Our History
Forbes Mackenzie was established in 1993 to initially provide international business consultancy to the financial services market. Offering a very high standard of personal expertise and focusing on technology and process engineering, we delivered quantifiable benefits, on time and in budget.
Developing with the market needs over the years, we have incorporated further service areas. We believe that our small, flexible and personal management consultancy can deliver very high levels of service to the SME, Corporate and Government markets in our chosen areas of expertise in the UK and Spain.
Forbes Mackenzie will always provide top level service and value for money.
Our Founders
Peter Russell is an international business and information technology & computing professional with over 25 years experience as a management consultant to Government, Multinational Financial Services corporations, Telecommunications companies and SME's. The founding partner in Forbes Mackenzie, he is based in the UK and primarily provides programme and change management support to the international financial services marketplace, and increasingly interim management services to UK and Spanish small and medium sized enterprises.
Peter has worked for major corporations in the UK, Spain, Italy, Germany, South Africa and the Far East. In the USA, as General Manager of the European operation of Science Management Corporation, he was responsible for the 400% growth in sales which contributed 30% to the American listed company's bottom line profits.
Peter has experience of all aspects of technology start-up companies, from funding, establishment, management and merger & acquisitions. For example, he was two years at Intelligence (UK) from its inception, in the marketing and sales of micro based Decision Support software, including the establishment of the American representative office. He founded FiDES Software Limited in 1987 and spent 7 years as Managing Director, controlling the development and marketing of personal financial planning software in the UK and selling product and services to the major independent financial advisers and to life insurance companies' direct and tied sales outlets (Fides was later acquired by a major UK insurance composite).
Peter has successfully concluded a number of major contracts specialising in business analysis, process change and IT management, conducting business plans, reviews and major project implementations in Ireland, Poland, France, Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Austria, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain and Italy. With expertise in the practical delivery of business services throughout Europe, he was deeply involved in the development of all areas of call-centre installation and operations, Internet insurance services and company restructuring at executive level.
An example of his work as an Interim Manager is his role in Italy as an integral part of the team involved with the implementation of all aspects of a business recovery plan for a major Italian Composite Insurer. From an initial loss of £46m for 1997, the company went into profit in March 2000 for the first time in ten years (improving the underwriting result by £21m during the 12 months of 1999 on premiums of £173m). In addition to his role as Board Level business consultant he had direct line management and budget responsibility for all aspects of information technology services and all company business processes.
Beatrice Dittrich is an international marketing professional with over 15 years experience in marketing, communication and business development ranging from multinational environments to SME's. As founding partner in Forbes Mackenzie and based in Madrid she primarily supports companies in the Spanish market to refocus and sharpen the way they portray themselves to the market, creating a clear and differentiated marketing and communication approach to attract and retain clients. "In a nutshell I help businesses to create a face, a voice and a strategic direction, sending out a unique and differentiated message which will positively influence how the market perceives them and at the same time clearly setting them apart from the competition."
Prior to forming part of Forbes Mackenzie Beatrice gained extensive experience in the areas of corporate marketing, communication and business development in multinational corporations including Amadeus IT Group, Emap, Mars and Jacobs Suchard based in Spain, UK and Germany. She is also the founder of The Mood Food Company, a specialist corporate catering service based solely on organic products.
She recently created a series of business speednetworking initiatives – SpeedNetworker - aiming to provide participating companies with a platform to develop qualified business contacts.
Beatrice holds an Executive MBA from the Instituto de Empresa (Madrid), a BA Hons from London Metropolitan University and Master’s Degree (Diplom-Kauffrau) from Hochschule Bremen in Germany. She is an active member of the European Professional Women’s Network (EPWN) in Madrid.