Jack Martin Leith leading a workshop at European Sharing on Systems Thinking, Prague, Czech Republic, June 2015

Jack Martin Leith is a now-to-new exponent living in the west of England.

Now-to-new is a term he originated to signify a shift from the present situation to what is needed instead, such that maximum downstream value is generated. The six main types of now‑to‑new work are creating, changing, problem solving, surmounting, developing, and utilising.

Examples: ICI Melinex, Dogs Trust, McCain Foods, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Environment Agency, Petroleum Development Oman.

Jack grew up in an east London funeral parlour and left school when he turned 16, embarking on a succession of jobs in music publishing, fashion, retail and advertising before establishing Leith & Price, a company that helped advertising agencies and media owners pinpoint new business prospects and communicate with them effectively.

After taking an extended sabbatical to recover from a life-threatening health issue, he founded a series of consulting practices that advanced a collaborative approach to complex problem solving, breakthrough innovation and whole system change, and grew an extensive client list that included ABN Amro Bank, Capita Symonds, Department of Health, European Commission, GlaxoSmithKline, Home Office, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, NHS, PricewaterhouseCooopers, Royal Dutch Shell, and WH Smith.

He was instrumental in bringing Open Space Technology, a participant-driven conference method, to the UK after experiencing it for the first time in 1988 at an international conference on organisation transformation. During the following decade, he was the co-convenor of three organisation transformation conferences held in various parts of Europe, all of which used the Open Space method.

Jack has been a prolific writer on management and organisational topics, and has led workshops at London Business School, University of Brighton, London School of Economics, Roffey Park Institute, Hult Ashridge and many other establishments.

A lifelong inventor and a seasoned entrepreneur, his latest venture is Reopen, a database of UK rail reopening schemes that he plans to complete by the end of March 2021.

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You can follow Jack on Twitter: @JackAtReopen.