Founding Partner

Jill is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist with over 10 years experience of working with clients in both the public and private sector.

Jill specialises in designing and delivering bespoke solutions for organisations to support them in their development, selection and organisational change initiatives. She takes a creative but also pragmatic approach to all her assignments and takes the time to fully understand her clients' needs and goals.

Jill also works with individuals coaching them to maximise their performance within their current roles or to ensure they realise their career potential.

Jill's most recent projects have included working as a leadershiph coach for Cranfield School of Management,  designing and delivering wellbeing workshops at Champneys, providing psychometric feedback to coaching clients, coaching senior managers in a global management and engineering consultancy  and assessing senior managers in a global non governmental organisation. 

Jill also enjoys spending time with her family and achieving a work life balance, as well as riding roller coasters, watching ballet, visiting good restaurants and being inspired by others. 

Founding Partner

Originally trained as an actor, over the last ten years Mark has developed a successful career as a filmmaker, writer and theatre practitioner.

Alongside producing his own work in film and television, Mark specialises in working with public and third-sector organisations on original performing arts and media-based projects. These range from designing and delivering one-off workshops to leading long-term nationally-funded programmes. He has delivered projects across the UK, USA and Southern Africa.

Mark is a consultant for the Charity Technologies Trust and is also a member of the advisory board for Operating Theatre Company.

Mark enjoys Saturday morning film club with his 3 year old daughter, power-kiting, coffee, eating out, itunes, holidays, flying and time spent with his family and friends. He wishes he could cook, but he can't.

For information regarding Mark's writing, please contact his agent Laura Rourke at Independent.

Being a Create Network Associate...

 

"Being self employed/freelancer is quite lonely sometimes. It’s got its benefits – own boss, flexibility, work from home, do what I want but there are times when I miss being part of a team. The opportunity to share experiences, talk about current projects, clients, learn from colleagues, have a laugh and boost my morale on tough days, find out about events, other networks, conferences etc. This is what attracted me to the network, to retain my independence – I make my own decisions, and all the benefits of this, but I also feel part of a team. We may not see each other often but I know where I contact them. It’s the opportunity to share ideas and most importantly opportunities. There is a limit to what I can offer to my clients on my own, however having a group of experienced and trusted colleagues – I can put together a group of consultants to pitch for work and therefore expand my own business. In today’s tough economic times, we need to be flexible, adaptable, knowledgeable, and driven to achieve positive results, which is what the Network allows us all to do. There is no need to say no to any client opportunity again."

 

Andrea Pearce is a financial services training professional with over 16 years experience of training and management, including recruitment, induction, development, coaching, compliance, training, design, delivery, and sales and project management.

Andrea has a degree in Applied Mathematics, the Diploma in Financial Planning and is in her final year of a BSc in Psychology. She is to begin a Masters in Occupational Psychology in September.

In 2010, Andrea took a career break, in order to spend more time with her daughter and complete her BSc in Psychology. At this time she also established her own business as a bookkeeper and proofreader, working for several clients, including The Create Network, where she is also their Communications Manager.

Andrea enjoys spending time with her family and friends, volunteering for Headway and her daughter's school, and travelling back to Scotland whenever possible.

Damien is a people development professional with over 15 years experience helping organisations maximise the potential and performance of their people. Damien’s work has principally been in the commercial arena working on projects ranging from coaching sales staff to setting up and running a 60-plus headcount training, development and recruitment function supporting 1500 individuals across 280 nationwide retail businesses.

 

Recently Damien has been heavily involved in the development and deployment of e-learning as part of blended learning solutions. Several of these e-courses were designed for Pan-European use and have been translated into around 20 languages, including Russian and Turkish.

 

Alongside his work in development and training, Damien has a long standing involvement with the theatre and is a partner in a small theatre company. This company has produced a number of new works at the Edinburgh and New York Fringe Festivals, along with productions on the London Fringe circuit.

 

In recent years Damien has combined his twin passions through the use actors and theatre based techniques in the training environment to make learning more impactful and relevant.

Chris has trained as a Careers Guidance Practitioner, Researcher, Lecturer, Counsellor and Coach. She has worked in the education, private and voluntary sectors successfully leading on small and large scale projects.

Chris brings a passion for coaching and mentoring as a means of promoting positive change and personal growth. Chris creates individually designed coaching and mentoring programmes, along with individual and team coaching, to strengthen organisational and individual performance.

Leading a large government partnership initiative Chris has also worked with staff in two local authorities, and delivered mentoring programmes in local schools.

Emma is a chartered occupational psychologist with specialist skills in assessment and development. Over the past fifteen years she has worked with a comprehensive range of clients at all organisational levels.

Emma has extensive experience of designing and delivering bespoke assessment solutions. She has worked in a variety of sectors including local government, financial services, hospitality, retail and manufacturing.

Emma works with individuals and teams to facilitate their development. She has expertise in coaching clients through career transition. She has also designed and led successful team building initiatives.

Emma loves spending time with family and friends. Work / life balance is really important and she makes the most of holidays and social gatherings.

Louise is an actress/singer/dancer and has worked professionally over the last twenty years in the West End, television, commercials and regional theatre.

Louise has also worked extensively in teaching, concerts and the corporate sector.

Credits include Mamma Mia, Les Miserables, Blood Brothers, Eastenders, Halifax and calgon adverts and campaigns for Smirnoff to name but a few.

Louise is currently appearing in Blood Brothers in the West End.

Maria is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist specialising in coaching, career management, leadership development and selection and assessment.

She is an experienced facilitator and has worked with senior clients from a variety of private and public sector organisations at various functional levels including Marketing, Finance, IT and Engineering.

She has eight years of experience and is recognised for her ability to motivate, engage and challenge clients to achieve their objectives.

Radhika Seth is an Occupational Psychologist with over 10 years experience and has worked across the public, private and voluntary sectors, specialising in Assessment and Selection, Development, Executive Coaching and assessor training. As a preferred consultant for two major Government Directorates, Radhika provides very active and involved support as a Senior Diversity Advisor and Senior Assessor as part of a recruitment and development team.

Radhika has designed, run and assessed in over 500 assessment and development centres with particular use of psychometrics and 360° feedback tools. She has worked with over 120 organisations across the U.K., Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Radhika holds a B.Sc (HONS) in Psychology, an M.Sc in Occupational and Organisational Psychology, and is Level A and B qualified. She is a member of The British Psychological Society, The Association of Business Psychologists and sits on the Board of The London HR Connection (part of CIPD). She has also been granted the OCPA standard of qualification by the Commissioner for Public Appointments.

In addition to her academic background, Radhika is also trained in using alternative approaches to stress management including 5-point acupuncture. With the use of her Asian languages, she is a voluntary radio presenter for an International radio station based in West London.

Radhika enjoys Japanese cuisine, watching sci-fi and all things theatrical.

Robert Diggins is a resourcing professional with a wealth of experience recruiting for a wide variety of companies in the private and public sector. This includes interviewing and assessment skills, as well as building close relationships with organisations and individual managers to troubleshoot and provide advice on attraction strategy and recruitment need.

Robert delivers a variety of courses for managers on how to recruit effectively and he has a sound understanding of embracing diversity in recruitment and applying best practice within assessment methodologies.

Since training in filmmaking in Leeds and London, Russell is now independently producing, writing and directing music videos and short films.

Russell has worked for Miramax Films, The Weinstein Co and as the directors floor assistant to Oscar winning director Mikael Hafstrom on the feature film '1408'.

Fiona is a professional actress who graduated with an MA from the Central School of Speech and Drama in 2005, where she specialised in performing the plays of Shakespeare.  She also holds a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Warwick, and is a graduate of the Royal Court Theatre’s ‘Young Writers’ Programme’.

Fiona’s experience of role-playing as an actress for the recruitment industry has led to her gaining substantial experience of interviewing, facilitation and assessment on behalf of numerous private companies and public-sector organisations.  She is Level A qualified, and is listed on the British Psychological Society’s Register of Competence in Occupational Testing.

Fiona is particularly interested in the way in which actors’ ‘tools’ can be used to help develop confidence in any individual within the workplace.

In her free time, Fiona enjoys falling off snowboards and crashing motorbikes.

Catherine has over thirteen years experience in the design and delivery of bespoke assessment centres for selection and development purposes.

She has extensive exposure to a number of organisations within both the public and private sector and within this has conducted job analyses, designed competency frameworks, bespoke assessment exercises and delivered high profile assignments on the back of these.

She is fully qualified to administer and interpret psychometric tests and personality questionnaires, providing valuable input to selection and development processes. She has also conducted culture audits and designed employee handbooks for start up organisations. Although based in Belfast, Catherine’ s client base spans Northern Ireland, ROI and the UK.

In her spare time, Catherine is becoming a damp expert due to her house being flooded back in 2007 as well as studying for her degree in Psychology. She also likes to socialise, cook, play cards, practise yoga, swim and run.

An HR Consultant specialising in the areas of competency-based assessment centres, recruitment training courses and outplacement services. As a SHL Associate Consultant, experience spans blue chip and Public Sector organisations through the delivery of management development centres and executive assessments.

Sue has a background in vocational psychology and ran an assessment centre for the unemployed in Hackney for 5 years. She qualified as a psychodynamic counsellor in 1998, and as a professional life coach in 2006. She has worked for ten years in management in the third sector and has a sound background in strategic business planning, recruitment, policy-making and fundraising.

 

Anne Fanning has worked in the field of occupational psychology for over 15 years.  She specialises in assessment and development, as well as executive coaching, working with senior and mid-level managers who wish to:

 

• Gain wider recognition in their organizations
• Improve their promotion prospects
• Enhance their leadership capabilities

 

She designs assessment and development centres and competency frameworks.  Recent clients include pharmaceutical companies, high street retail, professional services firms (lawyers and accountants), transport, media and corporate finance.

 

Anne works internationally and is able to conduct business in Spanish.  She also speaks French and a little Portuguese.

 

Examples of Anne’s recent work include: designing assessment centres for the European arm of a multinational pharmaceutical organisation, coaching partners in an internationally represented law firm to support their bids for promotion, coaching of senior individuals in television media to help improved communication, goal-setting and influencing strategies and conducting informal 360 degree feedback for an HR professional who wanted to understand the perceptions of her team.

 

Anne loves music of all kinds from rock to the classical composers, reads voraciously and once had a regular slot broadcasting on local radio – but has no plans to take her media career any further!

Lisa has extensive experience working with both commercial and public service organisations to develop streamlined, effective and cost efficient integrated recruitment, selection and retention strategies.

 

In the last 10 years Lisa has specialised in root-cause diagnostic mapping to support organisations develop inclusive talent development and retention strategies with specific reference to the broadest notions of diversity; particularly  the impact of unconscious bias.

 

Lisa delivers challenging workshops on diversity & inclusion, unconscious bias and career development for traditionally under-represented groups.

 

Lisa is Chartered MCIPD and BPS Level A&B qualified.

 

Trudi graduated with an MSc in Occupational Psychology having achieved a First Class BSc (Hons) Psychology in 2009. She is fully qualified to administer and interpret psychometric tests and personality questionnaires, providing valuable input to selection and development processes. She has a particular interest in sleep deficit and the effect that has on the business lives of middle and senior managers.

Trudi swims regularly and really enjoys learning and spending time with family and friends.