Our Associates - the people we work with

Leadership Team
		Anne Hamill Managing Director and Design Director Anne Hamill is Managing Director & Design Director of Talent & Potential Ltd. She is a past Divisional Chair of the British Psychological Society, with strong commercial credibility, having built 3 successful HR businesses during her career. Anne is an innovative thought leader with an infectious enthusiasm for creating the self-directed, agile workforce required in modern fast-moving organisations. She has carried out cutting edge research to discover the facts behind driving a fast track career, the behaviours and attitudes associated with long-term graduate success, and how to identify and support high potentials. She has worked across many sectors, including financial services, mining, manufacturing, engineering, retail, health, government, and voluntary sectors.

		Scott HobbsManaging Director In 2000, Scott was a call centre agent for British Gas, on a temporary contract. After being made permanent and then taking on management responsibilities, he managed to progress through a series of roles, from IT systems testing to L&D roles, and by 2004 he became the youngest senior manager in Centrica. He moved to The AA as National Training Manager, before joining Amey (an engineering and service management company that is part of the 105,000 strong international Ferrovial Group). In 18 months, Amey went from a situation in which there was no talent management strategy to winning a prestigious national Talent Management Award, and Scott was much in demand as a speaker at national conferences. He has a passion for helping people to realise their potential, and in 2009 decided to cement a great working partnership by joining Talent & Potential as joint Managing Director.

		Michael Kain Finance Director Mike joined Talent & Potential in 2009 as Financial Director. Since graduating in 1996 from university, Mike has pursued a career in accountancy working for a number of different accountancy practices. Alongside his work with Talent & Potential, Mike continues to work with an accountancy firm based in Birmingham. Mike brings a very practical and pragmatic approach to his work with Talent & Potential - he is exceptionally good at explaining difficult financial language in laymans terms. As well as supporting the 'big picture' decisioning within the organisation, Mike takes care of the detail: working with staff, customers and suppliers alike to ensure the smooth running of our financial operation.

Associate Team
		Linda DennyConsultant For seventeen years Linda Denny enjoyed a successful HR and Training corporate career in manufacturing and transport where she worked with Director level clients. Linda has a vital understanding of the pressures facing individuals in today’s unstable markets. Her passion for learning and working with different cultural groups has enabled her to design and deliver workshops around the world. Linda’s progression into career coaching derived from an evaluation of her own circumstances and strengths. Recognising that her interest and skills positioned her ideally to assist individuals, Linda continued her development by training as a qualified coach. An accredited member of the Coaching Academy, Linda is a regular speaker, writer and networker.

		Pennie EvansPrincipal Consultant Pennie Evans has been fast tracked in both British Rail, where she began her career, and subsequently American Express where she headed the Management Training and Development function for UK and Ireland as well as undertaking an MBA at Henley. Her railway roles progressed from Station Manager [the first woman to hold such an appointment] through to running Liverpool St station in London with 630 staff and finally Director of Studies at the Management Training Centre, giving her a wealth of credibility with people on learning events. Her upbeat delivery and participative style is well received by people who both enjoy and learn from her workshops. In almost 20 years as a consultant Pennie has combined creativity with business reality and the courses she designs live on in organisations long after she has moved on. She has worked across many sectors but particularly pharmaceuticals, financial services and professional service organisations. Pennie is passionate about building confidence as well as competence in people and loves seeing the ‘light bulb moment’ in people she is working with. She holds formal qualifications in a range of psychometric instruments, has a Diploma in Business Coaching and is licensed in Neuro Linguistic Programming.

		Mike HardyPrincipal Consultant Mike is an experienced Leadership and Management development consultant and coach. His career has gained him a wealth of experience in senior operational management positions and leading training and consultancy positions. His 18 years in front line customer service organisations provides a unique combination of strong operational and strategic organisational change experience. Mike was responsible for the development of an award winning FTSE top 25 company graduate development scheme and thrives on the opportunity to work with talented and ambitious individuals.

		Vanessa HurstPrincipal Consultant A consultant since 1993, Vanessa has worked with many blue chip companies including GlaxoSmithKline and British American Tobacco. Vanessa delivers a range of management programmes including team building, leadership development, performance management and career management. She is also an Executive Coach, working within a wide range of organisations. Previously, Vanessa was Head of Management Development with Cadbury Schweppes with responsibility for Executive Review and Development, and an international Accelerated Development Programme. During her time at American Express she led the Management Training and Development team for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, after having been responsible for Customer Service Training in the UK. She has a degree in Developmental Psychology and is also a qualified psychometrician and counsellor.

		Bernie KirraneConsultant Bernie’s first role was with a fledgling entrepreneurial company which quadrupled its profits over the 3 years she was in the management team. Later, she became a qualified teacher and for 3 years taught mathematics and psychology to ‘A’ level, where her students achieved outstanding exam results. Following her MBA, she joined American Express’s international graduate programme. There she led an operational team, co-managing the relocation of a multi-million pound division including 200+ staff, 24-hour shift operation and high-tech equipment. Finding her greatest sense of achievement in helping others to learn and grow, Bernie moved into development roles across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, finally heading up management development of the international technologies group, where she developed and implemented the leadership strategy. Bernie retains her passion for developing others, and specialises in leadership, personal effectiveness and career development working with clients in local and national government, health, housing, software, retail, media, and transport.

		Stuart MannConsultant Stuart has a wide spectrum of experience. Starting his career in the 1970’s as a forensic scientist with the Metropolitan Police, moving into project management for Glaxo (now GSK), then seeking out increasingly people & development-orientated opportunities as his own passions and capabilities emerged. In 2001 Stuart established himself as a consultant and trainer, working with organisations ranging from championship-winning F1 teams to major construction companies, SME’s to household product giants, international law firms, and government ombudsmen. Stuart is driven by a passion for people and a strong desire to help others succeed. His broad experience enables Stuart to engage effectively with people in a wide variety of organisations as he now focuses on helping others realise their potential.

		James MitchellConsultant James Mitchell started his career as one of only 6 cross brand trainers in the largest UK based multiples retailer. He went on to develop his career in HR, operations and training and became a Head of Graduate Resourcing and Development during which time he developed a graduate programme worthy of gaining entry into the Times Top 100 Graduate programmes. His career progression from then took him into Ernst & Young LLP as a talent manager where he successfully launched the first Training Academy, in addition to the development of a Talent Identifier Programme in collaboration with London Business School. James has worked with a multitude of FTSE 100 businesses such as Thames Water, Bskyb and John Lewis Partnership. He is recognised for his ability to think beyond the here and now and deal with the complexities of ambiguity.

		Sarah SetterfieldPrincipal Consultant Sarah is one of the most experienced Personal Marketing consultants in the UK. After working as a Marketing Director for a Marketing Agency , responsible for maximum impact when pitching Agency proposals and services to clients, Sarah became interested in how people personally market themselves, and the payback that can be achieved from this. She has advised lawyers, surgeons, accountants, GP's, Executive Directors, graduates and talent potential in blue chip companies, in addition to Senior Ministers of a Commonwealth country, and television presenters on maximising their impact. During her time as a Personal Marketing Expert Sarah has delivered keynote speeches to large conferences, for example A Women At Work conference which was attended by over 3000 delegates. Sarah has also worked with the UK employees of a Japanese company where she delivered cross-cultural training enabling them to tailor their impact to make the best impression in both UK and Japanese business environments.

		Edward WalkerConsultant Edward Walker has a wide-ranging background in recruitment, selection and talent management, particularly in relation to graduates and high-potentials. Edward has developed expertise across a variety of sectors including: financial services, FMCG, legal, the public sector and welfare-to-work; frequently this work has had an international dimension. One of Edward's key motivations comes from designing and implementing new talent programmes for organisations that are going through a period of change. Recent highlights have included the design of an award-winning work experience programme for sixth form students and the roll-out of an end-to-end recruitment process that allowed the client to reduce their cost per hire by 42% and time to hire by 35%.

Support Team
		Jane BrodrickPersonal Assistant Jane is the PA to Anne Hamill. Appointed in 2008, she is responsible for the day to day running of Anne’s Salisbury office and offers occasional support to the Leeds branch when required. Prior to joining Talent & Potential, Jane spent many years honing her organisational skills working as a PA to Director level. She has lots of experience in assisting in the successful running of fast-moving, thriving businesses and ensures that logistically all runs smoothly behind the Talent & Potential scenes. Along with Becky, Jane is the central administrative point of contact for both trainers and clients.

		Emma Cunningham-BoothBusiness Development Manager The most recent addition to the team, Emma joined Talent & Potential in May 2010. She manages the organisation of all training programmes and acts as the key point of contact for all clients and suppliers. A strongly deadline focussed individual, Emma ensures that all the right pieces fit together at the right time to give our clients the service they expect. Emma spent eight years as an Account Director at a print and direct marketing company where she was successful in developing the company’s largest and most profitable account. In recent years, since having her children Emma has enjoyed working ‘behind the scenes’, where she feels that her organisational skills, empathy and understanding of the sales process have been put to great use. Emma loves order and systems and gets a great sense of satisfaction from making the lives of her team members easier.