Our Faculty
CHRIS DICKIN
Chris is an expert deliverer of financial training having worked in finance, both in practice and as a trainer, for the past 25 years. He has the rare ability to communicate complex issues in a clear, concise and understandable format. He is an Independent Cost Reduction Consultant and Financial Trainer, working for major companies throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle and Far East. He holds a Master's degree in Finance in addition to a professional Accountancy qualification. His wide experience of industry and commerce includes senior positions in the finance function of several major U.K. companies.
Chris was trained as a Management Accountant with the Rolls-Royce Aero-Engine Division in Derby, England. In 1970 Chris joined the University of Derby as a finance lecturer. A 23 year academic career saw him progress to become the Assistant Dean responsible for resources in the Derbyshire Business School overseeing degree and professional courses. During that time, he qualified academically as a professional accountant and he gained a Master's degree in Financial Control. Over the next fifteen- year period, he gained a wide experience of UK industry and commerce, holding positions as an accountant through to Financial Director in the finance function of several major companies.
He is presently an independent Financial Consultant/Trainer being an experienced lecturer throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle & Far East. His publications include the 'Finance' section of the U.K.'s Open University MBA programme.
CHRIS LEEK
Chris Leek and Associates provide support to organisations on a wide range of issues in the field of strategic development of people and organisations and in a wide range of locations. Chris has worked for a substantial number of organisations across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the United States. His areas of specialist interest are the Strategic Leadership and Management of Change and Innovation in Organisations and the Human Skills underpinning it, the development and execution of Strategy, Executive Leadership, Building High Performance Organisations and Teams, Assessment and Development of people, Talent Management and Performance Management.
Working with the boards, executive teams and senior managers of organisations large and small, he has worked with clients in the agro-chemical industry, aluminium, banking, beverages, bio-tech, chemicals, construction and construction materials, consultancy, extractive industries, facilities management, financial services, fire and rescue, food, freight and distribution, education, electrical, mechanical and plant engineering, landscaping, legal, manufacturing, motor manufacture, newspapers, oil and petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, police and justice systems, power generation and distribution, printing and publishing, retailing, telecommunications, the tobacco industry , tourism and utilities. He has worked at senior management level with many public sector organisations and not-for-profit organisations- Local and Regional Government, Police Forces and Executive Agencies of National Government in the United Kingdom and the European Union. He has also worked with organisations during their public-private sector transitions, in the UK with Water, the National Rivers Authority and the Environment Agency.
CONSTANTIN SALAMEH
Constantin Salameh brings to ELC's leadership and finance curriculum his extensive international senior management experience with significant cross-functional knowledge in business strategy and management, finance, marketing and sales, and operations of the high technology, retail and financial services markets. Constantin has broad experience in financial restructuring for public and private companies, resulting in business turnarounds and significant value creation.
With the Bata Group, Constantin worked as a senior vice-president, CFO and global business development director, providing financial and operational leadership to the chairman/CEO and his staff. In this role, he helped in the development and deployment of the group's vision, strategic direction and business priorities, while identifying and addressing key profitable growth opportunities. He contributed with success to the turn around of problematic countries and drove major financial restructuring initiatives (2003-2006). Before joining the Bata Group, Constantin worked for 19 years with the Hewlett-Packard Corporation (1984-2003) where he held various key leadership positions:
Constantin is the author of publications in the subject areas of international finance, business strategy, renewable energy and international development. He is the recipient of a number of awards including Corporate Finance 1998 Superstar from Global Finance with 20 other CEOs and CFOs. He also has been featured in business publications including the Wall Street Journal Europe and Asia. He has been coach and jury member of McKinsey's Annual Venture competition in 2004 and 2006. He is the Vice-President and board member of the HP funded Micro-Enterprise Acceleration Institute as well as the Treasurer and board member of Young Enterprise Switzerland which is part of the oldest and largest entrepreneurship association in the world.
CREEDON MAIRA
Ms Creedon is Managing director of Artemis Consulting, specialising in corporate finance consultancy and Training to private and public sector organisations as well as investment benchmarking and promotion.
Currently responsible for designing and delivering programmes for Enterprise Ireland, the Institute of Public Administration, and the Irish Management Institute. Managing a 3 year 10 country benchmarking study, for the Irish National Competitiveness Council examining the competitiveness of Irish business in key strategic sectors including life sciences. 2005 Project Director for the MIGA/ World Bank Global Enterprise Benchmarking project examining cost and competitiveness factors in 9 Central and Eastern European countries. Ms Creedon has worked in senior management and consultancy roles in both MNCs and medium sized firms throughout the world. As financial manager in General Motors she has managed both costing and benchmarking units for international operations, and has since acted as financial consultant to many other firms on cost cutting, benchmarking and investment decision making.
As Director of Trade and Industry of International Development Ireland, Ms Creedon managed a wide portfolio of projects for the World Bank and other donors in emerging economies in southern Africa, the Caribbean, the Middle East and Central Europe, in both the private and the public sector, focussing on industrial development - projects encompassed both foreign direct investment promotion and development of indigenous enterprise.
MARK THOMAS
Mark Thomas is an international business consultant, author and speaker specialising in business planning, managing change, human resource management and executive development. His key areas of interest and business activity include strategic change management and the facilitation of business planning and top team events. He regularly designs, leads and facilitates top team sessions on a wide range of business planning issues and initiatives-re-organisations, change programmes and mergers. A highly accomplished facilitator he has designed and run many challenging and complex business workshops in a variety of industries and sectors. In addition he manages a whole series of executive development and organisation development initiativesthat support wider organisational change-these include executive leadership, internal consulting and coaching programmes. He is a visiting Assistant Professor at the TiasNimbasBusiness School in Holland. He also tutors and lectures at the Suez Corporate University.
His learning and development programmes are consistently rated "excellent." Mark's client experience has included major multi-national and global corporations such as: Lloyds TSB Asset Management, Pfizer, Red Bull, Motorola, Barclays Capital, HSBC, ECB, Reuters, Cisco, Sony, Sun International, Forte, Coca Cola, Mars, Unilever, Neste, Aramex, Philip Morris, PPG, Oxford University Press, C&A, Sara Lee, Shell, Schroders, Union Bank of Switzerland, Alcatel, NCR, American Management Association, Alcoa, Aspect Telecommunications, Autodesk and Logica.
As well as exploring the links between strategy and execution Mark also has a very strong expertise in helping support function's re-define their roles. He has been very active in advising and assisting IT and HR functions refocus their operations and services. He runs many internal consultancy skills initiatives that are aimed at changing the operating style and focus of such functions.
Mark was educated at the University of Wales and the London School of Economics and is a Fellow of the UK Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
As well as writing many articles on business issues his book publications include:
Gurus Guide to Leadership (Thorogood 2006)
High Performance Consulting Skills (Thorogood 2003)
Supercharge Your Management Role - Making the Transition to Internal Consultant (Butterworth Heinemann 1996)
Mergers and Acquisitions - Confronting the Organisation and People Issues. A special report (Thorogood 1997)
Project Skills (Butterworth Heinemann 1998)
Masters in People Management (Thorogood 1997)
The Shorter MBA (Thorsens 1991)
MICHAEL LENGEL
Michael has over 20 years of experience consulting to some of the world's finest top management teams on pivotal issues of globalisationand corporate strategy. He has advised clients in a diverse set of vertical markets, including consumer, retail industrial, financial services, healthcare, hospitality, and transportation sectors including but not limited to GE, Citibank, Pepsi Cola., Bank of America and AT&T.
Before starting his global strategy advisory and consulting practice, AutusPartners, Michael was a senior partner with the Peppers & Rogers Group. As the leader of the Customer Strategy Center of Excellence, Michael was a frequent speaker and author on the topic of transforming from a product-centric to a customer-centric business model. During his tenure at PRG, Michael served as a senior advisor to Motorola, Citibank Credit Cards, Visa International, Bank of America , UBS PaineWebber, Saturn, TGI Friday's and Radisson Hotels. Before joining Peppers & Rogers Group, Michael was a partner with Monitor Group, a premier strategy firm founded by Michael Porter and best known for thought leadership in market strategy development. He was responsible for generating new business in retail, services and utilities sectors, directing major client engagements, and creating innovative intellectual capital for the firm. Prior to Monitor, Michael was the head of strategy for CMGI Solutions - athe professional services division of the world's then largest Internet venture, incubating and operating company. He was responsible for helping craft CMGI's overall B2B strategy and forging strategic alliances. Prior to CMGI, Michael was a Principal with The Michael Allen Company, a blue-chip strategy boutique founded by the former head of strategic planning for the General Electric Company. Michael was a lead advisor to such important clients as GE, Citibank, Pepsi/TriconRestaurants, Ryder, Weston Foods and Avon. His work with GE Power Systems was recognized as best practice by Jack Welch and included such important areas as: development of corporate and division-level strategic plans, pricing strategy, reorganization of its $6 billion services division, and mergers and acquisitions. His work with Citibank's Global Finance Asia Pacific division introduced the first customer-centric strategic planning process to the bank.
PAUL BLACKHURST
Paul Blackhurst is a seasoned facilitator in management skills and interpersonal effectiveness. He has designed and delivered management development programmes for international corporations around the world. His experience spans both on-line and "live" learning environments. Paul has created and managed growth in both traditional and e-businesses, and has international business market experience.
Paul has been independent since 2001, providing consultancy services and management development solutions to large international companies. Previously, Paul worked with Imparta Ltd, London, a start-up training company which develops computer simulations, on-line products and seminars. As Head of Sales his responsibility included product development, business development & staffing. During his time with GTE Sylvania Ltd, a multinational lighting manufacturer, Paul was promoted through various roles: marketing manager, product manager and marketing services manager (1987-1992). Paul began his career with SKF, a Swedish bearing manufacturer, UK (1983-1985), and after that joined Cincinnati Milacron, a US machine tool manufacturer, UK, as a sales engineer (1985-1987).
Throughout his corporate roles and as training consultant Paul has run many customised and open training workshops. He has also chaired and spoken at major industry conferences.
PETER FISK
Peter Fisk is a best-selling author and inspirational speaker, an advisor to leading companies around the world and an experienced business leader. He grew up in the remote farming community of Northumberland, in the North East of England, and after exploring the world of nuclear physics, joined British Airways at a time when it was embarking upon becoming "the world's favourite airline" with a cultural alignment around customers. He went on to work with many of the world's leading companies, helping them to grow more profitably by becoming more customer-centric in their structure, operations and leadership. He works across sectors, encouraging business leaders to take a customer perspective, and learning from different types of experiences. His clients include American Express and Coca Cola, Lastminute.com and Marks & Spencer, Microsoft and O2, Orange and Red Bull, Shell and Virgin, Vodafone and Volkswagen.
He was also the transforming CEO of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, the world's largest marketing organisation. He led the strategic marketing consulting team of PA Consulting Group where he developed an integrated consulting approach called Customer Breakthrough, was managing director of specialist measurement firm Brand Finance, and partner of The Foundation.
Peter now leads the Genius Works, a strategic innovation business that works with senior management to "see things differently" - to develop and implement more inspired strategies for customers, innovation and marketing. The Genius Lab is a facilitated innovation process for developing new business and customer strategies based on deep customer insights and creative thinking, Zoom Ventures bring together business investors and social entrepreneurs, and The Fast Track is a coaching and personal development programme that combines leading edge learning with fast practical solutions for implementation.
He was recently described by Business Strategy Review as "one of the best new business thinkers" and is in demand around the world as an expert advisor and energising speaker. Peter's best-selling book Marketing Genius explores the left and right-brain approaches to competitive success, and has been translated into more than 25 languages. Business Genius describes the challenge for business leaders of sustaining business profitability and growth through turbulent times. This will be followed by Creative Genius on a more sustainable approach to innovation, and The Good Growth Guide which explains how to grow your business, whilst doing good ethically, socially and for the environment.
PHIL FARRELL
Phil Farrell is an internationally experienced expert in people management practices, specifically as they impact on the ability of an organisation to grow, change and compete.
He operates as an independent consultant to many large multi-national companies in Asia Pacific and Europe, working with clients of the American Management Association Pacific regional centres, as well as his own clients.
Phil graduated from the University of Kent with a B.A. in Law & Politics, and received his M.Sc. in Industrial Relations from the London School Of Economics. He began his career as Industrial Relations Manager at Land Rover UK, and then spent four years as Senior HR Manager of Abbey National plc. In 1989 he joined Coopers & Lybrand, where he spent the next eleven years as Consultant, Managing Consultant, and Principal.
Moving from London to Washington D.C., he finally settled in Melbourne Australia. Since 2000, Phil has been an independent consultant operating in Asia Pacific and Europe. Phil is a subject matter expert in Behavioural Change Management, HR Function Re-design, and talent management, and has helped many organisations implement their change and talent management strategies with practical tool sets that have impact in a real world environment.
Clients include Merck, Sharp & Dohme, Cisco Systems, Walt Disney, ExxonMobil, Pfizer, Telstra, Saudi Telecom
RALPH WATSON
Ralph Watson is a professional Consultant with an international track record of success. To date, he has worked with organisations and individuals from over 30 countries including the UK, Western and Northern Europe, China, Russia, Turkey, the Middle East and the USA - and the list is growing!
His specific areas of expertise are Leadership Development, Coaching, Negotiating and Trainer Training.
Ralph's has a Diploma in Business Administration. His credentials include Organisational (formerly Founding) Member of the Association for Coaching; Master Coach (INLPTA); Master Trainer of NLP (European and Middle Eastern Institute for NLP (EMEINLP) and a Accredited Member of the Association for NLP (ANLP).
Business background includes:
General Manager - Autobar Group of Companies (UK and Europe)
National Accounts Director - BT Mobile
Sales Director - Select Computers (UK) Ltd
National Accounts Manager - OKI (UK)
National Accounts Manager - Hermes Olivetti (UK)
|
 |
Upcoming Courses
|
|
|
|
