CERT INDIA - Key Persons

Dr Meredith Belbin originally identified the Team Roles as part of a unique study of teams that took place at Henley Business School which included a business simulation game. In 1969, Dr Belbin was invited to use this business game as a starting point for a study of team behaviour. Education Meredith Belbin was thirteen years of age when the Second World War broke out. Living in an area that became known as "Bomb" Alley in Sevenoaks, Meredith refused to be evacuated with his mother and sisters, preferring to continue with his education at the Royal Grammar School in High Wycombe, where he was already receiving glowing reports from the headmaster. Meredith suggests that the theme of playing to one's strengths and managing weaknesses came to the fore even at this early age, with his poor performance in Mathematics being mitigated by excellence in Latin. Meredith Belbin explains how his Team Role theory has stood the test of time and has expanded across the globe. Download the full interview in pdf here

Job Titles:

• Director at the Industrial Training Research Unit

Eunice Belbin was working as a director at the Industrial Training Research Unit (ITRU), a government-funded body set up as a result of the Industrial Training Act. Meredith combined his work at Cranfield with consultancy for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). This took him all over the world wherever the question of older people in industry arose. In the USA, he worked with the US Department of Labor, integrating underprivileged members of the community whose talents would otherwise have gone to waste. Meredith found that many suffered from low self-esteem but, once they found a niche, derived great satisfaction from making contribution at work. He persuaded companies to take on individuals for free "work experience", pioneering a concept which is now commonplace. Once firms found a good worker, it was an easy next step to paid work.