New Directions works with a seleted number of trusted associates who bring a range of skills, experiences and languages that enable us to offer a more comprehensive service. Scroll down to read biographies of our key associates:


LYSIANE BYSH
Lysiane had a long standing retail career both within the HR & Training functions and as the line manager of IT specialists before becoming a highly successful training consultant. Her assignments ranged from store personnel management to the development of training courses for all levels of management as a Divisional Training Manager.

As a line manager, Lysiane has run a busy recruitment office, initiating new systems and procedures to streamline the process. She has vast experience in the field of selection and assessment. Her training expertise lies in all aspects of performance management and improvement; appraisal and feedback; coaching, assessment and selection, as well as team building and development of people; creating practical solutions to business problems; and customer care, whether communication is face-to-face, via the telephone or written.

Her training style is interactive and encouraging, focussing on helping people to improve their skills, approach and confidence. She is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the Association for Management Education and Development and the Institute of Management Consultancy. Lysiane lives in London.


JEM SCANLAN
Jem’s line management career was spent in the technology industry, 10 years with International Computers Ltd, mostly in Stuttgart, Germany, and 12 years with Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) both in Munich, Germany and Sophia Antipolis, France. Most of his assignments were Change Programmes of an organisational nature, involving complex interconnected projects, and in addition implementations of both ISO 9000 certification projects and Project Based Organisations. From 1995 until early 2000, Jem was Human Resources and Training and Development Director for VLSI in Sophia.

As a training consultant he now specialises in interpersonal and management training primarily for technical professionals, and cross cultural training. Recently he has also been involved with Multi-Cultural, Multi-Site, Complex-Projects training with Philips Semiconductors (now NXP), and running interpersonal skills programmes for Philips. He designs and runs cross cultural training programmes for doing Business with Asia, Japanese, Chinese, India and Korea. He also coaches and runs workshops in Life and Career Design for high potential professionals. He is a partner in Learning Consortium.

He lives in the South of France, and works in English, German and French.


MARGARET WRIGHT
Margaret works with individuals, groups, organisations and communities to facilitate change. The focus of her work is ‘appreciative inquiry’ – an approach that asks powerful questions about what has life and energy -- what works, the best that has happened, people's strengths and values – as a trustworthy foundation on which to build even more vital futures. She promotes and focuses on abundance rather than scarcity, assets in place of needs, hope instead of despair and an appreciative rather than a problem-solving approach. She is the founder of Imagine Leith, a project to enhance communication, connection and collaboration in a traditional community in North Edinburgh, and has founded or assisted in a number of other community development projects in Scotland. She has also used the appreciative approach to facilitate large scale dialogues for the NHS and Scottish Enterprise.

In other work she has designed and delivered a programme on Personal Effectiveness for Department Heads in a hospital, coached the Board of Directors of an Engineering Company on the introduction of Performance Appraisal, provided outplacement services to individual clients including a major employer in the Financial sector. and helped to develop self managed teams for a major Chemical company.

Margaret studied at Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities. She has worked in Yardley of London, Courtaulds and British Gas, in England, Northern Ireland and Scotland. She has worked as an independent consultant since 1996. She is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development, is a qualified in Saville & Holdsworth Aptitude and Psychometric Tests and Hay Job Evaluation. Margaret lives in Edinburgh.


ROSEMARY HILL
Rosemary is an HR and organisation development consultant specialising in leading-edge research and change programmes. Her experience covers a wide range of private and public sector organisations; she works closely with CMPS (a management unit of Cabinet Office) on strategic HR/change projects including the development of a new Masters qualification and the design of HR Masterclasses. Her scope includes the design and implementation of performance management processes, developing action learning programmes, organisational research and the design and delivery of management development programmes. She has a background in project management and quality assurance systems and has run a major training design and commissioning project for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to support the introduction of a new policy on housing support.

Rosemary has a PhD and MSc from Nottingham Business School, The Nottingham Trent University, where she is a Visiting Fellow in the Department of HRM. She is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and a Member of the Institute of Quality Assurance.

Her work has included action research into organisation learning. She has published widely and has recently co-edited an academic text incorporating the latest thinking in management development research and practice across the UK and Europe. She is an external moderator to CIPD certificate programmes and teaches on CMPS's CIPD Professional Development Scheme. She is based in Spain.


ANDREW LONG
Andrew is an international learning & development specialist, with strong leadership & communication skills, underpinned by a varied background in line management, which saw him manage a variety of teams (commercial, specialist & virtual) in the UK and overseas. His last corporate role saw him develop the Learning & Development strategy for the African arm of Barclays Bank. Prior to that he enjoyed several internal change management consultancy roles at regional & national levels in the UK, Africa, Europe & the Caribbean in operations support and IT services.

As a consultant he has designed & facilitated International Leadership Conferences in Johannesburg, a culture change & brand awareness programme for an international hotel group, e-training modules in performance management for global telecommunications company, and coached & mentored a number of individuals in senior roles in UK & overseas organisations to improve their own effectiveness & career potential

He is a member of Institute of Leadership & Management, and Accredited Trainer for TMS, SDI and MBTI, and was Mentor of the Year 2001 awarded by National Mentoring Consortium. Andrew works from a base in Leeds.


CATHY DUNN
Cathy Dunn is an experienced learning, leadership and organisation development specialist with over 20 years of experience gained in working in one of the world’s leading oil companies.

She has worked on all stages of design and facilitation of learning activities and able to work at all levels within an organisation from senior executives through to operational staff. Her most recent achievement was to successfully manage a global programme, on all continents, for 10,000 front line leaders, running 100 events annually and gaining recognition in the form of a UK National Training Award.

Cathy is accredited for Myers-Briggs Type Indicator; Team Management Index, Firo-B, Innovation Potential Indicator and SIMA Coaching. She lives in Surrey.


JENNY WARDLE
Jenny is an Organisational Development, Change Agent, Coach and Mentor with 20 years experience who delivers organisational development and cultural change, business restructuring, business excellence, leadership and team development, strategic HR functions that support business delivery, achievement of IIP, executive and personal coaching and mentoring.

Creating passion, energy and drive Jenny aligns businesses from top to toe, motivates, and develops cultures where people are engaged, are proactive and accept change as a natural process. Specialist skills in behavioural development enable her to achieve swift buy-in and ensure business improvement in both the short and long term. Her experience crosses most industry sectors. She is an NLP Master Practitioner and lives in Cheltenham.


BEN JOHNSON
Ben Johnson spent his early post-graduate years teaching in the West Indies and South America before moving to Provence, in the South of France, where he co-founded a school for teaching English as a foreign language and developed one of the first audio-visual methods for language teaching. He moved into the business world as a training consultant in 1985 and has provided services on major development programmes for: Digital Equipment, Compaq Computers, VLSI, Mitsubishi Trium, Citicorp, Philips Semiconductors, Novartis Consumer Health, Microsoft Corporation, and United States Postal Service. His specialism is in project management. He also works as an interim project manager.

Ben is fluent in English and French and lives in Aix-en-Provence, France.


ROBERTO GAVAZZI
Roberto is a partner in a consultancy practice in Milan, Italy whose different skills – which include Management and Organisation Development, Executive Search, Market Development and Business Control – can be integrated in a variety of Management Coaching and ad-hoc projects.

He was born in Milan and graduated in Chemical Engineering, joining Exxon Chemicals where he worked in a range of executive jobs with worldwide responsibilities such as Technology, Operations & Planning, Purchasing & Logistics, TQM and Cultural Change.

Roberto started his own independent consultancy in Brussels in 1992, focussing on topics such as TQM, cultural change, ISO 9000, problem solving, transformational leadership. safety motivation, and logistics optimisation. He is a speaker and faculty member at MCE in Brussels, ASQ in the USA and several Universities and associations in Italy. Clients span a range of sectors including petrochemical, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, food, banking, public institutions, mechanical, automotive, furniture and appliance industries.

Roberto is comfortable working in English, French or Italian and also works from Milan and a home base in Brussels where his wife practices as Medical Doctor.


TOMÁS KENNEDY
Tomás is a consultant, a facilitator, a coach and a musician. For over 20 years he has been working with significant organisations in Ireland and 20 countries internationally. The client organisations are in the private and public sectors, and range in size from small to very large.

He worked for a number of consulting firms as a consultant, trainer and facilitator before setting up his first business, Meta Consultancy, which specialised in Team Development, Team Leadership and Project Management. He has worked with Sheppard Moscow (change management consultants) for a number of years, specialising in change management interventions and behavioural skills development programmes, and in 1999 set up a new business, Kennedy-Ireland, with a focus on coaching. He is a founder member of the IAC (International Association of Coaches), a member of EAP Ireland, and a member of Spiritual Directors International. Tomás has a great deal of experience with small learning groups, large group visioning workshops, and with facilitating stakeholder conferences. His style is more pull than push. A great deal of his recent work has been in developing countries.

Tomás is based in Dublin, Ireland and works in English and Gaelic (Irish)


ERICA KOCH
Erica is a certified management consultant with a masters degree in change management. Over the past 20 years she has worked for a variety of training and consultancy firms as a manager, a consultant and a management trainer. In her assignments, Erica has worked for large corporations as well as not-for-profit organisations. She is a member of the Dutch association of management consultancy.

She founded her own firm that specialises in personal coaching and management development in 1997. The name of her company is Parresia, stemming from Greek philosophy and meaning 'speaking openly and truthfully, without holding back'. She uses this as a motto for her work. She also works as a teacher at a postgraduate school for management consultants. Erica is a very experienced trainer. In her communication, she is direct but also supportive, trying to reach ever deeper levels of self-analysis. She is also analytical, quick thinking and constantly looking for possibilities to help her clients find solutions to their problems while maintaining the emphasis on their responsibilities.

She works as a coach and trainer of coaching techniques for managers, and regularly delivers workshops in influencing, negotiating and philosophy of management. Erica is a partner in Learning Consortium, lives in The Netherlands and can work professionally in Dutch and English.


JUDY KNIGHT
Judy has been training and coaching executives, managers, and teams in the U.S., Europe and Asia for over 10 years. Prior to starting her own business, Judy spent 15 years in leadership, management and consulting roles, primarily in the financial, manufacturing and high-tech industries. She has developed successful programs in change management, staff retention, performance management, leadership, team building, customer service, personal development, time management and other programs and coaching initiatives that are critical for both personal and organizational growth. Some of her clients include the Mars Corporation, Madge Systems, Ocular Sciences, Ameriquest Mortgage Company, QuickLogic, Inc., Standard Life Assurance (UK), Reed and Epson (UK).

Judy demonstrates a proven ability to motivate individuals and clarify their paths to achievement as well as increase performance and job satisfaction within organizations. Clients appreciate her enthusiastic, non-judgmental approach to problem solving and her talent for envisioning the practical steps that lead to sustained change.

She is a graduate of CoachU, and an active member of the International Coaching Federation and the American Society of Training and Development. Additionally, she is trained and experienced with assessment tools such as DISC, PIA&V, Attribute Index, Social Styles, True Colors, 360 Degree Feedback instruments and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®. She lives in California.


FRANK PENSON
Frank Penson is a senior human resource consultant, with a strong commercial and academic pedigree. Frank moved into consultancy in 1994 and has specialised in strategic training & development assignments, nationally and internationally in Europe, the Former Soviet Union, the Middle East, Africa & the Caribbean. He has close links with the UK Government's Learning and Skills Council network and is an approved adviser for Investors in People. He is a Member and Registered Consultant of the Energy Institute.

Frank gained 17 years' experience with the Exxon Corporation in a wide range of general management positions, including marketing, international auditing (Europe, Middle East & Africa), government relations and financial management, his career culminating in 5 years as Esso UK's Head of Training & Organisation Effectiveness, where he influenced the corporation's training activity throughout Europe. He was educated at Cambridge University where he completed his first masters degree in Classics and he completed a second masters degree in Management Development, at the Roffey Park Institute.

He has wide sectoral consultancy experience, including: manufacturing, construction, oil & gas, financial services, information technology, pharmaceuticals, health service and central government, helping organisations to create or revise their strategies for training & developing staff, conduct bespoke reviews of training & development processes and training & development healthchecks, designing and implementing competency frameworks and performance management systems and assisting organisations in conducting training / learning needs analysis. Frank lives in Surrey.

GEORGE SIMONS
George Simons, MA, DMin leads a global virtual consulting and training network specialising in intercultural communication and global management from Madelieu la Napoule in France and Santa Cruz USA. He is the creator and general editor of the award-winning DIVERSOPHY® training instruments and the diversophy.com website.

With over 25 years experience, he is an internationally recognised counsellor and author, fluent in English, German, Spanish, Dutch, and French, and with a working knowledge of Russian, Indonesian and Italian. He is part of Management Centre Europe’s regular faculty and their online training initiative team. He is a member of the Editorial Advisory board of the European Business Review and board member of SIETAR Europa. Recently clients include Astrium, BNP Paribas, Capgemini, CocaCola, Cruz Roja de Barcelona, Ford, Michelin, Shell, Siemens, the UN and Unilever.

As an author George has created and edited a number of books, training materials and multimedia-training designs including Putting Diversity to Work, Not my Kind for Video Arts, EuroDiversity: a Business Guide to Managing Difference, Cultural Detective™ USA, Cultural Detective™ Netherlands, and most recently translated his Global Competence training manual into Spanish (Competencia Global). George lives in the South of France and works in English, French, German and Spanish.

JAC RONGEN
Jac began as an internal communication consultant with a large Dutch bank. After 6 years, the bank merged with another bank, which seemed a good time to move on, and he founded his own business as an independent trainer/ consultant. He is also a partner in Learning Consortium.

Jac is of Dutch origin, and works in Dutch, English and German, preferably outdoors. Not only because he himself feels better between trees than between walls, but also because he has seen that the physical surrounding and the room to move physically has a strong effect on the learning processes of participants. His intercultural awareness has been sharpened by working in the US, Turkey, and several countries in Europe, with groups varying from young gang members to people just below the board of large international firms.

He loves to come in when all standard solutions have failed, and people start to feel they're wading in mud. He will use uncommon methods, like a combination of outdoor and socratic dialogue, and his biggest professional achievement was to have an insomniac oversleep after the first programme day (it was the start of a new life for her).

In his work, Jac is a typical archer: patient, concentrated. And loving. Apart from that, he is driven. He lives and works from The Netherlands and Turkey and trains in Dutch, English and German.