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The Team

The Excel Communications team are a group of world class development professionals, harnessing expertise gained from a diversity of business backgrounds. Our training team is dedicated to providing outstanding solutions - to achieve outstanding results.  The outcome of our work has measurably improved performance, motivation, profitability and productivity for organisations around the world.

Meet the Excel Communications Training Team

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Rob Hayes

Rob's current role encompasses a combination of strategic business planning, business development, account management and design and delivery of training and workshops to a variety of blue chip clients.  He has been with Excel for 12 years during which time he has developed a substantial client base and been largely responsible for the record sales success and profitability of Excel in recent years.  He is a highly regarded trainer and executive coach in areas such as presentation skills, coaching, leadership and sales.  He believes learning should be challenging, enjoyable and result focussed and is renowned as an engaging speaker.

Initiatives have included:

  • Working across 8 industries in 22 countries on a variety of successful management, leadership and sales training programmes.
  • Designing and delivering a leadership programme for 200 managers in conjunction with Henley Management College.
  • Designing and implementing a leadership development and culture change programme for a major PR organisation.
  • A series of 1:1 executive coaching assignments to assist CEO's and senior managers maximise their performance.
  • Project managing a complete initial sales & product training programme for a major pharmaceutical company.

After a successful background in sales and management, Rob joined Excel in 1995 as a trainer and business developer.  He was appointed a director in 1998 and became Managing Director in 2005.  He has been instrumental in the successful growth and development of the Excel Group.  Rob is an NLP Master Practitioner, a Master Trainer for Power with Groups and a tutor at the Henley Management College.  He is also a certified sports coach.


Nic Hallett

Nic is one of Excel Communications' leading developers of teams and people.  Successful in blue chip sales, management, training and development he can now bring this background to your company.  Hands on experience includes interpersonal and team development, either as part of creating a high performance culture or managing the change brought about by strategic changes, mergers and acquisitions.

Nic also brings his proven track record of both one-to-one and group selling skills development, as well as training trainers.  He is certified in the use and application of NLP, MBTI, and FIRO-B - what a combination!


Andrew Waiton

Andrew joined the team in September 2006 as Head of Sales & Marketing for The Excel Academy.

The Excel Academy is a new service designed to help healthcare clients develop and support their Opinion Leader and Advocacy Development Programmes.

Andrew joined after spending five successful years with Innovex, where he worked in sales management and marketing roles in oncology, medical diagnostics and psychiatry.

With over 18 years' sales and marketing experience in blue chip healthcare companies, Andrew brings with him a wealth of knowledge and insight.  He has worked in a range of therapeutic areas, including asthma, cardiology, psychiatry, oncology, gastroenterology, ophthalmology and orthopaedics.

In many of these roles, Andrew was involved in developing and implementing Opinion Leader Programmes and it is his intimate familiarity with, and passion for this area of marketing communications that led him to Excel.

Andrew is a true expert in his field and many clients are already benefiting from his practical and innovative approach.


Guy Pinfold

Guy has a proven track record in consistently delivering high standard, results driven, communication, influencing and negotiation skills training. With an emphasis on fun and enjoyment the key outcome to all of Guy’s training is that delegates leave with skills that will have an immediate impact in their working lives.

Prior to joining Excel, Guy held field sales, man management, key account management and marketing roles within Coca-Cola Enterprises and was head of Sales Force Effectiveness for Bristol Myers Squibb pharmaceuticals.

He is engaging in style with a flexible and knowledgeable approach that allows everyone to take away both key learnings and their own very individual desired outcomes.

Guy is fully accredited by the Institute of Trainers and licensed to deliver worldwide the renowned Wilson Learning courses, Social Styles, Counsellor Salesperson and Versatile Sales Person.


Will Lakeman

After a successful career in account management and several years heading up training and development within the pharmaceutical industry, Will is one of Excel's senior Development Consultants. Equally at home leading challenging and stimulating workshops or managing large strategic projects, Will has built up a range of excellent partnerships with a wide variety of the group's blue chip clients.

Relaxed and engaging in style, his most frequently requested programmes include coaching, selling, presenting and communication skills. Will is a certified NLP Practitioner.


Sharon Newey

Sharon is passionate about working with people and assisting them to realise their true potential in the corporate arena. She believes that by working at a belief and values level, she is able to accelerate the shifts clients experience and achieves consistent behavioural change as a result.

With over 16 years of success in sales, training and management in the pharmaceutical industry, Sharon brings a wealth of experience and expertise to your business and her training role with Excel communications.

Specialising in Performance Coaching, Training Leaders to coach, Performance management - as part of a high performance culture, Persuasion and Influencing plus individual and group selling skills.

Sharon is a firm believer that people learn even faster when they are having fun. She designs and delivers highly interactive fun based workshops that deliver clients results….and has a great time doing it.

Sharon is a Master Practitioner and Certified Trainer of NLP, a Member of the International Coaching Federation (ICF), an Associate of the Robert Dilts Global Training Consultancy, a Member of Chartered Institute of Sales and Marketing Management and a Member of the Institute of Directors.


Deena Gornick

As a coach, Deena has worked with many clients internationally to bring their creativity and expression to the full. A professional performer for 15 years, the work that Deena does is coloured by the fact that she worked in the theatre both in the United States and in the United Kingdom.

She is passionate about bringing improved performance to the workplace using her skills as a director and an actor. Fun is a major value to her work, and in all the workshops and conferences she has led, this value underscores Deena's contribution. She is a trained counsellor, an NLP practitioner, and an assertiveness trainer.


Ralph Nelson-Tucker

Ralph is dedicated to improving personal performance in a corporate environment. A training and development professional, who has enjoyed a successful career in sales, sales management and training.
Ralph brings this experience to his training role at Excel Communications, where he specialises in sales, sales management, coaching, trainer training and presenting.

He brings a wealth of skill and knowledge, focussed on improving a wide range of communication and behavioural skills for greater interpersonal effectiveness.
Ralph holds diplomas in management and administration, psychometric profiling, Business Excellence and Coaching. He is a Certified NLP Practitioner and is fluent in French.


Andy Beech

Andy is an extremely experienced and inspirational leader of people, business manager, trainer, facilitator and coach. He focuses his time on enabling individuals, teams and whole organisations to go beyond what they thought was possible and achieve even greater results.

He firmly believes that the measure of his effectiveness is based on the results his clients achieve. He works closely with his customers to understand their business, their concerns and their hopes and dreams. He then works with them to produce tailored solutions that result in improved performances. His key areas of expertise are:

  • Enabling leaders of people to become great coaches using the 8 Skill Coaching Model
  • Dynamic facilitator of Insights Discovery for increased personal and team development
  • Enabling organisations to build more effective sales teams
  • Helping you create high performing teams

Andy is in demand from organisations large and small in Europe, USA as well as the UK


Hoda Lacey

Hoda is an experienced and qualified facilitator. She has worked internationally within organisations up to board level. She has a Masters Degree in Personal and Organisational Development.

Hoda's specialist areas include interpersonal skills, stress management, conflict resolution, management learning and communication. Hoda is an NLP Practitioner.


Mark De Cosemo

Although Mark's background is in all aspects of Sales Force Effectiveness, his real passion is in the design and delivery of bespoke training interventions around all aspects of communication. Mark's pragmatic approach to group and one-to-one work is built upon nearly 20 years of experience working in environments where results matter.

Mark is an experienced performance coach, incorporating a variety of tools to produce a unique personal approach. He is an NLP Master Practitioner and is a fully accredited BPS Level A (psychometric testing) Assessor.


Graham Smith

For many years Graham was a professional musician and song-writer. He starred in his own series on HTV and worked with such people as Eric Clapton, ELO, Al Stewart and Cat Stevens. Graham is a Master Practitioner of NLP and a Hypnotherapist.

He has taught pure NLP at Birbeck College, University of London. Graham's key skills include facilitating change, dealing with performance blocks and making learning fun.


Tony Bray


Tony brings to the Excel team a wide range of management and people skills, which he gained through first hand experience in a diversity of management roles within the telecommunications industry.
A long advocate of accelerated learning Tony ensures that all his courses and workshops offer a rich mixture of concepts and underlying theories, woven into a participative and empowering experience.

Tony is a published author on business topics, with cumulative sales approaching £2m. The titles reflect the range of training courses he delivers: from quality management to customer care; from team working to business writing; and from meeting skills to recruitment and selection.


Jilly Carter

Jilly Carter is an experienced media and presentation skills trainer, with over fifteen years experience in radio and television broadcasting, both in the UK and Europe. She began her journalistic career on Radio Daily American in Rome, Italy, before joining Radio Four's Presentation department as a writer and announcer.

She worked for eight years as a news presenter and reporter. Jilly read news bulletins on BBC Breakfast Time and News on the Hour, and was a newscaster on ITN's Into the Night.


Barbara Adamson

Barbara is a highly skilled, experienced facilitator and qualified coach with 20 years experience within a variety of industries and blue chip organisations. She has worked in the UK Europe and the USA. Her main areas of expertise are Communication, Leadership, Career Planning and transition, Emotional Intelligence and Personal Mastery.

She is a certified trainer of NLP and incorporates NLP thinking and techniques into her work.  She aims to create a significant positive difference in her work with people, enabling them to achieve and capitalise on their potential.  She designs and delivers practical, interactive and fun interventions that make a difference to how people think and feel.  She loves to enable participants to make shifts at the level of beliefs and values, which makes learning even easier.  She has a knack for making complex issues easy to understand.

She is fun, enthusiastic and inspirational.  She loves her work and does it with great empathy and energy.

She is also fluent in French.


Sue Ingham

Sue has over 16 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry. She worked in a series of roles, spending most of her time in training and sales management. Sue developed her coaching and training skills within this sector.

Areas of expertise: Performance management training and 1:1 coaching, Interviewing training and coaching, Presentation skills, Selling skills, Project management.

Sue has been working as a consultant since leaving the industry and has moved in the FMCG sector including many household names. These have included Performance Management Programmes as well as running training and development events across Europe for Leadership teams. Sue has gained a broad understanding of this market whilst in the organisation.

Sue has a naturally enthusiastic style and a keen desire to work with people to enhance their skills and motivations levels.


Phil Ingle

Phil is a very experienced sales and management development trainer, having worked with clients in a wide variety of applications. His assignments have included management skills for defence contractors, sales skills for legal services companies and customer service and change management for property services companies.

He is an enthusiastic and committed trainer and presenter, having originally developed his skills in financial services. Phil has a MBA from Cranfield University, is a Certified Master Practitioner in NLP, and has the Financial Planning Certificate. He is also Level A qualified in Psychometric Testing by the British Psychological Society.


Chris McCloskey

Chris is a Chartered Psychologist and Certified Trainer of NLP who specialises in the psychology of advanced personal communication in business. He is an experienced international trainer with a focus on the application of psychology in training and one-to-one coaching.

Chris has had significant senior management experience, managing multi-million budgets and diverse teams. His past lives include; Carmelite friar, teacher and educational psychologist! Chris is committed to others' learning development, helping them to open up their possibilities and capabilities to change. His style is relaxed, informal and not without humour!


Gill Pearson

Gillian has a reputation for designing and delivering innovative business solutions that make a real difference. As a trainer, coach and facilitator she is in constant demand for her ability to explain concepts clearly, make sense of complexity, to maintain interest and to motivate the groups with which she works.

Key areas of expertise include Project Management, Business Planning, Coaching, Managing & Motivating Teams as well as Selling & Negotiating.
Gill holds a BSc (Hons) PGCE and is a Certified Trainer of NLP.


Gerry Talbot

Gerry possesses enormous enthusiasm and demonstrates strong commitment to his desire to assist people in achieving their full potential.
His background is in sales management within the pharmaceutical industry - he
believes that success within this environment is wholly down to getting the most out of people by training them well.

With experience in consultancy, training design and delivery of training programmes that result in behavioural change, Gerry continues to bring his energy and expertise to the training environment with the overall aim of achieving the clients' goals.
Gerry is a NLP Master Practitioner and Certified Trainer in NLP.


Zena Knight

Zena has many years of sales, training and direct line-management experience. She is passionate about making learning both successful and enjoyable and specialises in training trainers to deliver professional, effective and memorable programmes.
Her business experience and NLP qualifications-ANLP (UK) and ABNLP (American Board of NLP) Master Practitioner and Certified NLP Trainer- along with her British Psychological Society level B status, underpin her interest in recruitment and development planning i.e. ensuring that organisations get the right people in the right jobs and then manage and motivate them in ways that will help to keep them there.

She enjoys diversity and this is reflected in her experience of working within a number of different business sectors providing 1:1 coaching, programme design and training delivery.

 

Peter Woodward

 

Peter's background is in Sales and Marketing, having started as a Medical Representative in the Pharmaceutical Industry.  Peter then moved successfully through Regional Sales Management, Product and Marketing Management, all with multi-national companies, and always with great emphasis on, and responsibility for, the Training and Development role.

Peter has worked on many projects involving technical sales people.  He specialised in communication skills - from behavioural to interpersonal skills, presentation to customer service skills, and selling, negotiation and consulting skills, in order to utilise his own experience and expertise in these areas to add extra value and meaning for the participants.

Outside of work, Peter's great passions are his family, rugby and travelling.

 

 

David Harrison

David is strongly committed to coaching individuals and teams to exceed their expectations.

Combining over twenty-five years of business experience with four years as a TV and film actor, he brings to Excel a uniquely entertaining and thought provoking training style.

He passionately believes that learning should be an enjoyable experience, and this is reflected in the types of sessions he designs and delivers. His innovative methods of coaching - either the skills and techniques to create a water colour painting or the technical circus skills to be able to deliver a performance - allows him to bring new challenges and insights for those who end up working outside their initial comfort zones. And after the fun everyone takes home clear and unique learnings for their world of business.

David is a respected conference speaker, regularly working with top teams and is also a speaker for the Academy for Chief Executives.


Nicki Lecky-Thompson

Nicki is a team turnaround consultant and trainer specialising in developing behavioural skills to generate passion and maximise effectiveness.  She has over 17 years experience working for and with blue chip organisations; over 9 years experience of training and facilitation with 6 years experience of consultancy and providing bespoke solutions.

Nicki is passionate that her learning solutions generate long term results and ensures her solutions are both memorable and applicable enabling her clients to remember their learnings and apply them back in the workplace.  As a master practitioner in NLP, all of Nicki’s training sessions and workshops are underpinned with NLP techniques and apply accelerated learning principles.  Nicki is a certified Master Practitioner of NLP, Time Line Therapy & Hypnosis and a certified facilitator of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People programme by Stephen Covey.


Terry McLean

Terry McLean is an experienced trainer based in Barcelona, Spain. He has a post graduate degree in Linguistics and has worked for 20 years as a teacher, teacher trainer, professional actor, director, corporate host and corporate presenter.

And it is in the corporate environment that Terry has been able to find a synthesis for all his experience.

From training teachers to directing actors; from interactive theatre, to handling 1000 GE sales conference delegates; from the discipline of TV and film, to training speakers in discipline; the same skills are involved.

Terry also speaks French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Italian, Catalan

Terry McLean specialises in...

Presentation Skills training ( intermediate and advanced) in English, French or Spanish; Presentation Skills training in English for non-native speakers ; Corporate Event hosting


Sarah Christie

Having spent 20 years successfully working in the City of London financial organisations and the past 10 years with the world’s leading TV production company, Sarah is an experienced manager, trainer and coach, her niche area focusing on personal excellence.  She is committed to helping professional and competent individuals develop curiosity about their potentially untapped abilities whilst removing limiting beliefs and hopefully having some fun along the way!

Relaxed and enthusiastic in style, Sarah brings warmth & humour to her coaching and training, bringing NLP techniques to life when delivering presentation skills, leadership, assertiveness and communicating with confidence.  Sarah is a certified NLP Master Practitioner and a qualified corporate coach.


Joanne Bonsey

Jo brings fifteen years experience in a broad range of professional roles in blue chip organisations, most recently within the pharmaceutical industry.  She has successfully gained experience within sales roles, training, medical information and customer services management.  Most latterly being responsible for the design and set up of a highly profitable, UK based outbound sales call centre including the recruitment and training of staff.

Jo is passionate about helping companies maximise the business potential of every contact they have with their customers, by creating training that motivates teams to provide customers with an outstanding and yet profitable experience.

Not surprisingly her areas of expertise include communicating effectively by telephone in customer service and sales environments, business process improvement, and project management. She also specialises in presentation skills and the communication of complex technical information to non-technical audiences.

Jo has a BSc (Hons) in Applied Biology and is an NLP Practitioner

 


Sally Fagan

Originally from a linguistic and sales background, Sally now specialises in soft skills development with a focus on all aspects of communication skills.  She has been successfully training for the last 16 years with all levels of management and professionals across Europe and Asia Pacific, both in her native English as well as in fluent German.  Sally also has good French and can get by in a number of other languages as well.  In the medical field, Sally has worked with pharmaceutical companies in both personal development and corporate merger and acquisition, as well as working on aspects of communications skills and recruitment with healthcare professionals in the UK.

Sally particularly enjoys delivering Presentation Skills because participants see and feel how quickly they improve.
She is a Certified Practitioner of NLP, an accredited Executive Coach, a member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists, and an Associate Member of the CIPD.


Steve Short

Steve has been a training consultant since 1989 and has a wide experience of working with clients from the NHS, private health, legal, manufacturing, IT, construction and food production sectors. His style is facilitative and enabling  and he is passionate about helping others learn, rather than simply teaching them. His philosophy on learning is that people learn best when having fun (even when the issues are difficult) and are engaged in the process.

Steve’s passion is working with teams and team leaders to help them resolve conflict and enabling individuals to maximise their potential at work.  He is a Member of the Institute of Training and Occupational Learning  and Steve has a Masters degree in Strategic Leadership, from Salford University. 


Liz Carrighan

Liz is an experienced leadership development consultant and executive coach.  Her career started with the NHS before moving to sales and training within the pharmaceutical sector.  She then moved to an HR consulting company where she was a senior executive and set up the executive coaching and leadership development practice.

She is a certified trainer in NLP, incorporating it into her coaching and leadership development work.  She is also an experienced facilitator and mediator.  She is accredited to use the Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI) and Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).  She holds an advanced diploma in coaching and mentoring from Oxford Brookes University and is completing her Masters in Coaching and Mentoring there also.

 

Ruth Morris

Ruth is an accomplished and highly experienced ‘people developer’, with a proven track record of successfully inspiring managers, teams and organisations to adopt more productive ways of working so as to better achieve both business and personal goals.

With 20 years corporate background with Blue Chip organisations,  Ruth is able to relate to the issues and challenges facing organisations today. 

Specialising in Personal, Team and Leadership Development and Personal Coaching, she uses formal training, facilitation and coaching techniques to deliver learning points and bring about change.

Ruth is an NLP Master Practitioner, Qualified Coach and Licensed Psychometric Profiling Consultant:- MBTI, Firo B, Belbin, Occupational Testing, BPS Level A.