About
Tiffany brings a unique perspective to business, pulling together technical, delivery, sales and legal concepts in a way that helps each individual in her audience build more constructive commercial and personal relationships.
Her personal journey started as an electronics engineer in the late 1980s, developing military radio for the British firm, Racal (now part of Thales). As the only woman in the building who was neither a dinner lady nor a secretary, Tiffany quickly developed her own approach to resilience and relationship building.
“Today’s young women have many of the same challenges that we encountered back in the ’80s and ’90s – things we thought would be old-news by the 21st Century!” she says. “But on top of the innate challenges of being female in the workplace, they share with their male colleagues the issues created by our ‘always-on’ business environment. Electronically mediated communications (email, text, chat and social media) bring opportunities to level the playing field. But they also create pressure and stress, as well as challenges in building the rapport and trust needed for negotiating lasting commercial relationships.”
Tiffany’s subsequent career managing software development and support teams, put her at the sharp-end of delivering against poorly drafted and negotiated contracts. This experience made her determined to transform the contracting process into something that adds value rather than getting in the way of the business. Moving into sales was the trigger for her interest in understanding contract law.
“As a sales professional negotiating contracts, I was like most business negotiators – making it up as I was going along!” Tiffany confesses. “Taking a Masters in Business Law gave me the opportunity to put some legal rigor into my contract negotiations, but my previous business experiences helped me to keep my feet on the ground and not lose sight of the commercial realities.”
I’ve had the pleasure of speaking internationally as well as in the UK and would be delighted to speak at your event wherever in the world you are. Get in touch to chat.
Devant Limited, the commercial contract consultancy she founded in 2003 to deliver commercial contract drafting, review and negotiation support, provides her with plenty of hands-on experience to draw upon. Her experience of negotiating many hundreds of successful deals (and some unsuccessful ones!) continues to give her a huge store of anecdotes and case studies that illuminate her speaking and writing, providing valuable ‘hooks’ for audiences to relate complex contractual concepts to their own business experience.
Through speaking to corporate leaders, commercial professionals, sales teams, executive groups, entrepreneurs and students in England, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Finland (the home of the Proactive Law movement), the USA and the Asia Pacific region, Tiffany has transformed opinions and perspectives with humour, energy and infectious enthusiasm.
Accredited as a commercial contracting trainer by the International Association for Contract and Commercial Management (IACCM) and the global training certification body, APMG, she is a recognized expert on the effective use of commercial contracts to achieve desired business outcomes.
Tiffany is regularly asked to contribute to expert panels for World Commerce and Contracting (formerly the IACCM), and has written for many publications including Professional Outsourcing Magazine and Contracting Excellence. She is the author of ‘Deal Makers – how intelligent use of contracts can help you sell more and deliver better’ and ‘Essentials of Contract Drafting’, both available on Amazon and at all good bookstores. Tiffany is also a contributing editor of ‘Contract and Commercial Management – an operational guide’, published by the IACCM. She is a Fellow of the Professional Speaking Association of UK & Ireland, and was honoured to be elected as their National President.
Tiffany is the author of ‘Deal Makers – how intelligent use of contracts can help you sell more and deliver better’ and ‘Essentials of Contract Drafting’, both available online here and at all good bookstores.