Director

Alasdair has over twenty-five years’ experience as a Trainer, Accredited Coach and Facilitator working with teams and individuals to fulfil their potential in education, health, criminal justice, social care, the arts and the private sector.

With a background in education, Alasdair established the training department for the national charity Release and later developed the first Business Unit within a local authority (Westminster) winning two major innovation awards. Since 1997, he has built his own training and coaching practice based in Cambridge, specialising in Motivational Interviewing and Management and Leadership development.

Director

Helen has been a Director since 2005 and works on all aspects of the business including client liaison, new opportunities, marketing and communication, report writing, editing and logistics. A music graduate with a background in education, she worked for many years as a freelance marketing and project management consultant within the arts including English Touring Opera and the Royal Shakespeare Company Arts and is a former Director of the Arts Marketing Association.

In recent years, she has developed an expertise as a singing leader both for community choirs, education, workplace and team-building settings.

Associate Trainer

Amrik worked in the social care sector for over 25 years before joining the team as an Associate Trainer in 2019. Within his social care career, he worked in various roles from social worker to Director of Children’s Services across four Children’s Services departments and two youth offending systems. Amrik has just finished 240 hours of training in Compassionate Enquiry led by Gabor Mate, which is informing his coaching approach to work at depth.

Associate Trainer

Lucas is an accredited counsellor and qualified trainer specialising in addiction and associated mental health problems. He has twenty years of experience delivering training in addictions, mental health and counselling skills in a range of statutory and third sector health and social care organisations, and most recently in higher education. He joined ACA as an Associate Trainer in 2018.

Associate Trainer

Emma is an accredited transformative coach, trainer and mentor with over 25 years' experience in the education and charity sectors. As a senior lead for trainee teacher provision she's run numerous training and development programmes in state schools and has also held arts management positions in the UK and US. As Digital Content Developer for ACA, she draws on her extensive experience as an educator to adapt and create new materials and courses for ACA's digitisation project to extend the company's reach and impact. 

IT and Finance Associate

Neil manages all aspects of finance and IT including the Motivational Skills App including troubleshooting and sound/video editing. He is a freelance project manager and has extensive experience in events and financial management, programme development, information systems planning, and online learning.

His previous clients include organisations such as London Arts and Health and Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination. Before embarking on his freelance career, Neil spent many years at the Arts Marketing Association and Momentum Arts.

Communications Associate

Millie is responsible for all our internal and external communications. After graduating with Bachelors and Masters degrees in Music from Oxford, she worked in Development before specialising in digital communications. She has worked in the charity and arts sector, helping to unify company messaging and making sure the visuals match the aims and ethos of organisations. She has been closely involved with the development of Applied Motivational Interviewing and sharing the work that we do here at ACA.

When not working, you will find her attempting a cryptic crossword or sewing clothes for everyone she knows.

Administrator

Lydia has supported the administration and communications of the company since November 2019. She has extensive experience within the charity sector having spent the previous 12 years working in a small, mainly youth focussed charities including roles within administration and communication as well as nine years as a fundraiser. She has a degree in Childhood and Adolescence Studies and is also currently studying to become a qualified counsellor.