Colin Whitehead
MANAGING PARTNER
My Timeline
I have had an interesting life journey to say the least and here is what I call my time line,
Educated in British Overseas Military Schools in Cyprus and Malta.
1967 - 1977
Evacuated from Cyprus when the Turkish Military invaded.
1974
Joined the British Military at 17.
1978
Moved to Asia in 1989. Head of Dresser Industries Asia Pac (Halliburton).
Negotiated the “first” Oil and Gas majority foreign owned JV in China in 1994.
1989 - 1997
Management Consultant in China restructuring JV’s primarily.
1997 - 2002
Co-founder and CEO of Rentwise.
2002 - 2010
Macquarie Bank Head of SE Asia (SAF).
During this period, I also qualified as a Vistage coach (the worlds largest CEO Network – www.vistage.com and chaired a group)
2010 - 2022
Business – Life coach and mentor. One to one coaching and customized corporate training focused on peak performance selling, business alignment and growth.
2022 Onwards
Biography
After leaving a long term planned military career due to injury, I had to quickly direct what continues to this day to be a high level of energy in a new direction. Highlights of my professional career include, General management, business turnarounds and sustainable re-structuring. During my time as the Regional Manager for Dresser Industries (now Halliburton) from 1990 until 1997 I was overseeing operations in fourteen countries spreading geographically from India to Japan to New Zealand. A highlight of this role was in 1994 negotiating and executing operations for the first foreign majority owned Oil and Gas Joint venture in China during the period before full foreign ownership was allowed. This successful JV is still in operation to this day.
In 1997 I became a management consultant working on business turn arounds in China and primarily for venture capital invested companies. In 2002 I co-founded and became the CEO of Rentwise a position I held until I transitioned co-founder Leanne Ooi into the CEO role a position she still holds. In 2004 I was able to give the initial VC an attractive exit by gaining significant funding from the UK billionaire John Madejski (ReadingFC / Motortrader etc). This has allowed Rentwise to become arguably SE Asia’s fastest growing privately owned technology rental company.From 2010 until 2022 (with an 18 month break in 2015) I was the Country then SE Head for Macquarie Banks Specialised and Asset finance division building a significant business in a short period of time. I also operated as a Vistage Chair. Vistage is the World’s Largest CEO network organisation and provides professionally facilitated, private advisory groups for CEO’s, executives and business owners. Each group is facilitated by a Chair that oversees a peer group of up to 16 CEO’s and Business Leaders. www.vistage.com
I have always been fascinated by motivation and what specifically motivates Individuals to set and achieve goals (myself included). Aside from my professional life I am a lifelong martial artist and practice on a daily basis. In the late 1970’s and 80’s I competed internationally in full contact tournaments. (My background is as a Goju Ryu Karate and Military Krav Maga Instructor). Additionally I have Diplomas in Sports Psychology, Neuro linguistic Psychology (Masters) and during the Covid Pandemic I took the time to complete two further diplomas with the National Academy of Sports Medicine in corrective exercise and senior fitness.
Since October 2022 I have been focused on building mine and my wife’s coaching and training business. My style of coaching I believe is somewhat unique given my unusual background. Our corporate training programmes are AppliedNLP based and delivered using our three decades of personal experience. We live and work between our Mediterranean home in Cyprus and Kuala Lumpur. ‘These programmes have been delivered over the past 15 years to multiple companies in Asia and include F500 companies such as Macquarie Bank, Cisco, AVON, Zuellig Pharma, CSC and local entities such as InvestKL, Sunway, Rentwise, CSI ETC.
Speciality
Maximising Performance
Business Experience
35 Years
What Our Clients Say
He is a detail oriented person who is a very strong communicator and leader.
In addition to his Malaysian responsibilities Colin also facilitated regional Sales training which proved to be very successful with a culturally diverse group.
Colm O'Flaherty
Niall Morrissey
I have had many years of AppliedNLP™ training during my years working for and with Colin. I have also attended AppliedNLP™ training conducted by Manjeet, whom I have found to be one of the best NLP trainers I have trained with.
Colin and Manjeet are now conducting joint training using AppliedNLP™ in all areas of business. Rentwise continues to engage with them and unlike many training programmes where the trainers have little business experience, they both are two phenomenally experienced business professionals having worked in top management roles in leading businesses. Manjeet and Colin jointly delivering AppliedNLP™ training is an incredible differentiator and value add. They bring with them a wealth of experience and will change the way your organization thinks, communicates and delivers results.