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Welcome to The Experience Network
A unique group of independent charity consultants

Jane Cockerell

I’m a former aid worker and CEO, with twenty years of scaling social impact in challenging, uncertain (sometimes straight-up crazy…) environments. Having also developed expertise in strategic leadership coaching and consulting, I now support thoughtful, ambitious leaders to navigate uncertainty and to grow resilient, impactful, thriving organizations.

Longer blurb if you’re interested…

Following a short career in corporate management, I spent many years leading large aid projects in Africa and then a decade as a non-profit CEO. I have rapidly grown projects and organisations within challenging contexts, developing and supporting teams across cultures and remote locations.

It’s been a ride. In the early days, as well as all the amazing experiences and sense of purpose, I experienced burnout and depression. Sometimes, I was talented and high-performing and sometimes, I could be as mad as a box of frogs…

I began to spot similar patterns in others, people I respected who were also running great organisations or projects so became increasingly fascinated with our ‘human-ness’ and what it is to be and deliver at our best, no matter what the world throws at us and became a perpetual student of leadership.
My ‘Ghetto MBA’ has encompassed tech trends to systems theory, entrepreneurship to psychology, strategic foresight to non-duality, and I’m a certified Transformative Coach.

My curiosity has led me to consultancy, specialising in strategy and Board leadership development. Having seen both gaps and over-engineering in many conventions of ‘good practice’, I co-create alongside leaders, giving equal value to process and psychology, mindful of resources and time available. Outcomes include greater organisational clarity and an enhanced capacity for strategic thinking and sound decision making within the senior team and Board.
On request, I also mentor CEO’s, supporting them to navigate uncertainty and overcome overwhelm.

My volunteer work includes roles as Chair of 52 Lives, as a coach with start-up accelerator Zinc VC and Strategy Advisor with the Foundation for Social Improvement. I’m a member of the International Association of Facilitators, Asociation of Business Psychologists and a Fellow of the RSA.

In real life, I love wandering about in nature, lifting heavy things, get over-excited about quality stationery and have been crowned the World’s Best Ninja Auntie Camp-Builder.

 

Pat Fitzsimons

I am a charity professional with roughly three areas of experience.  The first 10 years I spent in disavantaged communities that were being affected by large scale regeneration.  I provided services such as employment and training, under 5’s, older people, youth work, health programmes and more to diverse communities in London.  This work took place in charities, local authorities and housing associations.

The second 10 years I spent in policy and strategy in local government.  This included holding the post of Head of Strategy and Social Inclusion at Waltham Forest Council.  I worked on policy and strategy developmentand implementation in the areas of equalities, neighbourhood renewal, the community strategy and am currently working at London Borough of Hackney on voluntary sector property strategy.

The third  part of my career history was in change management for small charities.  I was the CEO of four charities during this time and I managed to transform almost entirely.

Vanessa Swann

I am an experienced former CEO of a major arts / social enterprise charity, Cockpit Arts, and have a proven track record of successfully starting up, growing and expanding Arts, Charities & Social Enterprise organisations, including turnaround and enterprise development. I  have been consulting for several years specialising in Organisational Development and Change Management including  governance, strategic business planning, income generation, stakeholder engagement and communications. I am a qualified Social Enterprise adviser with coaching, mentoring and facilitator experience; an experienced Trustee in the visual arts and music sector and a Consultant Grant Assessor   

Examples of recent assignments for clients including Arts Council Wales, Nesta innovation foundation, CAF Global Alliance, SE Assist Brighton, School for Social Entrepreneurs and The Fore:

AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Strategic planning
Business planning
Social enterprise development
Fundraising and earned income/sustainable funding
Change management
Charity management and governance
Leadership development
Stakeholder engagement
Partnership working
Negotiation
Property development
Premises management

 

David Wilson

David Wilson Coaching
Executive Coaching & Mentoring
Coaching leaders who want to make a difference

Are you a leader, committed to making a difference?
Are you looking for ways that your organisation can  grow and thrive? The 1:1 Executive Coaching programmes will help you build on your leadership strengths and bring fresh thinking to difficult challenges. It will coach you to develop those intangible qualities which distinguish true leaders: the capacity to develop and express vision, to think strategically, to inspire others and to build support within and outside your organisation.

New to the charitable sector? The 3rd Sector Leadership programme is focussed on coaching you if you are new to the charitable sector. Have you just become the Chair or a Director of a charity?  Perhaps you have come across from the commercial sector and are still exploring this unique governance environment.

Or are you new to a post, or embarking on a new venture? Is it the right time in your life to take stock and develop a personal vision Transitional Coaching Programme? A time of change and a time to grow, and to make the best of life’s challenges and opportunities. Is this the moment for you to be who you want to be?

Growth is when you do something about it.

 

 

A bit about me

The most important thing that I say about myself is this:
I am not just passionate about wanting to ‘make a difference’, I have done it. And I want to keep on making a difference in the best way that I can!

I am an experienced senior leader with skills in entrepreneurial business development, fundraising, strategic organisational change, and influencing social care policy.

In 1990 I set up a charity for people with a learning disability which grew to a highly recognised organisation of £6.5m T/O and employing 350 staff.  Not just measured by CQC as ‘Outstanding’, the charity was also recognised through national awards for Innovation, Leadership and Community Impact.

After 40 years working in the voluntary sector, I have gained decades of first-hand experience of senior executive leadership and management. Now I am coaching others, those who want to be as effective and purposeful as possible.

I understand the importance of coaching every individual in their individual pathway. Helping people with a learning disability discover their aspirations, and the means to realise them, led me to coaching. I have been coaching since 2014.   I am a Full member of the Association for Coaching, the professional body for qualified coaches.
I trained and qualified with the ILM in Executive Coaching & Mentoring so, when the charity I established merged with a national charity, I moved on and have now transferred my skills to become an established coach. I have coached leaders in both voluntary and private sector with a wide range of business missions.

I am a certified facilitator to deliver DiSC® profiles for Workplace Behaviours, Team Structures, Sales Behaviours, Management, Leadership and 360 Leadership Assessments.

Elaine Pearson Scott

I am mature, consistent, decisive, collaborative and strong senior executive with a record of success in organisational change, strategic, business planning, growth and the delivery of quality services. A successful fundraiser with experience of securing income through a variety of sources, including, service level agreements commissioning, income generation and trust funding. I have worked closely with trustees to deliver strategic goals and developed partnerships with public, private and voluntary sector colleagues with current motivational and development experience specifically with providers of residential care and fostering services My experience includes mergers and organisational restructures. I have represented organisation to external stakeholders, commissioners, policy makers, funders and at conferences

An accomplished Leader, who has led large and small teams of staff and volunteers, office, centre based and outreach

A qualified registered social worker with child protection and CIN experience at practitioner, specialist child protection officer, approved social worker, practice management and senior management levels in the local authority and voluntary sector delivering contracted services across CYP, Early Years, Fostering and Residential services, Family Support, Domestic Abuse, Specialist HIV SRB, LSC and European funding pots.

Steve Wyler

VLUU L200 / Samsung L200

Steve is an independent consultant in the field of social change and innovation.

He works with third sector and public sector organisations, and specialises in:

Recent clients include:

Steve is  co-convenor of the Better Way initiative, and a writer. Recent publications include:

Over the last twenty years Steve has played a leading role in the fields of localism, community ownership, community enterprise, social enterprise, and social investment.

In 2017-18 he was a panel member of the Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society

As CEO of Locality, he grew the country’s largest network of community enterprises,  delivering national programmes on community organising, neighbourhood planning, community asset ownership, and neighbourhood budgets.

Over the previous fifteen years Steve worked for voluntary agencies and independent grant-makers. For example in the 1990s, working with homeless agencies, he ran Homeless Network, co-ordinated the Rough Sleepers Initiative in London, and set up Off the Streets and into Work.

Steve has been a member of various Government advisory groups on localism, social enterprise, and the third sector (Cabinet Office, Department for Communities and Local Government, Ministry of Justice). Steve helped to establish Social Enterprise UK and the Adventure Capital Fund (parent body of the Social Investment Business). He was awarded an OBE in the 2011 New Year Honours List.

Contact details:

Hilary Barnard

Hilary Barnard is a strategy, change and organisational development consultant.  He works across the third sector, and with statutory and private sector partners in the UK and internationally.

In today’s challenging conditions, with insight and creativity Hilary helps organisations to find strategies and sustainable solutions that ensure effective delivery of charites’ expertise, services and campaigns.  He works with clients on rethinking and reinventing business models and approaches to ensure continued relevance and sustainability.

Relevant assignments include:

Hilary is a  a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, a member of the Organisational Development and Innovation Network, and a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.  He has been a Senior Visiting Fellow at Cass Business School and  the external examiner for the MSc in voluntary and community sector studies at Birkbeck College, University of London.

Hilary has written widely on leadership, strategy, governance and organisational development in the sector for Civil Society Finance, Civil Society Governance, Leader to Leader, Network, Governance & Compliance and Caritas.  He is the author of Step Change (Cass CCE 2012), Improving Equality & Diversity: A guide to Third Sector Chief Executives (ACEVO 2011), Whose Localism? (Cass CCE 2011), Big Society, Cuts & Consequences (Cass CCE 2010), Really Intelligent Commissioning (ACEVO 2009), Vertical Integration (NCB/VCS-Engage 2007), Added Value, Changing Lives: a social capital study (VAW 2006), and Design For Health (Mind 2003).  He is a regular book reviewer on strategy and governance for Governing Matters (NGA).  Hilary’s evaluation report (2015) of the TimeBank Talking Together programme can be accessed on the TimeBank website.  He is the co-author of Improving Equality & Diversity: a guide for third sector Chief Executives (ACEVO 2011) and Strategies for Success (NCVO 1994).

He collaborates regularly with Ruth Lesirge, also a member of the Experience Network, under the umbrella of HBRL Consulting.

Marcus Ward

Marcus is a highly experienced and accredited management consultant and former charity CEO, with well-developed strategic, income-generating, financial and operational management skills. He is a creative and innovative thinker who originally studied law, and worked as a Director in the commercial sector, prior to spending the last 20+ years working for and with charities and social enterprises as CEO and then consultant.

Marcus is a partner in Peach Consultancy, which has undertaken work in almost every discrete area of the voluntary sector, and conservatively raised over £50 million for civil society organisations. Peach Consultancy works with many funders, and is probably the most widely accredited voluntary sector consultanty in the UK.

We specialise in:

Previous larger national clients include:

Previous SME clients include:

We are, or have previously been approved/recommended consultants for:

In addition to direct work with many civil society organisations, Marcus has also undertaken a wide range of organisational development and capacity building projects for representative and umbrella groups, and public sector agencies including Local Authorities, and Health Agencies.

 

Ruth Lesirge

An independent consultant since 2003 and Co-Principal of  HBRL Consultancy, as well as founder (2012) and Chair (2015) of the Association of Chairs. These experiences a well as previous leadership roles as a chief executive in the charity and education sectors inform my practice and my ability to support my clients,  enabling them to build the capacity and skills of their organisations.

I  have a previous career in public sector senior management (adult and community education and development) and literacy (adults and disaffected adolescents); I hold DES Qualified Teacher status.

I have a  proven track record of success in third sector  work on:

I can be contacted at ruth@lesirge.com

Andrea Kelmanson

I’ve been working in the sector for over 40 years and have known, worked with and for most types of organisations and issues pursued by voluntary organisations.

I pride myself on being a straight-talking consultant; someone who pulls no punches in a genuine effort to get to the very heart of the many organisational and individual challenges  I face in the course of my work.

My core focus is always the needs of my clients’ beneficiairies, whose interests I find are all too often lost sight of in the serious rough and tumble of organisational life and survival  in the sector these days.

I tackle work on small scale, one off consultancy assignments as happily as larger, medium term assignments, in either straightforward ‘consultant’ roles, or in the role of Interim CEO.

My recent assignments have involved me in the world of volunteering development in fundraising charities; in the fascinating – and new charity – world of Students’ Unions, and in helping with the development of new Social Enterprises in the criminal justice field.

I am primarily concerned with working alongside organisations to create sparkling futures for the people and issues they are seeking to support.