Nineteen people, one Edinburgh office
Founded in 2014 on the argument that most leadership development was being evaluated on how much people enjoyed it, which is not the same as whether it worked.
Enjoyment is not evidence
Aileen Struthers spent fifteen years as an in-house organisational psychologist watching leadership programmes score highly on end-of-course evaluation and change nothing that could be observed six months later. The evaluation was measuring satisfaction because satisfaction is easy to measure.
Redwood was founded in 2014 to do the harder version: baseline before, repeat after, on the same instrument, and publish the result including the participants who got worse.
We are nineteen now — four organisational psychologists, eleven accredited coaches, a statistician, two programme managers and an office that runs on a Georgian first floor in Rutland Square with a lift that is slower than the stairs.
We have deliberately not opened a second office. At this size everyone knows whose work is in front of a client, and the quality control is that people can see each other’s drafts.
- 2014
- Founded in Edinburgh
- 19
- Practitioners, all accredited
- 1 in 5
- Chemistry pairs that do not proceed
- 4
- Engagements declined in 2025
Who you will actually work with
The person who sells you the work is the person who delivers it. We do not run a separate business development team, which is a deliberate constraint on how fast we can grow.
Dr Aileen Struthers
Founder and director
Organisational psychologist, BPS chartered. Fifteen years in-house before founding the practice in 2014, on the argument that most leadership development was being evaluated on how much people enjoyed it.
Callum Ballantyne
Head of programmes
Designs the cohort work and holds the line on manager contracting. Previously ran learning and development for a Scottish retailer of 4,000 people, where he watched three programmes revert.
Priya Ramaswamy
Head of coaching
EMCC Master Practitioner, supervises six of our eleven coaches. Runs the chemistry matching, and is the person who tells clients when we are not the right fit.
Fraser Dunlop
Head of diagnostics
Statistician by training. Builds the measurement, runs the 360s, and is the reason our closing reports include the participants who got worse.
The unglamorous paragraph
All eleven coaches hold an EMCC or ICF accreditation at Senior Practitioner level or above, and all are in supervision at least monthly. We will tell you your coach’s supervision arrangement if you ask.
The four psychologists are BPS chartered and registered with the HCPC. Test administration is at BPS Test User level for both ability and personality instruments.
Coaching content is confidential without exception. Three-way reviews with a line manager cover direction and progress only, and we say that to the manager in front of the coachee at the outset so nobody is unclear about it later.
We carry professional indemnity cover and we will send the certificate with a proposal rather than waiting to be asked for it in procurement.
Start with the diagnostic, not the programme
Six weeks of interviews and a baseline measure, and a written finding — including the finding that the problem is structural and a development programme will not touch it. We have delivered that one twice.