Trainers, Tutors & Mentors

Andrea is a creative, energetic and well-respected manager and lecturer, with a successful career in further and higher education in both public and private sectors. She has over 25 years of experience in the delivery of business management, professional and undergraduate programmes. This includes Open University distance learning courses.

After Completing his post-graduate diploma in marketing, Andrew has amassed more than 20 years marketing experience in the UK and overseas for the likes of TXU Energy, The Energy Saving Trust and South African bank, ABSA Bank.

In addition, he has spent a number of years on the agency side working with well known brands such as Mercedes-Benz, Ericsson, Panasonic and PC World, including most disciplines in the marketing communications mix such as ATL, BTL, PR and online.

In 2005/6, Andrew and his business partner launched online marketing specialists, Spiders and Milk Ltd where he is currently the Marketing Director.

He is a Chartered Marketer and a Fellow of the CIM as well as the CIM branch chair for Devon and Cornwall and sits on the CIM South West regional board.

Andrew now lives in South Devon with his family and in his free time can be found coaching junior rugby for his local club, walking on Dartmoor or sailing. He is a prolific blogger on all things regarding the digital world, and online marketing in particular.

Christopher has worked in and for a range of businesses as a Marketing and Public Relations professional. These include charitable organisations; commercial food production; leisure and tourism; weddings; holiday lets; medical practice; telecommunication; government; Finance and utilities.

His experience incorporates the management of a sales team, management of marketing audits, events, research projects and brand management, new product development from problem identification to delivery of solution and multi-channel communication strategies including a full knowledge of Social Media platforms.

Christopher has led seminars and master classes in brand development and auditing, social media and its strategic application, marketing to export and also undertaken one to one mentoring. In addition he has facilitated focus groups for a range of business sectors.

Christopher is a Chartered Marketer, committee member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Jersey Branch and a Member of the British Psychological Society. Currently he is working for the Channel Islands’ largest Marketing, PR and Design Agency, Image Group, as Director of Communications. Despite six years promoting the virtues of Jersey Milk to a domestic and global audience Christopher was, and remains, lactose intolerant.

David is a multi-faceted individual, with experience and qualifications gained in different sectors including financial services, education, damage restoration, ISO and recruitment, working for large household names and also smaller concerns with half a dozen employees. Management roles include Franchise Development, Key Account and National Account Management, with responsibility for large geographical areas and multi-million-pound schemes.

Already interested in people development, David attended a coaching presentation, and with the realisation that he was already coaching albeit informally, decided to study, gaining appropriate knowledge and qualifications, now at Master’s Level.

David’s skill set is a quite unique blend and seeking an opportunity to use such skills most effectively, a leadership and management lecturing role provided the ideal outlet, developing the next generation of managers, with pre-employability training for those seeking employment. With a continuing passion for learning, his most recent qualification is in hypnotherapy, allowing him to offer a higher level of coaching support, focused on continued, embedded mindset change.

An active volunteer for many years, David is currently a Trustee with the Brain Injury Research and Development, and volunteer tutor in conversational English; previous roles include Chartered Management Institute Branch Chair and The Bren Project Charity Trustee. In his spare time, David enjoys reading, travel, all sports-playing and watching, and writing personal development articles for local magazines, and mental health articles for a lifestyle website.

Diane Earles has over 18 years’ experience, a sustained record of success and an extensive background in diverse service organisations, managing complex marketing projects to achieve challenging objectives. She has held director positions in both clientside and agency marketing organisations, and most notably was the Regional Director of The Chartered Institute of Marketing in the North of England.

She has been a judge for the National Lionheart Challenge since 2006, co-wrote a chapter in the Journal of Customer Behaviour Volume 10 on Marketing Academics and Practitioners, wrote the foreword for Successful Customer Care on a Shoestring (2005) and testimonials for T-Shirts and Suits (2005) and Advanced Marketing Management (2018).

Her current portfolio includes an Associate Lecturer post with Manchester Metropolitan University, Consultant/Freelance contracting, School Governor, Parish Councillor and Non-Executive Director of Lionheart. She is a pragmatic leader and Chartered Marketer who creates robust strategies to translate vision into reality. Her strong analytical, problem-solving and decision-making skills combine with a passion for making a positive difference.

Doreen's commercial experience is that of a Manager with both a British and American Multi-National organisation.  During this time Doreen was responsible for co-ordinating business arrangements for several 'Blue Chip' companies and supporting all marketing activities, particularly Public Relations.  Doreen travelled extensively in her role as manager.

Doreen is a Lecturer in Business & Management discipline areas with specific Marketing Qualifications. She has been a CIM accredited Tutor for a number of years within the Professional Division of Higher Education, and has taught students at all three levels of CIM programmes of study.

Doreen is committed to marketing education and has taught the student who achieved the CIM student of the year award at Post Graduate Diploma Level. Doreen also encouraged and supported a team of students to enter the North West Regional CIM Marketing competition who were awarded second place for their marketing plan.

Her interests are Management Development and International Research along with a commitment to mentoring students to achieve success.

Doreen has been awarded a Fellowship, by examination, by the Institute of Travel and Tourism and has recently achieved the upgrade to A1 assessor award.

John started life as a bit of a techie and soon became hooked after discovering the internet in 1998 whilst working in business development. John quickly became competent in writing HTML and set up an internet café, and later on running his own online furniture business.

He then set up his own company Sharpmonkeys which specialises in developing digital marketing strategies for clients all over the UK where he gets the chance to get under the skin of brands and the brand experience online. John has a natural ability to walk with the techies and talk with the business strategists allowing him to successfully straddle both disciplines.

Throughout his career, John has had a passion for building competitive advantage using technology and is highly interested in the neuroscience aspect in terms of how people react with technology and how it is shaping our lives. He finds it particularly fascinating watching his 9 year old son get to grips with the latest devices as if it is second nature.

John is the primary digital marketing tutor for Professional Academy and is a strong believer in bringing “real life” experiences into digital marketing and helping his students understand how technology works in real businesses.

Marcus has spent the last 20 years working in sales and commercial roles for companies ranging from small medium privately owned, up to multi-national blue-chip food companies. A sales trainer, having worked at Unilever Bestfoods for 5 years, then went on to spend 5 years at Tetley as a National Account Manager, before moving to Burton’s Foods in a more senior role. Implementing sales training has always played a part within the companies he has worked for. He has been responsible for all aspects of training, starting at the induction stage through to negotiation at the highest level.

Having been a Trade Sector Manager looking after a team of National Account Managers and National Account Executives, he knows how to train, nurture and get the best out of a sales team.  Marcus has a wealth of experience across business-to-business sales, along with the end-user customer and the distributor networks. His portfolio of customers include Thresher, Compass Group, NHS, Volvo, BUPA, Woolworths, Aramark, Rail Gourmet, Brakes, 3663, McDonalds, Palmer & Harvey, Co-op, TM Retail and Benders.

Martin worked in the publishing business for many years after completing his degree at Kingston University. He worked in Advertising Sales and Sales Team Management for Business-to-Business publications, specialist sports consumer titles as well as regional newspapers. The knowledge and experience of training that he gained led him to a second career in Education.

After completing his PGCE qualification at University of East Anglia he taught in Secondary schools in Suffolk before moving into the Higher Education sector as a lecturer in Business Management for University Campus Suffolk and West Suffolk College. As the Course Leader for BA (Hons) Professional Studies, CIPS program leader, Course Director for Level 3 Business, as well as being a member of the BA Business Management lecturing team, he lectured on a number of Business Management topics including Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Management Strategies. Through delivering Services to Business courses for the college he discovered the opportunities for training to commercial organisations. In early 2014 he became a self-employed trainer delivering in-house courses and numerous Professional qualifications, using his knowledge of how individuals learn to good effect.

He is a firm believer in life-long learning, a personable facilitator, and a keen skier.

Martin is a self acclaimed workaholic and the founder of Cambridge Professional Academy. As a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and the Institute of Sales and Marketing (ISMM) he successfully blends a broad range of business disciplines. Coupled with his in-depth knowledge of all areas of business and keen interest in IT and programming, and financial management skills, Martin leads by example.

He is often asked to speak at conferences and events on a wide range of subjects ranging from Internet Strategy, Sales and Motivation. Martin is a sales person at heart and has written on the subject for a wide range of purposes not least the material used in Cambridge Professional Academy's sales training programmes.

Having started his career as a welder, progressing on to a range of senior sales and marketing roles, Martin has been either MD or General Manager since the age of 25 for whoever he has worked for.

An energetic, positive individual who seeks to inspire and motivate everybody he works with, Martin never shies away from a challenge and revels in the ups and downs of running a business.

When he is not working you will often see him buzzing around the skies in a four seat light aircraft as the proud holder of his Private Pilots License.

MCIM, DipM, Chartered Marketer

Over the past 10 years Peter has worked within various organisations from SMEs to large multinational PLCs in a number of different market sectors including; media, manufacturing and distribution. As a Chartered Marketer he covers the entire marketing genre from strategic planning, number crunching and data analysis (looking at consumer purchasing habits as well as project and campaign results) to the creative thinking side of brand development and consumer engagement. No two days are ever the same in Peters world and it is true testament to the fact that Marketing is involved in, and can contribute to, all areas of a business.

Peter received a BA Hons degree in Marketing and from there went on to receive a Post Graduate Diploma from the CIM becoming a Chartered Marketer in 2010.

Wendy is an Associate of Professional Academy but also has her own company as a Marketing & Social Media Consultant & Trainer with over 15 years’ experience in marketing, gained across the fashion, beauty and lifestyle sectors and the full offline and online marketing mix.

She has worked at both global, blue-chip FMCG businesses including Nestlé Nespresso and Procter & Gamble, as well as ambitious SMEs including the rapidly expanding, accessible luxury jewellery brand, Monica Vinader.

She has first-hand experience of creating and implementing successful marketing initiatives for global well-known brands, coupled with a deep understanding of the unique environment and operational challenges faced by SMEs and their business owners. Bringing the two together, Wendy launched her own business to help smaller businesses to achieve better results with impactful marketing and social media activities. She now offers marketing consultancy and social media training on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook and Meta Ads to small businesses in Kent and London.

In addition to her Batchelors degree in Management Sciences, Wendy holds a CIM Diploma in Professional Marketing and is professionally trained in Social Media Management.

Margaret has enjoyed an extensive career in public relations, communications, and marketing. Her experience has been in both private and public sectors where she has worked in public transport, NHS and in the marketing department of a large further education institute. A highlight of her career was being responsible for the public relations and media liaison around the launch of the country’s first new generation tramway in Manchester, a high-profile project attracting international and national interest.

She also worked for many years in the NHS in the role of communications manager of a large hospital and later communications and public engagement manager in primary care where was involved in several major and controversial consultations working with a extensive range of stakeholders.

In 2009 she took a different path, leaving the NHS to undertake a PhD looking into service quality in health care. She completed this in 2013 since when she has lectured at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. She as written material for an MBA courses, had work published and now supervises postgraduate students alongside her work at Cambridge Professional Academy.

Her outside interests include travel and has visited many countries which has left her with only one continent left to visit – The Antarctic. This omission will be resolved when she visits it in December 2024. She also enjoys painting and has had a local exhibition in recent years and is completing an MfA in creative writing.