Bob Lewis is the company's Chief Operating Officer and he is also acting as Managing Director of the European Affairs and Association Management practices. He has extensive experience managing operations within both services and product environments in high growth as well as re-focus/turnaround situations.

Prior to joining Interel in 2007 he held the position of European Vice President & General Manager for Global Knowledge a US based provider of training, enterprise learning services, and software solutions for information technology and management professionals. With 212 staff and operations in 10 countries, he managed the business through a period of significant operational improvement and organic revenue growth before more than doubling the size of the business (to 460 staff, 12 countries, $100m revenue) through the acquisition of its largest competitor.
 

Prior to that as Director of Organisational Effectiveness at Energis Communications, Bob led various company wide business improvement initiatives as part of a 2 year turnaround plan during which the business recorded its first operating profit following record losses.

Formerly a member of the Cable Communications Association executive management team with oversight of a £1.2bn annual infrastructure investment program and a significant telecoms and broadcast policy agenda across a very fragmented UK cable industry, Bob also spent 6 years at Cisco Systems where he created and led a unit working with governments and alliance partners across Europe; Middle East and Africa establishing Cisco’s position as a global leader and innovator in enterprise e-learning and partner of choice to the Public Sector. He built and directed the largest public/private education partnership in that region with operations in 14 countries and engagements with 3,500 partners across 102 countries and later worked with McKinsey as part of the European leadership team charged with establishing an integrated Public Sector vertical business organisation which in its first year became the fastest growing vertical segment achieving revenues of $865m. He was a founder member of the European Corporate Responsibility Strategy Board.

Outside of his business commitments Bob is a member of the Open University Governing Council where he also chairs the Occupational Standards Board and sits on the Open University Business School Advisory Board. He has also contributed to a range of other national and international advisory groups including the Africa Policy Advisory Group at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, the New Deal Advisory Group at the Treasury Office, both for the UK government, and chaired the 1st European E-Skills Summit at the invitation of the European Commission in conjunction with the Danish Presidency.

Bob, who began his career in financial administration at Mercedes Benz (UK) Ltd in 1979 before a five year spell in the teaching profession, has degrees in theology, philosophy & ethics.