DYNAMIC | AGILE | INNOVATIVE
About Avanti
Let us help your organisation move forwards...Avanti!
Avanti strives to do great things with great people to achieve great outcomes, with a commitment to helping people transform now, ready for tomorrow.
We understand that you, your teams and organisations need to develop resilience and agility in order to thrive in the face of global change and uncertainty.
Our dynamic, bespoke and flexible approach, combined with our Artificial Intelligence wicked problem solving capability and partner network, allows us to guide and support you on your transformation journey.
Dr Jonathan Huish - Founder
DBA | Strategic Leader, Chair, CEO & Coach
Dr Jonathan Huish is an internationally experienced strategic leader, chair, chief executive, and coach with over 25 years of leadership across the public, private, and third sectors. He has worked with boards and executive teams across local government, housing, health, finance, and community development, and is widely regarded as one of the UK's leading figures in governance, leadership development, and organisational change.
Jonathan is co-founder and Director of Avanti, a leadership development and change consultancy through which he works with leaders, chief executives, cabinet teams, and senior leadership groups to enable strategic growth and transformation. He has worked with over 140 public sector bodies across his career, and currently leads Avanti's work on Local Government Reorganisation as part of the Local Government Association Framework for Management of Change and Transformation.
His career spans an exceptional range of roles and sectors. He has served as Chair of Trivallis Housing, one of Wales' largest housing associations, and as Chair of the group of Housing Association Chairs across Wales. He was Chair of D2, a temporary accommodation company with a social outcome focus, and has held senior advisory roles with PA Consulting, CIPFA, and iESE. Earlier in his career he served as a Strategic Policy Advisor to the Welsh Development Agency and as a councillor for Rhondda Cynon Taf for 17 years, including as Leader and Cabinet Member for Economic and Community Development.
Jonathan has also held board roles with the RCT Health Board, the South Wales Police Authority, and served as a governor of the Universities of Cardiff, Swansea, and Glamorgan. He represented Wales on the Committee of the Regions of Europe, where he coordinated the Economic and Social Committee, and chaired the first Objective 1 Strategic Partnership and the South East Wales Regional Economic Forum. Earlier in his career he worked at Goldman Sachs in derivatives, mergers, and acquisitions.
He holds a Doctorate in Leadership from Cranfield, Masters degrees in Behavioural Psychology and European Policy from London University, and a further Masters in Econometrics and Behavioural Economics from LSE. He is a qualified public finance accountant (CPFA), a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management, and qualified in executive coaching and mentoring. He currently chairs Pwyllgor — Mind in Wales — and sits on the Mind UK board.
Dr Amanda Milliner - Founder
PhD | Executive Leader, Consultant & Coach
Dr Amanda Milliner is an executive leader, consultant, and coach with over two decades of experience working across the public, private, and third sectors. She has operated at board and executive level throughout her career, working with organisations ranging from major public bodies and housing associations to national charities, construction firms, and media companies.
Amanda is co-founder and Director of Avanti, a leadership development and change consultancy. Through Avanti, she works with boards, cabinet teams, and senior leadership across the UK and internationally, helping organisations align their strategy, culture, and behaviours to deliver lasting change. Her clients have included billion-pound organisations such as Amey Construction and SNRG, alongside a wide range of public sector and community-focused bodies.
Prior to Avanti, Amanda served as Chief Operating Officer and Board Member of Capital People, the sister company to Capital Law, where she led strategy development and operational delivery across the organisation's full range of services.
Her doctorate specialises in organisational development and customer and community engagement — giving her a grounding in cutting-edge thinking that she applies directly to the leadership programmes and change processes she designs. Amanda has a particular interest in reaching the voices least often heard, and in helping individuals, teams, and organisations build genuine resilience and wellbeing. She holds qualifications in mindfulness, cognitive behavioural therapy, and rational emotive behaviour therapy, and is qualified to use a range of psychometric tools.
Amanda has worked globally with women in leadership roles across sectors, and has held board positions spanning media, community, and reform organisations. She is also a founder of Trinity and the Trinity Foundation, focused on homelessness and wrap-around community support.
What we do
At Avanti, we have a belief that the 'person' is the centre of all change, which means that we work from the individual, through teams to the wider organisation.
We take a strengths-based approach that seeks to maximise the potential of all, ensuring that all your resources are driven towards achieving ambitions.
Our approach is bespoke every time, working with you at every stage of the process, from building a case for change, through design and supporting implementation.
We support organisations in building a strategic narrative that speaks to outcomes beyond financial or service delivery related, with a focus on linking activity to defined social outcomes, often at a community or thematic level.
Alongside this, we build connections to relevant public sector organisations and funding agencies in an open and transparent way, to ensure that the possibility of achieving ambitions are maximised.
Where needed, we are able to engage communities, stakeholders, customers and staff to build a shared knowledge of the challenge or opportunity at hand, and codesign a route map to deliver treasured outcomes in a way supported by all.
Our vision is to support organisations making transformative change and enable them to accelerate their progress in making profound shifts catalysed by discovering valuable new insights, paradigms, values, mindsets, politics, policies, technologies, and find the operating models and new partners for a successful future.
The aim of this approach is to create catalytic and exponential progress in the form of economic, social, and environmental wealth creation.
We believe in working at speed and with momentum… hence our name “Avanti”. We typically complete the first assignment in six weeks or less! and we thrive on problems that seem complex and chaotic.
Our team at Avanti are qualified and experienced in a wide range of coaching approaches:
- Political
- Leadership / Executive
- Behavioural
- Performance and Solution-focused
- Team
- Systemic and Organisation wide
- Mindfulness and Wellbeing
- Meditation
- Life and Career
Whether your organisation is looking to engage its employees, customers or the wider community, our engagement specialists, particularly Dr Amanda Milliner, will be able to work closely with you to ensure your engagement strategy is robust and effective.
Employee engagement is about improving the work environment and culture to encourage employees to be more dedicated to the company goals and values. No organisation is too small to start implementing, measuring and improving engagement. The better we make our employees feel, the more they will contribute to the company's growth.
Community Engagement is a way of ensuring community members feel they are able to contribute in a meaningful way. The attention given to co-production is growing. Communities collaborate with public sector professionals in service delivery processes, with the aim of enhancing the quality of services produced.
At Avanti we have a wide range of programmes that help organisations develop their people.
Programmes include:
- Leadership and Management
- Governance
- Strategy
- New ways of working
- People development
- Public sector (and social purpose organisations)
Avanti has a suite of psychometric instruments available:
- Team Management System (preference)
- Emotional Intelligence Assessment
- Leadership Behaviours Profile
- Strengths Deployment Inventory (SDI)
- Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
- Hogan 360 Leadership & Management Diagnostic
- Hogan Leadership Focus
- Hogan High Potential Talent 360
- Hogan 360 High Performing Teams
- Hogan Business Reasoning Inventory
- Honey and Mumford Learning Styles
- Strategic Team Behaviours
- Thomas-Kilmann Instrument - Collaboration & Conflict Resolution
Our Partners
Testimonials
Karen Chalk
Director, Circus Eruption
"The time with Avanti was excellent for our team. The realisation that for a small team we have such a spread of complimentary skills was so positive and a real eye-opener. The newer team member was really pleased that they were in a different segment from the rest of us!
It was a great opportunity for both self-reflection and team reflection, and understanding one another's perspectives and how we can all work to our strengths. We look forward to building on this and hope to work with Avanti again."
John Wood
Chair of Cornwall Council
"Jon is without doubt the best political stategist I have ever worked with. While most are thinking moves ahead in this game, Jon has already won this game and is playing the next."
Anonymous
Chief Executive, Mid Devon Council
"The real turning point in our change programme came with the addition of Jon to lead the team. Truly inspired!"
Peter McNaney
Chief Executive, Belfast Council
"Jon was the first person ever to bring together the party leaders in a cross party forum, who achieved real success in gaining shared commitment to what became the Belfast Improvement Programme."
Lydia
Women on Board Programme, Dubai
"Thank you to Jon and Amanda for a wonderful three day session. You both made it so wonderful."
Mitchell Hughes
Mental Health Charity
"A really fun, engaging and beneficial day spent with Avanti. This opportunity has given me the tools to look at my workload from different angles, and reminded me that self-reflection is hugely important. A huge thank you to Amanda and Jonathan for spending the time with myself and colleagues at CTM Mind."
150
Local Authorities Supported
33
Countries worked in
