Our Consultants

Matchett Trainers

What makes a Matchett Training Consultant? We have exceptional trainers at Matchett and this has not happened by chance. There are certain qualities and skills we look for when recruiting for our consultant team, which permeates all the way through to the Partners and Associates we engage with. Only around 1 in 10 potential trainers that comes our way ends up working with us: our clients are choosy!

We insist on employing professionals with extensive experience in business, this helps us design courses and curricula that get to the heart of the change you need to make. We know that ‘fit’ with your culture, structures and processes is critical. This hinges on the rigour we put in to pre-course consultancy, trainer preparation and post-course follow up. In this way we are, with our partners, always learning.

Let’s not overlook the performance in the classroom. Every week we get mountains of feedback referring to the ‘fantastic trainer’ who ‘inspired’, ‘listened’, ‘responded’, ‘kept attention throughout’, ‘challenged’ and ‘brought the subject to life’. Whilst not averse to an appropriate sprinkling of technology as an aid to learning delivery, we pride ourselves on engaging on a deeper level and leaving a lasting impact on each and every learner.

Razza Zar

Qualifications

Testimonial

Razza Zar is passionate about learning and development, both his own and that of our clients. His courses and conferences are challenging and rewarding, and he ensures all participants push themselves to the limit to achieve targets they perhaps believed unattainable. Participants leave his sessions hungry to bring this new found value to their work environment. He encourages a learning culture of high audience interaction, and places great emphasis upon ‘self discovery’.

Specialising in communication and influence, he uses a dignified yet assertive approach. Working with staff at all levels, he delivers courses such as: advanced/master class in presentation skills; power of persuasion and influence; communication styles/skill; customer service; management and leadership; assertiveness; personal impact; and, executive coaching.

Now with 18 years of training and conference experience, he delivers courses both nationally and internationally. His energising style has benefited companies and organisations from the Far East and Australia to Europe, the Middle East and Africa.Razz always helps our clients identify tangible and transferable techniques that they are able to use in real-world terms with optimum effect.

Clients have used words such as “hard-hitting”, “inspiring”, “insightful” and “motivational” to describe his courses.

Paul Edmunds

“I am an experienced and professional coach and trainer with a passion for supporting people in reaching their potential, removing limiting beliefs and enabling them to make a connection between what is meaningful for them and what delivers results for organisations”

Paul Edmunds is an experienced and professional coach and trainer who brings many years’ experience and a real passion to the role. He is committed to helping people achieve their true potential, benefiting both the individual and the organisation that employs them.

His experience covers senior roles as both a corporate manager and as a facilitator, trainer and coach, and he offers clients extensive experience of one-to-one performance and personal development coaching.

Paul has created, implemented and operated senior team leadership and talent management programmes, and is also responsible for the delivery of tailored interpersonal, business skills, management and leadership development programmes.

When he’s not bowling over delegates on a talent management programme, Paul is a demon wicket-taker in the East Sussex cricket league on behalf of Plumpton & East Chiltington Cricket Club.

Amanda Brown

Qualifications

“I am passionate about strategically aligned training and outcomes, as I believe that unfocused training can be very costly with little benefit”

Amanda Brown has been working for Matchett since 2004, and specialises in delivering training and consultancy services focused primarily on leadership and management, and project management.

Having gained valuable experience in a number of communication-based roles – including national campaign leader, conference manager and project director – for both not-for-profit and commercial organisations, Amanda studied for an MBA at Cranfield University, adding yet another dimension to her training and consultancy work.

When Amanda isn’t delivering courses to our clients, she enjoys painting, photography and working out at the gym. She’s also an avid crime fan, reviewing crime books for a couple of websites and occasionally attending events where crime writers meet and talk about their writing.

Mandy Green

“I’m a highly skilled and versatile trainer. I love what I do and ensure the focus is always on practical action”

Mandy Green has delivered training worldwide over the past 20 years and is a certified coach. A great degree of insight and a natural ability to empathise mean that she is able to adapt in the training room quickly and effectively to a wide range of needs. Her dynamic style ensures consistently excellent results and an enjoyable experience for our clients’ staff.

Specialising in change management, Mandy has a particular interest in the psychology of change and how people engage with this. She is also interested in all elements of psychological leadership and uses Myers-Briggs Type Indicators (MBTI) to aid this. Coaching is another of her specialist areas, and she is an RCS (Results Coaching Systems) accredited coach.

Mandy already is a Bachelor of Education, and is also studying for a BSc in psychology in order to add depth and breadth to her knowledge in the change management arena, her ambition is to become an accredited clinical psychologist, CBT practitioner and a member of the British Psychological Society.

Richard Moxham

“My strong sales background gives me an edge in supplier management training, as I am able to relate the topic from the supplier as well as the client/customer perspective.”

Before becoming a training consultant, Richard Moxham gained considerable commercial experience with large, US-owned multinationals in a number of sales, marketing and operations management roles. He now brings this experience to bear in the training arena, using a pragmatic business approach to deliver cutting-edge supplier management courses –his speciality.

As a trainer, he has worked extensively with clients in mainland Europe and, consequently, appreciates the individual requirements of different cultures. During his time as a trainer he has developed unique learning materials for the niche market of supplier management training, and has published a business book on time management, entitled Taming Time.

And if you want to know anything about 20^th-century history, then Richard’s your man – if, that is, the running fanatic isn’t pounding round the local roads or pumping iron at the gym.

James Bannerman

James’s unique background places him in a powerful position to help people in organisations to change effectively, and to support a client’s growth and value creation. He achieves this by employing creative and innovative strategies to facilitate change, whilst using psychological insights and frameworks to identify potential areas where success and development may be impeded.

As a Creative Change Agent, he has worked with a variety of organisations such as British Airways, Orange, and Starbucks, helping senior executives to picture the future, generate ideas, and ultimately to think differently in order to perform more effectively in a rapidly changing world. In this respect he has worked with Edward de Bono (the creator of ‘Lateral Thinking’) on the early stages of an innovative project, as well as at The National Space Centre on a Mission to Mars.

Jonna Sercombe

Jonna is an energetic trainer, masterful coach and mindful strategist who creatively delivers outstanding results in any organisational environment. A background in psychology, linguistics and philosophy combine with extensive experience in organisations and his deep understanding of coaching, training and facilitation.

Fiona Lehane

“I am a human capital management professional who is passionate about the world of work, people development and learning (both my own and that of others)”

As a facilitator and trainer, Fiona Lehane delivers energetic and business-relevant sessions on a range of topics in the areas of leadership and interpersonal skills. She has worked with Matchett since 2008, and is comfortable delivering training across a wide mix of knowledge and ability levels. Fiona works with all grades of staff, from beginners to boardroom, on a one-to-one or group basis.

She excels at building rapport and creating an engaging, participative and enjoyable learning environment with tangible outcomes. As a coach, she is able to help individuals formulate and achieve their personal goals, and she has a particular interest in career and transition coaching at all levels of seniority.

Fiona’s interest in helping people achieve their life’s goals extends beyond the workplace. As a schools volunteer with the charity Kids’ Company, she helps to provide practical, emotional and educational support to vulnerable inner-city children who have experienced enormous challenges, helping them to lead positive and fulfilling lives.

Andrew Critchley

“My varied career in project and programme management enables me to build rapport quickly at all levels within the organisation and facilitate practical learning interventions.”

Good communication skills and a drive to succeed, combined with a varied background in project and programme management, mean that Andrew is well placed to provide client consultancy and training design, and to deliver effective training. He is also one of only seven people in the UK qualified to facilitate and assess the competence of project managers under the APM assessment scheme.

Drawing on his broad commercial project involvement and a varied career history, Andrew is able to develop bespoke project management methodologies and standards. And with a versatile style of delivery, he can tailor his courses to accommodate everything from directive IT training to participative skills training.

And when he’s not providing bespoke training solutions, Andrew provides a different form of instruction: he’s an assistant scuba diving instructor. A keen diver – his best dive was the Pont d’En Gil caverns in Menorca – his next challenge is a shark-diving expedition to South Africa.

Jeff Delay

“Recognising the unique nature of each organisation and the individuals within it, my personal style, blended with humour, rapport and a focus on results, supports the possibility of significant development and transformation”

Jeff DeLay, who has worked with Matchett since 2003, is committed to supporting organisations and individuals to deliver outstanding results through strategic, operational and interpersonal change; organisational, team and individual learning; and engaging the person behind the role.

Jeff has a track record of partnering with organisations that have recorded significant achievements. He utilises cutting-edge thinking and a dynamic range of approaches to ensure best fit. He specialises in: strategic learning and development; training needs analysis; leadership and management development; emotional intelligence (ESCI profiling); change; communication; conflict and pressure management; and, systemic constellations.

He is deeply interested in practical philosophy, well-being and personal development, and has studied and practised with cutting-edge teachers in Australia, Canada and Europe for more than 20 years. Jeff also has a small recording studio at home, where he loves to make a glorious noise writing soundtracks – for Channel 4, BBC2 and theatre productions, among others.

Alec Brown

“I am enthusiastic and focused with a people-centred approach linking ideas and theory to the real world, encouraging reflection and personal growth”

With extensive experience in training and development across disparate sectors, Alec Brown can deliver highly effective leadership and team development courses for staff at all levels, as well as tailoring courses to suit our clients. He has considerable experience of one-to-one coaching, and also undertakes outplacement and career development work both on an individual and group basis.

Working in training and development for more than 25 years, Alec has specialised in people development for the past 15 years. Alec has delivered courses across a variety of sectors, including finance, oil and energy, local and national government, education and telecommunications.

In addition to his training and consultancy work,Alec is an associate lecturer with the Open University and an external moderator/verifier with the CIPD.

Andrew Kell

“I have extensive commercial and operational experience, specializing in coaching and project management, workshop facilitation, training, business analysis and business change management and implementation.”

Andrew Kell’s extensive commercial and operational experience in the IT arena, combined with senior consultancy roles for an IT solutions company and a leading business technology and consulting firm, ensure he is perfectly placed to deliver supplier management training to our clients.

Describing himself as a “poacher turned gamekeeper”, he uses his extensive theoretical knowledge and communication skills to bring a pragmatic approach to training, illustrating his courses with analogies and personal stories from the workplace.

When he’s not delivering fast-paced training to our clients, Andrew likes to burn rubber in the ‘Lotus on Track’ Elise Trophy – a friendly motor-racing series for those who want to progress from track days into racing without selling the family silver. And when he’s not behind the wheel, he supports the initiative in the roles of both director and press officer.

Philip Woodford

“I am a creative and articulate trainer, with a persuasive and challenging style. My work as both a professional actor and a barrister has developed me as an expressive and lucid speaker.”

Experience as a barrister at law and a professional actor have meant that Philip Woodford is uniquely placed to deliver highly effective and engaging training to our clients’ staff. Specialising in business psychology, his considerable communication skills have given him the edge when it comes to attracting and retaining the attention of trainees.

With his extensive workplace experience, Philip can deliver training across a vast range of requirements, including: team building and delegation functions training; conflict handling, networking and strategic planning courses; feature writing skills, and much more.

However, Philip’s talents do not stop there. The father of three delivers parenting workshops in the community, and is a volunteer facilitator in a schools’ conflict resolution programme. Philip is also a keen sportsman, playing tennis, cricket and football, and cycling regularly. He also helps to run a junior cricket programme during the summer.

Elizabeth McManus

“My background across a number of professional sectors enables me to offer my clients a depth of insight, combined with a warm and enthusiastic personal style.”

Elizabeth McManus has been in business as a trainer and consultant since 1994, and brings with her a depth of training, facilitation, development and consultancy experience in industry, commerce, the public sector and professional services. Building exceptional teams, harnessing and using individual differences at work, professional practice development and motivation are Elizabeth’s areas of particular interest, focusing on the development of maximum individual contribution in organisational contexts.

Professionally, Elizabeth’s ambition is to make ongoing contributions to collaboration at work in professional organisations, so that as many people as possible are able to do a great job and enjoy it. She is also keen to extend her existing writing and public-speaking work on issues that inspire her.

Elizabeth speaks fluent French, and is keen to work on projects in France where she can use her language skills. This might provide further inspiration for the hobbies she loves, which include painting – especially people in their landscapes using acrylics – reading and writing poetry, French literature and culture, and enjoying nature, both as a walker and gardener.

David Pearson

“I am a strong communicator with considerable successful experience both in the UK and overseas in all aspects of banking and finance, organisational design, development and change, banking and corporate law, coaching, training, internal and external communications, networking and public speaking”

Having gained extensive experience at a major clearing bank, David Pearson swapped the commercial world for consultancy in 1996. He is now able to use this knowledge to offer our clients excellent training courses focused on banking, finance in business and related management disciplines.

In addition to his work as a trainer, David is a Justice of the Peace and Magistrate and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) – a force for social progress and enlightened thinking.

David is fascinated by British history and loves visiting historic sites, undertaking historical research and writing. His particular interest is commercial railway history, and he’s a published author of several books and papers. Such is his interest in railways that he is director ofplanning and external resources for the Keighley& Worth Valley Railway, where he’s also a guard. A keen driver (he has an MG and Jaguar), he also owns the steam locomotive that was the star of the film The Railway Children, in which he was an extra – rather more years ago than he cares to remember!

Dorothy Foote

“My combined experience as an HR practitioner, academic and commercial consultant gives me an in-depth and robust insight into to the needs of organisations in developing and engaging their people”

Dorothy Foote has more than 25 years’ experience in human resources, training, academia and consultancy work across a wide range of organisations and sectors, and has been working with Matchett since 2008. Following a distinguished career as a principal lecturer and divisional leader in a university business school, Dorothy left academia to concentrate on consultancy and training work in 2008, specialising in organisation and talent development. Her work includes delivery of action learning based training and talent development strategies for senior and middle level managers.

Dorothy is also a tutor on Manchester Open Learning’s CIPD programmes.

In addition to her academic agility, Dorothy is a fitness enthusiast, and enjoys running, walking and working out at the gym. During 2010, she completed a sponsored trek across the Sahara desert.

Richard Lock

“I believe in delivery of strong commercial results through engagement with people”

Richard Lock gained extensive experience in general and senior management roles before becoming a management development consultant. He has worked with Matchett since 2009, delivering highly effective training in the area of performance management and personal development.

He is continually developing his learning and an understanding about alternative approaches and strategies. This gives him a degree of freedom to achieve some personal goals, especially those focused on travel and new experiences.

Richard has taken on the role of non-executive director of a local business and also runs an investment club – he is especially interested in investment as part of personal development.

Richard is keen to be involved in community activity. A school governor for many years, he is now trying to develop a children’s centre locally. And Richard also plays lead guitar in a band!

David Bell

“I have a lifelong passion for innovation, exceptional performance and working with individuals, teams and organisations to unleash their true creative potential in the midst of constant change”

David Bell is not your normal kind of trainer. Practical, straight, simple and honest, his style and reputation are built on a background of “doing stuff” rather than “theorising about doing it in a classroom” – an approach that appeals to many clients. His motto: “When all is said and done, more gets said than done,” he says. “And with that in mind, I aim to help people, teams and businesses buck that trend and turn their talk into action, their soft skills into hard currency.”

A highly experienced and respected global business consultant, and much in demand as an international speaker, David delivers with a natural authority, confidence and humour, drawing from a life that has seen several unorthodox twists and turns: aged 21, David was an internationally acclaimed vocalist performing at The Royal Albert Hall, Royal Ascot, Buckingham Palace and on the BBC; at 23, he was wearing the global sales crown for an air express courier.

Now a leadership coach, facilitator and expert on managing change and improving performance at individual, team and organisational levels, when David is not delivering compelling training he continues to perform internationally with his own orchestras as well as composing TV, web and film scores and soundtracks.

Richard Rogers

“My energy and creativity are matched only by my ability to drive people well beyond their perceived limits. The results surprise and delight those who work with me – they generally come back for more”

Following a successful career in software sales and consultancy, Richard Rogers now specialises in developing high performance communicators and teams. He has developed a unique portfolio of innovative learning events for groups of up to 160 people across all industry sectors. He believes passionately in ‘the relationship’ – that is, closely following an individual or a team right through the development cycle. He still works regularly with people he trained 15 years ago.

Today, his speciality courses include: team building through innovative learning; presentation, stagecraft and power speaking; negotiation; sales; creativity and facilitating creative-thinking sessions; building confidence; leadership development; trainer training and development; and, personal impact.

Another of Richard’s passions is music, and he has his own recording studio where he writes and records his own compositions. He uses music quite heavily in his training and has raised well over £100,000 for charity through a team-building event called ‘Face The Music’.

Robert Britton

“Decisions and actions taken by everyone in an organisation, irrespective of level or function, will impact on its financial performance. The programmes I deliver are specifically designed to show how to ensure that the impact is positive and value-adding “

Having gained extensive experience of the financial world during a long career with a major regional bank, Robert Britton has been delivering highly relevant courses on finance for Matchett’s clients since 2006.

In addition to his work for us, Robert is an associate tutor with Leicester University’s Centre for Labour Market Studies, and recently stood down as an associate lecturer with the IFS School of Finance. Robert specialises in providing finance training, also delivering courses on strategic management, operations management, risk awareness and corporate governance.

Robert has written a number of study guides on corporate financial management, financial reporting and management accounting, and e-learning modules on financial analysis. Away from work, he enjoys sport and is a loyal supporter of Somerset County Cricket Club and Yeovil Town FC. His other interests include gardening and garden design, history (the Stuart period) and musical theatre.

Tony Combellack

“I am passionate about personal development and learning, and as such I am well versed in accelerated learning techniques”

Tony Combellack is a highly skilled communicator, NLP practitioner and IPD-qualified professional with an inspirational and motivational style of training, coaching and facilitation. As a leadership and management trainer he is experienced in the design and delivery of results-orientated programmes that make a difference, especially in the areas of customer service, negotiating, influencing and presentation. He also specialises in leadership training and teambuilding.

Tony has a great sense of humour and participants on his courses can be guaranteed an enjoyable time as well as a valuable learning experience. Exuding energy, creativity and a sense of fun, he works well with individuals and teams who are in the ‘front line’ of organisations. Feedback ranges from “excellent tutor” to “a life-changing experience”.

Tony also uses his excellent presentation skills outside work in public-speaking competitions and debates. He enjoys tennis and weight training, and is a member of the National Trust.

Stephen Pearce

“Through a blend of listening, challenging, suggesting and inspiring I enable people to develop skills and attitudes that lead to tangible change and results for the individual and the business”

Stephen Pearce is an experienced and respected trainer, coach and facilitator. He combines a thorough understanding of business issues and the learning process, ensuring that any training event he delivers is focused, challenging and leads to growth and change.

Stephen has worked with organisations throughout Britain and across EMEA. He has extensive experience in analysing training needs and designing, developing, implementing and evaluating learning programmes. He is able to build trust with learners quickly, facilitating honest reflection on current behaviour and performance.

Stephen delivers standard length courses and shorter training events. He is comfortable working with small teams, large groups and delivering one-to-one coaching programmes, working with all levels within organisations.

Away from work, Stephen has two children – who keep him both busy and fascinated – and a love of the theatre. He thoroughly enjoys participating in and watching productions.