Stephen Hartley-Brewer
Stephen runs Hartley-Brewer Negotiation Consultants and tutors many of our courses. His previous experience in consulting, private equity and hedge funds is particularly valued by clients in the financial sector and those involved in corporate finance transactions.
Stephen Hartley-Brewer worked extensively in the financial investment and consulting sectors before establishing The Negotiation Skills Group to provide high level negotiation skills training and advice on the planning and conduct of major negotiations.
In July 2015 his firm merged with Hartley-Brewer Negotiation Consultants and Stephen now runs the combined business.
A highly effective trainer and an experienced consultant, he also has strong financial knowledge and skills which are particularly useful when working with clients in the financial services sector.
Stephen has worked with clients in sectors ranging from investment banking and private equity to mezzanine finance, law firms and business services.
After graduating with a First in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Magdalen College, Oxford, he joined The Boston Consulting Group, one of the world’s top consulting firms, where he advised clients in sectors ranging from financial services to retail.
He then moved into finance. While working at blue-chip private equity and hedge funds including BC Partners and TPG-Axon, his negotiation experience covered advisory mandates, financial covenants, distressed debt restructurings, private equity investments, take-privates and litigation.
Having enjoyed negotiating far more than staring at stock prices on a Bloomberg screen or crunching numbers in a spreadsheet, he retired from the markets to establish his own firm specialising in high level negotiation skills development. In doing this he is drawing on a lifetime of lessons from watching and listening to his father Mike Hartley-Brewer who, until his retirement in 2010, was widely regarded as the world’s best trainer and consultant in the field of negotiation.
In his spare time Stephen enjoys playing in poker tournaments, scuba diving and skiing, and is an international level freediver.
Dr Gabriela Lazar
Gabriela is an experienced international negotiator. She joined the firm in 2001 after a career negotiating in the pharma, cosmetics and retail industries. An international sports star, she represented Romania at basketball. She has a PhD from the University of Paris.
Gabriela Lazar had wide experience of international negotiations in the pharmaceutical, cosmetics and retail sectors before becoming a negotiation skills trainer.
She joined Hartley-Brewer Negotiation Consultants in 2001 and has run numerous high level negotiation skills courses for clients ranging from investment banks and private equity houses through energy and logistics firms to retailers and pharma companies.
Born in Romania, she graduated in Pharmacy from the Bucharest Institute of Medicine & Pharmacy, having achieved the highest marks in the competitive entrance examination.
She was a member of the Romanian national basketball team, sometimes as the captain, and also won the national championship several times with her club team.
After the fall of the communist regime Gabriela left Romania and went to Paris, where she obtained a PhD with Written Congratulations of the Jury, winning a prize for the best PhD in Pharmacology. She worked in a pharmaceutical research laboratory in parallel with her studies, becoming Head of Skin Care Evaluation, and co-authored four international patents.
Gabriela then worked in the UK, Germany and France in international Business Development roles in the healthcare industry. She was involved in negotiating licensing agreements and acquisitions and disposals of companies and products internationally. She also successfully negotiated a number of complex distribution contracts while leading a team responsible for the integration across much of Europe of a major acquired product range.
Gabriela speaks fluent English, French and Romanian and has a working knowledge of German and Italian. She enjoys skiing, scuba diving, sailing and horse riding.
Mike Hartley-Brewer
Mike is the internationally recognised ‘guru’ who founded the firm in 1985. He has retired from conducting courses, but continues to advise clients on major negotiations and on how best to meet their negotiation training needs.
Mike Hartley-Brewer is an internationally recognised authority on the theory and practice of negotiation. The firm he established, Hartley-Brewer Negotiation Consultants (HBNC), is widely regarded as the preeminent provider of both negotiation skills training and advice on planning and conducting high value negotiations.
Although he no longer conducts training courses himself, Mike personally trained and mentored the HBNC consulting team.
He advises the firm’s clients on how best to meet their needs and is available on request to provide advice to clients on the conduct of important negotiations.
Mike graduated in behavioural sciences. He then worked as a journalist, a Political Adviser to the British Government, and a ‘trouble-shooter’ and head of training for an international oil trading company before setting up his specialist negotiation consultancy in 1985.
As the leading consultant in his field, Mike worked all over the world with blue chip companies in many sectors, in both training and consulting roles.
He has been profiled in several national newspapers and was the subject of a documentary on BBC Television.
Mike also taught negotiation skills at London Business School for MBA students, managers and entrepreneurs.
He enjoys sailing, scuba diving and playing poker.