Anne Jolly was Head Girl at Blackheath, and then worked as a temporary secretary for a year, before reading Chemistry at Manchester University. A successful career in the healthcare industry spanned medical information management, market research, and the planning of future company prescription medicines.  In 1990, she was appointed Director of Strategic Planning at Glaxo Pharmaceuticals, responsible for five departments, design and facilitation of the five year planning process for the Board, and running learning events for the top 200 managers.  She was also a member of the group that recruited and oversaw the training of new graduates, mentored several such new staff, and undertook training to run staff assessment centres.                                                                               

In 1995, Anne founded her own company, Signals Consultancy, which undertakes strategic planning, research and workshop design, specialising in long range planning and market and policy research.  She has a wide range of clients, particularly those who are science-based, and is on the faculty of the Strategic Planning Society, the leading UK forum for strategic thinking and foresight, for whom she recently designed a full professional development programme.  She has helped many organisations involve staff in devising and implementing long term plans, especially at times of change, and has developed marketing plans for healthcare and other products and services.

Anne also spent many years as an Associate Lecturer for the Open University, most recently teaching the Business School MBA elective programme, specialising in scenario planning and marketing.  She has advised hundreds of students as they address key issues in their organisations across public, private and voluntary sectors. 

She has been the course director for all eleven GDST Head Girls’ Conferences and responsible for material creation and mentor training at the GDST / HSBC Summer Schools.  The experiences of running focus groups, designing and facilitating workshops, teaching and mentoring have all contributed to a strong interest in group behaviour and learning and confidence building in such settings.