Advanced Management and Leadership Programme

With more than 10 years of business consulting and professional service experience, James has developed a well-rounded and practical perspective on strategic development and human capital development at all levels and cross-industries both nationally and internationally.  With a focus on innovation in strategy development, James is a certified 'exceptional trainer’.  He has a diverse background in business management, innovation, strategy development, organisational development, recruitment and operations. 

During his role in recruitment, James applied advanced psychometric techniques and personally assessed over 1,000 candidates for client’s businesses, as well as his own. Combined with coaching, this has given him an advanced experience of dealing with the human psyche and obtaining optimal results for human capital and organisational development. 

James has a very approachable manner, with valuable real-world experience as an employer and a senior consultant to a wide-range of industries and organisations.

James lectures in management and strategy at the University of Essex. He was previously an associate Lecturer at the University of York and a regular Officer in the Armed Forces. He has completed a PGCE in Further Education and an MSc in Educational Practice and Innovation. His published work covers the finance, governance and leadership of organisations in a historical context.

James has advised on the design and delivery of promotion courses for the Royal Engineers and for some foreign Armed Forces. He also had significant engagement with language teaching in the UK and the Middle East, serving as head of the language wing at the Defence College of Intelligence and Security.

Dr Victoria Smith-Collins, Managing Director of Smith-Collins International, is one of our most experienced trainer-facilitators and coaches.

Victoria has over 20 years of academic and corporate experience that spans international markets.  She has trained/supervised academic programmes up to MBA level (including delivering lectures, tutorials and dissertation supervision). Victoria has also worked extensively with the Chartered Management Institute, delivering programmes, examining and verifying assessment work.

Victoria specialises in leadership/management development, with a focus on strategic leadership, consumer psychology (the subject of her Ph.D), organisational development and change management.  She has worked internationally for 13 years, where she has worked for an international training institute and has headed the Learning and Development function at one of the Middle East’s largest regional banks.

Whilst at the training institute, Victoria grew and developed a number of professional UK based programmes (including those from CMI and CIM).  She logged over 1500 hours of training/facilitation, training professionals from the financial services sector and other public and private sector organisations.  Before moving  to the bank, Victoria took on a senior business development role which primarily involved consulting with key clients (cross-sectors) and partnering with them to understand their development needs and tailor programmes to fulfil those needs.

Whilst at the bank, Victoria also took the role of HR business partner which involved working closely with departments on strategic change management projects.  The role involved many hours of coaching at multiple levels, from junior up to senior executives.  Trained as a coach through the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM, UK), Victoria has over 1500 hours of international coaching experience that crosses industries.  Executive coaching is indeed one of her passions and her track-record of results is outstanding.

From her background as a Business psychologist, leadership development facilitator and consultant and post-graduate supervisor at university, Laura’s interests are firmly rooted in leadership, learning and the empowerment of others.

With an extensive Corporate and independent career, she’s retained a whole host of clients within the public and private sector with international experience. 

Alex is a qualified occupational psychologist and specialises in leadership development.  He is also a highly experienced educational consultant and executive coach.  Alex is the Associate Director for Programmes at In Professional Development, and routinely teaches on MBA programmes for York, Chester, and Robert Gordon Universities.

For 12 years, Alex was an army officer (Major) and undertook several tours of Afghanistan. He supported the development and delivery of the Army’s Global Security, Leadership and Strategy programme at Sandhurst. Alex's hard work led to him successfully establishing the first Afghan officer training academy, in Kabul.

Alex has over 20 years’ experience of designing and delivering strategic training programmes as well as being a business consultant and manager. Making him an accomplished Leadership Consultant with cross-cultural experience and the ability to succeed in the most challenging environments. He has become well respected for delivering high impact, strategic Leadership and Management training for large scale commercial corporations. He uses proven techniques combined with innovation to provide creative and successful solutions for businesses.

Pierson has 15 years’ experience as a consultant and facilitator, specialising in leadership, management and coaching. Experienced in the design and delivery of people development, Pierson uses coaching psychology to engage with leaders at all levels, supporting them to; be, have and do more. 

Highly experienced in talent development, from managing large graduate programmes to developing directors and senior leaders for global brands at an international level, Pierson adds value by making learning stick, while turning new knowledge into practical skills.