andrew west

Andrew West, is a chartered psychologist and a founder principal member of the Association of Business Psychologists. He is able to draw on his experience both as a senior HR professional and as a Chartered Occupational Psychologist to give clear, practical and jargon free advice to senior managers and HR practitioners.

Andrew has extensive international Human Resources experience, in Africa, the Far-East, Europe and the USA. He was both Head of Recruitment and Personnel Operations Manager with British American Tobacco; Senior Advisor with the United Nations Development Programme in New York; Human Resources Director for Africa and the Near East with Johnson Wax.

Having read a first degree in Cybernetics and Ergonomics, he qualified in Occupational Psychology at London University and subsequently joined the faculty lecturing on masters and PhD programmes.

His career as a consultant began with MIL, one of Europe's largest marketing consultancies, where he worked extensively with sales and marketing organisations. He then joined the UK Ports Industry where he held posts in industrial relations, human factors and safety.

Andrew joined British American Tobacco as Recruitment and Selection Adviser where he developed the use of psychometric testing and assessment centre techniques. His assessment centre programme was shown by the Henley Management College to have highly significant predictive validity (.56) - the first published evidence of a long term validation study in a major British company.

As Personnel Operations Manager, he was responsible for personnel management in BAT companies in Europe, Asia, the Far East and West Africa. Andrew worked in the USA as a Senior Adviser to the United Nations Development Programme, specialising in international recruitment, one of a small group of private sector managers invited to work within the UN System.

He then returned to the UK and became HR director for Africa and the Near East with Johnson Wax where he successfully worked with the General Managers to enhance the company's effectiveness by introducing effective HR techniques including assessment centres, senior management coaching, team building and a regional development programme to identify high potential younger managers.

Andrew is now managing partner of West Associates, a firm of business psychologists advising their private and public sector clients on how to enhance the performance and job satisfaction of their human resource. Andrew is also involved in merger and acquisition assignments for US multinationals operating in Europe.

Andrew also occasionally represents the British Psychological Society (BPS) on radio and television in news programmes and documentaries and wrote a major contribution on recruitment and selection in the Institute of Personnel and Development - "Textbook of Strategies and Techniques in Personnel Management."