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Neil started his working life as an apprentice in the aircraft industry during which time he studied Aeronautical Engineering at University. After graduation he joined Unilever and spent several years in supervisory roles and as a trouble-shooter for Unilever’s European operations eventually joining the speciality chemicals businesses as an engineering manager. From there he moved into an international sales and marketing role as part of a culture change to drive profitable top line growth. A secondary role in 1983 was to start the use of computing technology in marketing for customer contact handling and forecasting – the start of a long involvement in Information Systems and Technology.
After 6 years in these roles Neil moved to the US as Vice President of Sales & Marketing to develop and build a new speciality chemicals business. After 5 years in the US and with the US operation on target and profitable he returned as European Marketing Director for National Starch Adhesives to help with the restructuring and refocusing of that business including an active senior role in the implementation of new business information and CRM systems. With the restructuring complete Neil left large corporate life and became European Marketing and IT director with a mid-cap PLC which needed strategic integration to align a number of separate European acquisitions and to drive profit growth. It also needed the underlying infrastructure to be put in place to manage and control the business which involved the successful implementation of business systems and IT network.
After this Neil left corporate life to fulfil a long held desire to take the skills and experience learned during his career and to use them to help other UK businesses from start-ups through SMEs to larger corporate organisations to grow and thrive. His preferred delivery vehicle is coaching and mentoring – an approach that he used extensively during his career to bring out the best in employees and inspire personal growth in difficult change situations. He also works with the Prince’s Trust as a business mentor as well as lecturing in Information Strategy and Management for the Chartered Management Institute’s level 5 and level 7 training programmes.
Richard has a background in Retail and IT, working for several years in Retail as an Area and Branch manager for some of the largest retailers in the country. In 1986 he got involved with one of the countries first EPoS implementations for Dolcis. This changed his direction and he then became heavily involved in EPoS implementations for many other retailers, project managing the installations and helping retailers select the correct system for their business.
In 2000, whilst looking for the ultimate retail solution for a Retailer, Manufacturer and Wholesaler, he was approached to join a team of like minded people to develop the world’s first on-line EPoS and Head office Retail solution. It was felt that Richard was an ideal person to be at the centre of the design of this groundbreaking system, due to his interest in on-line technologies and his vast wealth of EPoS experience. In 2001 the team launched Cybertill which would go on to be the fastest growing EPoS solution in the UK and Europe. Along the way the Cybertill team won many awards, The Big Chip Awards, Regional Best Use of Broadband Technology Award, and Regional Orange Business Award.
Richard’s design, built from more than 20 years of experience in the retail management and retail systems, is today found in 100’s of High St Chains throughout the UK, Europe and North America. The groundbreaking move the Cybertill team made to take Retail technology on-line is now the standard for all EPoS suppliers.
He has always had a passion to help SMEs to embrace all forms of on-line technology to help improve and grow their businesses; he has a strong belief that technology should be available to all levels of business, not just “the big boys”. With this in mind he moved to concentrate on this passion and has been helping SMEs come up with business strategies that embrace the use of on-line technologies, Ecommerce and various forms of “cloud computing” systems that reduce cost and improve efficiencies.
Richard has always been an avid user of social media and has recently developed workshops and training courses where he is encouraging SMEs to start listening to their customers via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc………. His book Social Media for Business Growth “The World is talking! It’s time to join The Conversation”, which focuses in simple ways that SMEs can leverage Social Media to bring more business to their doors, comes out in August 2010.
Richard is also a PRINCE2 Registered Practitioner.
Richard is now part of the 5th Wise Monkey team and continues to deliver his passion to help SMEs businesses grow, through the use of on-line technology on a daily basis.
Dawn is passionate about supporting people into reaching their full potential. She is a qualified Counsellor and her background experience is in community and informal education. Dawn has experience in mentoring, Counselling , Coaching and Youth Work
Dawn knows the importance of developing new skills and is forward thinking and open. This enables her to support, inspire and motivate people to achieve and develop positively in all areas of their lives.
Her Reiki training has now been completed to Master Reiki Practitioner Level enabling her to run teaching workshops.
Other holistic therapies include Indian Head Massage and Swedish Massage. Taster sessions for staff in a corporate environment have proved very popular together with full sessions in our Formby practice.
Dawn believes you must always work towards achieving your dream/goal.
Helen started her career
Coaching and Reiki enhance the support that can be offered to people encouraging a positive difference now and in the future.
Helen is now a Master Reiki Practitioner and can also offer Indian Head Massage.
Training as an accelerated learning Coach has impacted in a positive way on training sessions ensuring individuals are catered for by using all the learning styles.
Helen is committed to making a difference in peoples’ lives.
