Jonathan Cook

African Management Initiative

Jonathan Cook has over 25 years experience in management education, facilitation, coaching and consulting. Prior to founding the African Management Initiative, Jonathan spent almost 10 years at GIBS, one of Africa’s leading Business Schools, where he served at various times as a senior lecturer, the Director of Executive Education, Academic Director, Executive Director and finally Director of the Business School until December 2013. He developed a faculty development programme (‘Teaching the Practice of Management’) which was rolled out to top business schools across Africa, and chaired the African Association of Business Schools (AABS), leading activities dealing with faculty member training and Dean/Director development.

Before that, he’d spent 14 years as a faculty member at Wits Business School, where he founded the Management Development Unit and later became Director of Academic Programmes. A qualified counselling psychologist, Jonathan also spent 10 years with the National Institute for Personnel Research in Johannesburg, finally as Head of Assessment and Counselling. Jonathan continues to teach part time at GIBS in the areas of leadership and personal development, and is chief consultant of Thornhill Associates, where he advises companies in developing and implementing leadership development processes using customised 360-degree questionnaires.