platform. It was acquired by Deloitte Consulting in 1998 and Stephen became a global partner in the strategy practice where he worked closely with Barry Hedley to integrate Softa’s methodology and software with Braxton/Deloitte’s concepts. He continued to
work with leading business schools and software vendors in this space and later led Deloitte’s activities in Strategic Enterprise Management systems (“SEM”).
Stephen and his team acquired the intellectual property from Deloitte to re-establish the Softa organisation in late 2002, and Barry Hedley joined him part-time from Cambridge. During 2003, Softa worked closely with Cognos in the field of Corporate Performance Management which led to the purchase of Softa by Cognos in 2004. This then left the path open for the founding of Dialectyx. As well as being the Managing Director of Dialectyx, Stephen also became the Entrepreneur in Residence and Head of the experiential learning and skills development research programme at the University of Hertfordshire.
Stephen graduated with an Honours BSc in Business Management at Aston and gained distinction in his MSc in Digital Systems, at the University of Hertfordshire. His remarkable career ended when he died unexpectedly in early 2023. He is sorely missed by family, friends and colleagues.