Who are we?
Diana Barden
CEO & Director of Learning Experience
Diana, our CEO and Director of Learning Experience, has decades of experience in learning, from Teaching English as a Foreign Language through to developing managers and leaders at all levels through facilitation and coaching. With us since the very start in 2004, she’s highly skilled in helping people gain confidence, no matter what their starting point along the coaching and training skills journey.
People really matter to Diana. She harnesses the Identity of Self to help our learners to recognise and reinforce the importance of their contributions.
When Diana isn’t working, she can be found paddling with her fellow Pink Champagne Breast Cancer Survivors in and around Christchurch Harbour on the south coast.
Paula Tasker
Director of Client Relationships
Paula is our Director of Client Relationships. She’s been with us since the beginning working with ML&C’s clients to develop and support strong-lasting client relationships.
Paula has a strong insurance, broking and finance background which moved into managing, training, and developing leadership teams. She is also an ILM qualified coach, and has experience coaching leadership teams.
She lived in Canada for a few years where she raised her family and worked in the community on the Board of Revelstoke Childcare Association and Relay for Life Cancer Charity.
In her own time, Paula can be found travelling and walking her dogs in and around the South Downs National Park.
Sharon Axcell
Senior Consultant
With 30 years of global experience, Sharon is a Project Management expert dedicated to making this essential skillset accessible to all. Having led major initiatives across the UK, US, and Europe, she now empowers busy professionals—from chefs to researchers—to master project fundamentals without the jargon.
Sharon’s approach centres on complexity reduction. She specialises in distilling intricate corporate methods into clear, replicable tools that students can immediately apply to their specific industries. Her goal is to move management from a “daunting task” to a streamlined, motivating part of her students’ daily workflows.
A qualified business coach with an MBA and two Master’s degrees, Sharon blends elite academic theory with “on-the-ground” practicality. Her diverse background in film and property ensures she speaks the language of various sectors, making her a uniquely adaptable mentor for anyone balancing a demanding career with new learning.
Sue Blow
Senior Consultant
Sue has a complex skill set, and helps clients to grow their management, leadership, and interpersonal skills. She has considerable research experience, a wide knowledge of industries and sectors and the ability to deliver information and support learning in a practical, enjoyable way. She has a master’s degree in Coaching and a special interest in creative thinking and problem-solving support.
As a learning and development advisor Sue is committed to continuing professional development. She has a master’s degree in coaching and mentoring practice and a postgraduate certificate of coaching supervision (distinction); the first academically accredited supervisory qualification in Europe. Sue has also worked as a lecturer for the Open University Business School and was tutor for key Management Diploma modules.
Outside of work Sue can be found cold-water swimming or creating something with textiles (upholstery).
Julie Foster
Senior Consultant
After 25 years Equality and Diversity management, 17 years in Police, Julie is a specialist in helping organisations to repair psychological contracts with employees following grievances, through bespoke coaching programmes.
She concentrates on developing and delivering training to staff at all levels of organisations, both public and private sector. During her 15+ years as a business owner, she also delivers high-level coaching programmes to both self-financing individuals and in the corporate world. She also works within an NHS Trust part-time.
Karl White
Senior Consultant
Karl’s background is in Learning & Development (Assoc. Member CIPD). He has been designing and delivering training and learning experiences since the early 1990s. These have ranged from coaching new trainers, developing training standards and implementation strategies for bespoke IT systems, commissioning and delivering Lean/Six Sigma training for commercial organisations and rolling out Agile methodology for IT teams.
He has also managed an IT delivery team for several years, using agile methodologies to manage a high-volume pipeline. He is Prince 2 Foundation certified. Karl has worked with global and regional directors, guiding and preparing them to initiate process improvement and facilitating their process workshops. He has also trained global senior management on processes and coached senior management and projects mangers running process design/improvement and Agile.
As well as training, coaching and facilitation he has extensive experience working in process improvement, having worked with both P&O and Maersk directors with standardising global processes. Karl has delivered training throughout Europe, the Middle East, India, China, Malasia, North, Central & South America.
Peter Black
Senior Consultant
Peter worked for Barclays Bank International for 16 years. He had a wide range of roles in the City of London and ultimately led a team of 15 carrying out compliance audits across Europe. During this time he spent time in the dealing rooms in London, Paris, Frankfurt and Milan. Peter subsequently managed an operational branch in Luton of more than 60 people.
His next role involved a move into Corporate Finance, leading sales teams in a variety of locations and responsible for achieving ambitious sales targets. Changes within the bank meant that Peter then had to lead the team and sustain motivation through a major restructuring programme.
Peter switched into the training world to provide a broad range of commercial training with a specific interest in Financial Awareness where he now concentrates.
Lisa Reynolds
Lisa is our Business Manager and manages the business and the systems underpinning it. With 30 years of business experience including running two business of her own, her past work has included managing prestigious 4 star hotels, managing sales for a medical company, working in the oil industry, with expertise in customer service, department and system set-up, office setup up and admin, and handling everything from suppliers, couriers and warehouses to celebrities.