ROCKSTARGROUPMENTORING - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- General Manager South East Europe
Adrian runs a company providing a range of business advisory services and management training. His background is in Strategic and corporate finance advice in the technology sector where the company he worked for used to advice 30-35 owner managed businesses a year in how to make their businesses more valuable and sell them. He was then lured into an internet startup just as the dot bomb boom crashed! After two roles in the corporate sector as a Marketing manager and Finance Manager in the travel sector and in a business process consulting, Adrian was again drawn to starting up again in 2005.
Adrian is passionate about helping entrepreneurs through the rollercoaster ride of start-ups, having been there twice before he knows the challenges and pleasures at first hand. He also loves working with entrepreneurs to make their businesses more valuable. He is also a mentor on the Worcester university Speed programme
Adrian's main skills andexpertise are in the four following areas
Job Titles:
- Principal, Jackson Wealth Management
We have worked with Mark on a number of occasions over the years and have always found his referrals to be of a high quality enabling us to transact business.
Job Titles:
- Finance Director - Social Housing
I joined Karen on her WorkBiz Club in Sep 2011 in Warrington and then was invited to join her on her Professional Programme for Executives in Chester in Oct 0211. At that time, I was intending on returning quickly to my profession of Finance Director, and was looking for an appropriate opportunity in a blue chip company. At that time, Karen also had another Programme running Business Start Up Workshops and even though I did not have the intention of having my own business thought it as an option to explore as when you are unemployed you need all the options that are offered to you. WorkBiz Academy gave me all those options to explore and I finally started my new job in Jan 2012 as a Director of a large service provider to the social housing sector.
Through Karen's Programmes, I also opted for additional support of Mentoring and Karen and her Team of Mentors supported me on a weekly basis on a 1to1 basis to enable me to put into practice what I had learned on the Work Shops to find employment and start a business. The Programmes and the Mentoring inspired and motivated me to secure my future again and their passion and skills enabled me to secure this great new position that I have and it is local!
Charles Smith has a strong empathy with owners looking to expand and will bring valuable experience to your management team. He has a hands on, down to earth approach.
He has set up two successful companies from scratch; sold one and merged the second. He has also enjoyed some failures, so his advice is grounded in the tough realities of business life.
Charles specialises in developing strategies for growth, and in setting key targets along the way. He has an intuitive ability to identify problems and offer solutions. You can read testimonials as to his effectiveness elsewhere on this web site.
He has a strong background in finance to Board level, raising his own capital through 3i, and successfully obtaining DTI funding.
He is also experienced in developing management teams to support growth, an area often overlooked in the rush for expansion. Having employed over 30 staff, he knows all about the day to day issues facing those at the top, not least cash flow.
Charles is currently is a shareholder and active member of a high tech on-line marketing company based in London, and also runs his own web site development company in the West Midlands.
This background gives Charles a detailed - and more importantly - current, understanding of on-line marketing, e-commerce, and web development. Combined with his business experience and enthusiasm for helping companies to grow, he provides a powerful combination.
CHELSEY is one of the UK's leading business mentors and for the past decade has successfully raised the profile and enhanced the brands of hundreds of businesses throughout the UK. Chelsey is a marketing and communications expert with over twenty years experience. Dragons' Den star Doug Richards recently presented Chelsey with an award for winning the 2013 "Excellence in Enterprise Mentoring Awards" a ceremony that took place at BAFTA. Chelsey has a particular interest in helping start-up/early stage businesses establish themselves. A widely respected business woman whose passion is helping others achieve great success.
"I've had the pleasure of working with Chelsey numerous times and she has proved to be an outstanding business woman who is genuine and hugely inspiring. I have witnessed first-hand the response to Chelsey's mentoring which is always overwhelmingly positive; she brings the benefits of integrity, expertise and life experience and has the talent and charisma to match; a fantastic business mentor who has my highest recommendation."
Job Titles:
- Winning Pathways Coaching
Chelsey is without doubt a people's person and in turn this made me open up and I was able to discuss all my concerns freely. I thought she was amazing; positivity oozing with great business advice … calm and to the point with good constructive criticism and great energy. Chelsey got me and my business totally! Chelsey made me see the business more clearly and to understand my core business and where to make my next move. Every business should have a visit from CHELSEY!!!
Eddie has been to the University of Business life, there and back and there again as a Clothing Pioneer and Entrepreneur! Joining the Family Retail Clothing business aged 16, by 21 he was running it, expanding it from 9 shops to over 50 super stores. The Family were early pioneers of direct purchasing from the Far East as retailers. When the recession hit he decided to capitalise on the properties and took a break.
Within 3 months he had discovered a niche Clothing underwear item "Mens Funky Boxer Shorts", it sounded crazy. Over the next 3 years the business had made over £1 million pa ebitda in UK and Europe, he then took it to the USA, using his Far East suppliers for funding. The business developed from a cold start into the biggest Mens Underwear and Sleepwear licensing business in the US, carrying all the top known character brands. Not wishing to emigrate, Eddie exited the business on the way up, the business has sales today in the region of $250 million with over 100 staff!
Since that time Eddie has looked at "turnaround and distressed" retail situations and was leading a syndicate to buy Woolworths UK with a highly profitable turnaround exit strategy. The competition in this whole area from leading US Funds proved to be overwhelming and after being outbid several times he turned his hand to steering smaller businesses towards profitable expansion, which has proven to be a highly successful challenge using all the experience he has attained over his years in all aspects of the industry
Eddie has some key points when evaluating a business:
He views any business as he would his own, not becoming emotional and only caring for the success of that business and the board.
He believes that the key player/s must be totalling concentrated on driving the business and given the maximum support to get there as nothing should distract them or stand in the way of creating sales and profitability.
Margin margin margin, whatever it takes, profit is sanity as the clichés say.
Finding the incisive product for success and capitalise on it worldwide.
Brand potential.
Eddie believes most businesses are the same, the same hopes and opportunities and the same errors and failings and he has the ability to quickly recognize these and concentrate speedily upon addressing them. One of his favourite quotes being "I like to think I'm the man standing next to the Captain with a pair of expert binoculars, viewing what is way up ahead on the ocean, well before we get there".
Erik Jan has a varied background, putting him in a good position to quickly understand the specific challenges of the organisations in different sectors. Having started his career in the pharmaceutical industry in a number of European markets (Nordic, Benelux, UK) as sales or marketing director he was Director of Innovex UK (now Quintiles) between 1991 and 1997 and then grew their business across Europe as EVP for Innovex Europe.
He has since served as Board Director for Doctors.net.uk, the country's largest online network of doctors and founded Your Insight, a performance improvement consultancy. He is highly experienced in pharma and service companies, with particular expertise in providing support for leadership teams.
Erik Jan believes that work matters and therefore he wants to help making work better. That means to him working better together, being fully engaged and getting better results. His work is to support other leaders in their pursuit of high performance (their own and of their teams). That can also include working with their teams and fixing problems. Here's what others say about working with him as that probably describes best what he does, how he does it and why.
"I cooperated with Erik Jan many times throughout the last few years (2009-2014) both at national and international HQ level. We worked together on a few leadership programmes covering the whole spectrum of behaviours needed to achieve success in the modern, sophisticated pharma environment. In most of the projects coaching was one of the most important aspects/methods.
I experienced Erik Jan as a very open minded, friendly and inspiring expert and leader, always willing to listen and adapt his approach to the given circumstances. He wants to create the best solution together with his customer, trying to understand the underlying complexity before jumping to any kind of conclusions. His personal style is very inclusive, based on sincere interaction and exchange of ideas. He skilfully brings his vast experience in form of coaching or sometimes mentoring, asking very insightful, helpful questions in an informal and easily acceptable way. Interaction with Erik Jan is a fascinating journey for both the coach and the coachee where authentic learning in both directions takes place.
All this makes the cooperation with Erik Jan a great experience, based on trust and friendship, which helps to develop long term solutions bringing added value both on business and personal level. Last, but definitely not least Erik Jan has developed a very high level of intercultural skills (partly thanks to his life experiences but also thanks to a natural talent), which make him very flexible in terms of working with people of different cultural backgrounds.
I can sincerely recommend Erik Jan as a coach, a mentor and a leader to any national or international organisation striving for improvement and excellence."
Fiona Ellis -EllisEye Interiors
Chelsey provided informed feedback and advice right from the start. Chelsey Baker is a "human hurricane!" who always sees the positive and is a great confidence booster and extremely committed; for which I will be eternally grateful! Chelsey is inspirational in that she provides the support and confidence that sole business owners sometimes lack and is always keen to support and advise on what we need to do next - and is helping enormously by providing expert advice on marketing techniques in order to raise the company profile. We will continue to work together as Chelsey is a great "sounding board" and provider of thought provoking ideas.
Job Titles:
- Partner, Raffinger Stuart
Mark is the kind of person everyone would like to do business with and he is certainly the first person I turn to when a financing situation arises. His in depth knowledge of the market is second to none and his honest and informative analysis is something I have come to rely upon
Job Titles:
- Founder, Ideas2Reality ( from My Linkedin Profile Http
Gary Lennon, Founder, Ideas2Reality (from my Linkedin profile http://www.linkedin.com/profile/edit?trk=tab_pro#profile-recommendations )
Gil is a widely experienced management consultant.
He has more than 18 years' experience managing and advising in the banking and financial services sector with some of the nation's biggest brands, including Black Horse, NatWest, Bradford & Bingley Group, Newcastle Building Society, Wesleyan Assurance Society.
Now running his own B2B consultancy GILBERT CHARLES CONSULTING he specialises in finding practical, resourceful solutions to the key challenges facing businesses today.
He has an analytical and focused approach, enriched by continuous professional development involving meeting with and learning from the most senior and respected professionals in the business community, local industrialists, politicians and in 2011 the Governor of the Bank of England, Mr Mervyn King.
He is registered with the Financial Services Authority and remains a Member of the Personal Finance Society and Chartered Insurance Institute.
He has extensive media experience providing expert analysis and commentary for BBC FiveLive, ITV, BBC Radio Newcastle and other local stations.
Job Titles:
- Managing Partner Sintassi
Job Titles:
- Media Personality / Editor
Job Titles:
- Owner NWN Blue Squared Limited
I have known Mark for over 2 years at time of writing. Mark is an expert in his field, very knowledgeable and clever - at the same time genuine and very pleasant to work with. I have recommended Mark on a number of occasions and remain happy to do so.
Ian is a proven Entrepreneur with three start ups behind him plus a wide range of consultancy, corporate finance and mentoring experience over a 20 year period since first stepping out of a corporate role.
Ian has worked and lived in mainland Europe as well as launching business operations into Australia and the USA with skills in managing, advising, developing, funding, acquiring, growing and selling businesses. He has proven experience in creating significant shareholder value within marketing, software, data, digital and knowledge based service organisations in Europe, USA, Asia and Australia.
Ian has direct hands on experience encompasses start up financing, growth management, private equity, public listing,, taking private and executing real business transformation in highly competitive environments. This is combined with a strong strategic ability, commercial acumen, excellent negotiating skills and a strong network.
Ian has specific experience within Charity, Retail, Travel & Leisure, Automotive, Property, Software, Digital, Internet, Technology and Financial Services sectors.
Ian started his entrepreneurial journey with a start up in the data and customer intelligence sector growing this business to £21m of revenues and an EBIT of £4m achieving an exit valuation of £25m exit after 10 years.
Ian then developed a new internet business format, approached and then formed a joint venture with the Virgin Group which achieved revenues of £90m within two years Ian stayed with this business for four years before leavingafter a trade sale to start another venture within the marketing services space. This business is now profitable and growing fast with a management team in place to run on a day to day basis.
Ian has mentored two management teams since 2005 resulting in a successful trade sale for one telecoms technology business realising over £6m for the owners and growing revenues by 100% and EBIT tenfold for the second business which is currently considering a range of exit options.
Ian combines a hand on approach with strategic insight and a wide personal network which he is keen to utilise to help new and existing business owners grow, develop and realise value in their business ventures.
Ian's interests away from the business world are mainly sport based enjoying, Tennis, Skiing, Scuba Diving and Cycling whilst managing two teenage daughters, the latter being as challenging and rewarding as growing a successful business.
I joined Karen's Workbiz/Business Start Up Programme and Professional Programme in Chester in June 2011, following redundancy from a Local Authority. I am Single Mum having to also keep focussed and support 2 teenage boys. The Professional/Executive Back to Work Programme gave me the confidence to start on the Business Start Up programme and pursue my dream of having my own business whilst looking after a family.
Chelsey helped me to understand why my web-site wasn't working. She was open and honest and gave me some valuable feedback on what I could do to improve my sales. Chelsey inspired me to go away and do the work that's needed and she helped me clarify my message so that I stand out from the crowd, showed how I could rebrand myself and what I need to do to sell more effectively and how to create a sense of urgency to get ahead. Chelsey is very knowledgeable, skilled and enthusiastic yet very supportive and warm.
Jim established his company, Ringshall Resources, to channel his business development experience to small and medium sized businesses. For 23 years Jim was an MD roles in five companies, most of them growing rapidly in international markets. He has lived and worked in the USA, Canada, Japan and Libya, as well as building companies in Europe.
After his MBA, he joined engineering group GKN, and started in internal audit, followed by a career in sales, rising to being the youngest MD in the Group at GKN Kwikform - a building services company.
He launched a logistics support business in the USA and Canada, living in California for 5 years and Toronto for 2 years, followed by 18 months in Japan completing a market entry study for the Asian market.
Settling back to the UK, he completed a MBI at Beck & Pollitzer Engineering, and developed the business across Europe into Germany, France, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Later he managed Zip Heaters UK and launched a brand new product into a new sector, rapidly growing sales and starting a service operation.
His companies shared the hallmarks of being fast growing, fun, having the right caution on cash management and with a supportive team style, encouraging individual development. They covered service, manufacturing and logistics, and included several channels to the market including B2B and through distribution. Jim is now focussed on three areas: international sales development, helping to build businesses in the UK, and mentoring.
There are many variations of passages of Lorem Ipsum available, but the majority have suffered alteration in some form, by injected humour, or randomised words which don't look even slightly believable. If you are going to use a passage of Lorem Ipsum, you need to be sure there isn't anything embarrassing hidden in the middle of text. All the Lorem Ipsum generators on the Internet tend to repeat predefined chunks as necessary, making this the first true generator on the Internet. It uses a dictionary of over 200 Latin words, combined with a handful of model sentence structures, to generate Lorem Ipsum which looks reasonable. The generated Lorem Ipsum is therefore always free from repetition, injected humour, or non-characteristic words etc.
Job Titles:
- Www.Mainstayprocurement.Com
I heard through my Social Media network how the WorkBiz Academy had helped others really get their businesses off the ground. On referral, and despite the distance, I travelled up from London to attend the 2 programmes in Chester in October 2011. I found the business start up programme with Mentoring support, was so worth it as I have now a very successful national Social Enterprise business, Mainstay Procurement.
John started out in financial services in 1982 before running his own Independent Financial Advice business for 20 years. He has helped launch a number of start-up businesses, including an innovative retailing service for one of the world's biggest and best known logistics operators.
He is currently working with the tax experts at a leading UK accounting and business advisory firm, using his financial experience to help SMEs work through the complexities of R&D tax credits in order to assess their eligibility for Government-funded cash available from working in technical development. He is happy to work on a no-fee basis to make an initial assessment of Rockstar Mentoring clients' R&D tax relief potential.
In the same vein, John is also partnering with a specialist in transactional financing to offer SMEs solutions for raising the capital they need to keep business flowing at every stage of the supply chain.
Kal Malik - International Guest Speaker, Author - US Base - www.kal-malik.com
I have enjoyed being on and working with Karen's mentoring Programme for over two years. Karen's brand of mentoring helped me on all levels. She and her team have skills in many areas of business and personal development.Whether it is finance, interviews or confidence, Karen has the answers.
It helped me to take my career opportunities to the next level. In return I was able To help Karen and her mentees on a few occasions. Karen and her group of mentors Have played a great part in me launching my career in personal and professional Development.
Karen Melonie Gould is a ‘gateway' of contacts across the Globe.
Job Titles:
- Business Leader and Facilitator
When you are passionate about your business and insist on great results ask for Les Gilbert.
Job Titles:
- Advisor to UK Government
- Head of Operations at Rockstar Startup & Rockstar Hubs UK
Ketan Makwana is a renowned international speaker and serial entrepreneur who has started, scaled a sold multiple businesses.
In a response to the emerging skills gap between education to employment and enterprise Ketan launched Enterprise Lab which is now operating in 11 countries training 100,000 people a year.
Ketan has experience in the IT, Electronics and Health sectors, having been responsible for European Distribution of Apple Products and Software in late 90's into early 2000. He co-designed, developed and implemented the very first Electronic self-check in system & patient call systems into the NHS which are used in nearly 95% of all GP practices across the UK.. taking a business turning over £250k to £4.6m revenues within his own division.
Ketan also has expertise in launching products into the UK and European market - bringing the world's smallest Dialysis machine into the UK in 2009 and setting up the European Distribution of a Kinesology Tape in 2010 which sold over 500,000 rolls in the first year.
In 2012 Ketan founded and delivered Youth Enterprise Live backed by the Prime Minister and the UK's largest event focussed on Education, Employment and Enterprise for 15-30 year olds… leading on from this took a position as Special Advisor to the Prime Minster on Youth Policy; other work includes being part of the E20 Summit (20 entrepreneurs from the UK working on the missing millions) and has a seat in European Parliament & Commission working on the 2020 strategy for enterprise and employment.
Ketan is the Head of Operations at Rockstar Startup & Rockstar Hubs UK's leading funding and mentoring organisation that has delivered £12m funding and supported over 2200 businesses in the UK.
Ketan is an advisor to UK Government on youth and enterprise policies, works with International Governments & Ministries on Enterprise Eco-System Development and sits on many advisory boards and panels… further work includes ambassador of UKTI and Foreign & Commonweath Offices related to Enterprise development in countries across the globe.
His specialities are in Operations and Strategy in supporting businesses to build efficient and effective structure within organisation for rapid growth, stability and success.
He has a keen ear to understand your business issues and can support the visualisation and action of strategies.
As an entrepreneur Ketan has been awarded the Smarta 100 Award in 2012 for creating one of the most disruptive businesses in the UK, was finalist for Entrepreneur of Excellence at the National Diversity Awards and has supported many other businesses/entrepreneurs in achieving awards and recognition in their respective fields.
Les Gilbert is a real life ‘rags to riches story'. His career started in the street markets of East London in the 80's and today he owns and controls an eight figure residential and commercial property portfolio based in London and the south east.
Having founded and developed numerous successful niche retail concepts, he has also sold a number of businesses, the most recent of which had a turnover in excess of 10 million per annum and employed over two hundred staff. He was involved in creating the ‘Pound store' concept and was also the founder of the first ever ‘Christmas Store' and ‘Firework Factory'.
Although Les has specialised in discount concepts and his area of expertise is in residential and retail property, with 30 years experience as a serial entrepreneur and countless successful ventures behind him, his skills in business are wide and varied. He believes that mastering the basics is the key to success.
When mentoring he applies his P.I.E. theory for ultimate success:
Plan A great business has a well thought out strategy.
Imagination Every successful venture has a clear vision.
Energy Passion is the driving force behind every success.
Les Gilbert is perhaps one of the few true entrepreneurs I have come across in the past twenty years. His innate instinct for spotting a winner or discounting a loser as an opportunity is unique. No Harvard Business School platitudes ever drop to confuse you. His talent lies in identifying the opportunity - and making it a reality. Les does not take prisoners where profit is concerned!
Lottie Skuthe-Cook has more than 20 years senior management experience in high growth multi-national businesses and has held managerial positions in international sales operations and commerce. In her role as the director of Quality and Standards for Regus Plc, she helped develop and improve one of the worlds largest business centre organisations.
As founder of Grey Panther Management, a boutique consultancy specialising in client care, market research (B2B), event management and commercial quality standards, Lottie has spent over 7 years providing astute and focused commercial council to a broad range of companies.
Her considerable skills and experience in personal development and business mentoring enhanced with her Master Practitioner and Coach Certification in NLP enable her to provide a bespoke, quality service to companies and individuals.
Lottie is passionate about personal and professional achievement and excellence. Her strengths and skill set include new business set up, efficient business process and time management, operational and customer focus as well as sales performance enhancement coaching.
Job Titles:
- CEO & Founder, Sun Court Capital
We have dealt with the principals at Kinetic Business Advice for over 12 years, and have always found them able to provide clear independent and valuable advice to our clients on all their funding needs
Malcolm is an entrepreneur who creates achievable strategies and helps to find the resources to make them happen. He has extensive experience of software, construction and professional services.
He is chairman of DFM Ltd, which provides a flexible director service. Currently it provides Finance Directors under the FD Solutions Brand, and HR Directors (HR Director Solutions) on a part-time or interim basis in Europe and throughout the UK.
He focuses his skills on early stage businesses and not-for -profit organisations and on helping them create achievable strategies. In particular:
He uses his skills as a chairman to synthesise the group's ideas into a coherent whole;
He uses his analytical skills to dig down into the detail and spot problems before they become significant;
He mentors the leadership team so as to give them the resources that enable them to play their full part;
He can assist in negotiating and closing deals (sales, purchase or funding contracts) that are "win-win";
He uses his connections to find resources that can solve problems and create opportunities.
In addition to setting up FD Solutions he was non-executive chairman of his family's building contractor business, Gordon Durham & Co, operating in the North East. He guided it out of debt, litigation and low profitability and developed a strategy to take advantage of the new trading arrangements in the industry (called partnering). The business generated positive cashflow and profits of £500k but its long-term future as a family business was unsustainable so in 2008 he arranged its sale to Vinci SA.
Marc is an out-and-out personal performance specialist and a big-ideas machine.
He specialises in turning already successful entrepreneurs into incredible ones by working on aspects others may well ignore: your passions, your performance and your whole-life vision.
No matter what stage an entrepreneur is at, incredible improvement can take place. Marc's core skill is in identifying and accelerating entrepreneurs' entire performance - enabling them to improve in simple, achievable ways - getting them where they want to be, in the fastest possible time.
Marc himself is a successful entrepreneur who built, grew and sold a multi-million pound direct marketing business. From his experience, it may surprise you that he believes that hard work is not the key to success. In fact, quite the opposite.
In his mentoring, he prefers to help people to work smarter - not harder. He looks outside work life and explores people's true passions, using them as key motivators to do fantastic things. To him, incredible success is jumping out of bed feeling the desire to achieve amazing things every day of your life, rather than focussing on short and medium term business goals. He helps his mentees to find the spark that lights that fire. Ignited with passion, they perform consistently well at the top of their game in the long term: achieving great success.
Marc is unconventional, fun, exciting, open, clever, passionate and no-nonsense in his approach to working with his mentees. He has great ideas, innovative solutions, laser-sharp insight and the innate ability to maximise people's potential. Anyone who works with him can achieve more than they ever thought possible.
Initially, Marc expects mentees to commit to at least three sessions, for a full assessment and exploration of the mentoring relationship and your potential. During the first session he will reset the boundaries of possibilities you will achieve as an entrepreneur. Then, you have some time to reflect, before planning the journey ahead and exploring the great ideas and opportunities arising from that. He kick-starts the process to maximise your personal productivity and effectiveness so that you can operate at peak performance.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director Business Development East Anglia Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance
Mark O'Neil is a successful and passionate entrepreneur. He has come on board as one of Rockstar Funding Mentors to help clients achieve their funding goals
Mark's Highlights include:
Mark is an entrepreneur and seed investor focused on the technology and internet sectors. He lived and worked in the US and France in the 1990's whilst running front-office technology strategy and development teams for JP Morgan, and oversaw some of the bank's earliest internet projects. In 1998, Mark established Digital Look, a financial information web site for private investors, and spent 10 years as Managing Director growing the business rapidly and consistently profitably.
Job Titles:
- Max Clifford Associates London UK
Job Titles:
- Marketing and Communications Expert
Maxine Ambrose is a marketing and communications expert with over 20 years' experience, concentrating mainly on B2B, business and consumer technology, electronics and telecommunications markets. Maxine provides companies with a broad range of services, from classic PR through to total marketing & communications management.
Although she has worked with many of the world's biggest brands - such as Ericsson, Skype, Microsoft, Sony, Xerox, Texas Instruments, Cable & Wireless and Misys - Maxine has a passion for working with small and growing businesses. Over the past couple of decades, Maxine has helped tech entrepreneurs in the UK and worldwide to devise successful market-facing strategies and to then help execute them effectively.
Maxine is also a part-time marketing and communications consultant to Microsoft, supporting its BizSpark program, which since launch in 2008, has helped tens of thousands of tech start-ups around the world.
Example success stories during Maxine's career include: helping one start-up to turn around its ineffective communications strategy to a rapid lead-generator in less than 6 months; helping an established brand launch a new product range and become number one in its market, without any advertising or direct marketing; and helping a brand new start-up to become established as the leading name in its sector, including number one in organic search result, despite a small budget.
"Maxine and Ambrose Communications have consistently performed when up against a tough industry and tight budgets. She is results led and we have seen a real up-swing in market interest for specific sectors we were targeting." Paul Davis, a client when he was a marketing manager at 3M. Odette Lunter, when at tech SME Bibit (now part of RBS): "Maxine very quickly mastered our business case and, despite geographical and budget challenges, successfully translated it into a creative, consistent and well executed communications campaigns. I highly recommend her work."
Maxine began her career in-house at Panasonic UK, before being head-hunted to JPFR - one of the leading tech PR agencies in the 80s and 90s - before heading up the UK technology client division for Edelman, the world's largest independent PR & communications agency. Maxine was also awarded a Distinction from the Communications Advertising Marketing (CAM) Foundation. In late 1995, Maxine left Edelman to create her own full-service marketing and communications consultancy business, Ambrose Communications. This continues to thrive with a highly experienced team in the UK and worldwide, providing counsel and tactical support to both ‘blue chip' organisations, growth SMEs and high-potential start-ups. She is also a regularly published author/journalist, sometimes in her own name, but often as a ghost-writer.
"Michael Jacobsen has co-founded some of Australia's most highly successful businesses and co-produced some of the most successful entertainment productions this country has ever created and exported. He's trustworthy , loyal and good fun to work with. I have great respect for him."
High profile Australian entrepreneur Michael Jacobsen is a businessman based in Europe.He holds a Bachelor of Business Degree from UTS in Sydney, a financial Diploma from the Australian Securities Institute and is a former Justice of the Peace in Australia.
He is a Professional Company Director, Consultant and Business Mentor.
Michael's core businesses have historically been both entertainment and finance. He has co-founded and in some cases funded numerous businesses both small and large, across a variety of business sectors.
In Australia, the UK, the USA and Europe he has used his own business experience to mentor Start-Ups, Small Businesses and Growth Businesses and guided them forward, assisting them to elevate their market position globally.
"I have worked with Erik Jan Scholten for the past 8 years. He provided consultancy on a number of people development and team management projects as well as on strategic issues. Over the last 5 years he has been a mentor/executive coach to me in the transition to a new position and on a wide range of issues regarding the management of the business. He is a valuable sounding board, who knows perfectly well when to give advise or when to continue probing for what people know themselves.
Erik Jan has a massive amount of business experience/knowledge, which he voluntarily shares with the people he mentors. He is genuinely interested in all aspects of the work, business and private issues of the people he coaches. Whenever possible he lets people find out for themselves how to solve their problems/issues/challenges through productive questioning. He is International Grandmaster level at active listening. Erik Jan is a creative and engaged partner who is really interested in the progress of your operation/project or your individual development. He has been instrumental in the set up of a local strategy (providing purpose) and of well functioning teams in my business. I can honestly state that his input was very effective and as an operational unit we have really benefited (award winning level!) from his approach.
He is 100% involved in all his projects and regularly sends update articles to his mentees on issues one is dealing with. Refreshing approach! He is always available to discuss whichever problem arises. His understanding of people and how to work with them and improve their functioning is phenomenal. The business I lead has thrived because of his involvement and enthusiasm; It really has become a vibrant and progressive organisation.
From my experience, I can honestly recommend Erik Jan to anyone for all types of mentoring, coaching or business consulting.
Job Titles:
- Company Director, St James 's Place
I have worked with Mark on a number of projects both where he has been an introducer of business to me and in situations where he has assisted me on transactions I have been working. In all situations Mark is highly professional, having the ability to rapidly understand the key issues and nuances of a deal and as a consequence help construct a solution. I would recommend Mark to a business requiring advice or finance.
Norman (Norrie) is a Chartered Accountant with over 30 years of post qualification experience. His big company experience was gained with Ernst & Young,Scottish & Newcastle Breweries and Mobil Oil, working in the USA, West Africa, the Far East (mainly Japan) and New Zealand. For the last 20 years he has been based in Richmond, Surrey working on his own account and with others as a Business Adviser and Non-Executive Finance Director / Director to small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) in a wide variety of industries including property, recruitment, IT, publishing, mail-order, electronics and sports and leisure. He has much experience of preparing Business Plans, acquisitions and mergers, strategic planning and raising funds from Banks, private investors, Business Angel Groups and other such sources. He is currently a partner in JFP Strategic Planning (www.jfpstrategic-planning.co.uk) , a Director of Sunningdale Corporate Finance Limited and a Director of London Scottish International, where he is currently co-ordinating the raising of 1.7 million pounds from private investors to help take the Club back to the higher echelons of English rugby.
Job Titles:
- Partner, Restructuring & Insolvency at Squire, Sanders & Dempsey ( UK ) LLP
From an initial telephone call, Mark was able to source not only an acquisition target for my client, but within 48 hours had a £120m facility agreed in principle enabling the deal to complete. Kinetic have unrivalled contacts in the finance world and I would not hesitate to recommend them.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director, Istanbul, February 1st, 2015
"I've had the pleasure of working with Eric Jan on numerous assignments over the past 6 years. Eric Jan is passionate about continuous organizational improvement and team excellence. He has worked effectively with our senior management team and has mentored several of my direct reports who have achieved more than they thought possible. Erik Jan brings energy, passion, and a constant pursuit to add value to individuals both personally and professionally."
Richard has made a career out of starting businesses from scratch, building them up and successfully selling them. His first was in property, building one of the largest independently owned chains of estate agents and selling out to one of the building societies. He then built a publishing business, followed by a chain of successful bars and restaurants. He went on to build up the largest chain of cheque cashing shops and sold out to Money Shop and he then built up a nationwide loans business which he franchised and then sold. Richard is currently a non-executive director on a number of boards across a diverse range of businesses. He has been a Magistrate for 15 years and is a Trustee of Starlight Foundation.
Richard founded moving weather the online marine weather business is chairman of infoshare a large data business and is on the board of e-dba a major oracle partner
As your mentor, Richard brings not just a huge range of experience to the table, but incredible passion for business and wants his mentees to succeed.
Job Titles:
- Sales and Marketing Business Start Ups Based in East Midlands UK
Richard was trained in Sales and Marketing in Unilever and J.Lyons and Co. before the desire to "work for himself" took over. Much to the consternation of his peer group colleagues at the time he resigned one Monday morning and took the plunge, only to regret he hadn't done it years before.
Job Titles:
- Training and Development Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Ready Solutions Ltd & Co - Author of Neuro - Linguistic Programming for Dummies
Job Titles:
- Author / Media Personality - Adelaide Australia
Sir Eric Peacock has been leading companies since 1970 where he cut his teeth in both consumer goods and industry supply chain for a group of businesses subsequently acquired by Hanson.
He subsequently had work with James Hanson on running Eric's division of the nine businesses, acquisition spotting and integrating and thanks to James who funded him he set off on a serial entrepreneur route and acquired Babygro a company he took to full stock exchange listing and is now chairman of a group of high growth businesses including Baydonhill FX, which he took to AIM listing, Award winning Stage Technologies Ltd a company in the entertainment stage automation industry, Cimex technology, Boxfield Holdings, Stevenage Packaging ltd, Buckley Jewellery and Halo International furniture.
Also Eric has experience in other areas of financial services, professional services and a wide international background having run businesses in China, Australia, Canada, France, Ireland and South Africa.
He has previously grown and sold businesses in the management development area with Achieve Global whom he sold to IIP in Brussels and Hospitality Plus he sold to VT Group.
He is also President of Institute of Sales and Marketing Management and has sat on a number of government boards FCO, DTI, BERR and BIS and is currently a Non Exec Director with UKTI.
Eric has wide ranging experience of start up, turnarounds, internationalisation, financing, acquiring, disposal and flotation.
Eric is passionate about people development, culture, engagement and innovation as ways to create differentiate competitive advantage.
In a phrase Eric is all about "helping leaders find their own greatness and assisting them to make their business world class"?
Stirling is an inspirational mentor who after a highly successful international career building consumer global brands set up his own company, floated it on Aim and completed a multi-million £ acquisition. Highly enthusiast and a superb listener Stirling delivers results by combining the experiences gained in both large corporates and small companies.
His expertise includes