Our History

Our story begins way back in 1991 on a picnic bench in Telopea Park, Canberra, Australia.

It was here that consulting company Callahan Fox & Associates was born. Our original founding partners, Shawn Callahan and Peter Fox would capture ideas about our new company over lunch. These all went into our 'black book,' which became our original business plan. The plan that began life in Canberra's summer was completed in the outer Hebridies, Scotland, in the northern summer of that year, which was noted for its particularly wet August. Following the creation of the partnership in 1991, Callahan Fox & Associates quickly developed into a specialist consulting firm, earning our reputation in the data and information management disciplines across the natural resources, energy and defence sectors.

 

Clients included: Australian Department of Defence (ADE), Australian Heritage Commission (AHC), Australian Bureau of Resource Sciences (ABRS), Energy Research and Development Corporation (ERDC), Australian Land Information Group (AusLIG), Australian Geological Survey Organisation (AGSO), Environment Australia (EA), National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS), Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), National Resource Information Centre (NRIC), Broken Hill Proprietary Ltd (now BHP Billiton Plc), Department of Minerals & Energy (DME). 

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Members of the Callahan Fox & Associates team in Canberra, 1994
(L-R = Brian, Graham, Shawn, Peter and Steven)

 

It was at this time that our leaf-tailed fox brand was created. It was also during this time that Peter and Shawn met Graham Morgan - a geographic information systems specialist from the UK. Graham began working with us in 1993 in Australia. Leap forward 32 years, and Peter and Graham are still happily working together on projects here in the UK and overseas!

 

As a subsidiary of the consulting firm, we established a publishing company, Beaten Track Press, which published natural history and national park guidebooks for Australian market. In the late '90's, Shawn and Peter amicably parted ways so that Peter could focus more on the publishing business, and Shawn on his passion for knowledge management. Shawn quickly bacame a specialist in his field, earning the role of Asia-Pacific KM leader for IBM. In the early 00's, Shawn left IBM and established the successful KM firm, Anecdote, of which he remains founding director to this day. Peter and Shawn remain close friends, and where the opportunity presents itself, have worked on projects together; for example, developing a strategic story for Shell Chemicals, under the Anecdote banner. We also apply many of Anecdote's excellent knowledge management and business story methods and tools in projects here in the UK. 

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​While Shawn focussed on developing his knowledge management and corporate storytelling practice, Peter and his wife Jo moved to the UK in 2002, settling in the lovely market town of Cockermouth in the English Lake District. We chose west Cumbria thanks to Graham, who is himself a west Cumbrian native. 

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After taking on numerous roles - firstly in Cumbria and then in central government - to acquaint ourselves with the UK's unique business environment, Jo and Peter decided to step back into private practice. In the summer of 2009, we established Fox & Associates Consulting Limited, rekindling the original branding from our previous incarnation in Australia.

 

 

 

 

 

Since then, we have built the business under three principal trading arms:

• Fox & Associates Consulting is our digital, KIM and change consulting business;

• Strengthening Practice is our workforce development and training business (with a focus on social care); and

• Elterwater Press is our publishing company, which produces the materials and resources we have developed over the years in Strengthening Practice, as well as the odd bit of fiction.

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In 2024, we acquired the building we had been renting here in the centre of Cockermouth. Built some time before 1574, our offices still have some of the original medieval features, including a stone spiral staircase - which is still useable today - 500 year-old oak beams, and wonky floors. The original tiered frontage (as you might see in the Shambles, York, for example) was sheared off in the mid-1700's in a concerted effort by the Georgians to homogenise the character of the town and its commercial centre.

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In 2025 we decided it was time for a refresh of our brand, and the new logo and identity was born. In case you were wondering, our new banner features a high-powered microscope image of fox fur.