Jon Burns

e: jburns@springfield centre.com

t: +44 (0)773 460 1669

Languages: English (Fluent), Italian (Basic), Hungarian (Basic), French (Basic) and Twi (Basic)

Focus Areas:

organisation development, policy dialogue, trade competitiveness and promotion, private sector development, labour market reform, executive and team coaching and enterprise development policies and programmes

Field experience

ACP Regions, Angola, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia, Botswana, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Ghana, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, India, Indonesia, Italy, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo, Laos, Latvia, Lesotho, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malawi, Namibia, Nepal, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Rwanda Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Uganda, Ukraine, UK, USA, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Having played the saxophone on and off during his youth, Jon reacquainted himself with it on the beach in Accra and was further re-enthused when taking time out to get involved in the live jazz scene in Cape Town and Johannesburg. He still plays from time to time, but, wisely, not within public hearing! Such eclectic tastes were a far cry from his early career in property development in his home city of Manchester. But started to align more as he moved to Cincinnati, New York, and then Newcastle, where he was supporting the brand management of an incongruous mix of coffee and pampers. In 1986, he saw the light and soon found himself in Ghana as a volunteer working with Cocoa and Palm Oil farmers. Having truly caught the development bug, since 1989, he has been working with a wide range of organisations around the world, supporting the design, development and delivery of private sector development programmes. Over the last 29 years, Jon has lived in Hungary, Jordan, South Africa, Ghana and Tanzania. He has undertaken nearly 100 projects in more than 45 countries and he has been the director of several development consultancy and training organisations in the UK and in Africa.