Mike Hartley-Brewer

Mike Hartley-Brewer is an internationally recognised authority on the theory and practice of negotiation. The firm he established, Hartley-Brewer Negotiation Consultants (HBNC), was widely regarded as the pre-eminent provider of both negotiation skills training and advice on planning and conducting high value negotiations.

In 2010 Mike retired from tutoring training courses and licensed the name ‘Hartley-Brewer Negotiation Consultants’ and his copyright materials to another firm. That licence expires in October 2015, when the rights will return to him and his old firm will combine with The Negotiation Skills Group Ltd.

Meanwhile, having lost all confidence in the licencee of his old business, Mike is now working exclusively with The Negotiation Skills Group to assist them in providing services of the high standard that used to be offered by HBNC. Although he no longer conducts training courses himself, Mike personally trained and mentored the Negotiation Skills Group’s consulting team, 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.

Stephen Hartley-Brewer

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.

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.

After graduating with a First in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Magdalen College, Oxford, Stephen joined Boston Consulting Group, one of the world’s top consulting houses, 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 specializing 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 Lazar had wide experience of international negotiations in the pharmaceutical, cosmetics and retail sectors before becoming a negotiation skills trainer. She was a tutor with Hartley-Brewer Negotiation Consultants for thirteen years until she joined The Negotiation Skills Group in 2014.

She has run numerous high level negotiation skills courses for clients ranging from investment banks and private equity houses through major 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 captain of the Romanian national basketball team, 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.