Business Coaching

Meet the BGCN Coaching Team

We know how difficult it can be to successfully run your own business, we know lots of businesses realise they could benefit from a trusted adviser, a critical friend or a just someone to talk through the ideas, the pressures and frustrations and the opportunities that come with running your own venture.

<h5>Brian Bennett</h5>
<p>Brian has over 40 years of business expertise gained in the automotive, finance and corporate training industries.</p>

<p>Five years as Group Fleet Manager for a major motor dealer group managing a team of 18 selling over 4000 cars and vans per year to business and leasing customers.</p>

<p>Twelve years running a training and development consultancy working with a wide range of clients across a number of industries including; automotive; construction; telecoms; agriculture; energy; rail; defence and healthcare. His work took him across the UK and to Africa and the Middle East. He designed and delivered leadership and management training, ran assessment and development centres, provided recruitment consultancy and was a visiting tutor at Loughborough University School of Business and Economics. He worked with directors and senior teams, facilitating strategy workshops and providing support with executive coaching programmes.</p>

<p>Ten years as a business development manager for Ford Motor Company supporting dealer fleet and B2B operations and negotiating contracts with fleet buyers.</p>

<p>Fourteen years in asset finance during which he developed his understanding of business operations and financial management which enabled him to structure and agree funding packages.</p>

<p>He has an MSc Retail Automotive Management from Loughborough University where studied part time whilst working for Ford and graduated with a Distinction in 2003.</p>

<p>Brian describes himself as, “a confident introvert and my coaching style is thoughtful and considered. I allow individuals and teams time to develop their awareness of situations and the possible solutions. I help them to develop their plans and practise how they can take action. Through doing this they embed the behaviours required to sustain the essential business improvements. The key aspect of my coaching is that I provide a balance of challenge and support; one without the other does not produce the best results.”</p>

Brian Bennett

Automotive and Finance

<h5>Simon Baker</h5>
<p>Simon has over 30 years senior leader, advisor and doer experience in the low carbon energy sector. His passion is solving challenges for start-ups, joint ventures, mega-projects and large corporates, both alone and leading multifunctional, multinational teams using his extensive breadth of experience from shop floor to the Board room. He focuses on delivering simple solutions to complex problems, be they: defining growth strategy; developing projects and supply chains, or shaping investments for successful delivery. Skills in: coaching, mentoring, acquisitions and divestments; corporate risk and governance; transformation and change. Operates authentically with high integrity.</p>

<p>Qualifications include: MBA, first-class engineering degree and practical qualifications. Covering the UK from his East Anglian base.</p>

Simon Baker

Low carbon economy

London and East

<h5>Peter Basford</h5>
<p>Peter had 33 years banking experience and is used to dealing with clients of all types from Start ups to £500M+ per year turnover Multi National Businesses. He has worked in commercial, private banking and retail Banking.</p>

<p>His real passion is for helping others realise their potential and has mentored colleagues, Businesses and for the School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE). </p>

<p>He has a post graduate diploma in coaching to back up his years of practical knowledge. Peter specialises in helping growing SMEs particularly with Customer Service, Business Development, Finance and using new technology to do things in a better and more efficient way. </p>

<p>He is a qualified Clarity4D coach and trains people on how to make the most of LinkedInCo founder of the Innovation Lab in Suffolk, which is a co working space for early stage technology businesses which enables him to support many start ups and promote Suffolk as a great place to live and work</p>

Peter Basford

SME

London and East

Alison Beech

SME

London and East

<h5>Damian Burdin</h5>
<p>Damian has had an interesting and varied career working in a variety of sectors, including Retail, Sales, Education and Hospitality.</p>

<p>For the past 20 years, Damian has specialised in the Further Education sector holding positions of Training Manager, Quality Director, Ethical Procurement Director and Chief Executive Officer.<br>His passion is enabling individuals to realise and unlock their true potential through coaching and mentoring.</p>

<p>Has a broad experience of growing a business organically, through acquisition and start up. Specific areas of expertise include business planning, strategy, change management, succession planning, coaching, mentoring, performance management and recruitment.</p>

<p>A proud dad of two boys, he enjoys supporting them with their hobbies of football, drama and boxing. </p>

<p>Damian is based in Crewe and working with clients in Cheshire and Merseyside. </p>

Damian Burdin

Education and Training

<h5>Brian Bush</h5>
<p>Brian is a sales/business development and relationship specialist having worked in a number of areas across the private and public sectors. From involvement in growing business (small to large) to creating and growing his own ventures Brian has a real passion for business. He has been directly involved in business through insurance, UK Gov, digital & technology, cyber, physical & asset protection, learning & development, education, healthcare/health & wellbeing and manufacturing.</p>

<p>Driven by purpose and able to motivate and inspire others Brian can bring connection to a team or business to ensure a positive culture can exist to enhance efficiency and therefore profit.<br>A very well networked individual Brian always brings his extensive connections to all projects and businesses that he works with and uses strategic partnerships to drive forward opportunity.</p>

Brian Bush

Business Development

London and East

<h5>Sim Goldblum</h5>
<p>Sim is a very experienced leader, non-executive director, board adviser, senior manager, consultant, coach and mentor. He has worked with companies across many sectors from global automotive to SMEs, in business development, JV creation, M+A activity, team leadership and development.</p>

<p>He is passionate about helping business owners recruit, develop and retain the right people for each role, and is adept at addressing under-performing teams and dysfunctional boards.</p>

<p>Sim is very effective when advising SME business owners and leadership teams and brings independent thought, creative expertise and strategic wisdom to bear in all his assignments.</p>

<p><strong>Key Services</strong>:</p>

<ul><li>Implementing effective business growth solutions to add six figures to the bottom line in 12 months</li><li>Improving the business 1 person at a time by creating and delivering coaching and development plans</li><li>Building/Rebuilding Purpose for the business and for teams</li><li>Coaching and Mentoring senior staff/board members and owners</li></ul>

<p><strong>Sectors</strong>: Engineering, manufacturing, biotech, automotive, NHS, services</p>

Sim Goldblum

SME

<h5>Paul Greenhow</h5>
<p>Paul is an enterprising and energetic individual with over 30 successful years FMCG experience in both Retailing and Manufacturing operations. He is a people orientated and insightful character with proven abilities in sales management, and a track record of driving exceptional profitable growth through creativity and strategic business development.</p>

<p>He has now turned his experience to wanting to help others and as such, is now a seasoned Mentor with The Princes Trust and holds several non-exec Directorships. A structured thinker who succeeds by understanding the wants and needs of the customer and matching this by driving positive change within the business team. With a post Graduate Diploma in Marketing,</p>

<p>Paul is a rounded Coach who looks to drive the commercial agenda with a focus in the Food & Drink sector. He has worked with multi sited operations predominantly in the East Anglian region but also in Ireland, Holland and Scotland. Paul Lives in Cambridgeshire with his Wife Fiona, Son Oliver and Daughter Holly.</p>

Paul Greenhow

Food and Drink

London and East

Rob Hall

SME

<h5>Cathie Jeannot</h5>
<p>Cathie has 30+ year’s experience working in political engagement, public sector and not-for-profit leadership, geospatial tech, startups, SME’s and elite sport. She is currently Head of People at Skyscape Global – a startup supported by Innovate UK and Ordinance Survey.</p>

<p>Cathie has extensive experience working with those on the founder to CEO journey, and those who need to scale at pace. She loves working with multi-generational teams and millennial leaders. Her calmness enables clients to tackle the conversations that previously made their stomachs turn.As qualified and experienced ICF coach, she has a Post Graduate Diploma in Coaching & Team Coaching, is an IC Certified Agile Professional, is an associate member of the ICF, and is a Certified Money Coach.</p>

<p>Cathie’s expertise lies in combining proven frameworks with more intuitive methods such as somatic coaching. She supports her clients with rigorous accountability so they can sustain all critical decision-making. Cathie thrives on understanding what makes humans tick.</p>

<p>Specialist areas as a coach and facilitator :</p>

<ul><li>CEO identity and influence</li><li>Leadership for the New Millennium</li><li>Imposter Syndrome </li><li>High performing teams & team culture</li><li>Transitions & career-change</li><li>Resilience & work-life balance</li></ul>

<p>When not working you’ll find Cathie planning her next French escape or watching rugby – whatever the weather.</p>

Cathie Jeannot

SME

London and East

<h5>Dawn Kelly</h5>
<p>Dawn has a strong background of working within the Public Sector, NHS, Fire service and schools as a Learning and Development professional, Consultant and Business and Executive Coach, she has proven success of leading on key initiatives in respect of organisational development and growth.</p>

<p>She has worked with academics from Birmingham, Sheffield and Manchester universities on key initiates within the public sector. Having trained with Mental Health England as a mental health practitioner she supports resilience and wellbeing in the workplace.</p>

<p>As qualified and experienced coach, Dawn has a Post Graduate Certificate in Business and Executive Coaching, EMCC Coaching Skills for Managers Award and NCFE Diploma in Coaching for High Performance. She is associate member of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC), a Graduate Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) and a Certificate in Education.</p>

<p>Dawn works with her clients to focus on and identify key strengths and gaps within the organisation to achieve enhanced leadership and organisational performance, her Coaching style comes from an understanding of how people work and how to enable behavioural change, she uses an integrative blended approach, determined by what is right for the client at that moment in time.</p>

<p><strong>Specialist areas as a coach and facilitator:</strong></p>

<ul><li>Business Growth, Transformational Leadership and Talent Management</li><li>Behavioural and Cultural change</li><li>Resilience and Wellbeing</li><li>Women Strategic Leaders</li><li>School Improvement</li><li>Strengths-Based Practice in Health and Social Care.</li></ul>

<p>Outside of work, having visited Thailand Dawn is planning to spent time working on an Elephant Sanctuary there.</p>

<p><strong>Public Sector, NHS, Fire service and Schools<br>Business Executive Coach and Women in Strategic Roles</strong></p>

Dawn Kelly

Public Sector

<h5>Mikael Korsgaard</h5>
<p>Helping people helping themselves to transform has been of interest to me since my teenage years. In 2004, I finally decided to gain insights about the art of transformation through coaching. Since then I have coached people of all ages and from many diverse fields, including athletes.</p>

<p>I invest myself into the dialog with the coachee (you) and become involved in your path. With empathy and the understanding of what the challenge is for you and what you would like to evolve away from and into, I focus on the importance of valuable and sustainable change by you for you. From our first intake conversation, the focus is you and the change you are seeking. Through listening with the intent to understand and learn about you, with encouragement and by holding you accountable in being persistent, our conversation will have one primary focus: ‘what change by you, will change a lot for you’?</p>

<p>There is an opportunity for growth and learning in all situations and challenges that we encounter. Throughout our work I will help you recognise your strengths and support your growth in areas where needed. By putting your problem areas and your challenges into new perspectives, you will gain new insights and grow personally.</p>

<p>I work primarily with SME’s, personal owned businesses and start ups. I also work with leaders who wish to become a better leader, especially around values, goal setting and influential and intentional leadership.’</p>

<p>As I am based in Denmark I suggest that we make meetings and coaching environmentally friendly and sustainable.</p>

<p>On-site coaching and training is of course also an option that I provide. It is also easy for me to schedule meetings anywhere in the EU if required.</p>

Mikael Korsgaard

Danish International

<h5>Richard McEvoy</h5>
<p>Richard is a Finance professional with a long history of stakeholder management at Board level, supporting setting of strategy and delivery. Also recognized for M&A experience, Change Management and has a passion for developing people around me, including their Health & Wellbeing.</p>

<p>Richard has considerable business-to-business experience in a service-led industry, supporting core economic sectors including Banking, construction, house-building and manufacturing across both SME and Mid Corporate Regional business.</p>

<p>Richard currently has a number of Non Executive and Board Advisory roles, with an emphasis on commercial aspects and transformational change. Richard is also presently driving organisational capability at an LSE Listed Property Fund.</p>

Richard McEvoy

Org. transformation

<h5>André Neville</h5>
<p>André specialises in assisting new and established businesses in the engineering and manufacturing sectors in the Mid-Suffolk region. With his international sales, leadership and training background, he is adept at turning his hand to other sectors and has supported many SME’s in his time with BGCN.</p>

<p>André joined the British Army in 1994 where he spent 15 years as an engineering manager within rotary-wing aviation. After leaving the military he trained the British Army in engineering before stepping into a technical sales role in the heavy-duty off-road manufacturing industry.</p>

<p>As a Technical Sales Manager, André worked extensively in Europe, India, Africa and the Middle East, dealing directly with multi-national OEM’s and distributors while also managing the engineering design team. He is furthering his education by studying for a Level 5 Diploma in Education and Training and has recently completed an MBA at the University of Suffolk.</p>

<p>He is passionate about cycling and enjoys discovering the local roads in Suffolk and the hills in Spain. Other interests include spending time in Belgium, exploring WW1 history and of course sampling the local beer!</p>

André Neville

Manufacturing

London and East

<h5>Daniel Owen-Parr</h5>
<p>For 25 years, I have been leading high performing teams: 17 of those years have been in the banking and finance industry. I have held senior positions in Dixon’s Group, Lloyd’s Bank, and Together. I am currently with VAS Group as their Commercial Director.</p>

<p>I have managed clients with turnovers of up to £100million, across all sectors, and this has given me a unique perspective when it comes to running companies at all levels. It has also given me great insight into business dynamics and I have the leadership experience to develop teams with outstanding culture, resilience and performance – all attributes needed for success.</p>

<p>As a coach, I primarily work with SMEs, start-ups and owner managed businesses. I have a very strong affinity with financial services, retail, and sports & fitness businesses. I also work with leaders and managers who wish to improve, especially around mental toughness, goal setting, self-awareness and performance management. I am qualified as a Clarity4D coach. This allows me to support senior leaders and their team to unlock their full potential.</p>

<p>Within the property finance industry, I am a media-trained spokesperson: I have over 30 radio interviews under my belt, countless editorials and blog coverage, podcasts and three TV interviews on Sky Property TV.</p>

<p>Spare-time finds me utilizing my leadership skills as a triathlon coach. I have also tested my own boundaries by completing numerous marathons, triathlons, two Ironman events, the Marathon Des Sables and an English Channel relay swim.</p>

<p><strong>Specialities:</strong></p>

<ul><li>High Level Sales Expertise</li><li>Strong Leadership and Emotional Intelligence Skills</li><li>Developing Exception Teams</li><li>Lending and Development Finance</li><li>Managing and Developing People</li><li>Delivering Excellent Client Relationships</li><li>Coaching and Media Trained</li><li>Presentation, Public Speaking and Communication Skills.</li></ul>

<p>My preference is to coach via Zoom as this gives me the ability to operate anywhere in the UK and at a time that suits you.</p>

Daniel Owen-Parr

SME

Online Coaching

<h5>Sam Parnell</h5>
<p>I have a successful history in technical sales and implementation across various sectors. For the last decade I have been working with a team of developers, designers, technical SEO experts and digital marketers and have combined my sales experience with my digital knowledge focusing on helping businesses to grow online.</p>

<p>We all hear that a great digital strategy will revolutionise business but buying multiple services and ensuring they all dovetail efficiently together can be a minefield. It’s my job to be the digital advocate within your organisation. I help to plan digital strategies, working out how you can use digital tools to make more of your mission; helping teams like yours implement digital projects, sometimes using existing tools, sometimes creating new ones, that includes CRM’s, collaborations, communications, campaigns and lots more. I work with digital experts to build websites and software, sometimes from scratch, sometimes on top of existing platforms.</p>

<p>There’s a lot there, but here’s the best place to start: what’s the problem you’re trying to solve?</p>

<p>I work with BGCN coaches maximising their specialist coaching knowledge and giving projects a digital dimension to open up revenue opportunities.</p>

Sam Parnell

Digital strategist

London and East

<h5>Nigel Sandbrook</h5>
<p> Nigel had a rich career with Lloyds Bank culminating in his dream job as Area Director – Manufacturing. His love of business started with his father taking him around factories when he was six years old. Ever since then he has been passionate about SME’s the challenges they face to produce and sell products and services.<br>He has wide experience in various sectors spending much of his time with clients although he has been a senior lending and audit manager.<br>A qualified banker gaining an ACIB. </p>

Nigel Sandbrook

Manufacturing

London and East

<h5>Ciara Scallon</h5>
<p>One of the benefits of having a rich and varied work life, is being able to help others enrich their own. My diverse career encompasses stockbroking in the City & Europe, global outsourcing and change management in Australia, and charity fundraising in the Arts and Heritage sector in the UK. I most enjoy working in the SME sector where each person’s input can make a tangible difference.</p>

<p>I run a professional fundraising practice. We help bring to life the dreams of individuals and communities, for profit and not-for-profit. I also serve as a Trustee on the board of charity contributing to strategy and direction. I love the problem-solving aspects of every project, working out how to tell each story to best effect. A lateral and strategic thinker, I am direct and honest, whilst supportive in finding new ways of approaching difficult issues. We work collaboratively towards finding the innovative – or obvious – solutions.</p>

<p>I passionately believe that relationship building is the cornerstone of any successful venture, particularly those wishing to grow. I would be delighted to have a conversation about any current or future challenges or opportunities.</p>

Ciara Scallon

Charity & Not for Profit

London and East

<h5>Gary Styles</h5>
<p>Gary joined us off the back of a successful banking career spanning 32 years including 26 years working closely with Commercial clients. During his time at Lloyds Bank, he over-saw and supported over 100 Private Equity backed businesses across the UK, with sales of £10m+ operating across a range of sectors; from Fertility Clinics to IT Support companies; Electronics Retailers to Travel Operators; Builders Merchants to Hair Straighteners.</p>

<p>His close involvement with Executive Management Teams and their PE investors gave him great insight into the plans and processes in making businesses more efficient and fit for growth, whilst at the same time, providing a trusted banking relationship hand to his many business customers.</p>

<p>Recognised by work colleagues and customers alike for his down to earth approach and ability to ask the difficult questions, Gary acquired a few grey hairs whilst directly supporting businesses through and beyond the Financial Crash of 2007 where the impact on his customers (and his own employer) needed close oversight. His last 3 years at Lloyds saw him appointed as Yorkshire’s main Credit Sanctioner in the Bank’s Mid-Markets Commercial team, before moving into business consultancy in 2019.</p>

<p>With an ingrained desire to see businesses succeed and flourish through great systems, data excellence and appropriate and deliverable strategies, Gary is keen to support small business owners in the Yorkshire Region in achieving their dreams and aspirations and is ready to hear from you!</p>

Gary Styles

SME

<h5>Neil Thorogood</h5>
<p>Neil has recently retired from banking after 36 years at Lloyds Bank of which the last 29 were working in the Small Business and Commercial sector. During that time Neil trained as a Business Mentor and worked with several start-up businesses in that capacity.</p>

<p>As well as working with businesses across all manner of sectors Neil holds a specialist Lexcel accreditation for his work with the Legal Profession over the past 12 years.</p>

<p>One of the many roles Neil fulfilled whilst at Lloyds Bank was the introduction and roll out of its Route Map programme which included a number of specially designed tools to help businesses identify Long Term goals and set Medium term targets as well as developing a better understanding of their market and key performance indicators.<br>Neil strongly believes that his skills can be used to support and coach growing and ambitious businesses to help them achieve their objectives by understanding what success looks like to the owners.</p>

<p>To supplement the support provided to potential clients Neil also has a wide network of contacts across Essex and East London to where specialist and bespoke services can be introduced where required. </p>

Neil Thorogood

Professional Services

London and East