Colin Nicklas

Colin Nicklas is a dynamic senior consultant, executive coach and interim leader with over 35 years of experience delivering complex change in high-stakes environments. His career spans strategic advisory roles at the heart of central government, operational leadership across global industries, and over a decade of senior consulting independently and at PA Consulting. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and a Level 7 qualified Executive Coach accredited by the ICF, EMCC and AC.
Colin spent 24 years as a Royal Navy Engineer Officer, serving globally and culminating in two significant leadership roles. As Director of the Royal Naval Leadership Academy, he built the institution from the ground up, establishing strategic policy for leadership and coaching development across the entire Service. He then moved to MOD Whitehall as Strategic Military Plans Lead within International Policy and Planning, chairing cross-government planning groups and developing crisis and contingency plans, including the UK response to the Arab Awakening, with recommendations reaching the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
At PA Consulting (2019–2025), Colin led People and Change workstreams across Defence, Transport, Energy, and the wider Public Sector. He jointly led the Leadership, Culture and Behaviours workstream of Scottish Water’s SR27 programme, a transformation to deliver £5–9Bn of capital investment through an enterprise model, developing a new behavioural framework and supporting the ITN process for Enterprise partners. He led the Business Change effort for NRS Dounreay’s Fit for Future transformation as the site transitioned to Nuclear Restoration Services, building an enduring change capability within the client. For Puma Energy, he designed and delivered a global induction, learning and career pathways framework for over 7,600 staff across 47 countries.
His transport credentials are broad and practical. For Network Rail, he led a Training Needs Analysis for the Engineering Asset Management function, a Change Impact Assessment and competence strategy for a new safety-critical rail competence, and a performance improvement review within Supply Chain Operations, each generating follow-on work. For CalMac Ferries, he led a vessel maintenance procurement from business case to contract award. He has also delivered large-scale maritime leadership development aboard a Royal Caribbean vessel, responsible for the professional development of 1,200 international crew in a demanding, safety-critical environment.
Between 2012 and 2018, Colin worked as an offshore performance improvement consultant, deployed as servant leader to crews of up to 190 across deepwater and jack-up rigs in West Africa, Malaysia and the North Sea. Applying systems thinking and embedded coaching, he led a programme that saved his client $250 million over three years, an experience that sharpened his instinct for operational improvement in regulated, safety-critical environments and directly informs his consulting approach today.
Alongside his consulting career, Colin has built a parallel practice in coaching and leadership development. He qualified as an executive coach in 2009 and has since designed and delivered programmes ranging from a university-accredited Coach Development programme to bespoke leadership interventions for the NHS, local government, and commercial clients. He ran his own consultancy, 28Quest, for eight years, supporting organisations across oil and gas, tourism and hospitality, and the charity sector. He returned to independent practice in 2025, and volunteered as a boxing coach in his hometown, a reminder that his coaching skills remain sharp and grounded in real performance environments.