About e-coaches
Dr Clare Howard, PhD, FRSA
Profile
Clare is an experienced and flexible executive coach and consultant. She has broad experience developed over two decades working with individuals, teams, and senior management to improve effectiveness in delivering results, across many different corporate and international cultures.
Actively involved in the development of performance support for her many clients across a full range of learning delivery channels, Clare’s current primary investment is internet-focused, in the arena of online learning and development – e-coaching. Within this, she emphasises the training of the e-coach. Her understanding of the political dynamics of corporate teams, especially the interactions of often-conflicting personality preferences, has enabled her to develop a unique approach to individually targeted e-learning.
Starting out in research – studying Florentine entrepreneurial banking families and their own, pre-Renaissance, worldwide webs! – Clare has forged a career that has spanned consulting, training and facilitation, translation, adult education, project management, and user information engineering.
In addition to her corporate consulting practice, Clare is actively involved in international initiatives to support the development of women. She is President of FEMVISION, a lobbying and influence group involved in promoting women’s entrepreneurship and leadership styles. She was lead facilitator for the seminars ‘Looking at the World through Women’s Eyes’, and has participated in and led FEMVISION sessions in Spain, Sweden, Panama, Uganda, and South Africa.
For a change of scenery, she has spent the last couple of years managing a multicultural team of plumbers, builders, and electricians, in renovating a 200-year-old house in Provence. Clare is working to turn the house into an alternative space for friends, clients, and guests to take time out of their usual environment to reflect on their dreams and goals, and to start living the life they have imagined. (See www.chateaucolombier.com for more information.)
Qualifications
- PhD, History, Keele University (1986); BA Jt Hons, French and History, 2:1, Keele University (1976)
- Software Documentation and Technical Writing Diploma, Dist. (1986)
- CGLI Further and Adult Education Teaching Certificate, Dist. (1986)
- fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts (RSA)
- member of the British Association for Psychological Type (BAPT)
- qualified in a range of psychometric and diagnostic support instruments, including the MBTI, Firo-B, 16PF, FLEXtalk, FLEXTeam, Strategic Leadership, and Emotional Intelligence
Howard Hills, BA, FCIPD
Profile
Howard has a technical background, and has brought to e-coaches his strong focus on the mechanics of organisational learning. He believes that an understanding of the cultures and management styles required to support e-learning can allow team development to flourish: too much e-learning is wasted because insufficient attention is paid to the non-technical aspects of implementation.
He is the author of Team-based Learning, on which his successful team merging workshop is founded, and Individual Preferences in e-learning, which presents conclusions from research into links between personality preferences and e-learning activities. The experience he has gained throughout a career spent training and learning in a range of organizations, from financial services to the Royal Navy, allows him to coach corporate teams effectively, helping them develop both team-working skills and technological expertise.
Howard is a member of the advisory board – and occasional tutor – for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s Certificate courses in Online Learning. He runs one-day events on collaborative decision making, embedding e-learning, integrating teams with technology, and e-learning performance; he has also directed – and managed the development of – a large number of e-learning projects, from initial feasibility studies to final implementation.
Sam Knowles, MA, BA, ATCL
Profile
Sam is a part-time copy editor and researcher for Clare Howard Consultants, Ltd, and e-coaches. A current postgraduate student of literature at the University of Leeds, Sam divides his time (and love of the semicolon) between academic and professional work; he has been involved with the company, on and off, since mid-2005.
Sam’s academic interests lie in the field of postcolonial, migratory, and diasporic literature, with his proposed PhD thesis focusing on the questions of identity raised – and the expressions of self presented – in relocating to another country. This understanding of issues of translation and representation helps him in tailoring the e-coaches material to a culturally diverse audience of corporate and individual clients.
Having spent 4 months teaching English as a second language, and two summers working in an organising capacity at an international summer school, he has a certain amount of experience of a coaching and learning environment. Also, with numerous friends and relatives in the educational sector, there's always someone to tell him when he forgets this and lets a poetic turn of phrase get the better of him!
Qualifications
- MA, Postcolonial Literary and Cultural Studies, Distinction, University of Leeds (2007); BA Hons, English, 1st, University of Cambridge (2005)
- Teaching Skills Course, Birkbeck College, London (2002)
- Associate in Clarinet Performance, Trinity College London (2001)
Dominic Baggott
Profile
Dominic is the e-coaches technological nerve centre: looking after the general user experience, he is also in charge of the design, branding, and development of e-coaches and its various products. He does his best to implement the company’s grand plans, while taking incessant surface modifications in his stride!
Studying at City University in London, Dominic also juggles his work for e-coaches with full-time employment in a technical capacity at icom Ltd. Among other roles at icom, he is currently overseeing development of the i-Portfolio, a web-based careers, learning, and lifestyle site for young adults.
With several years’ experience in the industry, Dominic’s various commitments are rooted in the e-coaches ethos of understanding a user’s needs in order to enable education, information transfer, and personal development to be as effective as possible.
Ash Berlin
Profile
Ash is the e-coaches programming contractor, implementing and integrating the software used by the company. In addition to writing and programming work, Ash is responsible for maintaining the smooth running of the various e-coaches computer systems.
Graduating from the University of Bristol in 2005 with a Master’s in Computer Science, Ash first got involved with e-coaches in a programming capacity. His background in the software development industry, however, means that he also occasionally gets involved with certain aspects of web design and the e-coaches user experience.