Our team
Hover over a photo to find out more about the consultant.
John Farrer
Managing Director
Is a passionate believer in the business case for training having started his career as a teacher after graduating from Oxford University in Natural Sciences. He is a Myers Briggs practitioner.
Training assignments around the world include development of executive teams of global organisations, team building, conference facilitation and creative thinking. He has addressed seminars on many leadership topics, including: Changing Corporate Values and Eradicate Bullying.
Committed to talent development in other organisations as well as his own; is Chairman of the City Trainers Forum, based in London.
Personal quote: “To develop the business, develop yourself!”
Elspeth Campbell
Head of POD Executive Coaching
Set up POD Executive Coaching in 2000, with stringent regulations and supervision. Has 20 years experience in management development working with senior individuals and teams.
Held senior management development role at LIFFE the London International Financial Futures Exchange, and in a role as organisational consultant with Coopers & Lybrand.
Msc in Systemic Management, experienced in Psychometric questionnaires BPS levels A & B, has a diploma in Counselling & Psychotherapy and trained in Psychology.
Personal quote: “Exploring and enhancing the relational dynamics between people in organisations is about understanding the meanings within how they speak and act and connect with each other”.
Barry Tomalin
Specialist in intercultural communication, Barry has addressed conferences and trained in numerous countries across the world. He is the author of many books including “The World’s business cultures and how to unlock them” which has chapters on China, USA, Germany, UK, Russia, India, Brazil, France, Italy and Japan.
He is Director of Cultural Training at International House in London and has been a guiding force behind POD courses for many years. Barry has also facilitated programmes in customer satisfaction in business process outsourcing.
Personal quote: “Culture is about different client and partner expectations. Understanding those expectations is crucial to successful international business”.
Sheena Bigland
Specialises in Executive Coaching, Business Ethics and Training and Competence, has run programmes for executive teams on Senior Management Responsibilities and was co-author of the FSA Discussion Paper: ‘An ethical framework for financial services’ (DP18).
A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, she has considerable experience of all aspects of personnel management, diversity issues and the training and development agenda.
Trained on Myers Briggs and has a special interest in change management and teambuilding.
Hilary Baker
Has 15 years experience in developing and delivering business, financial and technical subjects, as well as a wide variety of interpersonal skill related subjects.
Worked within the national training group of BDO Binder Hamlyn and within the tax and legal training group of Arthur Andersen; two of the largest professional accountancy firms.
Is a fellow of the Institute Of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and has worked as a corporate tax specialist within the accountancy profession.
Personal quote: “‘I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught’. So said Winston Churchill, and as a result I am acutely aware, as a trainer, of the need to create the right atmosphere for the learner to learn. For me training is all about guiding, rather than teaching, people to build knowledge, develop skills and adopt the right attitude”.
Andrew Pullman
Over 20 years experience of financial services in the City in fixed income sales, as a training manager and HR director. Previously spent seven years as an army officer.
Experience gained at JP Morgan, Citibank, Saudi International Bank, Deutsche Bank, Kleinwort Benson Private Bank and Dresdner Kleinwort. Andrew now runs his own HR consultancy, People Risk Solutions.
He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and a member of the Institute of Directors.
Personal quote: “I am passionate about working with people to reach their full potential. Organisations are only successful if they are led well and their people are motivated. My aim is to use my experience to guide individuals to achieve their goals”.
Chris Markiewicz
A trainer, facilitator and coach with over 16 years' solid experience in the design and delivery of learning events in areas such as sales, communication skills and personal development.
Has run programmes for a wealth of organisations across a wide range of sectors in the UK, Europe and Africa.
Corporate background in business to business publishing - latterly sales manager with Reed Business Publishing on their hugely successful flagship title “Computer Weekly”.
Personal quote: “In my view, truly effective performance improvement involves much more than the mere gaining of knowledge or practice of techniques - it comes from creating genuine, sustainable change from the inside out”.
Peter Flume
Has 20 years experience as a consultant for public speaking and communication skills in international companies. His training and coaching focus is set on communication, discussion and presentation as well sales, negotiation and leadership. He is the author of several books on these topics.
As co-founder and associate of the business theatre VitaminT he specialises in change management in companies on a European level. The experience showed that theatre helps breaking emotional restrictions and is an effective method for skills and behavior training.
Personal quote: “I strongly believe, that everybody has the potential to fascinate the audience with his presentation and to lead by his words, if he has access to emotion and stories.”
Cathy Jacka
Director
Is a management and team training consultant experienced in the banking, insurance, publishing and broadcasting sectors.
Has worked with European and Middle Eastern teams and held a senior training and communications position with Hertz.
Specialises in innovative approaches both to customer service training and to management training. She is experienced at developing company wide competency frameworks and running assessment centres.
Personal quote: “I strongly believe that people become more effective leaders and managers when they have insight into their own behaviour. My aim as a facilitator is to enable people to choose behaviours that inspire and motivate others towards achieving business goals. My strategy for doing this is to work with delegates to help them to interpret feedback and identify what needs to change”.
Pete Menzies
Is a Senior Consultant with POD. He works with people at all levels, from CEOs to Graduates, in leading international companies. His extensive experience allows for a unique understanding of the customers, the competition and the markets.
As a consultant to organizations in this field, he has developed strategies for transforming performance standards in the key quality skills: communicating & influencing, consulting & selling value, managing & leading change.
In the last year Pete has had assignments in China, Malaysia, Singapore, Russia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North America. In his spare time Pete writes books – he is the only author to have won the Gold Medal at the Leipzig Industrial Fair.
Personal quote: “It is never too late to start doing the right thing.”
Sally Strange
Prior to her POD days Sally spent 15 years in the world of Publishing with responsibility for promoting, marketing and publicising new titles and authors.
Specialist areas are Communication Skills, Assertiveness Training and all levels of Presentation Skills.
In our highly competitive world, Sally’s tips and techniques enable people to win new business.
Personal quote: “I passionately believe that the key to success in and out of the workplace is to fully appreciate the importance of how to communicate with others, whether informally with friends and colleagues or formally with Clients and senior members of staff. Good communication is an essential tool for all businesses and all employees”.
Inge Heumann
Is the Client Services Manager and responsible for supporting clients as well as the POD team.
Has a Business & Management degree and is a German national based in the UK.
Prior to joining POD Inge worked in the media and retail sector.
Personal quote: “I believe strongly in the importance of providing high quality service to our clients. As the development of people in any business is essential to its success I am pleased to act as the first point of contact to offer professional support”.
Simon Horton
Started off at Capgemini then spent many years as a consultant, primarily with some of the biggest names in the financial services sector.
He now specialises in behavioural skills, including the areas of leadership, sales, communication and influence. He is a qualified trainer in NLP and runs Practitioner and Master Practitioner Certification courses.
In his spare time, he has many hobbies including voluntary work and adventure travel. Among other things, he has climbed the highest mountain in three different continents and is currently training for a fourth.
Personal quote: “I firmly believe people learn most when they’re having fun so a key focus for me is to set up an atmosphere where the delegates can really enjoy themselves. The added advantage here is that I get to enjoy my job more, too!”
Mary-Ann Ochota
Is a social anthropologist and presenter, who specialises in presentation skills and effective communication.
A Masters graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge University, she works regularly with international media clients and has built a CV across TV production and corporate administration.
Her first thesis explored notions of responsibility in the healthcare sector, and she continues to sit as a director for a Social Enterprise working with people with disabilities.
Personal quote: “The best results are achieved when first-class thoughts are communicated clearly. Express yourself well, and your ideas can truly take flight and inspire others.”
Reiko Fraser
Has extensive experience working with both British and Japanese companies in the travel, hotel and financial sectors.
Is a strong advocate of the principle of added value customer service as a means of retaining long term customer commitment and securing the market intelligence required to achieve business sustainability.
Born in Yokohama, Japan to a Chinese father and a Japanese mother. Married to a Scot and living in London since 1981, has a special interest in promoting cultural understanding.
Personal quote: “Ichigo-Ichie means ‘a once-in-a-lifetime meeting’ in the words of an old tea master. It tells you to cherish the encounter with anyone you meet because that meeting might lead you to a great chance in your life or business”.
Yousif Saeed
Has been involved in management development and change programmes for banks, industrial companies, airlines and airline related services. His specialist areas are sales, marketing, negotiation, presentation skills, time management and train the trainer.
Since 1980 Yousif has been involved in assisting organisations improve their performance in Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, North Yemen, Seychelles, Lebanon and the United Kingdom. A Bahraini national, Yousif delivers programmes in both Arabic and English languages.
Anita Chanda Peace
Director
Is a leadership consultant, working with multinational companies globally across different sectors.
Prior to joining POD, her corporate experience was gained in leading South African, British and Indian firms. Her areas of expertise are performance management, change-management and Cross-cultural communication..
Is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development with a MA in Strategic Human Resource Management and is a MBTI Practitioner. Anita has a passion for painting pictures and travelling.
Personal quote: “Many of us are always on the go and forget our ‘Pause’ button. Helping people reflect, focus on what they can change and then see a difference, is truly rewarding”.
Paula Sugawara
Has lived in Japan for over 18 years, having spent 13 years in the financial sector as an Equities Analyst for the machinery and utilities sectors. Paula graduated from the University of Nottingham with a BA Hons in French and Spanish. She also qualified as a Certified Financial Analyst.
Paula’s POD projects have included cross-cultural communication, leadership and management skills development workshops. She has coaching qualifications in Japanese from the Coaches Training Institute in Tokyo and in English from the International Coaching Academy. As an executive coach and a trainer, her clients range from foreign financial institutions to Japanese manufacturing companies.
Personal quote: “Failure is only failure if you fail to learn from it.”
Yuka Suzuki
Is a bilingual facilitator residing in Tokyo. She has published books and articles on conflict resolution, language education, and gender. Yuka has conducted POD workshops and facilitated skills development for many leading corporations.
She currently holds positions at Waseda University, Research Institute of Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, Asia University, Department of International Relations and Obirin University, Department of Language and Communication. Yuka spent several years in the US working for Vanderbilt University and the University of California, Santa Barbara.
She holds a BA in Law from Seikei University, an MA in International Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and is a PhD candidate at Sophia University.
Luc Verhoeven
Is an organisational psychologist from L’Université Libre de Bruxelles, where he taught for 4 years. He then gained corporate experience at RHR, a US based company of corporate psychologists, and was Training & OD Manager for Exxon Chemicals in Europe for ten years.
He is a coach and consultant specialising in assessment, change management, management development and cross-cultural training, having worked with a variety of multinational companies in: Europe, Saudi–Arabia, North–America and South–East Asia. Luc is fluent in English, French and Dutch, and has a working knowledge of German.
Personal quote: “These are ambiguous but ultimately exciting times for companies and their respective stakeholders.”
Myungjoon (Marco) Kim
Dr. Kim is a highly experienced consultant in personnel development and organisational behavior and is expert in the use of psychometric instruments and assessment center method. He has strong facilitation skills in management development programs, with particular expertise in the use of Strong Interest Inventory and MBTI ®.
Dr. Kim is Managing Director of the Korean Psychological Testing Institute (KPTI) in Seoul, the Korean distributor and accreditation centre for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ® (MBTI ®). He has an MBA from Yonsei University and a PhD in Human Resource Management from Kwangwoon University.
Ajay Gupta
Ajay and his team lead management development projects across India. He brings with him a multi-functional industry experience in sales & marketing, supply chain, training and consulting to POD. As Managing Director of Astrum Solutions, Ajay manages assignments across many places in India, including Mumbai, Pune, Goa, Delhi and Bangalore.
Prior to co-founding Astrum, Ajay was Business Leader Supply Chain with Dow Agro Sciences, when he was also a part of the trainer resource pool for its Asia-Pacific region. An alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Ajay is one of the few in India practising Dr. Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints to enable organisations take a quantum leap forward through identification and mitigation of constraints that block an organisation in creating more wealth for its stakeholders.
Ruth Chan
Is POD’s agent in Singapore, aligning POD services with local perspective.
Holds a BA and MSc in political science, from the University of Singapore and Rutgers University (New Jersey). Working experience in Asia Pacific Region has exposed her to the Rules of Conduct and Corporate Ethics enforced by some multinational organizations.
With over 34 years experience in HR, for companies such as 3M and Chevron Phillips and currently working as a consultant to a US oil exploration company operating in Asia.
Yoshimi Gregory
Has worked closely with the British and Japanese governments for over 20 years – DTI, FCO, MITI, MOFA, etc., as well as development agencies, local authorities and private sector industries including global companies like Toshiba, KHI, Fujitsu, Nissan and Toyota.
Highly experienced in Business Improvement Techniques concept and Kaizen. Also experienced in education and voluntary sectors. Received the Japanese Ambassador’s Commendation Award in May 2002.
Studied English & American Language and Literature, French Language and Philosophy in Tokyo Women’s Christian University.
Personal quote: “I believe everyone has a potential to develop effective communication and Kaizen skills. I also believe everything starts with communication and ends with communication. It is the key to success in any organisation”.