Belinda Kent-Lemon

Belinda founded Occam HR in 2001 with Gerald Kreinczes as an outplacement consultancy specialising in the communications sector. The company now helps leading communications agencies address issues relating to change, talent and motivation mostly through coaching, mentoring and outplacement. Belinda also works with clients in the public and third sectors and in other parts of the private sector often with or through other client companies.

Coming from a background in media and marketing, Belinda retrained at Master’s level, first in organisational behaviour and then HR consultancy. An accredited coach, she is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the Chartered Institute of Marketing and the Chartered Management Institute. She has worked full-time for ITV, Express Newspapers, NABS and Capital Radio, as well as leading projects and collaborating with all Occam HR’s clients on a diverse range of HR, coaching and engagement issues.

She has judged the Personnel Today Awards in the Employer Brand category, has worked as an HR consultant to both the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) and the Advertising Association, and taught on 4 different MSc units on a range of topics around Management Strategy, HR and Learning and Development.

Belinda is a member of the Institute of Directors and the Association for Coaching. She has an Honours Diploma in Communications, Advertising & Marketing, a BA in English & History from the University of Western Ontario and is qualified to use two different psychometric measures. Belinda has trained with the CEDR (Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution) is now an experienced mediator. She holds the CMI certificate in coaching and mentoring.

Gerald Kreinczes

Gerald was previously vice chairman of Ammirati Puris Lintas London, where he led the development of the integrated offering as well as overseeing the planning and media planning departments.

As well as his advertising and communications agency experience Gerald is also a qualified coach, working with his business partner, Belinda Kent-Lemon at Occam HR since its inception.

Whilst at Occam, Gerald has led projects in the public as well as the private sector. So, as well as research ‘spikes’ in ‘considered purchases’ (such as business-to-business, automotive and financial services) he has also conducted several projects for the Department of Health, Nest (an agency of the Department of Work and Pensions) and for the COI.

In the past, Gerald helped found KMM, the first London-based integrated communications company. His client experience includes five years at Nestlé and both quantitative and qualitative research experience at AGB and The Kreinczes Partnership, a qualitative research agency which he owned.

As chairman of Occam Insight Ltd, Gerald provides strategic guidance, business focus and management mentoring, together with research leadership for organisation change.

Consultants

Occam HR’s consultants have all held senior roles in client companies or in private, public or third sector organisations. This is a direct result of the close relationships we form with our clients.

Nick Briggs

Nick is course director for an MA in management at a London university. He has taken a lead role in developing a team of coach-tutors and a cohort of internal coaches at his university and has also run a unit in developing mentoring skills in the health service.

He is a graduate of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, a graduate member of the British Psychological Society, a chartered member of the CIPD and a Fellow of the CMI. He holds the CMI’s Chartered Manager award. He has degrees in physics and psychology and in 1995 he took a masters in applied psychology. He is now completing his dissertation for the award of a masters in coaching and mentoring, to add to his CMI certificate in management coaching and mentoring. Nick holds British Psychological Society type A and B accreditation to run selection and personality tests, and is qualified to run the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory.

For the last fifteen years he has developed his academic career mainly in the areas of leadership and management skills development. Previously, Nick held board level roles in a professional institute and in higher education. His current focus is on developing teams and individuals.

Consultants

Occam HR’s consultants have all held senior roles in client companies or in private, public or third sector organisations. This is a direct result of the close relationships we form with our clients.

Aliya Drabu

Aliya was Head of People at a major international communications group before becoming an HR consultant working for clients such as the Cabinet office and Saville & Holdsworth alongside her Occam HR work. She cites her greatest achievement there as having rolled out a global HR function from scratch.

Her responsibility is exceptionally broad and covers everything from learning & development, recruitment and employment law, to incentive & reward, people support and CPD accreditation.

Moreover, her background is almost as varied. In addition to HR experience in the communications sector, she has worked for an extremely high-profile dot.com, the BBC and two investment banking giants.

Aliya holds a BSc in Cognitive Science and an MSc in Occupational Psychology, and quotes psychology as being a deep ongoing interest. She is BPS level A and level B qualified, which means she can conduct a range of psychometric measures.

Consultants

Occam HR’s consultants have all held senior roles in client companies or in private, public or third sector organisations. This is a direct result of the close relationships we form with our clients.

Andrew Summers

Andrew is an independent management consultant, trainer and coach. Whilst his experience spans most sectors, his strength is the public arena. He has held managerial appointments or undertaken major consulting assignments in central and local government, the health service and the third sector. Andrew spent five years as Director of Personnel and Management Services for a large London Borough which followed six years’ senior level experience with a south-east county council.

Andrew also has a significant international public sector profile. As well as being a member of the Occam team, he is an Associate of RIPA International for whom he has led a number of management training events abroad. These include, in Nigeria, running an Enhancing the HR Function course in November 2009 for the Central Bank of Nigeria. In The Gulf during 2006, he undertook two management training assignments for managers of Qatar Petroleum. In Russia, he has contributed to a training for trainers course for participants from across the whole Federation.

He has also been a tutor on three Commonwealth Secretariat courses for senior public sector managers worldwide held in Southern Africa, the Caribbean and UK. For the latter, Andrew was the Director of Studies. Also with RIPA, he tutors regularly on their London-based courses for senior managers and personnel practitioners from a range of countries worldwide.

Andrew currently lectures on the MSc Human Resources and MPA courses at London South Bank University where he holds a half-time appointment. He is the Course Director for the Postgraduate Certificate in Local Governance for Councillors, one of the few university courses in the UK for serving politicians. He recently was part of an LSBU team training a Moscow University in the running of a public sector MBA.

Andrew currently acts as internal coach and mentor to other university staff and is expanding this area of his work into other spheres. He holds the CMI Certificate in Coaching and Mentoring, an MSc in Human Resource Development and is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Personnel and Development.

Consultants

Occam HR’s consultants have all held senior roles in client companies or in private, public or third sector organisations. This is a direct result of the close relationships we form with our clients.

Michael Frankenburg

Michael is an experienced consultant and practitioner for strategic employee engagement. He has a unique combination of original thought, practical experience and implementation know-how.

For the last 15 years, Michael has helped organisations to be competitive and focussed as they come to terms with their changing business environments. Michael has worked with public organisations as they became private companies. He has supported others move into different markets both through recession and times of great opportunity.

His particular interest is in the alignment between short-term motivation with the need for long-term strategy of responsibility to all stakeholder groups. He believes that lasting value is built from the inside-out and is based on the knowledge, emotion, intelligence and commitment already within any organisation.

Amongst others, Michael has worked with BT, BP, Transport for London, Scottish Power, Nestlé, GE Money, Cisco, IBM and Amex. He has extensive experience in working abroad, particularly across Europe.

His skills range from individual coaching, group training and event design to programme origination and project management. He also enjoys platform speaking on employee engagement, reputation and CSR as well as conducting in-house training and briefing sessions.

Michael has a degree in English and American Literature and began his professional life in the theatre and then conference production.

Consultants

Occam HR’s consultants have all held senior roles in client companies or in private, public or third sector organisations. This is a direct result of the close relationships we form with our clients.

Olivia Graham

Olivia is a coaching and business psychologist with a focus on performance and development.

She has considerable knowledge of the private sector, having run her own consultancy advising organisations on selection and development. Olivia has both public and private sector clients including McKinsey, KPMG, Grant Thornton, the Cabinet Office, National School of Government and London Business School.

Life-long learning is vital to Olivia: she returned to study as a mature student and now holds degrees from Durham (BA Hons Psychology) and Cardiff (MSc Occupational Psychology). In addition, she completed a two-year course on working with groups at The Tavistock and trained as a coach.

Olivia is a certified coach practitioner with Results Coaching Systems and Henley Management College, and regularly updates her skills through CPD. She holds the BPS level A and B Certificate of Competence in Occupational Testing and is an accredited user of many personality and ability questionnaires. She is a founder member of The Association of Business Psychologists (ABP) and The British Psychological Society’s Special Group in Coaching (BPS SGCP), and is a full member of The Association for Coaching (MAC).

Consultants

Occam HR’s consultants have all held senior roles in client companies or in private, public or third sector organisations. This is a direct result of the close relationships we form with our clients.

Julie Mimnagh

Julie brings over 16 years’ general HR experience to Occam HR, much of it with a major agency group.

As People & Development Director at Ogilvy & Mather, she led a team responsible for HR in Ogilvy & Mather Advertising and Ogilvy Public Relations, as well as compensation and benefits across the UK Ogilvy Group. Julie was a board director and member of senior management executive committee.

Julie’s professional achievements cover the full range of large-company HR disciplines at the highest level – from strategic HR, talent, performance and change management, to setting policies, practices and procedures, and compensation and benefits.

As you would expect, she has the drive and ability to move people strategy forward in line with key business objectives. Julie is adept, too, at working within a complex matrix structure and building strong relationships with key individuals.

She is also highly qualified. In addition to being a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, she holds an MSc in Human Resources, a BSc in psychology and a BEC National Certificate in Business Studies and Public Administration.

Consultants

Occam HR’s consultants have all held senior roles in client companies or in private, public or third sector organisations. This is a direct result of the close relationships we form with our clients.

Piers Myers

Piers is Senior Lecturer in HRM Strategy and Consulting at London South Bank University.

Piers’ research, writing and teaching interests centre on business psychology, leadership, HR strategy and organisational change. Before joining London South Bank University in 2001, he was a management consultant and coach, and he continues to undertake selected consultancy and coaching projects.

Piers has also worked as a psychotherapist, in the computing industry and in social work. He has degrees in mathematics from Oxford and Princeton Universities, and an MA in psychotherapy and counselling from City University. He is lead author of a forthcoming textbook on leading and managing change to be published by Oxford University Press.

Consultants

Occam HR’s consultants have all held senior roles in client companies or in private, public or third sector organisations. This is a direct result of the close relationships we form with our clients.

Cathy Little

Cathy’s HR background spans nearly 20 years. She has always worked in creative industries where the talent is expected to be unorthodox, opinionated, unusual... and therefore all the more fascinating. Specifically, Cathy has had stints at the BBC, EMI Records and Sotheby’s.

She is co-Director of Talent at JWT and works as a consultant across the HR and talent management spectrum. Recent projects include the design and launch of performance management systems and mentoring schemes.

Cathy is a member of the CIPD, BPS Level A and B qualified and about to start an MSc in People and Organisational Development on a WACL scholarship for future leaders. She is an experienced psychometrics practitioner and is up-to-date with fast-moving developments in employment law and how these affect employers.

Consultants

Occam HR’s consultants have all held senior roles in client companies or in private, public or third sector organisations. This is a direct result of the close relationships we form with our clients.

Melissa Kidd

Melissa is a highly experienced coach who specialises in working with creative professionals. Her favourite quote is, “Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller-skates. There’s plenty of movement but you never know if it’s going forwards, backwards or sideways.”

Melissa works with creatives to find out what’s in their way and collaboratively works out ways to move forward (ensuring all of their skates are pointing in the same direction). Common themes that emerge in her sessions are plugging leaky confidence especially when networking, pitching or making sales calls. Improving relationships with colleagues and clients and managing time effectively are also popular.

Melissa is known for her ability to motivate and inspire others. As one client put it, “She’s engaging, interesting and fun. Her natural enthusiasm and energy is infectious and I’m so much more effective having worked with her.”

With a background in marketing, PR and copywriting, she’s worked both agency and client side. She trained as a coach with the International Coaching Federation-accredited Coaching Development. She is a NLP master practitioner and an associate member of the Association for Coaching.

Michelle Cossavella

Michelle looks after Occam HR’s financial affairs alongside those of Occam Insight and several other creative-sector companies. She joined the Occam companies initially as a client, having left Ogilvy Advertising after ten years as Treasury Manager. Michelle is CIMA qualified and has a BTEC in Business and Finance.

Miranda Pleqi

Miranda is a part-qualified accountant who supports the organisational side of Occam HR. Not only does she help ensure our office administration runs smoothly but that clients receive value for money and we make a profit. Miranda’s background is as a maths teacher; she completes her ACCA exams in December 2009.

Consultants

Occam HR’s consultants have all held senior roles in client companies or in private, public or third sector organisations. This is a direct result of the close relationships we form with our clients.

Emily Stokes Hotchkiss

With a degree in Russian and German, Emily realised there was no obvious career path ahead and spent the first few years of her working life adventuring around Europe before settling down to a career in strategic brand planning at Publicis, Rapier, Wunderman, McCann Erickson and St Luke’s.

After a decade spent developing the potential of brands, Emily wondered if she could use her skills to develop the potential of people. She went on to train as a coach and workshop facilitator and now enjoys using her skills in communication and creativity to deliver training workshops and coaching within the communications industry.

Emily is an experienced coach and trainer who combines her business background, psychological training and coaching skills to support her clients in thinking creatively in order to solve business problems and to perform at their peak. Her coaching style has been described as intelligent, energetic and collaborative.

As well as a BA from Oxford University, Emily is qualified in two psychometric instruments (Emergenetics and DISC) and is an associate member of the Association for Coaching.