Consultant Profiles
Emanuela leads Aikaizen and practices in training, behaviour assessment, coaching, team building and project management. After achieving a first class Honours degree in Applied Mathematics in 1991, she joined a large mining and finance company where she practiced in IT risk management. Six years later Emanuela established herself as an independent consultant from which time she further developed her professional project management capability and is a PRINCE2 Practitioner in this regard. She also developed her interest in capability development and informally skilled up in behavioural psychology and management development.
In 2001 Emanuela established her management consultancy in the UK (initially Peak Performance) and has since practiced across many industry sectors and in several countries including various European countries, Russia, Asia Pacific and the USA. She has written and delivered over twenty training programmes in generalist and specialist fields, including topics on project management, distributed teaming, leadership and interpersonal skills development.
Emanuela also developed our highly successful behavioural profiling tool, HBPro, which we use to front any coaching engagement or as a one-off assessment. She has coached all levels of management to reach personal fulfilment in their jobs, to succeed in their chosen career paths and to be purposeful in what they do.
Most recently Emanuela has studied under Richard Bandler - one of the early founders of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) - and has been awarded the NLP Master Practitioner certificate.
Although her primary focus is on managing and developing Aikaizen, Emanuela enjoys the delivery aspect and continues to work with our clients in uplifting their performance.
Below are the trainers that form the Core Aikaizen Team. We have a further 18 trainers that we use on specalist subject matter.
Michael O’Callaghan
Michael O’Callaghan has been working with Aikaizen for three years as a trainer and business coach. His broad experience across the principle engineering fields (degrees in civil, mechanical and electrical engineering) is complemented by a Masters Degree in Business Administration, as well as many years as a Senior Manager and Director of a number of national and international businesses. Apart from his various university degrees, Michael is also an NLP Practitioner and a certified Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessor.
Michael brings a blend of high energy, enthusiasm and sharp analytical skills to any team or enterprise. From training to people management, from business practice to leadership and coaching skills, he uses his experience to apply theoretical knowledge and business best practice techniques in the practical business environment, driving bottom line results while ensuring customer delight at all times.
Samantha Dawes
Sam is a project manager, trainer and coach with more than 15 years experience of leading complex projects supported by cross-functional teams. Her EMEA experience at various organisations has given her the breadth and depth of knowledge that adds real value on her courses.
A PRINCE 2 practitioner, Sam has worked with a range of organisations in both the public and private sectors to support the development of bespoke project management methodologies that reflect best practice. She has recently delighted a public sector organisation by working on the development and implementation of national and local government initiatives in partnership with private companies and charitable trusts.
Sam runs a variety of interactive training programmes and events for professionals at all levels and provides one-to-one coaching for project practitioners. Her fun and practical approach to training ensures the softer people skills involved in effective project management are considered alongside the more process driven aspects of the subject.
Cole Hanrahan
Cole is a Chartered Marketer. He began his career in the motor components industry, marketing to Ford and General Motors. He later became Business Development Director of a Direct Marketing services organisation where he spent eight years winning and managing key accounts with global blue chip organistions in Manufacturing, Financial Services, Pharma, Oil & Gas, Hospitality and not-for-profit organisations.
Cole has set up and delivered an on-going product marketing programme for Product Managers for the world’s leading provider of global travel systems and ticketing solutions. This course is run globally and also involves post-course assessment. His portfolio of courses includes Principals of Marketing, Marketing Strategies, Product Management, Solution Selling, Key Account Management and Customer Relationship Management.
Cole has been an independent consultant for over 10 years and apart from his work with Aikaizen, delivers courses for the Chartered Institute of Marketing where he is their Course Director for Marketing Communications and Customer Relationship Management.
As a marketing and product management specialist he provides training and development solutions to companies world wide. He analyses marketing practices, processes and strategies for his clients, and puts forward customer-focused strategies that deliver results.
Susan Franks
Susie is a qualified Hypnotherapist and Psychotherapist, a CIPD-qualified trainer and is a member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy. Her background is in people development and counselling and in her 8 years as a professional trainer has developed her expertise to specialise in conflict management, stress management, influencing skills and understanding human behaviour.
Susie is also a practising trauma counsellor and an NHS-accredited practitioner for smoking cessation. To this end, Susie runs workshops and one-to-one session for Aikaizen clients wishing to assist staff in smoking cessation.
Toby Buckle
Toby Toby Buckle is an experience trainer and executive coach. He has a BSc in Management Science, is a Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Master Practitioner and is a member of the Association for Coaching in the UK. Toby works by combining twenty years of business experience with NLP techniques, organisational theory and coaching skills.
As a key member of the Aikaizen team, Toby works with a number of organisations developing innovation and continuous improvement. His flagship course “Innovation and Improvement for Survival and Success” has helped professionals in various organisationl roles change their way of thinking and their way of problem-solving to come up with innovative solutions that drive business performance.
Steve Torjussen
Steve is a professional trainer who has gained his business experience within the sales and marketing environment as a New Business Sales Executive, an Account Manager and a Regional Sales Manager. His highly successful management career has given him the breadth and depth of experience to be an excellent trainer with course specialties in Account Management, Business Development and Customer Relationship Management.
Lyn Hutchings 
Lyn has been a professional Training Consultant since 2007. She built up most of her Business Development and Customer Relationship management experience at Henry Schein, the largest healthcare distributor worldwide of medical, dental and vetinerary products. Lyn worked her way up in the organisation to become Director of Telesales before commencing her freelance consulting career. She has a wide range of experience delivering account management, business development and customer relationship management courses.