Executive Mini MBA Accelerator

David’s experience stems from 33 years in the British Army where he reached a senior level. He led and managed soldiers throughout his career and was particularly involved in the interface between operational and strategic decision making. He has also been responsible for a number of change programmes and has been a Deputy Chief of Staff to a number of large organisations over that time. 

He has held several Board positions and is currently a Non Executive Director for Believe Housing as well as a trustee for his regimental charity. He has enjoyed the overlap between the public and private sectors and is a keen advocate on through life professional development. He is a member of the Institute of Directors and currently holds their Certificate and Diploma in Company Direction.  

He has coached several individuals over the years and is a qualified executive coach with a Post Graduate Certificate from the Henley Business School. In addition he is a keen advocate for mentoring and has mentored for 2 years on the National 30% club which aims to get greater representation on boards by women. 

He became a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and gained Chartered Manager status in 2020 and amongst other formal qualifications also holds a MBA and MSc in National Security Strategy.  

He is passionate about helping others and would cite Integrity and Respect for others as core values. 

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.

Kerry describes herself as a hybrid professional working on the intersection of cultural development, improvement science and positive performance delivery. Kerry has a strategic focus, emphasising strategy into action through operational delivery. 

 Kerry’s career has spanned equally the private sector and NHS, having worked in logistics, food manufacturing, telecommunications and oil research across a range of technical disciplines.  Kerry is a chartered management accountant, green belt six sigma improvement trained, Kings Fund Top Management Programme Alumni.   

For 13 years Kerry was employed in the NHS, six years as a Board Director, also Senior Responsible Officer for MSK care in a forming integrated care system.  Kerry’s portfolio has spanned strategy, organisational development, quality improvement, research, project management. 

Kerry now has a portfolio career being both a practitioner and a trainer in her mix of consultancy and training work ensuring she stays up to date with current theory, context and practice. Kerry is also a sessional lecturer teaching improvement science and organisational development at Masters level for several universities.  

Kerry has a strong belief in bringing training to life through practice to embed in the grain of their organisations. 

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.

Having operated in both the public and private sector through an incredibly successful career, Suzanne has developed a unique skillset for being able to take an outside-in view of an organisation and the eco-system it operates within, to work with leaders to deliver key success.  

Suzanne brings a fresh lens and energy to discussions, exploring alternative strategies to identify pivots that make ‘good’ organisations ‘great’, and increase their success. With the key to success being a strong offering alongside the right people, processes, and technology in place - to maximise that landscape and stay ahead of the curve, she works with leadership teams to ensure these are delivered in a sustainable way through a blend of consultancy with challenge, mentoring, coaching and professional development. With a real passion for helping drive an organisation forward from within, bringing a newfound ‘spirit of adventure’ into the organisation, to ensure a winning and growth culture is fostered for all.  

Janet is a leadership, resilience and business coach. After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Young she worked in senior management and finance director roles for recognised retailers such as WH Smiths and Littlewoods. She then followed her passion for developing people by becoming a leadership development trainer, currently specialising in wellbeing and resilience with a wide range of companies including BAE Systems, Pets at Home, Janssen Pharmaceutical, SME’s and Charities. She also delivers a wide range of finance programmes from introductory sessions up to Directors Development, together with individual finance business coaching.

Janet enjoys using her finance, business and personal leadership experience, combined with her coaching and training skills, to enable people and teams develop the skills, behaviours and culture they desire.

Janet works with not-for-profit organisations, currently as a Governor for the Trafford College Group, a Trustee & Treasurer for Home-Start Trafford, Salford & Wigan plus a business mentor with the Manchester Business Growth Hub.

Janet is an accredited practitioner for the Kirros RQi resilience programme plus trained in the Drake P3 behavioural profiling system. She is a member of the Association of Coaching (AOC), the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAEW).

Della has been a chartered accountant for over 30 years, founder of three businesses, mother of two teens, and author of three books. As well as running her own businesses Della has served as Finance Director of multinational organisations liaising with non-financial managers to improve the overall business. She was voted one of Accountancy Age’s ‘Top Women in Finance’ and one of Tide Bank’s ‘20 entrepreneurs to watch in 2020’.  

Della’s passion is to demystify the world of accounts and to coach directors and owners to build the business that they first dreamed of with the results that they deserve. 

Kerry describes herself as a hybrid professional working on the intersection of cultural development, improvement science and positive performance delivery. Kerry has a strategic focus, emphasising strategy into action through operational delivery. 

 Kerry’s career has spanned equally the private sector and NHS, having worked in logistics, food manufacturing, telecommunications and oil research across a range of technical disciplines.  Kerry is a chartered management accountant, green belt six sigma improvement trained, Kings Fund Top Management Programme Alumni.   

For 13 years Kerry was employed in the NHS, six years as a Board Director, also Senior Responsible Officer for MSK care in a forming integrated care system.  Kerry’s portfolio has spanned strategy, organisational development, quality improvement, research, project management. 

Kerry now has a portfolio career being both a practitioner and a trainer in her mix of consultancy and training work ensuring she stays up to date with current theory, context and practice. Kerry is also a sessional lecturer teaching improvement science and organisational development at Masters level for several universities.  

Kerry has a strong belief in bringing training to life through practice to embed in the grain of their organisations. 

Tara Askham is a qualified lecturer specialising in finance and a Fellow of the Association of Accounting Technicians. As a Finance Director, Tara co-founded multi-award-winning social enterprise Infused Learning and wrote the first Accountancy Access to Higher Education Diploma in the country. She designs and delivers finance courses to companies around the UK including Volkswagen. She inspects colleges’ accounting provisions on behalf of the Association of Accounting Technicians and works as a consultant subject matter expert for global accountancy awarding bodies writing and moderating exam material. She wrote the global award-winning ACCA-X finance course and is a published author for Osborne Books. Her experience has led to her role with NatWest as a Social and Community Capital credit panel member. (Part of the independent credit panel to analytically review each charitable proposal for funding). Tara is also a guest Lecturer at Nottingham Trent University.   

Ewan combines training with running an active accounting practice and working as a Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Finance at a UK University. 

Ewan has 14 years of training experience and 22 years of experience as an accounting and finance professional.  His main areas of expertise are financial reporting, financial strategy, finance for non-financial managers and governance.  Prior to training Ewan held a variety of industry roles from site accountant for an American multi-national to owner/finance director of a logistics company, but his real passion is in training and teaching. 

Ewan holds a Bachelors degree in Accounting and Marketing, diplomas from both Harvard and Yale, and alongside his MBA he is in the final year of a Doctorate of Business Administration. He has conducted training in the UK, Ghana, Dubai, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Myanmar, China and Hong Kong. 

Professionally he is a qualified Chartered Accountant and holds public practice credentials as both a financial accountant and tax advisor, he is a fellow of the Higher Education and the Chartered Management Institute.  He has previously served as a member of the British Accounting and Finance Association executive committee for higher education and training.  

Christine Silvester  is a qualified chartered accountant, (ICAEW)  who runs her own accountancy practice in Warwickshire where she specialises in the provision of accounting and tax compliance services to a range of small businesses. She also provides tutoring, support and guidance to business owners in the understanding and requirements of finance.  

After  qualifying as an accountant  with Coopers & Lybrand in Birmingham Christine briefly worked in financial recruitment before moving to work for BT.  During 12 years at BT  she worked in various  senior financial management  roles including Head of Business Planning and Forecasting for one of the divisions in the company which required working with operational teams across the business.   

Christine has over 37 years working  in Finance and has gained a wealth of experience which ranges from working with large teams and budgets in excess of £1bn to supporting start up businesses including building and running her own successful business for almost 20 years.  Christine enjoys sharing these experiences through her various tutoring roles. 

Stewart has a career background in corporate banking, and is a highly experienced commercial individual, who commenced a transition into the not for profit sector at the end of 2009. He now has a portfolio of Chair, Board and consultancy roles across not for profits and SMEs.

Throughout his career, Stewart has developed a proven track record in the North West corporate market. In roles covering both relationship management and business development, his key skills of brokering and relationship building ensured the management of multiple stakeholders, at all times undertaken with outstanding levels of integrity. Core to his roles at Bank of Scotland were the management of key entrepreneur relationships for the bank.

In recent years, he has rapidly developed a profile in the not for profit sector, maintaining key board roles across a range of areas, including leisure and social care

Stewart has a range of financial, operational and strategic experience in the private, public and not for profit sectors, including charities, local authorities, banking and venture capital. This has captured a range of areas, including direct roles in leisure, adult care, the arts, environment and recruitment, coupled with a wide range of sectors including manufacturing, service, retail, building products and housebuilding during his corporate banking career. Stewart is at ease in any environment, from start-up to PLC boardroom.

Rian is a content marketing specialist with a passion for all things marketing, behaviour change, and empowerment through education.

He has a diverse background in marketing, having worked both in-house and agency-side with clients in various sectors like retail, construction, healthcare, education, and property over the last 10+ years.

Most notably, Rian has delivered successful strategic activity for clients such as Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool Freeport, Peel: Wirral Waters, and Transport for the North to name a few.

Rian is a successful business leader and networker, having set up Liverpool-based content marketing agency A&B Marketing in 2020. Rian now leads a small team to deliver engaging marketing campaigns that are focused on collaborative, ROI-

Having delivered training to hundreds of delegates, Rian utilises his unique approach to marketing and education to guide delegates through each stage of the learning process at a pace that is comfortable and engaging.

Bill is a guest speaker at leading global business schools including Sheffield (UK), EDHEC (FR) IMD (CH), Queensland University (AUS), Oxford Brookes (UK), Rotterdam School of Management (NL) MIT (USA), London Business School (UK) to mention a few.  

He has delivered Tedx Talk on Disrupting Disruption at EDHEC Business School in Lille March 2018 and three Henry Stewart Talks: Disruption & How to Change, The Director as a Technology Advocate: Why? & How to structure a Presentation 

He is a keynote speaker and he was asked by Fiat Chrysler Automotive to headline their annual conference on Disruption and Cambiamento (Change) delivered in Italian and English. 

Bill spent his corporate career in the international communications industry Bates Dorlands, DMB&B & CIA advertising companies where he was lucky enough to live and work in London, Paris, Sydney and New York working with clients including BT, Campbell’s, Mars, Alfa Romeo, then worked was the Marketing Director UK and Europe for GE Insurance Holdings. 

He is the co-author of the international best seller Pitch Yourself 2nd edition published by Pearson. Demonstrating apply marketing principles to the recruitment process). Pitch Yourself is published in 67 countries and has been translated in numerous languages including the big four: English, Spanish, French and Chinese.  

Martin has worked in the marketing industry for 33 years. As both Marketing Director and Managing Director, he has worked with companies and clients at every level to develop implement marketing strategies and create tactical campaigns across companies as diverse as Lloyds TSB, Mercedes, Scania and Harper Collins. 

Over the last 12 years he has worked with companies throughout a wide range of industry sectors, from start-up entrepreneurs, to larger, well established brands. He delivers training, coaching, and consultancy on every element of marketing, and has trained hundreds of companies in how to develop their marketing from top level strategy to day to day skills and tactical implementation. 

He is a combination of strategist, planner, and tactical marketeer with a wealth of real experience working as, and with, marketing directors, owner-drivers, CEOs and teams. 

Jenny is an experienced marketing professional, with over 20 year’s expertise in developing and implementing successful marketing strategies that deliver sales and brand value.  

She has extensive experience at both strategic and tactical level, having worked as Head of Marketing for companies in the property and interiors sector, as well as successfully managing in-house marketing and creative teams to target B2B and B2C markets nationally and internationally. 

She is skilled at all areas of marketing communications including digital and content marketing, social media marketing, brand strategy, public relations, advertising, sales promotion, email marketing and event management. 

Jenny has worked with many different sizes of company from start-ups to large corporates in the private and public sector, on both the client and agency side and is a skilled communicator who takes a practical, creative, collaborative approach to helping everyone she works with and trains, get the best results for themselves and their teams.  

Matt is an expert in marketing strategy and business transformation. He is a senior leader with over 25 years’ experience of improving and growing businesses, gained from a variety of senior management roles. Matt has held MD and Director posts in a FTSE 250 organisation, Marketing and Communications agency and as a business owner. A CIM Marketer by background, Matt has amassed a wealth of commercial transformation and marketing communications experience. He is an accomplished communicator and is skilled at operating at all levels of the organisation, analyzing and quickly establishing business challenges and developing sustainable solutions. He has strong influencing and negotiation skills and can drive transformation change to success with authority and a clear vision. His broad range of experience covers multiple disciplines including marketing, communications and crisis management, commercial development, change management, organisational development, IT & technology deployment, project management and business improvement.

Matt is a director level project and transformation professional with demonstrated ability to create and translate strategy into measured operational performance improvement. He has extensive experience in marketing, customer acquisition, project management, organisational redesign and commercialization, which he has gained across direct and agency environments in Higher and Further Education, Media & Publishing and Local Government sectors. He is an accomplished leader and influencer from the boardroom to front line teams across multiple location.