Anna Weeks

Anna is a Chartered MCIPD qualified HR practitioner with an honours law degree. Anna has extensive experience working in both the large and small/medium sized corporate sectors so understands the different dynamics businesses face and therefore the different support required on a day by day, week by week basis.

Anna’s expertise lies in adding value to organisations by assisting managers with employment issues, (such as handling disciplinaries and grievances, dealing with high levels of absence and managing performance), guiding managers through contentious and emotive projects, (such as organisational restructure, relocation and both individual and collective redundancies), and advising and training managers on all areas of HR best practice.

Lisa Saunders

Lisa is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development and has been an Employment and HR Professional for over 17 years. Lisa was Global HR Policy Manager for Cable & Wireless, responsible for policy across the UK, Europe, USA and Asia. Lisa initiated and managed the global pay review for 2,000 employees across the UK, Europe, Japan and USA using virtual global and local E-HR teams.

Her specialist expertise includes high performance coaching for individuals and teams. Lisa is an Ashridge accredited coach, which is one of the top coaching qualifications in the UK. She is also a licensed Myers Briggs’ practitioner and has significant industry experience in the manufacturing, engineering, transport and retail sectors.

John Champion

John Champion (DMS Brighton) is a Senior International Professional Manager with significant profit improvement experience in both SMEs and large multinationals.

He was UK and European HR Manager for 15 years for Armstrong World Industries and also spent 10 years as Regional Director, General Manager and Industrial Relations Manager in Grandmet International Site Services (part of Grand Metropolitan, now Diageo). Prior to that, John spent 11 years working in line management roles in the milk industry.

He improves business performance by his experience of change management, team and individual performance improvement. More recently he has been immersed in health and safety risk management covering auditing, performance improvement and compliance management.

John pioneers change through considerable strengths in leading and developing people and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.

Helen Todd

Helen is a senior Human Resources professional with over ten years of experience. She joined Inter Group Insurance Services in 1999 which was sold to Churchill Insurance and then Royal Bank of Scotland purchased the Churchill Insurance Group. During this time she was promoted to join the senior management team for the RBS Insurance Intermediary & Broker Business and then Direct Line creating and leading the HR strategy for each Business. In 2006 Helen became self employed and delivered a 15 month project for Skandia, which involved creation of the Skandia UK Business Unit and integration of Selestia to the Skandia business model. She has vast experience in setting up HR functions to meet operational and efficiency requirements and managing business integration and redundancy programmes.

Teresa Riley

Teresa gained a great deal of experience during a 12 year career at Marks and Spencer, joining initially as a Human Resources Management trainee, qualifying as a Human Resources Manager and finally joining the IT group to manage projects. Having taken a career break to bring up her two children, she is excited to join the team at ESP as a specialist in the implementation of HR systems. She believes that her background in both systems and HR will allow her to provide ESP’s customers with the most professional and personal service.

Attitude to life: Live life to the full
Favourite TV show: 24, Prison Break, Lost
Favourite place: Constantine Bay, Cornwall
Favourite Song: Sleep When I’m Dead, Bon Jovi
Favourite Food: Anything spicy!
Likes: Shopping, Entertaining, Exercise, Spending time with family
Dislikes: Top Gear
Lifetime ambition: To have no regrets (going well so far…)

Gavin Meikle

Gavin Meikle is a certified NLP Trainer and Consultant and has more than twelve years experience designing and delivering training courses and programmes. Prior to becoming a training consultant Gavin had extensive sales, management and leadership expertise gained in both the private and voluntary sectors.

Gavin has worked with clients in a broad range of industries including: pharmaceutical, publishing, education, marketing, hotel and public relations.

His training interventions have included:

• Presentation and public speaking skills including effective use of PowerPoint
• Sales, influencing and communication skills
• Mind mapping
• Leading and motivating teams
• 1:1 coaching
• Team building
• Facilitation

In addition to running workshops Gavin is also an entertaining conference speaker and has spoken at a number of events on topics including influence, motivation, presentation skills, attitude, and effective interpersonal communication.

Rachel Abbott

Rachel is an experienced people and project manager, with excellent interpersonal skills across all levels. Rachel works in close partnership with businesses helping to develop HR plans and policies which add value by supporting business strategy and responding to immediate needs. Rachel previously worked as a Recruitment Executive for Inter Group Insurance Services (Churchill Group Company) where she developed the Company’s Recruitment Strategy and Policy ensuring adherence to employment law, best practice and business objectives. Whilst at Inter Group, Rachel managed and developed a team of HR professionals and was responsible for providing generalist HR advice to all levels of Management. Most recently, Rachel worked as an HR Consultant at the Royal Bank of Scotland Insurance where she resourced and directed HR projects in line with business improvement plans. Rachel adopts an enthusiastic and professional attitude to work and demonstrates integrity and sensitivity in all situations.

Hilary Larkham

Hilary has a wealth of HR Management and Training and Development experience and holds an MSc in Personnel Management. A true Generalist, Hilary has extensive knowledge of providing practical, commercial and customer-focused solutions to organisational HR issues.

Hilary first worked with ARA Services (now ARAMARK) in the role of Regional Training & HR Manager, where she worked in a national capacity for two of the five company divisions. Hilary then became HR Executive for Bateman, Hotel Services for Healthcare (Compass Group), specialising in the provision of support services to clients in both the public and private healthcare market. Hilary then took the role of Head of HR for the Unwins Wine Group Ltd where she was responsible for approximately 2000 employees.

As an HR Consultant at Grant Thornton, Hilary provided an HR management and advisory service to Senior Management of organisations in the SME/OMB sector, and since becoming self-employed, she now focuses on providing and delivering practical and pragmatic HR support to the SME/OMB sector in the form of interim and one-off style assignments.

Tara Lloyd

Tara is a Fellow of the CIPD and has a Diploma in Personnel Management and a MA in Human Resources. She has over 20 years Line and Functional Management experience, holding specialist roles in both Human Resources and Management Development. Tara is a qualified coach and is a MBTI licensed practitioner. She is also British Psychological Society Level A and B qualified.

Tara’s work with different Employers and Clients has given her experience in Retail, Contracting, Financial Services, Media, Facilities Management, Charity, Not for Profit and Hospitality sectors and she has provided interim assistance for Clients as well as working on specific projects.

Tara is an Employment Law specialist and provides practical advice and guidance for Clients. Her previous industry experience means that she understands the operational impact of HR policies and decisions, and she provides many Clients with training and advice on how to apply HR procedures. Tara also has extensive Management Development experience, enabling her to provide coaching and training for Clients in subjects such as Managing Performance, Leadership, Change Management, Time Management, Employment Law and Emotional Intelligence.

Paula Grant

Paula is a Member of the CIPD and has been a generalist HR professional for over 15 years. She was the HR Director at Cohn & Wolfe, a global Public Relations firm for over seven years and prior to that she played key roles in the HR team at companies including Zara, Harrods and Fulham Football Club. Most recently Paula has been consulting for a number of clients in the retail and communications industry on executive remuneration, employee brand experiences projects, performance management processes and organisational development and restructures.

Paula combines both strategic vision and a ‘hands on’ operational approach to deliver tangible results. Her strong commercial acumen, high energy approach and communication skills allow her to help her clients manage employees and employment issues in conjunction with achieving their business goals.

Rachel Head

Rachel is a highly experienced Generalist with significant strategic expertise.

Previously she spent 13 years with Equifax PLC, global information services provider, in different senior roles including five years as HR Director and three as Sales Director. This unique combination of experience enables her to add value to a multitude of functions within both SMEs and large companies in areas such as:

• Strategic Planning
• Facilitation
• Sales Remuneration and Incentive Scheme Design
• Sales Training
• Management Development
• Recruitment and Selection of Senior Executives
• Recruitment and Selection Methodology
• Mentoring; Coaching
• Change Management
• HR Processes and Practices
• Communications.

Rachel is an Accredited Associate of the Institute for Independent Business.

Amanda Saunders

Amanda is a fully qualified member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, and also has an MA in Management Learning from Lancaster University.

Amanda’s expertise lies in supporting organisations and their employees cope with reorganisations and redundancies and she provides one to one coaching in helping individuals successfully manage career transitions.

As a Management Development Consultant for both NatWest and GE Money, Amanda has managed organisational change programmes, such as talent management/succession planning and performance management.

Amanda also has experience of assessment and development centres, from a design and delivery perspective. She is accredited to use a number of psychometric tools, including Myers Briggs Type Indicator and FIRO-B which she particularly enjoys using as part of team building programmes.

Mike Shreeve

Mike is a generalist with an interest and enthusiasm for the psychological factors in business. Mike believes that mindset can make a difference and that enhanced motivation develops excellence in both individual and team performance. Previously, Mike has worked as an HR Director, consultant, teacher and trainer and understands what it takes to run a business. Mike’s main areas of expertise are as follows:

• Executive Coaching
• Training (including obtaining funding)
• Leadership development (including 360 feedback and development programmes)
• Training trainers
• Personal development – skills and confidence (presenting, selling, leading, coaching)
• HR mentoring (helping owners and leaders build their company culture)
• Team building
• Salary surveys and benchmarking
• Assistance in general employment matters

Mike is an NLP trainer, accredited coach and licensed to use MBTI and 16PF psychological instruments. He is an FCIPD, qualified accountant and former teacher. In his spare time he is training to be a stand-up comic.

Alison Daley

Alison is a highly experienced senior HR professional. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development and has a MA in Strategic Human Resource Management. Alison helps clients manage their employment and people management issues by providing strategic and operational support and taking a sensible, pragmatic and commercial approach. She has experience of developing and managing global Talent and Performance Management programmes as well as specialist reward knowledge in executive and management remuneration and incentives, performance related pay, pensions and payroll/HR systems implementation.

Alison has worked in Human Resources Management for 20 years and in addition to her specialist knowledge she has managed many major change projects during this time, including large-scale employee relocation/centralisation projects and large scale re-structuring and redundancy programmes. Alison has extensive experience of dealing with collective consultations and of negotiating and consulting with Trade Unions. She is a qualified Executive Coach and is now completing a MA in Business Coaching with Leeds Metropolitan University.

Lynda Brennan

Lynda is a Chartered MCIPD with a career spanning over 25 years in HR management and consultancy across a range of business sectors. Lynda managed the international HR functions for Eagle Star Insurance, British Airways and British Caledonian Airways before working with international HR data provider ECA International as a senior consultant.

As an independent consultant Lynda has worked on the formation of corporate policy, HR reviews and the establishment of HR structures for companies in the UK and internationally including C&W, AIG and Reebok International.

Lynda has also been closely involved with research into some of the broader policy and practice issues associated with international mobility. She has been a regular contributor at seminars and conferences and is the author of several surveys and reports in this regard.

As a consultant Lynda brings practical experience of the management of international employment and mobility and works closely with businesses to develop and implement HR strategy, policy and procedure.