About Us
Where it all began
Nexus was created In 2016 by John Williams and 10 members of his Chief Executive peer-to-peer business group. But the origins of the organisation go back some 45 years.
John’s experiences as a senior executive and business consultant played a key role in developing the Nexus ethos, as he discovered over the years that whatever the company, and whatever the challenge, it was the development of people that truly held the key to success.
John’s own career flourished as senior executive with Alcan, a global mining and aluminium manufacturing company where he worked for over 30 years. Working for such an organisation John had to be focused on producing outstanding results, yet his passion was the development of his employees – from his senior leadership team through to new entrants who had the drive and ambition to succeed.
John decided to leave Alcan in 1996 to become a consultant, however he soon realised that his strength lied in coaching and mentoring driven by his natural inclusive and inquisitive style. During his time in Alcan he’d always appreciated the power of the peer group so in 2000 he joined Vistage, a global organisation, as a business group chair and coach.
John was a natural fit, and he quickly started running multiple groups through the East Midlands winning frequent awards, specifically Best Practice Chair for three years. However, he wasn’t enjoying working for a global organisation again, especially the conflict of making money for the organisation yet creating value for his members. For this reason John decided to retire in 2016 but his loyal members had other ideas. They needed him to stay as their coach! They resigned from Vistage en-masse and persuaded John to start his own model of leadership development which became Nexus. That same group of 10 business leaders are still together now, along with another 30 members who form other Nexus Chief Executive groups, plus development groups such as Aspire and Gateway.
Nexus continues to grow and is now the leading peer-to-peer business group organisation in the East Midlands.
With new outstanding chairs, coaches, and speakers, we continue to offer exceptional value and commitment to our members. As we are a non-profit organisation and all coach and speaker fees are visible, all profits are passed back to the members to make sure they get the lowest possible fees.
This means our prices are usually half of that of our like for like competitors – but the service and value we give our members remains outstanding.
John’s ethos has always been EXCEPTIONAL VALUE for members. His legacy will continue long into the future through Nexus and its members, and the coaches and chairs who have followed in John’s footsteps.