Meet the Team
Nick Thomas
Specialism: Sales, communication, soft skills and performance
Experience: Twenty-five years working in the insurance industry – sales and relationship management specialist. Nick was a high performing sales producer, regional, and national sales director working for UK national and global brokers. Nick moved on to become an experienced Coach, Consultant and Trainer.
Qualifications: BA Hons, Economics, Master Practitioner in NLP, Diploma in Life Coaching, Corporate and Executive Coach, Holistic Lifestyle Coach and Advanced Exercise Coach
Awards and recognition: HSBC’s Fastrack ‘STARS’ programme for exceptional performance (40 participants from global workforce of 265,000), HSBC Group’s flagship ‘Managing for Growth’ programme [Duke Corporate Education]
Rob Moon
Specialism: Sales, Management and Leadership, Insights Discovery
Experience: Rob has had a passion for helping people grow for over 20 years. His 21 years at Yell gave him a strong foundation in sales, Customer Service, soft skills and management training and included 14 years in the Learning and Development department supporting sales people and managers. Rob has also held a post within the NHS as a Learning & Development manager overseeing the learning for an organisation of almost 12,000 staff members.
Rob is experienced in working closely with people in many industries and sectors including insurance & financial, advertising and media, retail, hospitality, health and pharmaceuticals, construction, industrial and engineering, and agriculture to design and deliver tailored events using experiential techniques that enable delegates to think for themselves to ensure sustainable behaviour change.
Rob’s expertise and accreditation in Insights Discovery psychological profiling helps teams connect and work better together as well as driving forward the quality of relationships with customers by helping individuals adapt and connect with people in a variety of interactions.
Rob’s sessions with Managers and Leaders use fascinating discussion and links to many of the most popular management models and techniques. His sessions always ensure clear understanding of how to apply your learning immediately back in your role as well as understanding the theory.
Qualifications: Insights Discovery accredited practitioner
David Hole
Specialism: Technical
Experience: David is an experienced insurance professional with a career spanning 40years; he has enjoyed wide exposure in the London Insurance Market and elsewhere resulting from his industry- specific training activity.
His experience includes Head of Claims at Plum Underwriting Ltd, where he was responsible for managing the relationship between insurers and claims third party administrators, handling larger claims received via technical referral processes.
David has been delivering technical insurance training for over 20 years, to a variety of different industry customers in the UK and abroad, and provides examination support for clients undertaking CII studies to achieve industry recognised designations. He provides training on many general insurance classes up to at least intermediate level to include motor trade insurance, cyber, marine cargo, commercial property, business interruption, liabilities, construction, engineering, and trade credit. He also delivers more generic underwriting and claims training.
David is a subject matter expert for the Chartered Insurance Institute, authoring and updating modules for the CII computer-based training programme, Broker Assess.
Qualifications: Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute [ACII]
Chris Abram
Specialism: Technical insurance, and business skills training. He delivers a broad spectrum of high quality training, but has particular specialism in Property, Business Interruption, Liability, and Packages.
Experience: Chris is an insurance and financial services professional with over 40 years experience in the industry, covering training, sales and underwriting.
For the last 15 years he has been a full-time training consultant, working with groups and individuals to develop their technical, compliance and sales skills. This includes preparation for the various levels of CII qualifications.
His experience includes time as a technical consultant on a local, Government-sponsored, insurance apprenticeship scheme; and in the implementation of a compliance-training project with a major UK bank.
Qualifications: Chris is an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute [ACII], and a Fellow of the Institute of Sales & Marketing Management (F Inst. SMM)
Alan Ticker
Specialism: Technical insurance
Experience: Alan has a wealth of experience and expertise garnered from over 40 years working in the Insurance industry, primarily with insurance brokers, latterly as a Director of Marsh Commercial [Jelf]. He has looked after clients in a wide range of industries with particular specialisms in the Construction and Property sectors, and to include offshore decommissioning, process control, transportation, storage, and food manufacturing. He has specific knowledge working with Captive (Protected Cell) Insurance companies.
Alan now works as a self-employed consultant to a major construction firm, and as a technical insurance trainer for Nick Thomas & Associates. Whilst his training capabilities are wide-ranging, he has particular expertise in: Design and Build, Plant Hire, Business Interruption, and Alternative Risk Transfer.
Qualifications: Alan is both a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute [FCII], and Fellow of Risk Management in Insurance [FIRM].
Awards and recognition: He was honoured with a ‘Special Services to Insurance Award’, Belfast 2017
James Tye
Specialism: Technical insurance - Claims
Experience: James is a specialist claims consultant and Principal of Hammersbach Consulting Limited. He has thirty years of experience in the insurance industry; he spent twenty years at Marsh Ltd, working with a diverse client base from SMEs to some of the most notable FTSE 250 global businesses. James has developed an extensive practical knowledge, working with clients with large, self-insured retentions, those who operate in-house claims handling teams and/or work with Third Party Administrators, or are conventionally insured. He has specific expertise in risk analysis and the development of bespoke claims programmes for clients. He is a member of the Chartered Insurance Institute, Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters, and Institute of the Motor Industry. He provides training and consultancy support for Nick Thomas & Associates in all claims-related work.
Jacqui Turner
Specialism: Customer Service, Management and Leadership Training
Experience: Jacqui has enjoyed a highly successful thirty year career in Training and Management roles across Financial Services, Retail and Utility sectors. Clients have included Lloyds TSB, HSBC, Tesco, OrangeBox, Sky, NFU Mutual and many others.
Qualifications: ILM Level 5 Coaching & Mentoring Certificate, Essential Leadership Skills ILM Endorsed Award, Training and Development NVQ Level 3 City & Guilds, NLP Practitioner Certification, ILM Member, Member of European Mentoring and Coaching Council
Awards and recognition: ‘Welsh Contact Centre Trainer of the Year 2014’, Finalist in National Contact Centre awards for the most effective training programme, Best UK Customer Service Training provider 2022 - Education and Training Awards
Ollie Martin
Specialism: Performance, Resilience and Health
Experience: Ollie is an acclaimed health coach and human performance consultant, as well as an author of two books. He has spent over twenty years helping transform the health and performance of thousands of clients ranging from businesses to professional athletes, couch-potatoes, and retirees. Ollie has developed his own unique and integrated approach to health and performance encapsulated in his book ‘Un-common Sense’ [available on Amazon]
Qualifications: Ollie has a background in high level sport and sports science. He has trained and studied with a range of institutions across multiple fields to include the CHEK Institute, the American College of Sports Medicine, and in Tai Chi.
Andrew Patterson
Specialism: Inspirational and motivational speaker. Resilience.
Experience:
‘Patto’ is a former professional cricketer who represented his country and went on to become a successful and much-loved schoolteacher.
His life took an unexpected turn when diagnosed with Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia, a condition that left him confined to a wheelchair. He travelled to the USA to undergo an operation where two-thirds of the nerves in his spine were severed, followed by gruelling and ongoing rehabilitation which has allowed him to walk short distances. His incredible determination saw him recently complete a 5km walk.
Andrew’s story is one of perseverance, adapting to new realities and of never giving up. His experience has taught him the vital importance of resilience. He passionately believes that this is a skill that everyone can gain, and his talks both inspire and enable participants to develop their own resilience. He works with businesses, schools, colleges, universities, professional sports teams and bodies.
Qualifications: Bachelor’s Degree in Sports Science, Master’s Degree in Journalism.
‘Patto spoke to our Year 12 cohort with incredible passion and enthusiasm, sharing personal experiences that left a lasting impression. His ability to connect with the students was remarkable, and his words truly inspired them. We were fortunate to have him speak, and I believe his influence will stay with our students for a long time’
Dan Stanley - Deputy Head, Dulwich College
Charlie Cannon
Specialism: Performance, Resilience and Health
Experience: Charlie is a much sought-after performance enhancement and resilience coach who has helped leaders, teams and organisations build personal and organisational resilience, enabling them to not only embrace change in an uncertain disruptive world, but also to sustain high levels of performance and to thrive. For the last fifteen years he has worked with some of the most well- known brands in the world, including, HSBC, PepsiCo, Tesco, BP, Roche, EBay, Airbus, The Metropolitan Police, Deloitte, Allen & Overy, Mars, Unilever, Uber, Manchester City Football club, The Soho House Group, Santander, Marks & Spencers, Amazon, and Monster.
As a schoolboy, Charlie dreamed of becoming a professional sportsman, playing rugby for England, hockey for West of England, and county cricket at age group level, but he struggled to perform under pressure, which started him on the journey to developing a growth mindset and building his own mental toughness. As a coach and trainer, Charlie draws upon his rich life experience and combines this with cutting edge research from science and psychology to give people practical tools and techniques that will help them enhance their performance and wellbeing. Prior to working in business Charlie was a successful health and fitness coach.