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Business Creativity & Innovation

Derek Cheshire

Profiles 1

Owner and Principal, Specialist in Innovation, Business Creativity, Creative Leadership
BSc (Hons); MBA

A specialist in introducing creative and innovative solutions to businesses of all sizes and types, Derek has been specialising in developmental activities, managing Innovation, team building and cultural change since 2002. He focuses on the use of creativity as a business tool as well as the measurement and management of innovation.

Recent assignments include working with the South West Regional Development Agency to determine regional innovation strategy and numerous professional speaking engagements. He serves as Regional Chair of the Association of MBAs, a Prince’s Trust Mentor, and lectures on Creativity at the University of Bath. As a member of the Mastermind group for the IMD course at the Royal College of Art in the Hague, he spoke at the inaugural Mastermundo event in September 2007.

Derek also has international experience. Since 2005 he has been working in Mexico where he now has a network of accredited business partners providing innovation solutions. More recently he has been working with the British Council in Malawi. He has worked for a number of blue chip and start-up companies and is an experienced project manager and registered PRINCE2 practitioner. Past experience includes working in the public, private and not for profit sectors. Read more on the About Us and Blog pages.

Roger Croft

Profiles 2

Specialist in Strategy, Business Planning and Entrepreneurship
BSc (Transport, Distribution); PGCE; MBA (Entrepreneurship, business venturing)

Roger has started up and developed companies in South West England for more than 20 years. At present he works with the University of Bath, writing courses and tutoring for entrepreneurs and leadership in management. He also writes audience-specific courses for the university-sponsored Women in Enterprise series. He coordinates the SME programme Entrepreneurs South West.

As owner of Swift Consulting, he worked with the Department of Trade and Industry as a mentor for its “Investigating Innovative Ideas” forum that assists entrepreneurs in diversified specialties bring products and services to market.

Roger is a Director of PRD Partnership Limited, Director of Devizes Development Partnership, Board member of Wiltshire Young Enterprise and former owner of a parcel delivery company. His areas of expertise include high technology, market research, strategy, innovation and financial modeling.

Hugo Martin

Profiles 3

Specialist in Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain Management, Export
BSc Industrial & Systems Engineering, Masters in Managerial Economics

Hugo has an extensive background in Sales and Marketing, Supply Chain Management and Import/Export. Previous employers include Dell Mexico, Atari, Bancomer and SPS Consulting group.

Hugo is currently International Business Development Manager for Venture Mexico Ltd and works with foreign embassies, government departments and CEOs internationally. He is fluent in Spanish and English and also speaks Portuguese.

Hugo’s business experience also includes working within regions such as USA and LatinAmerica (Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Panama, El Salvador), UK, Canada, France, Spain and Japan.

Marc Braddock

Profiles 4

Specialist in Leadership and Management

Previously an Assistant Director at the University of Bath, Marc was responsible for Business Skills within the Division for Lifelong Learning. Based at the University’s Swindon site he worked closely with tutors to deliver 5 successful and high profile European funded projects. One of these key projects was Leadership & Management training.

During his 3 years with the University he established a thriving Business Hub, a supportive and stimulating learning environment with a singular focus on practical business skills courses delivered by experienced and motivated tutors. The commitment of him and his team to women friendly business training was rewarded with PROWESS flagship status.

Marc brings a number of years of advanced training in Organisational Transactional Analysis (TA), Leadership and Management and Action Learning Set facilitation. In addition to his own track record in Leadership & Management in Higher Education, he also has a broad business experience in distributor management, coaching, training and course design, project management, product brand management, creating special interest groups and running small businesses.

Marc’s vast experience has been accumulated over more than 15 years across diverse sectors such as agriculture, biotechnology, quarry machinery distribution and independent training.

Christine Hardisty

Profiles 5

Specialist in Coaching, Mentoring and Organisational Development
BSc Hons (Psychology); MBA

Christine specialises in coaching and mentoring and developmental work with groups. She created and developed the first Entrepreneurship course at the University of Bath and then went on to develop and teach the Coaching and Mentoring programme.

As an external consultant with the University of Bath she established the Swindon Innovation Centre as part of the SETsquared project. Alongside this project she worked with colleagues across the universities of Bath, Bristol, Southampton and Surrey to develop education and training for entrepreneurship.

Christine’s career started in IT in the 1970s and she has thrived in novel change and development situations ever since. She progressed from the technical to the strategic and as Divisional IT manager she was a founding member of National Power’s International Division, undertaking a £2 billion international expansion programme. She established her own consulting business in 1996 and has handled international, IT-led change initiatives at Burmah Castrol and Bluebird Toys PLC.

Christine also worked with the Open University Business School on a range of projects. She was a founder lecturer for the masters-level Managing Knowledge elective and a critical reader for Managing Performance and Change.

Carl Wheatley

Profiles 6

Expert in Visual Communications, Marketing and Business Development

Carl provides support in marketing campaign planning, research, promotions management and business development. He specialises in the planning, research, creation, management and delivery of design and marketing campaigns.

Carl’s area of expertise is in marketing for companies with technical or complex messages and audiences – IT, automotive, scientific and particularly animal and healthcare sectors. With the wealth of experience gained with his own company,Bridge Marketing Partners, he is able to assist in supporting the sales and marketing efforts of our clients. In particular he is able to relate marketing spend to risk and return on the bottom line.

Carl has many years commercial experience, including business-to-business design, retail branding and retail display. He has worked as account director of Kokoro Design, the design consultancy division of a large European design, marketing and PR group. Before this he was an account manager in the Carter Design Group, a top 10 retail display agency.

His achievements also include account direction and total management on a number of high profile business-to- business accounts at strategic, creative and production levels

Amanda Graham

Profiles 7

Facilitator, Innovation and Development
BSc (Hons); MBA (Management Development)

Amanda, a qualified facilitator, has trained more than 80 Business Link Advisors in the DTI’s Support to Implement Best Business Practice and is a recognised facilitator with Promoting Innovation. She also has been a business coach, a role which resulted in 50 ideas entering the business start-up pipeline and in the launch of 5 new consultancy services at AEA Technology, which added £1 million to the company’s revenue, with a projected income of more than £10 million.

Amanda also has worked with the UK City Council and Henley Management College to develop a creativity-based way forward to improve performance of management teams. She has published in professional journals, including “Ideas in Reverse,” for the Institute of Management.

Amanda has facilitated numerous Creativity and Innovation sessions for universities, government agencies and private companies, including Napp Pharmaceuticals, British Telecom, and Ignite.

Amanda is owner of Quest Development, a consultancy that specializes in creativity, management development and management coaching.