QUALIFICATIONS BSc (Hons) Applied Biology; Cambridge CELTA & Cambridge DELTA INTERNATIONAL TRAINING EXPERIENCE Mexico, Spain, Czech Republic, Colombia, England, Malaysia, Sri Lanka PREVIOUS CLIENTS INCLUDE HSBC, United Nations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Exxon Mobil, Hilton Hotels PASSION Facilitating a great learning experience

EXPERIENCE
As Manager of the Professional Training Centre, Jim is responsible for the planning of all corporate training by the British Council in Sri Lanka. He has been delivering English for Business and Business skills training since 2003. Most recently; he was the Assistant Director Corporate Training for British Council Malaysia and a lecturer in Academic English at Exeter University in England.

He was responsible for the Business English and soft skills training at many high profile companies in Kuala Lumpur as well as for various Teacher Training Programmes.

Jim is very passionate about writing new materials and is responsible for course design and customisation work at the Professional Training Centre. He was also the lead materials writer and coordinator in Latin America for a British Council global project.

As a soft skills trainer, Jim specialises in teaching Interpersonal Communications Skills courses to private and public sector clients. Jim has conducted courses for clients such as Exxon Mobil, HSBC and the World Health Organisation. As an experienced IELTS and Cambridge University ESOL examiner, Jim also has expertise in delivering exam preparation courses, and has run IELTS workshops in several countries.

QUALIFICATIONS 1988 HNC, HND Site Engineer, Construction (UK) 1996 MBA, (AMBA Member) OU Business School (UK) 1997 MCIM, Member, Chartered Institute of Marketing (UK) FRSA, Fellow, Royal Society for Education in Arts, Manufacturing and Commerce (UK) DipMMIS, Manufacturing Management & Information Systems

1998
MIMIS, Institute of Management Information Systems

2004
CerTESOL, English Language Teacher to Speakers of Other Languages (Trinity, UK)

2007
CAICT, Certified Advanced Intercultural Trainer and Examiner,
CI-CD, London, UK

2008
Development Dimensions International (DDI),
Certified Facilitator, UK
Eagles Flight, Certified Facilitator, Canada

2011 pending
FCIPD, Fellow,
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, UK

With 30 years of global management experience, Mark has facilitated training programmes for the last 10 years across the world. Prior to Sri Lanka, he was in the UAE, then India, where he was recognised with a Gold Training Award by Microsoft (Global Sales Marketing Service Group) for excellence in training delivery and design in International Customer Relationship Management.

Having worked with many of the top 100 organisations throughout the world, including The Islamic Development Bank, World Bank, Ernst & Young, Nomura Bank, Citigroup, British Telecom, Infosys and many more at a consultative level, Mark has a strong ability to help people to become more influential and effective in their communication and collaboration with colleagues, peers, partners and customers across the globe and locally.

He has implemented people profiling for project objectives, including training design, delivery, coaching and mentoring, has collaborated with clients, vendors and end users to map training requirements to project duration. His background also includes project management and train the trainer programmes delivered to culturally diverse teams, from middle to board management levels.

Mark’s solid practical experience is backed by excellent academics: MBA (OU Business School UK), Chartered Marketer and Fellowship with the RSA to Certified Teacher/Trainer with Trinity (UK) and the Association of Advanced Intercultural Training (where he is also published), supported with UK diplomas in Managing People, Manufacturing Management, Creative Management, Corporate Finance, and Human Resources. Mark is also a certified DDI & Eagles Flight facilitator.

Mark brings the theories of management practices into everyday practical use from using effective communication to managing, monitoring and controlling activities for a positive outcome, delivering effective training, coaching and mentoring to individuals and teams to support the process.

QUALIFICATIONS 1983 M.A. Philosophy, Politics & Economics Oxford University UK 2001 M.B.A. (International Business) Middlesex University UK 2005 CELTA ITTC, Bournemouth UK

EXPERIENCE
Following university Geoff worked as an investment manager at Lazard Bros. in London. After completing his M.B.A. he worked as a management consultant advising companies on their international operations.

He started work as a university lecturer at Bristol Business School in 1991 lecturing in International Business at both M.B.A. and B.A. levels. His main research area was the operations of multinationals in India.

In addition, he was responsible for in-company M.B.A.’s and management training at companies such as Unilever, Rolls-Royce, Hewlett-Packard, British Aerospace, British Telecom and Ford-Mahindra. He has also lectured and trained at Business Schools in India, France, Holland, the Czech Republic, Germany and Sweden.

Since 2005 he has been a professional trainer in the U.K. delivering courses in Cross-Cultural Communication, Negotiations, Presentation Skills, Business English and Marketing/Public Relations for corporate clients from 20 different countries. He arrived in Colombo in October 2008.

Geoff has been to India 30 times and when he is not travelling around South Asia he enjoys juggling, playing tennis and writing history.

QUALIFICATIONS 2009 – Present Studying for Masters in ELT and Materials Development from Leeds MeT University, UK 2007 DELTA - Diploma in Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Adults – International House, Budapest, Hungary 2006 CELTYL - Certificate in Teaching Young Learners, British Council

1996
Certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Adults, LI, Toronto,  Canada.

1995
Master of Business Administration (Marketing) – Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada.

1991
BA in International Relations and Studio Art, Wheaton College, Massachussetts, USA.  (Award: Miriam Carpenter Prize in Painting).

EXPERIENCE
Akeela started teaching English as a second language at the British Council, Colombo in 1998. She has been involved in a variety of teaching platforms ranging from very young learners to adults in General English.  She has also been a Cambridge Examiner, Teacher Trainer and Line Manager of teachers at the British Council.      

Akeela’s strengths lie in her understanding of the needs of the Sri Lankan learner (built through years of teaching Sri Lankans at the British Council), her broad range of teaching techniques (accumulated through delivering to a range of customer types and needs) put together with her educational background in business management.  

Outside work, Akeela is constantly busy trying to coordinate her two childrens’ lives in and out of school and whenever possible, tries to squeeze in a bit of physical activity.  Reading books, watching movies, shopping and meeting up with friends are luxuries she looks forward to.