Our trainers and consultants

The Centre has brought together a team of talented and experienced communicators, leaders and trainers who share your passion for learning and development. 

 

Jan Burnell
Jan is one of the Centre's directors and a lead consultant for management training. She specialises in courses which help people at all levels to communicate and work together effectively. She is the author of 'Taking and Writing Minutes' - the Centre's handbook.

Tess Woodcraft
Tess is one of the Centre's directors and works on diversity and strategic corporate communication. She works with clients to develop their influencing skills and their own best personal style, and also on corporate communication strategy, helping organisations to increase their impact.

Tesse Akpeki
Tesse is a governance specialist and works on policy development and board training assignments.

Maria Adebowale
Maria is founder and director of Capacity Global, which works on poverty elimination and environmental protection. She specialises in personal development and diversity training.

Helen Baehr
Helen is an education and training professional with a background in higher education. She specialises in providing research consulting and managing projects for education and media clients. She is a good strategic thinker who has been a television producer and advisor on equal opportunities to the European Commission.

Julia Braggins
Julia specialises in organisation management. She is a consultant, management development trainer, and researcher. As well as her work for the Centre, she is a non-managerial supervisor for chief executives and senior managers.

Sarah Brimelow
Sarah has over 15 years experience in the voluntary and public sector and is a qualified management and life coach specialising in leadership and team development, career changes and life transitions.

Martyn Broughton
Martyn has worked as a journalist and as head of communications for a leading aid agency. He brings that experience of both sides of the fence, along with his interviewing skills from the BBC, to the business of media training.

John Burnell
John is a leading Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, and is a member of the British Psychological Society. He works with a large number voluntary sector bodies, providing a full range of HR services.

Susan Croft
Susan is an international public speaker, corporate trainer and PR practitioner and trains in sales, communications, marketing and management. She is a trained journalist and specializes in media and public speaking training for executives, educators and other professionals.

Adeola Dada
Adeola has over 20 years experience of managing projects particularly in the education and regeneration spheres - delivering complex fast track projects on time and within budget. Her philosophy is to build effective working relationships and engender creative team environments.

Gill Dandy
Gill is a communications professional with 25 years consultancy and in-house experience in the PR industry. Gill is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, Chair of Fifth Estate, the voluntary sector PR network, and non-executive director of Shared Interest, a not-for-profit social investment fund.

Fraser Dyer
Fraser is a leadership and management coach, and has worked in the not-for-profit sector for over twenty years. Now focusing on writing and coaching, he works with a wide range of clients on business, career and management issues

Pat Endicott
Pat is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and has many years of experience in management as well as running her own consultancy in Stress Management and Voluntary Sector management.

Howard Exton-Smith
Howard is a specialist in business, programme and project management. He has particular expertise in strategy development and implementation, recruiting and marketing and is an experienced coach. He has held senior positions in the private sector, and has worked with NGOs and Government bodies, in the UK and internationally.

Alan Fountain
With wide experience of the media and education, Alan is one of our specialist facilitators, working with senior teams and boards, helping them to think through knotty strategic problems. He is also an experienced coach.

Diana Gibbs
Diana is a qualified business NLP Practitioner and specialises in staff performance and communications issues. She spent nearly 20 years at the BBC working in broadcast operations and has several years experience as a facilitator and trainer.

Jane Esuantsiwa Goldsmith
Jane works in diversity, gender issues, ethnicity, education, aid and development, violence against women, rural issues, and equal opportunities. She works at local, national and international levels and attends and speaks at events across the world.

David Goodman
David Goodman is an experienced management trainer, who has a proven track record in delivering highly effective leadership programmes in the voluntary sector.

Rachel Harrison
Rachel has a background in the arts, media and education. She has extensive and diverse experience of training and consultancy for large public sector organisations, multi-nationals and small and medium sized businesses and voluntary sector organisations.

Tillie Harris
Tillie has worked as a journalist, copywriter and researcher for a number of national publications. She is also an experienced researcher, copywriter and communications consultant. Tillie works with not-for-profit organisations to develop the quality of their websites, leaflets, reports and newsletters.

Pam Henry
Pam is our lead consultant and trainer on diversity and heads up the Centre's diversity unit, diversity@the-centre. She is an experienced training specialist, and NVQ external verifier.

Sally Hinder
Sally specialises in Coaching, Communication and Training, helping individuals and organisations achieve better results and work to their full potential.

Ceri Hutton
Ceri worked for 13 years in the community and voluntary sector before, becoming a freelance consultant and trainer. Ceri specialises in management skills, communication skills (particularly focussing on internal communication) and personal development skills such as time and stress management.

Norma Johnston
Norma has 15 years experience as a communications director, leading high-profile communication activities and campaigns nationally and internationally. She is now a high powered consultant, specialising in communications management.

Sara Jones
Sara is an experienced journalist and media trainer. She worked in local papers, regional television and for BBC radio as a reporter before becoming a producer for BBC programmes such as You and Yours and Woman's Hour. She has been media training for almost 20 years and her clients include the Home Office, the Department for Work and Pensions, and many charities and voluntary organisations.

Michele Lazarus
Michele has worked for over 25 years as a trainer, counsellor, researcher and manager. Her background is in health education, community justice and the parenting sector. She has worked for local authorities, social services, the health service and a variety of voluntary organisations.

Cyndy Lessing
Cyndy is an image consultant in a wide range of sectors, and a Master of The Federation of Image Consultants. She is passionate about her work, knowing how improving your outer image leads to increased confidence. Her very successful “Looking the Part” workshop can be adapted to suit any company or number of attendees.

Irene MacWilliam
Irene specialises in enabling individuals, teams and organisations to develop effective ways of working. She is particularly interested in working with organisations and teams in the process of change.

Chris Mohr
Chris Mohr specialises in media and communications skills training, including some of the Centre's writing courses. She is a former BBC radio presenter and award-winning TV producer, with wide-ranging experience in both broadcast journalism and training.

Maria Mouskou
Maria is a coaching professional specialising in the areas of career, management and work-life balance.

Bill Puddicombe
Bill Puddicombe works is a consultant in the fields of social care and substance misuse. His works with voluntary, statutory and private organisations.

Marje Paling
Marje is a skilled trainer with many years experience of working in the not for profit sector following a shorter career as an English teacher. She has a proven track record of introducing and managing change, especially with teams who manage at a distance.

Fiona Russell
Fiona is an experienced trainer working with individuals and groups to develop management skills and personal effectiveness. Her background in education and the media has included programmes focusing on performance management and coaching individuals in the public and the corporate sector.

Henry Russell
Henry runs the Centre's proofreading course. Henry worked in publishing for 10 years as an editor and a sales director before becoming a professional writer. He trains and lectures on every aspect of written communication.

Francois Smit
Francois is a dynamic trainer, with skills developed during 16 years of hands-on experience. Francois specialises in communications training for support staff. He has developed and delivered a wide range of programmes.

Liz Sewell
Liz has extensive consultancy experience with both the voluntary and public sectors. ÎAs former chief executive of Gingerbread, Liz is a sought after consultant and trainer. She has worked at a national level with government departments and locally with NHS trusts, local authorities and voluntary organisations.

Kate Wilkinson
Kate has extensive experience as a consultant in the not-for-profit sector including a senior communications role at NCVO. She specialises in strategic communications planning, consultation, research, copywriting and editorial consultancy.

Marilyn Wheatcroft
Marilyn is a coach with has five years' experience as a senior manager at the BBC as well as having worked as a television producer. Her work is based on her own belief that the essence of coaching is to help the client address and solve their own problems.