The Team

Simon Toy, Managing Director and Senior Consultant

Simon has sold, trained, and managed salespeople in UK blue-chip organisations. He has also recruited and trained sales forces in Eastern Europe for an international security company and in the UK for a small IT company.

His passion for performance psychology was born out of his involvement in national level sport (don't ask him which sports please), where he realised the key role of attitude in achieving superior performance.

His mum thinks he's great and so do his kids.

Margaret Potter, Sales & Marketing Director

Following a mad-cap career within the pharmaceutical industry, from being at the coal face, to selecting the miners to leading the troops on a national level, Margaret joined Performance Associates in 2002.

She is passionate about performance and success through motivated, committed, happy employees.

She specialises in tripping potential clients up whilst Simon sits on them, or vice-versa.

Gareth Bloomfield, Director

Gareth has raced for GB at the world indoor rowing championships in Boston, seen active service as an officer in the Royal Marines and served as a Police Detective with Hampshire Constabulary. What he recognised in these very different environments was how attitudes and beliefs were every bit as important as technique, fitness, knowledge and skills in driving his and other peoples' performance.

Gareth says that meeting Simon Toy, 'the mind and soul behind Performance Associates PA' changed his life.....literally! Within two years of that fateful day and after some intense training, he found himself delivering Performance Associates performance psychology workshops around the world and taking his Masters in Experimental Psychology. Now well on his way to finishing a PsychD with the NHS, learning to be a clinical psychologist, Gareth says it has been a fascinating journey and keeps alive his dreams of opening up new opportunities for himself and those he comes into contact with.

Rob Kemp, Associate

Rob is qualified by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) as a Coach and Mentor and has a wealth of experience gained over twenty years working as a leader within large and small organisations. Since 2006 Rob had gained experienced working in a wide range of sectors as a coach, trainer and consultant. Rob values Coaching as a way to increase performance in any walk of life; a way to help individuals set meaningful goals, which are relevant for their context, and take positive action towards them - and by doing so achieving success in their chosen area.

Alison Smith, Associate

Alison is a versatile and experienced development professional and coach with expertise in a wide range of leadership and management capabilities. Alison is passionate about working with others to develop their capabilities to deliver results.

With a background in operational management and HR she is able to bring a commercial perspective to the topic in hand.  Her keen sense of humour, challenging, enthusiastic and dynamic approach to development make her in demand as both a facilitator and coach.  portfolio includes working with individuals and teams on a variety of topics including leadership, emotional intelligence, people management, team development, transitioning to new roles, bottom line results, personal presence and impact, change/transformation management to name but a few. 

Alison is a full Chartered Member of the CIPD and is qualified in a range of psychometric tools, including the Hay Leadership Styles and Emotional Intelligence Inventories, along with MBTI, OPQ and NEO to name but a few. 
 

Adam Knights, Associate

Adam runs a successful Healthcare company that act as brokerage between the NHS and Pharma. His background is ex military and as a results deploys advance key account methodologies.

Specialising in Sales performance and Account management his passion is the continual development of Companies through strategic alliance.
Adam believes fundamentally believes there is a 'third way' with customer interaction.

He also has a penchant for potential and the limitless possibilities that this offers.

Andrew Jackson, Associate

 Another Performance Psychology nut, Andy is in his element when helping people improve performance and achieve more - for both themselves and others.  His time in the Military (Army), as a Health & Fitness Professional and as a Project Manager working for the UN Mine Action Programme has given him incredible breadth of experience in high performance environments* which,  when coupled with a passion for learning, development and those little jelly beans you sometimes get in conference suites, makes for a powerful and engaging presenter.

*The only occasion you will find the 'UN' and 'High Performance' in the same sentence!

Amanda Bickerton, Associate

Amanda initially spent 7 years in the NHS progressing to Senior Technician specialising in paediatrics.

She then spent 21 years in the Pharmaceutical industry firstly as a Representative then progressing to Regional Trainer followed by promotion to Field Training Manager with responsibility for the Training Team and delivery of initial and ongoing training for the Field Force.

In the last year she has worked as a consultant, coach and trainer helping her clients, both organisations and individuals to maximise their potential and to achieve results beyond their expectations.

Darren Broad, Associate

Darren has been delivering management training for the past 12 years across many different industries, working with Directors, Senior Managers and Sales team to improve personal performance. His involvement in many sports has lead him to use the psychology that top athletes use to excel in their sport and transfer it into a business context. Having delivered programmes on a global level Darren is passionate about making a difference with every group he delivers to.

Tony Derbyshire, Associate

Tony believes that optimist, attitude and a desire to achieve is the recipe to success. However he also believes that you must not overlook that the corporate world today is a fiercely competitive environment and work life balance must be understood and pursued to enjoy and continue in your success.

Tony doesn't just talk the talk he walks (well mostly runs) the walk, after serving for almost a decade as a Royal Marine Commando, designing and delivering training for many blue chip organisations around the world, at 44 some of us think he should be happy with his achievements, not Tony. In 2010 he will be competing in the Austrian Ironman. Some say he is having a mid-life crisis but normally not to his face.

Mark Woodhouse, Associate

Mark Woodhouse is an experienced consultant, trainer & coach and an associate of Performance Associates. 

Mark served twelve years in the British Army attaining key positions as a Staff Tutor and Training Development Analyst with the Army Physical Training Corps (APTC). He also gained a first class honours in Sport Science whilst in the Army. After leaving the military he held the position of Area Training Manager and Programme Director with Premier Training International.

Ben Harris, Associate

As a consultant, Ben works with individuals and organizations on career
development, performance management and strategic organizational issues
to support individual and business goals.

He has extensive experience designing and facilitating training on topics such as career development, coaching, project management, diversity, interpersonal communication, interviewing skills, conflict management and strategic negotiation. 

With 20+ years of experience in the field of training and development for profit and non-profit organizations.  He is a member of the American Society for Training and Development, the Human Resource Management Association of Chicago, the Association for Experiential Education and the International Society for Performance Improvement.  Ben Harris holds a Master's of Education in Adult and Corporate Instructional Management from Loyola University.