We will only use CIPR Approved Trainers to lead our workshop sessions. This is our commitment to you that we will only provide excellent standards of training using reliable trainers who have demonstrated their own commitment to continuous learning and regular skills updating, and to raising standards of professionalism throughout the industry.
All are specialists in their respective fields and come from a variety of backgrounds including in-house, consultancy, and academia. In addition, all have a wide range of professional experience. In order to achieve this training standard, all have undergone a rigorous approval process and have demonstrated a commitment to excellence in training.
The 2011 evaluation survey reported that 93% of our delegates rated our trainers as very good or excellent and 88% said the workshop attended met their objectives.
Andrew Smith
Andrew is Managing Director of Escherman Limited, a specialist online PR, SEO and analytics consultancy,
With a career spanning 25 years of public relations and journalism, he has developed and implemented many highly successful strategic PR and marketing communications programmes for some of the world's biggest brands including IBM, CapGemini, MySQL, Apple (FileMaker) and Checkpoint.
Smith has been a consistent PR innovator, being among the first UK practitioners to exploit e-mail (1991), the World Wide Web (1994) and Twitter (2007). Described as the 'de facto godfather of PR blogging', he is a regular speaker and media commentator on the integration of PR with social media, search optimisation and analytics.
Andy Green FCIPR
Andy lectures and runs training events around the world to inspire audiences and delegates to harness their creative abilities and manage the creative dimension in their work. Andy is author of 'Creativity in Public Relations' – the first book on the subject, now in its third edition and translated into Chinese, Croatian, Indonesian, Korean, Polish and Russian. He has also written 'Effective Personal Communications in Public Relations' on how each of us can change our world.
Andy is a Fellow of the Institute and has over 25 years experience in public relations, marketing and brand development. He has won numerous awards for his work. Andy runs a successful public relations consultancy in Yorkshire as well as his own creativity consultancy, and is also a director of the Wakefield Media Centre which claims to be Britain's only moo-ing building!
Ashley Gibbins MCIPR
Ashley has worked as head of communications for two London boroughs, in tourism, and in commercial and industrial PR. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Journalists and a lecturer on communications. More recently, Ashley set up his own consultancy specialising in corporate, campaign and event management projects.
Caroline Black MCIPR
Caroline is an experienced communications professional with a background in senior management roles. A writer and trainer, she recently completed a book entitled 'The PR practitioners desk top guide' and now manages a successful training consultancy.
Dennis Kelly FCIPR
Denni is the director of marketing and student recruitment at Teesside University and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. Dennis is an experienced public relations practitioner and was the founder and managing director of a major UK public relations consultancy. He also spent 12 years in a senior capacity with BT, and his experience encompasses all aspects of internal and external communications, in both the public and private sectors. He has been responsible for numerous award-winning campaigns and has been recognised in the CIPR Excellence Awards. Areas of special interest include strategic planning, integrated communications, crisis communications and issues management.
Di Burton FCIPR
Di is the managing director of Cicada Communications Limited, which she founded in 1987. She advises at board level on leadership issues and stakeholder management for a range of blue chip organisations. For the past 14 years she has been directing the MA in Public Communication programme for the Government Communication Network in Leeds.
Di is a Consultant Fellow and holds an Honorary Fellowship at LeedsTrinity University College. She is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Di is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and leads several CIPR workshops, covering topics from employee engagement to managing teams.
As an industry expert, Di has worked at 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet Office, and is a regular speaker at national and international conferences. She also acts as a judge for the National APPRO Awards for Excellence in Police Media communication, and judges the annual Yorkshire Press Awards and CIPR Excellence Awards.
Dr Jon White FCIPR
Jon is a consultant specialising in management and organisation development, public affairs and PR management. He holds a doctorate from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences and has written extensively in public affairs, public relations and corporate communications.
Dr Stuart Thomson
Stuart is a public affairs and communications specialist at leading law firm Bircham Dyson Bell LLP. Stuart has advised clients across a range of lobbying, consultation and crisis communications matters.
Stuart is an honorary research fellow at the University of Aberdeen and is the author of several books including 'New Activism and the Corporate Response' and 'Public Affairs in Practice' (for the Chartered Institute of Public Relations). He has also been a judge for the Public Affairs News awards.
Gill Dandy MCIPR
Gill is a communications professional with over 20 years' consultancy and in-house experience in the public relations industry. She was a board director of Shandwick Communications, working with consumer and retail clients, before moving into the not-for-profit (nfp) sector as communications director for a charity. She currently works as a trainer and communications consultant for charity and nfp clients. Gill is Chair of Fifth Estate, the CIPR's nfp sectoral group, and was previously a judge in the nfp category of the CIPR Excellence Awards.
Jonathan Boddy MCIPR
Jonathan is a vastly experienced tutor and trainer having worked in the specific field of Media and Crisis Skills training for nearly 15 years. He has worked alongside a wide range of organisations helping them to communicate effectively under a variety of challenging circumstances. Currently he is a consultant to several organisations including those from the food and drink sector, the NHS and the airline industry.
Judi Goodwin MCIPR
Judi is a freelance journalist and trainer with wide experience in both print and broadcast media. She specialises in helping professionals in PR and corporate communications to develop a journalistic writing style. Judi began her training career with the University of Manchester and now trains in the Far East and Europe. She has run in-house courses for The Countryside Agency, The Royal Mint, Lloyds TSB, the NUJ and IPC Magazines. She brings a whole-person approach to her training, with an emphasis on coaching and creativity.
Kerry Savage MCIPR
Kerry has worked at some of the UK's most successful PR consultancies, as well as in-house. Her expertise spans a broad range of sectors, with clients ranging from Kellogg's and P&G to American Express and Selfridges. As managing director of a training company, Savage Communications, Kerry specialises in teaching core PR competencies, including proposal writing, presentation skills and strategic counsel. She delivered the PR module for the Diploma in Journalism at Birkbeck College and regularly provides small business training programmes for Business Link. Kerry is a coach and NLP practitioner.
Laurel Hetherington FCIPR
Laurel is a freelance PR trainer and a public relations examiner for the CAM Foundation. She has lectured on CAM Certificate and Diploma courses for 10 years and runs many in-house training workshops.
Leona Deakin
Leona is a chartered occupational psychologist and co-director of consultancy Deakin Carmichael. She specialises in many areas that complement the world of PR including internal communication, senior team facilitation and change management. Leona is an experienced trainer, facilitator and coach who is keen to help PR professionals understand how psychology can help them to achieve their goals.
Liam FitzPatrick
Liam's background includes external and internal communications having worked in-house and in major consultancies. Over the years he has delivered communications programmes for clients in a number of sectors. In recent years his consulting work has concentrated on developing teams of communicators and helping to define professional competencies. He also works on the communication skills of line managers and senior leaders.
Liam runs the Change and Internal Communications practice for Bell Pottinger and is one of the co-authors of the definitive competency model for internal communicators. As well as being a regular columnist in the CIPR magazine Profile he is a contributor to the Gower Handbook on Internal Communications.
Linda Cressey MCIPR
Linda is a consultant and independent trainer specialising in communication, management and personal development training. Prior to this, Linda was a fundraising manager for the national children's charity ChildLine. She now delivers public and in-house training for many companies and organisations throughout the UK.
Lorraine Forrest-Turner MCIPR
Lorraine is employed by the HPS marketing group in Marlow, Lorraine Forrest-Turner as a copywriter, PR practitioner and communication skills trainer. Over the last 25 years, she has worked across all sides of the PR business (journalism, consultancy, in-house and freelance) and is now a CIPR Accredited Practitioner and Trainer. Originally qualified in audiology, Lorraine worked for the NHS with the deaf and hard-of-hearing before moving into the performing arts – experience that she has brought to her communication skills training. Lorraine is also a member of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain and the author of a non-fiction book and two published stage plays.
Magnus Carter MCIPR
Magnus has an international reputation for media and crisis communications consultancy and training. He started his journalistic career as a newspaper journalist, and later gained more than 20 years experience in news and current affairs broadcasting, working with the BBC and commercial companies in both radio and television. He was a senior postgraduate journalism lecturer for the University of West of England and is currently an Associate Consultant to the Bristol Business School.
Magnus founded Mentor Consultancy in 1998 and has since then worked with many corporate and public sector clients, to ensure that media encounters become a positive opportunity even in times of crisis and that individuals within those organisations gain recognition through excellent communication skills. He is a member of and approved trainer for the CIPR.
Maud Davis MCIPR
Maud is a PR consultant and CIPD qualified trainer, who delivers workshops for the CIPR and is part of its team of mentors.
She has managed PR accounts in agencies for over 15 years, working in the fast moving consumer goods, charity and publishing sectors. Her experience includes British Meat (post BSE), PDSA, Kellogg's, the Royal College of Midwives and Slimming World magazine. Today, she works as an independent consultant for PR and marketing agencies, advising and implementing high profile media relations campaigns.
She is also course leader on the CIPR Advanced Certificate in London, is a tutor on the CIPR Foundation course and online Advanced Certificate course and serves on the Marcomms group committee of the CIPR. Maud recently became an accredited Belbin team roles consultant.
Neil Jones MCIPR
Neil has over 30 years experience in reputation management, public relations, internal communications and training. He provides emergency response cover for several oil industry clients; manages a specialist health and safety internal communication programme and edits and writes a number of internal publications including new technology and HSE newsletters for an oil major and a worldwide group's quarterly staff magazine.
Paul Noble FCIPR
Paul is an independent public relations trainer, consultant, academic, mentor and speaker/facilitator. He a CIPR-approved trainer, covering topics ranging from writing skills, through planning & evaluation and crisis management, to winning new business (for PR consultancies).
Paul is an e-learning specialist and is a course leader of the PR Academy's online delivery of the CIPR's professional Diploma. In addition, he is chief examiner of the CIPR's Advanced Certificate. He also provides management support to growing PR consultancies, as well as mentoring young professionals.
Paul has more than 30 years' experience in senior consultancy, in-house and academic environments. He is a Fellow of the CIPR and a CIPR Chartered PR Practitioner, as well as being an assessor for the designation. With Dr Tom Watson, he is the author of Evaluating Public Relations (2nd edition published in 2007).
Peter Curtain
For several years Peter Curtain, Managing Director and founder of Allerton Communications, has provided senior-level advice to listed and private companies across a range of sectors. Previously a director of two financial PR firms, he has led financial communications on several successful AIM fundraisings and listings. He is a member of the Recruitment and Marketing Committee of the Quoted Companies Alliance as well as a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
Robert Taylor MCIPR
Robert is a media trainer and speechwriter, and the managing director of Taylor-made Communications, a training and editorial consultancy. He has media-trained executives from a range of companies across all sectors, combining a challenging and searching interview technique with an inclusive style of facilitation. Empathising with the different needs of trainees, he gives simple, memorable lessons that they can act upon immediately. Robert started his career in 1990 in Sri Lanka, where he produced and presented English-language television programmes, before joining the international communications industry in London. He has also been a columnist for The International Herald Tribune.
Tessa Curtis MCIPR
Tessa is an independent consultant with over 20 years' experience in public relations, journalism and training. She runs her own consultancy, Tessa Curtis Associates, which advises UK and international clients.
Previously MD of the Corporate, Financial and Strategic media practices at Weber Shandwick, Tessa also led the European Professional Services and media training practices at Trimedia; and has acted as a session leader at PR industry events and judge for the PR Week awards. She is a faculty member of The Management School London, where she teaches CIPR professional qualifications.
Originally a journalist, Tessa was for many years City Correspondent of The Daily Telegraph and later Business Correspondent at the BBC, regularly appearing on the main TV news and programmes including Today and Newsnight. A graduate of Oxford University, she lives in London.
Tricia Boyd FCIPR
Tricia is a consultant, trainer and interim manager. An early career in publishing led into PR. She has been managing director of a team of 30 people as well as leading HR and change management roles in large consultancies. In 2002 Tricia set up her own business, working for public and private sector clients and mixing consultancy work with in-house interim assignments.
