As the founder of Quill Consulting Services, in Carlisle, Geoff Baxter OBE educates organisations on how to achieve their aims.

He set up the company two years ago along with wife and fellow director Susan following a successful career working in executive roles for public bodies and charities.
The business advises public and third-sector organisations on strategic planning, operational modelling, marketing and engagement.
“Throughout my career I’ve had experience as a CEO of charities and in the public sector,” said Geoff. “I was given an OBE for services for justice for the work I did setting up Reflex, which started in 1995 in the North East. We set up a prison radio station, a recording studio and a youth club, and one of the prison governors invited me to come and work in the prison as a youth worker.
“As part of this we started delivering non-formal education. We would use things like drama, music and dance to help with literacy and numeracy. We also linked people with mentors that were coming in to do one-to-one sessions and worked closely with the chaplaincy as well to support any vulnerable prisoners.”
After recording an album, Geoff had his work rolled out nationally. “My role changed from delivering work on the ground to developing a national team who could deliver in multiple prisons,” he said. “We set up Quill Consulting to give support to public-sector and third-sector organisations in a variety of fields. The main thing is around community engagement and how to effectively hone what they have so that their messaging is clear and engaging and they’re more relational rather than transactional.”
This can provide multiple benefits. “For charities, it can increase their number of volunteers and increase donations and help them be a bit more focused in making sure they’re structured in a way that delivers what they set out to achieve,” said Geoff. “With the public sector we tend to focus more on the commercial aspects, so looking at how you can take a more commercial approach to some of the services that you provide, which would end up in either cost savings or income generation.
“We’ll work with public sector organisations to just look at different approaches that could be valuable to them. We’ll look at their operating capacity and their staffing, pay systems that they have in place and whether they can be updated.
“I’m looking to help other organisations engage with their clients. I’ve always been very keen to partner with those organisations and use the skills that I have to help them achieve their goals. I enjoy being part of their teams. I also enjoy the client-facing part. My skills live very much in bridging the gap between a strategic plan and actual delivery on the ground.
“I really try to help people simplify things and be very straightforward. It’s that movement from strategic to operational which is really at the core of what I offer.”