My friend Rosie Wyatt, who has died aged 67 of cancer, began her career teaching English in Germany and went on to become a founding director of VIA International management consultancy in 1989. She was a pioneer of flexible working.
Her career as a management consultant was global, taking her to India, Spain and frequently the US, among other countries. While at Arthur Andersen, which she joined in 1986 as a change manager, she advocated part-time working, and at VIA she created an environment that promoted a healthy work-life balance, before the term had really been invented. She implemented open communication, all-round feedback, transparent pay, flexible hours, working from home, and longer maternity leave.
Rosie was born in Yeovil, Somerset, one of four children of Rowena (nee Bedford), a farmer’s daughter and full-time mother, and David Wyatt, a bank manager for Lloyds. She grew up in Exeter, where she went to Bishop Blackall school for girls and Exeter college for sixth form. Following her degree in German at University College London, she taught English as a foreign language in a language school in Trier, Germany, where she went on to become head of the English department.
After returning to the UK in 1979 she did a PGCE at the Institute of Education in London, and went on to teach French and German at an inner city comprehensive, Woodside school in Plaistow, east London, before leaving teaching for management consultancy. She retired from VIA in 2016.
Rosie and I met in 1980 through a mutual friend and ended up living 10 doors apart with our respective husbands in Telegraph Hill, south-east London, where our children grew up together. Rosie believed in the power of working together for the common good. She volunteered as a school governor at the local primary and secondary schools and as box office manager for the Telegraph Hill arts festival. In 2020 she also helped set up Hatcham House, a co-working space in New Cross Gate, which supported the community through Covid-19 and beyond.
The essence of Rosie was her interest in others, and her innate empathy, energy and warmth drew people to her. She was also a wonderful mentor to many, making time to share her wisdom, or to problem solve with a smile. Whatever she turned her hand to she reassured and encouraged people, never patronised and always listened. She was able to see the world through other people’s eyes.
Rosie instigated a local walking group in 2000; her last walk was in June 2021. Even then, the rest of the group could not keep up with her. She also loved music and singing and was an active member of the Lewisham Choral Society, performing at the Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall.
Rosie described people as being “radiators” – exuding interest and warmth – and she certainly did. She had breast cancer on and off for 28 years. She is survived by her husband Alex Brewood, whom she met in 1983 and married in 2012, and their daughters, Siobhan and Katherine. Her first grandchild is due in August.
