Director Development Programme – The Role of the Director and the Board

David’s experience stems from 33 years in the British Army where he reached a senior level. He led and managed soldiers throughout his career and was particularly involved in the interface between operational and strategic decision making. He has also been responsible for a number of change programmes and has been a Deputy Chief of Staff to a number of large organisations over that time. 

He has held several Board positions and is currently a Non Executive Director for Believe Housing as well as a trustee for his regimental charity. He has enjoyed the overlap between the public and private sectors and is a keen advocate on through life professional development. He is a member of the Institute of Directors and currently holds their Certificate and Diploma in Company Direction.  

He has coached several individuals over the years and is a qualified executive coach with a Post Graduate Certificate from the Henley Business School. In addition he is a keen advocate for mentoring and has mentored for 2 years on the National 30% club which aims to get greater representation on boards by women. 

He became a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and gained Chartered Manager status in 2020 and amongst other formal qualifications also holds a MBA and MSc in National Security Strategy.  

He is passionate about helping others and would cite Integrity and Respect for others as core values. 

Stewart has a career background in corporate banking, and is a highly experienced commercial individual, who commenced a transition into the not for profit sector at the end of 2009. He now has a portfolio of Chair, Board and consultancy roles across not for profits and SMEs.

Throughout his career, Stewart has developed a proven track record in the North West corporate market. In roles covering both relationship management and business development, his key skills of brokering and relationship building ensured the management of multiple stakeholders, at all times undertaken with outstanding levels of integrity. Core to his roles at Bank of Scotland were the management of key entrepreneur relationships for the bank.

In recent years, he has rapidly developed a profile in the not for profit sector, maintaining key board roles across a range of areas, including leisure and social care

Stewart has a range of financial, operational and strategic experience in the private, public and not for profit sectors, including charities, local authorities, banking and venture capital. This has captured a range of areas, including direct roles in leisure, adult care, the arts, environment and recruitment, coupled with a wide range of sectors including manufacturing, service, retail, building products and housebuilding during his corporate banking career. Stewart is at ease in any environment, from start-up to PLC boardroom.

Alex is an experienced and dedicated education consultant and trainer. His core skillset is the design and delivery of engaging personal and professional development programmes. He is adaptable and comfortable working at any level in the organisation, from front line leaders to the Board.

Prior to working in consultancy Alex was an army officer (making it to Major). A natural diplomat, Alex studied Pashto (the language of Southern Afghanistan) and held a leadership role in supporting reconstruction and development, primarily in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.  Alex supported the development and delivery of the army’s global Security, Leadership and Strategy programme, and later worked to establish the curriculum for Afghanistan’s Officer Training Academy, in Kabul.

Alex has built a consultancy business and delivered a diverse portfolio of organisational development projects. He works across all sectors and his clients include the NHS, NATO, Barnardo’s, Home Bargains, a variety of Academy Trusts and schools, and many smaller businesses and charities. Alex has worked closely with the Chartered Management Institute, and routinely lectures on MBA and Director Development programmes for the Universities of York, Chester, and East London. Alex maintains a high level of currency and is currently developing programmes focussing on Distributed Leadership, and Managing Neurodivergent Colleagues.

Alex holds three Master’s degrees: Educational Innovation, Psychology, and Occupational Psychology. He is married to Katherine and has two children and two Labradors.

James has extensive experience in commercial and operational roles as a leader within high-growth SME environments.

Initially working within executive recruitment within the construction industry, he has also consulted with all sizes of organisations across multiple sectors. James brings a pragmatic, thought-provoking and experience-led perspective to address the challenges faced by leaders today.

He supports leaders to distribute decision making and deploy coaching practice in order to achieve
sustainable growth and empower the organisation throughout.

Andy Bate, ACA, is a chartered accountant (ICAEW) and holds a Diploma in Corporate Finance. He brings over 15 years’ experience in corporate finance and private equity, and has held more than 15 board appointments across healthcare, education technology, e-commerce and consumer goods, learning and development and content and communications.

His board roles have spanned PE-backed companies, owner-managed SMEs and early-stage ventures. Across his career, Andy has worked with in excess of 200 businesses in different capacities – as an investor, founder, non-executive director, board advisor and consultant.

Andy is a founding partner of Gunner Cooke Operating Partners, where he works with portfolio companies on governance, value creation and board effectiveness. He has also co-founded and built two businesses: a direct-to-consumer e-commerce company and, in 2019, an education software business focused on capturing and evidencing health and wellbeing outcomes in children.

His programme content is shaped by direct boardroom experience. Andy has led boards through fundraisings, served on PE-backed boards with an exit focus, guided companies through restructurings, and been involved in multiple buy-and-build strategies.

Janet is a leadership, resilience and business coach. After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Young she worked in senior management and finance director roles for recognised retailers such as WH Smiths and Littlewoods. She then followed her passion for developing people by becoming a leadership development trainer, currently specialising in wellbeing and resilience with a wide range of companies including BAE Systems, Pets at Home, Janssen Pharmaceutical, SME’s and Charities. She also delivers a wide range of finance programmes from introductory sessions up to Directors Development, together with individual finance business coaching.

Janet enjoys using her finance, business and personal leadership experience, combined with her coaching and training skills, to enable people and teams develop the skills, behaviours and culture they desire.

Janet works with not-for-profit organisations, currently as a Governor for the Trafford College Group, a Trustee & Treasurer for Home-Start Trafford, Salford & Wigan plus a business mentor with the Manchester Business Growth Hub.

Janet is an accredited practitioner for the Kirros RQi resilience programme plus trained in the Drake P3 behavioural profiling system. She is a member of the Association of Coaching (AOC), the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAEW).

Starting out as a civil engineer responsible for large infrastructure projects, William became fascinated with the people side of business. Now a qualified business psychologist, and executive coach, he aims to bring a refreshingly practical approach to culture, people and performance. Over the last 10 years, he has worked with leaders and managers in organisations like British Airways, the Met Office, Bombardier, the NHS and multiple local authorities. He also spent time supporting SMEs and start-ups as well as working in the Middle East with one of the world’s largest food producers. As a result, he can relate to a wide range of people and organisational contexts.

Credentials:

• Member of the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and holds the Associate Certified Coach (ACC) credential
• Lecturer with Henley Business School, teaching on its Professional Certificate in Executive Coaching (PCEC) programme
• Holds a Team Coaching Certificate from the Academy of Executive Coaching (AoEC)
• Holds a foundation certificate in Nancy Kline’s Time to Think coaching method
• Recently interviewed for the book Coaching with Research in Mind on utilising psychometrics with coaching, as he aims to strike a balance between practical ‘rules of thumb’ and the latest evidence-based research.