The Telecoms 'Mini-MBA' On-line Learning Programme

Tim Boyce has been involved in contract management for over 20 years. He began his career in the Ministry of Defence holding executive positions in contracts, contracts policy and finance. His industrial career began at Plessey in 1980 after which he enjoyed appointments with Siemens, British Aerospace and as commercial director at BAE Systems. His functional responsibilities have included contracts, commercial, procurement, estimating, legal, project accounting and the implementation of the European Business Excellence Model.

He is a former member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS). His committee work included the CIPS National Contracts Management Committee, the CBI Contracts panel, the CBI Defence Procurement Panel and the CBI/MoD working groups on partnering and incentive contracting. He was the CBI observer at the HM Treasury Central Unit on the Purchasing Working Group on incentivising industry. In 1997 he was invited by the Director General of the CBI to join the CBI Public Private Partnership Forum. He has lectured widely in the UK and the US.

Stephen Brookson is Managing Director of his company, New City Consulting, which specialises in the provision of practical business development consultancy and training programmes.

He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1980 with Peat Marwick and after a period at Grandmet plc, he joined a leading organisation in the provision of training for chartered accountants in practice. During this time he gained extensive experience of writing, developing and presenting programmes on accountancy and taxation. He then joined Ernst & Young for a number of years as a consultant, leaving them to set up his own management and training consultancy business.

He has presented numerous seminars and training events in both the public and private sectors, in the UK and overseas.

Since leaving the University of North London with a Higher National Diploma in Business Studies over 15 years ago, Julian has enjoyed a successful sales career. Most of his time has been spent in territory sales and key account management with the office imaging division of Kodak. There he gained a valuable insight into how sales people are managed. His ability to continually exceed annual targets was rewarded in 1995 when he became the top sales performer in the UK.

Julian has developed models in the areas of account management, forecasting and sales performance. Today, he is a consultant who helps companies increase revenue by managing sales operations more effectively. He has worked with companies in direct sales and indirect channels. Some of these include Danka UK plc, ICI Imagedata, Racal Airtech and the James McNaughton Paper Group.

Mike Gale graduated from Leeds University with an honours degree in Management Studies and Languages. He began his career with Standard Chartered Bank and was a Senior Regional Team Leader with the Thomas Cook Group, marketing and selling to banknote operations in the UK, Europe and the Middle East.

He has been a training consultant and motivational speaker for conference events in the UK and around the world for ten years. Mike has worked with over 100 companies in the public and private sector including Vodafone, Braun [UK], McKinsey & Co, the DTI and the BBC.

Kevin Hard has an extremely successful background in sales and management development within the Telecoms industry. His extensive experience in the industry includes setting-up and managing a national sales team to launch the successful Datatrak and Band3 products within the UK market. He then spent many years working with a major telecommunications consultancy advising many major UK corporates, offering independent advice to enable organisations to make informed decisions on their strategic initiatives in telecoms.

Kevin was instrumental in introducing new innovative technologies into the UK from Israel (VoIP) – Lloyds, Freeserve; Australia (CMS)– Boots, NHS; Digital Literacy (Finland) – IBM. He now runs his own consultancy working with clients to provide management and strategic training for managers and senior level executives.

Ian Ruskin-Brown. For the last 26 years Ian Ruskin-Brown has been the owner/entrepreneur of several Service Businesses. He ran a market research company – Marketing Decisions International Ltd – from 1980 to 1994. The company was a full member of the Market Research Society. It was through these businesses that Ian conducted many market research and consultancy projects for firms in the Service Sector: from government organisations (BBC, HM Customs & Excise) to the Law Society, several national and international airlines, banks and building societies.

Ian was course director at the Chartered Institute of Marketing for courses on Marketing in the Service Sector (1984-1988). Additionally, Ian designed, wrote and piloted in-company training courses on marketing and selling consultancy services for a number of blue chip companies including The IBM Marketing University, ICL Training and Kodak Health Imaging.

He currently runs the Marketing Your Services course for Management Center Europe (part of the American Marketing Association). He also runs client specific courses in the USA and South East Asia.

Mark Thomas is a highly successful international business consultant and trainer who has worked with some of the world’s major businesses in the fields of strategy, change management, human resources and executive development. He is a highly experienced speaker and business presenter who has worked in over 40 different countries around the world. As a consultant he has successfully sold major consulting projects and development initiatives. In addition to his consulting work Mark has authored several books and is a regular conference speaker on strategy, change management, people management and other organisational issues. Prior to becoming a Partner with Performance Dynamics, he worked for several years with Price Waterhouse Management Consultants in London. He is also a visiting faculty member at leading international business schools. He also advised on the business and organisational change issues arising out of strategic reviews and both private and public sector re-organisations.

Ralph Tiffin was a mechanical engineer who subsequently qualified as a Chartered Accountant and became manager in one of the largest international firms of accountants. He is now managing partner of an accountancy and consultancy practice. He has a wealth of experience with companies of all sizes in the UK and overseas. His work typically involves developing clients reporting and management systems, along with appropriate management training and developing project appraisal processes and spreadsheets.

Mike Williams M.Sc. is an international management consultant who established his company, Michael Williams & Partners, in 1979 and now works closely with associate companies in Geneva, Vienna and Copenhagen. He is also a director on the Board of British Ceramic Tile, based in Devon, UK. His main clients include leading Business Schools, e.g. IMD at Lausanne and the Theseus Institute, located in Nice, as well as several universities and a wide range of companies and consultancies throughout Europe, Canada and the United States. Mike is a member of the British Psychological Society, the Institute of Directors and the Association of Management Education & Development.