BUILD THE CAPABILITY TO DELIVER CHANGE

Maria provides change management services that equip leaders and teams to own delivery in their part of the business, surface issues early and reduce reliance on a central programme team. Her military experience shaped an approach that builds capability before pressure rises.

Impact

$2BN MERGER

Supported executive integration during Virgin Mobile UK's merger, protecting the Virgin culture.

17% adoption in year one

Exceeded Deloitte's 10% benchmark for an inclusion-led Ways of Working tool.

27,000+ Employees

Led Deloitte UK’s culture plan across five businesses, enabling business-led delivery from FY26.

99% PARTICIPATION

Achieved across 23 regions in Virgin Mobile India's first national engagement survey.

NEW-STARTER NPS: +20 TO +80

Designed, facilitated and scaled Vodafone Group’s first global induction programme.

Military Commendation

Led national community police training on deployment, rebuilding trust between Iraqi Police and local communities.

SOLDIER OF THE YEAR

Established critical communications during annual operations, later admitted to the Freedom of the City of London.

BRITISH FORCES IN BUSINESS FINALIST 2026

Recognised as an Outstanding Achiever for translating military leadership into people and culture transformation.

THREE WAYS TO WORK TOGETHER

Service 01

INTERIM PEOPLE & CULTURE TRANSFORMATION LEADERSHIP

Embedded Transformation Leadership | 3–6 months

Maria clarifies decision ownership, translates the change into practical leadership expectations and builds the capability for the business to lead delivery.

Impact: Clear accountability, decisions made at the right level and ownership transferred from the central programme team into the business.

Discuss an Engagement

Maria James, People & Culture Transformation Leader

WHAT LEADERS SAY ABOUT WORKING WITH MARIA "Maria has a unique ability to engage senior leaders and drive behaviour change across complex organisations. Her influence cuts across levels and supports meaningful transformation."

DELOITTE MIDDLE EAST | ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, ENTERPRISE TRANSFORMATION

Maria James serving with the Royal Military Police

Service 02

BEHAVIOUR UNDER PRESSURE LAB

Leadership Simulation Lab

For: Senior leadership teams preparing for transformation, restructuring, merger integration or rapid growth.

Maria uses current business dilemmas and simulated pressure to expose behaviours that delay decisions, discourage challenge or weaken trust.

Impact: Leaders agree and rehearse how they will respond before those behaviours disrupt delivery.

Book a Lab

WHAT LEADERS SAY ABOUT WORKING WITH MARIA Maria excels at transforming concepts into tangible action. She designed and implemented a firmwide toolkit that translated shared values into behaviours people could apply.

DELOITTE UK | DIRECTOR OF TRANSFORMATION

Service 03

LEADERSHIP UNDER PRESSURE

For: Leadership and HR conferences, early careers and women in leadership events.

Through the frontline story behind The Doughnut Principle™ | The Trust Loop, Maria shows how behaviour under pressure shapes trust, judgement and reputation.

Impact: A practical model for recognising pressure behaviours and earning, protecting or rebuilding trust when scrutiny is high.

Explore the Keynote

Maria James speaking at the MAD World Leaders’ Summit

THE DOUGHNUT PRINCIPLE™ | THE TRUST LOOP

The Doughnut Principle™ is a practical leadership model for the moments when trust is tested.

It shows leaders how to build trust before pressure rises, protect it while decisions are difficult and rebuild it when confidence has been damaged.

EARN TRUST BEFORE PRESSURE RISES

Build credibility through honest communication, reliable behaviour and relationships that make challenge possible.

PROTECT TRUST DURING DISRUPTION

Stay visible, own difficult decisions, communicate consistently and act in the interests of the whole organisation.

REBUILD TRUST WHEN BROKEN

Acknowledge what happened, change the behaviour and show people they can trust again.

Frequently Asked questions

Usage is not adoption. You know a change has been adopted when people consistently use the new way of working without relying on the programme team to keep driving it. This can be seen through usage data, employee feedback, behaviour change and whether ownership has moved into the business. At Deloitte UK, Maria led the design and embedding of a digital Ways of Working tool that achieved 17% adoption in year one across five businesses, against a 10% internal benchmark.

Maria has led People & Culture transformation at scale across large organisations, start-ups and international environments. At Deloitte UK, she led a high-performing culture programme across 27,000 employees. At Virgin Mobile India, where she lived and worked, she helped build the culture and employee experience across 23 regions and 3,000 employees, including the EVP, values, reward and recognition, and employee experience journey.

Organisations typically bring in an Interim People & Culture Transformation Leader when they need experienced capability quickly during transformation, restructuring, merger integration, scale-up or significant change. This is often because there is a capability gap, specialist expertise is needed for a defined period, or delivery needs to accelerate. Maria James works with senior leaders to establish ownership, align leadership behaviour and drive adoption while building the capability for teams to lead the change within the business.

Leadership behaviour can be assessed by defining the behaviours needed during transformation and testing how leaders respond when judgement, ownership and communication are under pressure. Structured simulations can reveal patterns in decision-making, challenge and accountability, while 360 feedback and employee insight can show how those behaviours are experienced in day-to-day work.

Maria James’s Behaviour Under Pressure Lab applies this approach to current business dilemmas and is co-facilitated with a former Army Major, bringing together corporate and military experience of leadership under pressure.

The stakes are different, but the behavioural principle carries across both: people respond to what leaders do, not what they intended to do, and those behaviours spread through teams.

Transformation often struggles when the strategy is clear but the change has not been translated into day-to-day behaviour. Ownership becomes blurred, leaders send mixed signals, decisions are revisited and people interpret the change differently across the organisation. Progress may continue, but adoption slows and delivery remains dependent on the central programme team. Maria James focuses on making clear what is changing, who owns what and how people need to work, so the organisation builds the capability to lead the change itself.