HEATHER BAKER

Heather Baker had over 20 year’s of secretarial/PA experience before establishing Baker Thompson Associates in 2000. She worked for ICI and Hewlett Packard, spent 5 years in France as PA to the Commercial Director of Cognac Hine, and then 10 years with Granada Media working up to Personal Assistant to the Managing Director. Heather holds a Paris Chamber of Commerce bilingual secretarial diploma and she is a Certified NLP Practitioner. She travels all over Great Britain and the Channel Islands to motivate and develop staff in many different organisations. She gives presentations at PAs and secretarial seminars and delivers courses in the Middle and Far East. Heather conceived the BakerWrite system of speedwriting and her book on the subject was published in May.

SUSIE BARRON-STUBLEY

Susie Barron-Stubley is a highly respected coach and trainer, who has worked with some of the highest level, influential Executive Assistants around the world. As Managing Director of Castalia Coaching & Training, a specialist company dedicated to the personal and professional development of PAs, she supports PAs to set ambitious standards and challenge the established boundaries of their perceived roles. Having spent 10 years herself as a PA and Executive Assistant, her unique insight into the world of the Executive PA brings a distinct quality and depth to her specialist development programmes.

KAY BUCKBY

Kay Buckby is a facilitator who likes people, which is why she loves the job she does! Kay is as comfortable speaking in front of 150 people as she is training, facilitating and one– to-one coaching. Her favourite subject areas are communication, interpersonal skills and networking skills. Having worked as a PA to a Sales team and as an Executive PA, she has over 20 year’s of experience to share with others. She is also an Ambassador for Northamptonshire – so keep her off the subject of the County of her ancestors or you won’t be able to shut her up!

IAN CALDECOURT

With a career in Learning& Development spanning over 20 years, Ian Caldecourt brings a vast level of experience to the conference. A regular presenter at conferences for the Office Professional 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.

SUE FRANCE

Sue France is an author, trainer and coach for PAs, and also the UK Chairman for European Management Assistants, a voluntary secretarial networking organisation for the development of PAs. Sue worked her way up from being a typist to a secretarial training manager of a global accounting firm by attending University as a part time student, where she went on to be awarded a post graduate diploma in human resource management and became a Fellow member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Sue worked at Persuasion as PA to the Founder, and as a coach and trainer of PAs in the UK and overseas, she now owns her own training company.

CHRIS HOAR

Chris Hoar started his career working in the oil and gas industries in the 1980’s before moving to construction where he was Sales and Marketing Director for Rosser and Russell then Norwest Holst. After Norwest Holst he moved back to Compass Group as Sales and Marketing Director in the UK. From Compass he returned to construction by becoming Sales and Marketing Director for St Gobain, the French construction group in the UK. When he left St Gobain he set up his own consulting business helping SMEs in Berkshire, one of which he eventually joined one as Commercial Director (@UK); finally being part of the team that floated the company on the London Stock Exchange. After a short sabbatical he joined the FMA as Director General.

ISABEL KENNEDY

Isabel Kennedy has over ten year’s experience working with Reed Learning as a senior trainer. Prior to this, she worked as an HR Manager for Marks & Spencer, having worked through their notoriously demanding Graduate training programme. Isabel is a highly experienced and diverse Learning and Development practitioner, having developed and delivered several specialist training programmes across a number of public and private sectors. These include Health Care, Welfare to work, Education, Finance and Engineering. She has proven her expertise in both sales and management and HR, including the design and implementation of a new appraisal system for Marks & Spencer, and numerous learning events within the field of Employment Law.

DANIELLE LITTLEJOHN

Danielle Littlejohn is a dynamic and engaging permanent trainer for Reed concentrating on specialist programmes aimed at secretarial and support staff. Prior to becoming a trainer, she built up 11 year’s of experience working as a member of various support staff teams within the industries of Food, Finance and Law. Having worked her way up the ladder across a diverse range of organisations she has a thorough understanding of the enormous variations of requirement in similar sounding roles. Dani has found her extensive experience as an Executive Assistant as well as her substantial HR background, a real advantage in understanding and appreciating the needs of delegates on the Professional PA and Secretarial Skills Certificate.

CARMEN MACDOUGAL

An internationally recognised Master Neuro Linguistic Confidence Coach, and Trainer, Carmen MacDougal has helped over 700 PAs boost their confidence in their career change or progression – helping them to reach their personal and professional potential. As well as helping many to start and run their own successful business, many as a Virtual Assistant. She is considered the marketleader in the VA industry having founded The National VA Conference & Awards in 2007 and is MD for the International Association of VAs (iava.org.uk). Carmen is a regular motivational and business speaker around the UK and Europe supporting the PA industry, she is an author as well as a mum to two young daughters.

JULIA MULLIGAN

Julia Mulligan began her career in the publishing industry, where she promoted a wide range of books and magazines to consumers and the trade. Following a move into the advertising world, Julia spent ten years working on major accounts in the UK and overseas. Then, after a spell as Marketing Director of the Racing Post, she set up Sixteen Hands in her hometown of Leeds. Current clients include a mixture of national and local businesses whilst the work covers the full marketing mix, including online. Julia combines marketing expertise with hands-on skills, which means she understands the practical needs of office professionals.

ROSEMARY PARR

Rosemary Parr established The Global PA Network in 2006. It’s a network that offers career advice, recruitment, training and motivation to office professionals across the world. The network has established links in Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Mauritius, Australia, Spain, Ireland and the UK. Rosemary is a former PA herself, and she believes passionately in supporting and developing individuals in the workplace to be the best they can be. Her vision lead to working in collaboration with Kingston University Business School on the largest academic research ever undertaken into the Secretarial/PA Profession. This research has highlighted the need for more career training and development for office professionals. BT Conferencing support the Global PA Network and together they reach an audience of thousands of PAs and offer them motivational webinars and advice on using conferencing within their role.

NICKY PATTINSON

Nicky Pattinson is not like anyone else you’ll ever meet. Funny, direct, surprisingly gentle and empathic amazingly intuitive …and yes – quite often manic!!! You’d have to be a dab hand at creating a tale like this one. Real-life northern drama, comedy, tragedy, crime and passion, and a story that, when told, reduces audiences to tears of sadness, joy and ultimately lifts them to new highs of hope and ambition. Yes, it’s a good one. Nicky has effectively rewritten the books on forging business relationships with companies which, up to then, had only been her client’s dreams. They watched in amazement, as she opened the doors to hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of new business, and made a name for herself, which has spread as fast as her reputation has continued to grow. “When we met I couldn’t decide if she was a deluded crazy girl – or a motivation genius. Let me categorically state, it’s the latter” Tim Davey, Chairman, Northside Mercedes.

PAUL RICHARDSON

Paul brings to the classroom a wealth of experience working in project environments for a number of large organisations, most notably Rolls-Royce, with whom he has helped develop a global competency model for their Project Management community. His anecdotal style and ability to relate the content of the course to real life, make for a truly rich learning experience, a world away from the dreaded ‘Death by PowerPoint’ approach to training! Paul is a qualified PRINCE2 Practitioner and Approved Trainer and has also attained the APMP qualification through the APM.

ROBERT RUSSELL

Robert Russell (PhD) is the founder of personal development company MindsetSynergy. His current focus is running personal development and stress management courses, his therapy practice at London’s Hale Clinic, supporting his clients on a one-to-one basis, and motivating company staff to perform at their full potential. He trains students to become therapists in Hypnotherapy, NLP and CBT and helps support sportsmen and women achieve their goals by positive visualisation. Along with his existing private practice and course work, Robert has made several guest appearances on British, European, American and Australian television programmes discussing numerous aspects of his work and has been regularly featured in the national and international press.

DR MONICA SEELEY

Dr Monica Seeley, founder of Mesmo Consultancy, is an international leading expert on email best practice. She specialises in enabling organisations and individuals to manage their inbox more effectively to improve business performance. Drawing on a wealth of experience Dr Seeley’s workshops are pragmatic, very amusing and provide plenty of food for thought on how to manage your time at the inbox. Monica is a Senior Visiting Fellow at Sir John Cass Business School, City University. Her research studies include the use of social networking tools to gain sustainable business benefits. Monica is a respected commentator on the effective strategic use of electronic communications. Until 2008 she was author of The Times Crème Section column ‘PC stress Busters’ and is co-author of ‘Managing in the Email Office’.

JEAN SUTCLIFFE

Jean Sutcliffe has been a learning and development specialist for ten years, and has considerable experience in research, design and delivery of personal development 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…

SHILPA WYMER

Managing Director of the Pitman Training Centres in London’s Holborn and Notting Hill has a passion for workplace efficiency. “Being the mother of a 3 year old daughter while managing two teams of staff in our busy training centres means using every trick in the book to get the most productivity out of every hour at work, otherwise I’d never get home!” she exclaims.

Shilpa’s drive for super efficiency started prior to joining the Pitman Training network when she was Managing Director of Hotlines Call Centre Group, operating call centres in London, Glasgow and Mumbai, while her training background started when she was Training Manager for Fidelity Investments. Today, Shilpa will share how Microsoft Office, keyboard skills and effective business communication can really help you stand out from the crowd while rescuing you from the treadmill of deadlines and working pressures.

ANNA ROZYK

Anna Rozyk is Assistant Training Manager at Pitman Training in London’s High Holborn and is responsible for helping up to 1000 students achieve their training goals every year. Highly educated with BA degrees in both Political Studies and HR Management, Anna also has a Masters degree in European Studies. A real self-starter, she is an experienced IT trainer and Anna will today demonstrate how to create PowerPoint presentations that will make even the most challenging subject sparkle.

MARK SLATTERY

Mark Slattery is a Director at HR Insight Limited with over ten years experience in general management and HR management roles and has supported businesses in a wide variety of sectors. He has considerable experience working with directors to develop and implement people strategies that support their businesses, tackling clients’ critical employment issues and mentoring and coaching directors and managers to manage their staff more effectively.

Areas of specialism include organisational restructuring and reorganisation projects, the development of performance review and reward systems and the development of management and supervisory skills through a variety of training and development media. Mark is well regarded for his ability to present in a clear and uncomplicated way, offering many practical real-life case histories and examples.