Manager Development Programme – CMI Level 5

David is an inspirational Executive Coach and Leadership Mentor with two decades of experience in people development. He is a Law Graduate (LLB), a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and he holds an MA in Coaching and Mentoring, a post graduate diploma in Criminology and an MA in Organisational Management and Economics.

David has worked with colleagues at all levels in organisations in sectors including petrochemicals, telecoms, IT, banking and finance, construction, aviation, higher education, ministry, transportation, security, military and customer service. He has a motivational and supportive coaching style.

With more than 30 years in policing, his career has involved strategic planning, performance delivery, security management, risk management and disaster recovery. He is an accomplished strategist. David has extensive experience of operating at a strategic level in public, private and third sector organisations, both in the UK and internationally, bringing a broad spectrum of knowledge, awareness and expertise across a wide range of subjects and disciplines. 

Dr Victoria Smith-Collins, Managing Director of Smith-Collins International, is one of our most experienced trainer-facilitators and coaches.

Victoria has over 20 years of academic and corporate experience that spans international markets.  She has trained/supervised academic programmes up to MBA level (including delivering lectures, tutorials and dissertation supervision). Victoria has also worked extensively with the Chartered Management Institute, delivering programmes, examining and verifying assessment work.

Victoria specialises in leadership/management development, with a focus on strategic leadership, consumer psychology (the subject of her Ph.D), organisational development and change management.  She has worked internationally for 13 years, where she has worked for an international training institute and has headed the Learning and Development function at one of the Middle East’s largest regional banks.

Whilst at the training institute, Victoria grew and developed a number of professional UK based programmes (including those from CMI and CIM).  She logged over 1500 hours of training/facilitation, training professionals from the financial services sector and other public and private sector organisations.  Before moving  to the bank, Victoria took on a senior business development role which primarily involved consulting with key clients (cross-sectors) and partnering with them to understand their development needs and tailor programmes to fulfil those needs.

Whilst at the bank, Victoria also took the role of HR business partner which involved working closely with departments on strategic change management projects.  The role involved many hours of coaching at multiple levels, from junior up to senior executives.  Trained as a coach through the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM, UK), Victoria has over 1500 hours of international coaching experience that crosses industries.  Executive coaching is indeed one of her passions and her track-record of results is outstanding.

Christine Silvester is a qualified chartered accountant, (ICAEW) who runs her own accountancy practice in Warwickshire where she specialises in the provision of accounting and tax compliance services to a range of small businesses. She also provides tutoring, support and guidance to business owners in the understanding and requirements of finance.

After qualifying as an accountant with Coopers & Lybrand in Birmingham Christine briefly worked in financial recruitment before moving to work for BT. During 12 years at BT she worked in various senior financial management roles including Head of Business Planning and Forecasting for one of the divisions in the company which required working with operational teams across the business.

Christine has over 37 years working in Finance and has gained a wealth of experience which ranges from working with large teams and budgets in excess of £1bn to supporting start up businesses including building and running her own successful business for almost 20 years. Christine enjoys sharing these experiences through her various tutoring roles.