Toby Thompson

Biography

As a member of the Centre for Customised Executive Development (CCED) Toby consults with CCED’s clients on designing and implementing appropriate networked learning interventions that suit our clients’ contexts. As the name suggests, he uses a variety of technology in networked learning to link executives with world-class management thinking, with customised learning resources, with each other and each other’s expertise. Toby's is currently running a pilot project on providing an enhanced live online teaching facility for CCED. Prior to joining Cranfield, Toby was a member of the global training strategy team for the corporate university of the former US-based Electronic Data Systems (EDS) Corporation. Toby has a PhD in the philosophy of executive education from University College London's Institute of Education. His thesis will be published in book form with Routledge in 2017. His interest is in how time and temporality are conceived in executive education and development practices. Toby has an MA in management learning from Lancaster University, and a BA in philosophy from York University. Prior to joining EDS, Toby was a Zen Buddhist monk at Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey in Northumberland, UK. The Zen monastery follows the Soto Zen tradition in which Toby spent 6 years as a monk. Toby exploits these Zen Buddhist-inspired synergies in working with organisations to encourage the release of their true human potential. Prior to his time as a monk Toby was a farm labourer.

Research Interest

Toby's current research activities centre around a philosophical evaluation of what constitutes 'executive education' - e.g. operating from under what he calls the 'order-execution' cognate. His particular interest is in applying the philosophy of Martin Heidegger's notions of being and time to existential reflections for senior corporate executives, whose late career stage precipitates philosophical examination.