Our people, client focus and business ethos are what make us different.
Meet the main people behind our business. Here is a brief introduction into the people that will be helping you but it hardly does justice to the value they can add or the difference they can make! You are welcome to call or email us for more information
We also have a variety of specialist associates who we can call on depending on the nature of the job. All of our associates are highly talented professionals who share our values and ethos.
Steve Preston
Steve is a highly professional and experienced career coach, trainer and facilitator and a true people person.
He is a recognised career 'guru', writing numerous articles and also establishing an excellent reputation for public speaking at high profile career events.
He has worked in sales, operations and human resources positions throughout his career and achieved great success in consistently developing managers, teams and individuals to maximise their potential and deliver excellent performance.
His training and development work within SMP has helped many people and teams become more effective. He has also helped hundreds of men and women across sectors both in employment and self-employment become fulfilled and move into jobs and careers they really love.
“I am passionate about making a difference to people at all stages in their career, especially aspiring managers and executives and helping clients realise their unique skills and attributes so we can realise career goals together. I get a huge buzz from seeing people’s confidence grow and then move forward to get the job or career they really want.”
Debbie Smith
Debbie knows that self-marketing and self-assured personal confidence is key to career advancement and fulfilment.
Developing great communication skills and creating the right impression is often a one-time opportunity and Debbie helps our clients achieve full potential when looking for work.
Debbie has also had an extremely varied and interesting NHS and business background and has made her name by developing managers and teams to maximise their potential and make a difference to people's lives.She is also passionate about helping clients achieve their true worth.
"We help boost people's confidence and help them realise their unique skills, attributes and true worth in order to succeed"
Don Presland
Don is a qualified and experienced career advisor and trainer with a background in retail, sales, customer service, management and business development.
Like Steve, he has supported hundreds of people through redundancy outplacement programmes, career change and career development. He has also designed and delivered numerous training courses over the years, especially business start-up, management development and customer service, incorporating practicality and fun.
Don is also a professional ;magician, so always has a trick or two up his sleeve, which adds another dimension to Team Awaydays!
Fiona Clark
Fiona is passionate about helping people achieve their full potential and enjoy their working life. Her style has been described as “empathetic, intuitive and results-oriented”. She is particularly talented at helping people discover possibilities and overcome any sticking points.
Fiona specialises in Career and Confidence Coaching and being a working Mum herself is particularly interested in helping other mothers have a positive and confident return to work after taking a break for a family.
Fiona also has helped many senior managers achieve an impressive start in new roles with initiatives such as ‘First 100 Days Coaching
Laurent Brouat
Laurent is a highly professional career management consultant. He is also a trained psychotherapist and has a BA in HR. He specialises in coaching European and French Executives.
Laurent went through a career change 5 years ago, from a marketing background and understands the obstacles and the challenges to be overcome in this situation.
For the past years, Laurent has given career guidance to more than 200 executives and is an expert and has run workshops on Networking and Online Networking.
He lectures at Business Schools such as ESCP UK in London and other Business Schools in France and has been quoted in various press articles.
Having spent the last year and half working in the UK Recruitment Industry, Laurent is now firmly focused on Career Development for managers and executives in the UK.
Constance Lamb
Constance is a Professional Actress Public Speaking consultant with vast experience in this specialist field. She has worked in TV, Theatre Voiceover medium. She is a trained teacher and has an MA taught Voice to Graduates at Florida State University.
Over the last 15 years she has coached and trained CEOs, VPs, M.Ds and Senior Management Teams from international businesses and the NHS achieving remarkable results.
Her specialism is Dynamic Presentation Skills and also Interview technique for Senior Executives.
"Each participant will experience a unique and exciting range of skills that will quite literally breathe "life & vitality" into ways of communicating."