SUSIE BARRON-STUBLEY

Susie Barron-Stubley, Managing Director of Castalia Coaching & Training, has coached and trained thousands of EAs & PAs around the world, from Beijing to Bangkok and Shanghai to Singapore. She is a Judge of The Times/Hays PA of the Year Awards and creator of The Secrets of Top Performing PAs training DVDs and presenter of Castalia’s flagship residential training programme for senior management assistants: The PA Retreat. She has a passion matched by few for the professional and personal development of PAs & EAs and has worked with some of the highest level and influential Executive PAs and Assistants in the corporate, government and celebrity fields. Her motivational and innovative training has changed the working practices of thousands of PAs & EAs around the world. She is a regular speaker at international PA conferences and summits and regularly writes articles for national publications on the professional development of Executive PAs.

LAURA BELGRADO

Laura Belgrado has been the EA to Frank McCosker, MD Global Strategic Accounts, Microsoft Corporation, for the past 7 years. GSA has enabled her to manage, organise and operate across a complex business matrix around the world. The GSA external model and network focuses on business and innovating through partnership where her strengths such as supervisory skills, managing of Vendors, coaching team members and partners for finance and organising purposes have played an important part within the team and organisation. Due to the extensive travel of Laura’s Manager their EA/Manager relationship is almost 90% Virtual. This has proven to be quite challenging at times but Laura’s experience and the communication skills her and Frank have established makes them a prime example of the new world of work. Laura also has a passion for the future of PAs/EAs and has obtained her coaching license. Over the past 2 years Laura has also become a regular speaker at International PA Conferences to share her passion, knowledge and to motivate her audience for the future and development of Executive Assistants.

YVONNE BIGNALL & SIOBHAN BROWN

This session is co-presented by Yvonne Bignall, Associate Trainer at Reed Learning and Siobhan Brown, Commercial Director at Hotel Chocolat. Yvonne started a joint venture in 2006 to deliver motivational leadership and customer service training to the hospitality and leisure industry. She now works with women around personal development both for business and for personal well being utilising coaching and training techniques. Yvonne delivers a range of professional development courses from commercial awareness, marketing, customer service, people management and personal effectiveness to PA-specific courses. Her style is hands on, inspirational and fun with a strong focus on encouraging others to take action and make the difference they wish to see. Siobhan has over 25 years experience in B2B sales. Her sales career started in 1983 within a division of Proctor & Gamble selling cosmetics and fragrances to the retail sector. Siobhan joined Hotel Chocolat as Head of Corporate Sales in 2005 and in January 2009 her role was extended to encompass the consumer sales teams.

COLIN BROUWER-INCE

Since leaving school Colin has worked for international firms such as PwC, the Inland Revenue, two well known Law Firms as well as smaller business, predominantly for female bosses.  Colin has also run his own successful events company. For the past 18 months Colin has worked for Sheffield Hallam University, which is one of the most successful modern higher education institutions and was the 5th most popular choice amongst perspective students last year.  This role also encompasses another area of his interests – PR and Communications. Away from work, Colin is a Trustee for a local charity, and involved with the IPA as an regional co-ordinator.  In his spare, with his partner, he is refurbishing a 300 year property to run as a Bed & Breakfast.

IAN CALDECOURT

With a career in learning & development spanning over 20 years, Ian Caldecourt brings a vast level of experience to this event. A regular presenter at conferences for Office Professionals and other L&D events, Ian specialises in bringing a real life approach to his sessions. His informal, energetic delivery engages the audience and gives them many golden nuggets to take back to the workplace.

DEBBIE CAMERON

Debbie started her career working in a Sales & Marketing Agency based in West Minster, Kent, helping a sales Team manage their clients and ensuring that orders were fulfilled.  A role which grew into account management and corporate hospitality for some of the companies blue chip clients such as Philips Electronics, Esso, Readers Digest, BMW and Nissan. The catalyst for change came following the death of a close friend, when Debbie packed her bags and headed for Africa for a well needed sabbatical.  Upon her return to the UK, she set out for a career in the Motor Industry and with the change in direction a new corporate ladder to climb.  Starting out in customer services, with a personal ambition to increase retention, the role soon progressed into marketing and after a couple of years into Management.  The wonder-lust never left and following 8yrs Deborah set out to be her own boss and advised independent franchised motor dealerships across the UK. Debbie was approached to manage the Institute of Directors (IoD) Kent Office for 6mths maternity cover back in 2005.  During this time she managed her existing clients and the demands of a busy office, but enjoyed being based back in Kent. Today, Debbie is the full time manager of the IoD Kent Branch and has to cope with the diverse temperaments of the members of the two voluntary committees as well as the smooth running and administration of a branch that puts on over 70 events a year, for the benefit of its members.

DAWN CAREY

Dawn Carey was awarded ‘PA of the Year 2010’, having demonstrated her dedication and effectiveness within this demanding role. Starting out as a clerk typist, Dawn set her sights high, aspiring to be PA to  a Managing Director by her twenties.  Since achieving this she has expanded her knowledge and skill set, and has become a key member of the decision making team, whose input is always sought and valued. In the last year, Dawn has helped raise National Friendly’s community role, playing an active part in charitable fundraising activities, presented to local schoolchildren regarding career opportunities, measurably improved office efficiency, and presented to PAs on the topic of Personal Development Planning. Dawn is committed to seeking opportunities to raise the profile of the PA and ways in which she can give something back to the community.

Greg Davies can draw on over twenty years experience in workplace compliance. He has experience in many different subject areas (legionella, fire, asbestos, health and safety, sustainability, access audits and energy management) and has worked with most market sectors. He is a recognised Expert Witness and has been involved in various investigations including the legionella outbreak in Barrow-in-Furness in August 2002. He has spent his time in the industry helping to shape corporate compliance in health, safety and environmental issues. With his extensive working knowledge Greg is a regular speaker and trainer in the Facilities Management industry, most recently for British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM), and the Building Services Research and Information Association (BISRA). He often contributes to the facilities management industry press and has recently featured in the national press on sustainability and energy. He is an influencer within the industry, inspiring those responsible for producing and enforcing legislation i.e. the Health Protection Agency (HPA) and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH). Greg is a keen and sometimes useful cricketer, a wine connoisseur and has so far managed to visit four of the seven continents. He lives in Surrey with his wife and two children.

DEBS EDEN

Debs is an award winning PA with twenty years experience not only as a PA but also in global event management, operational business management and as a graduate programme manager.  In 2011, she made a career move into training within the PA profession whilst also working as a freelance virtual assistant providing professional PA support to individuals and companies in the UK.  Her main areas of work are the design and delivery of training to the PA community; public speaking in both the PA community and the UK charity sector; and individual mentoring and personal development of PAs. In the training arena, she has worked with large companies, SMEs and individuals with clients including Hays plc, The Co-Operative Financial Services plc and The Jessie May Trust. In October 2007, she was named as Executive PA magazine’s ‘PA of the Year’ and used the award to begin her career as a public speaker with engagements such as the National Executive PA Conference in Brighton in 2008; the launch of the Hard Rock Cafe’s PA network in 2009 and CIPFA Northern Ireland’s PA conference in Belfast in 2010.

SUE FRANCE

Sue France (FCIPD), UK Chairman for EUMA, Author of “The Definitive Personal Assistant & Secretarial Handbook”, The UK Times Crème/DHL PA of the Year 2006, NLP Practitioner. Sue France is an habitual networker and an internationally renowned motivational speaker, coach and trainer. Sue is the UK Chairman for European Management Assistants (EUMA), a voluntary secretarial networking organisation. Sue has worked in the secretarial field for over 30 years and studied part time as a mature student to be awarded a post graduate diploma in human resource management. Sue then became training manager responsible for 600 secretaries in the UK and is a Fellow member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Following her boss’s nomination, Sue won the prestigious award of The UK Times Crème DHL PA of the year 2006 and also was a finalist in the European Smart PA of the Year 2007. Sue is an NLP Practitioner. Effective networking has helped Sue gain work in Dubai, Cyprus, Ireland, Johannesburg, Qatar, Bahrain, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Kenya, France, Switzerland, Germany and the UK.

BRIAN FORTUNE

Come to our demonstration session to see how the award winning range of ScanSnap scanners can drastically change the way you work, increasing efficiency and boosting productivity whilst at the same time reducing costs and freeing your time up to do other tasks. See how we can allow you to clear your desk of all your old paperwork and process new paperwork, scanning to a variety of formats and distribute to email, database packages, create editable versions within office applications, to cloud applications, to SharePoint and even to a network. We will have the truly portable ScanSnap S1100 on show, the desktop S1300, S1500 and S1500M for PC and Mac environments as well as the networkable N1800. Bring your documents along and we can show you how to truly revolutionise your daily work processes.

JACQUELINE GOLD

Jacqueline Gold is one of Britain’s most successful businesswomen. As Chief Executive of Ann Summers and Knickerbox, she’s become known as the “woman responsible for bringing sex to the high street”. But Jacqueline can also take responsibility for making the Ann Summers family business one of the most profitable private companies in the UK with a gross annual sales turnover at over £150 million – earning her a place in Britain’s 100 Most Influential Women. Jacqueline’s inspiring business journey began at the age of 21. While working at her father’s business she saw the potential in taking lingerie and sex toys to women in their homes and creating the Ann Summers’ Party. Learning the hard way, Jacqueline worked her way through the ranks before being made Chief Executive in 1987 and creating an empire run by women, for women. Among Jacqueline’s many accolades, she’s been voted the second Most Powerful Woman in Retail by Retail Week, the Most Inspirational Businesswoman in the UK (Barclays Bank), one of Britain’s Business Icons (Nat West Bank), and one of Britain’s Top Businesswomen by publications including Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Woman, and Good Housekeeping. She is a columnist for Retail Week, New Business, Kent Business and Women Mean Business magazine.

IAN GOLDING

Ian has been running professional training programmes for Reed Learning for over five years. Ian’s fifteen years’ experience as part of an award-winning professional theatre company allows him to provide unique and innovative techniques drawn from theatrical traditions across the world to help delegates increase their confidence, charm and charisma. Ian’s relaxed style creates a safe environment for delegates to thoroughly explore all aspects of their self-image and personal projection.

MICHAEL HISLOP

After university, Michael trained as a London tourist guide (and still has a blue badge to prove it) and enjoyed several years touring the UK with an extraordinary variety of overseas visitors. A brief spell in local government  followed, but tourism experience led him into publishing, first a small magazine for BITOA, then into trade newspapers and directories, and also exhibition sales. After a long career in publishing and exhibitions, Michael founded The PA Club having been told by many clients that top PAs and Executive Assistants were exactly the people they wanted to get to know. The PA Club was conceived as a membership organisation for top PAs and EAs. It began in Canary Wharf, but has since branched out across London and the UK, and now runs events in several countries overseas, including the Netherlands, The Czech Republic, and Germany, with more to follow. Watch this space!

CLIVE JAMES

Clive James is Training Development Manager at St John Ambulance, the nation’s leading first aid charity. He has been a first aid trainer for 15 years, teaching a range of first aid-related courses to businesses and the general public. He also provides training on workplace health and safety issues, such as risk assessments, HSE regulations and stress awareness. As well as his paid employment Clive has been a volunteer member of St John Ambulance for 35 years, providing and managing first aid cover at events such as The Flora London Marathon. Prior to St John Ambulance he worked as an ambulance technician for 10 years, six of those with the London Ambulance Service.

LOUISA JAMES

Louisa has worked for Jamie Oliver Limited since May 2005, where she started as PA to Tara Donovan, Managing Director. Her role quickly expanded as she began to take on additional project management duties, including the production of a Christmas Special DVD and Nintendo DS game. More recently, Louisa has also managed the creation, development and launch of a number of award-winning cooking apps, as well as working on a number of other commercial endorsements for the company.

ALISON KEMP

Alison Kemp is a member of the training faculty at Reed Learning and Director of Switch Vision Ltd. She’s been delivering programmes for PAs, secretaries and managers for over ten years, having spent her earlier career setting up three theatre schools and working as a voiceover artist. She has also worked in television, most recently as a presenters’ script writer for the Eurovision Song Contest. She has an LGSM Teaching Diploma in Speech, Presentation & Drama from the London Guildhall School of Music & Drama and is a Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). Recent clients include Shell, the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, and Texas Instruments.

MARGUERITA KING

Marguerita King is the founder and Managing Director of Personal-Assistant-Tips.com, a free resource website for PAs. Marguerita recently wrote the 2-day Executive PA Masterclass which was delivered in Dubai in Jan 2011 and was over-subscribed and well received. As an APA recommended Consultant PA Mentor Marguerita brings a wealth of knowledge to PAs in need of advice and encouragement. With over 25 years PA experience in the public and private sectors, Marguerita understands the challenges facing PAs in both sectors. As a Membership Executive with the APA Marguerita has worked closely with the APA to raise the profile of PAs and has written a number of best practice articles for the APA’s members’ knowledge zone. Marguerita’s hands-on experience of setting up a website, and the Webmaster duties that has entailed have provided the knowledge and skills to compile a one-hour seminar called Understanding Internet Tools.

CARMEN MACDOUGAL

Founder of ‘Confident Women’ and ‘The VA Coaching and Training Company’ Carmen is more than a coach and trainer, she’s a real part of what she delivers and is highly enthusiastic about the support she provides. By fully employing her coaching skills and her passion in supporting people to move beyond what they would ever have imagined possible, Carmen’s clients find her truly inspiring and motivating as they experience achieving their life-long dreams or breaking through their personal or career barriers. “Carmen’s listening skills, coupled with her professionalism and sound advice, have equipped me with the confidence I needed to proceed with my venture.” S.J. Carmen established herself as a Virtual Assistant when made redundant from her Executive PA role, then went on to train as a life and business coach and qualified as a master in neuro linguistic programming. She specialises in providing training and coaching for women to make breakthroughs in their life and work. She also is the UK’s specialist in training PAs to set up as a Virtual Assistant. She’s 40 years young, married with 3 young children, loves food, films, walking and good music!

PAUL PENNANT

Paul started www.todaysPA.co.uk with a clear vision: to take his own experiences as a PA, office manager and business director and create training courses that meet the challenging real-world needs and aspirations of modern business professionals.  From this vision came www.todaysPA.co.uk flagship course ‘Today’s PA’ – a development programme for the modern PA.

LISA POTTER-DIXON

Lisa Potter-Dixon is Benefit UK’s lead beauty artist and events manager. With 10 years of experience in the industry, she has a wealth of knowledge to help take you from “Now to Wow”!

CHRIS POWELL

Chris knows a thing or two about how to deliver successful events. He has been designing, planning and delivering events for the past 17 years, as a local authority events manager and director of a range of festivals and corporate events. Specialising in providing his clients with a complete service, from event conception to event completion (and everything in between) Chris’ overriding aim is to ensure that everyone who attends your events has a worthwhile and enjoyable experience, packed full of great take away memories. Chris passionately believes in the value, importance and tremendous impact that great events can have on business and private lives, and has always been delighted to help organisations and individuals deliver events they can.

LAURA RICHARDSON

 Laura began her career in marketing, and was lucky enough to work on a number of Britain’s best loved brands, including Wall’s Ice Cream, Flora Margarine and Peperami. Laura joined ELEXON in February 2008 as PA to the CFO. Within three months she had been promoted to PA to the Chairman, CEO and CFO, and in addition to her PA duties was appointed to a number of projects and forums. Her active involvement on a range of companywide initiatives earned her the promotion of EA to the CEO. As the most senior assistant in her company, Laura now manages her own assistant and works to expand and promote the roles of other PAs within ELEXON. Laura was absolutely delighted to win the Hays and The Times PA of the Year Award 2010, since winning she has enjoyed presenting to PAs across the country at numerous PA events.

PAUL RICHARDSON

Paul’s career in learning and development spans the last 15 years, during which time he has managed the delivery of a number of successful strategic projects across a wide range of industries, most recently helping Rolls-Royce Engineering develop a global competency model for their Project Management community. Paul’s area of expertise is project and programme management and he is a qualified PRINCE2 Practitioner and Approved Trainer and he also holds the APMP qualification through the APM. Using his relaxed, informal approach, he is able to show how good, simple project management methods can be utilised in any business environment to achieve success.

NATALIE ROBINSON

After studying A Levels in English Literature, Theatre and Psychology Natalie decided to undergo a BA honours degree in Social Policy and Politics. During this period, she took her first tentative foray into fashion by organising a number of well received clothes shows and events. The ensuing success established Natalie’s innate artistic flair and illustrated her gift for visual creativity and styling innovation. In turn, this brief phase instigated her long term passion for fashion and determined her future as a personal stylist. Style Icon’s Natalie Robinson; noted celebrity stylist has over 10 years experience in the fashion industry. Natalie set up Style Icon in 2005, and is  known for styling & consulting countless celebrities, and high net-worth clients, generally people from all walks of life as well as organising a number of well-received fashion shows, and events. Natalie currently works with London Fashion Week, London Fashion Weekend, Clothes Show, and has featured in numerous magazines and appeared on BBC London News. Style Icon offers a number of personal styling packages for men & women from all professional backgrounds, and celebrities who do not have the time to shop; tailor-made to suit your lifestyle, and wardrobe needs.

DR MONICA SEELEY

Dr Monica Seeley, founder of Mesmo Consultancy has spent the last fifteen years coaching and teaching people to use email more effectively to improve personal and business performance. Her new book Brilliant Email has just been published. As the ‘Emaildoctor’ on Twitter – Monica posts daily tips on smart email management. For more information about Dr Seeley and Mesmo Consultancy see either www.mesmo.co.uk or www.brilliant-email.com.

JEAN SUTCLIFFE

Jean Sutcliffe has been a learning and development specialist for ten years, and has considerable experience in research, design and delivery of Office Professional programmes. Jean is a regular presenter at Office Professional conferences where she can pass on experience and knowledge through her passionate and interactive delivery. Jean spent 20 years working for Barclays Bank as a Senior PA to a Board Director, which equipped her with a wealth of practical experience and knowledge for the Office Professional.