Ian Fairbairn
Ian Fairbairn is a process consultant experienced in many areas including research and business transformation. He also works on the creation of new materials and competence development programmes.
Ian is from Cornwall but has forgotten why!
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Mark Grimshaw
Mark Grimshaw has worked in both a dealer and manufacturing environment. Travelling worldwide and working with both agricultural and construction equipment, he gained a great deal of experience in areas such as training, sales & marketing & dealer development. Mark runs a number of senior management programmes as well as specialising in sales, service and parts development.
Mark is originally from the West Country and as a result likes to hunt cheese in moon-lit ponds!
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Graham Walker
Graham Walker joined VFM in 2001 as a space odyssey. He spent his career in Agriculture at both dealer and manufacturer level working from Apprentice Mechanic up to General and Depot Management.
Graham works internationally helping to develop sales strategy and all aspects of sales training and development. He also runs senior management programmes with emphasis on managing people.
Although he is from Yorkshire he once spent some money.
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Jon Kerley
Jon Kerley worked in the parts division(s) of both major manufacturers and dealers for 20 years prior to joining VFM over 10 years ago. In his time with VFM he has designed and delivered a wide range of Management and Aftersales training courses to clients all over the world.
Jon is an avid Sheffield United fan and will, if asked nicely, teach you the “Greasy Chip Butty” song.
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Geoff Heney
Geoff Heney has a wide experience in the sales and service support of wheeled and tracked Capital Equipment, principally in the waste and environment industries, being involved in both the private and public sectors.
Geoff has travelled extensively and been central to the start up and establishment of U.K. divisions for overseas companies.
Geoff was born in Ireland, brought up in England and now lives in Wales. He has great difficulty knowing who to support during international rugby season!
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Maureen Fairbairn
Maureen Fairbairn is our administration manager and is responsible for handling our logistical and administrative functions. She is central to the success of many of our projects.
Maureen is originally from Oldham and as a result has a problem saying ‘purple’ properly!
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Carolina Martinez Pitarch
Carolina Martinez Pitarch started her career with financial responsibilities in a Spanish IT company followed by multinational software sales.
After starting an automotive training business and working for some of the main European brands, Carolina opened VFM Spain and has been dedicated to sales and aftersales consultancy and training.
Carolina is from Madrid and is slowly teaching us to speak English!
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Dominic Clifford
Dominic Clifford began his career as an apprentice at Massey Ferguson Tractors. He travelled extensively across Europe, Africa and Asia in a sales role before transferring back to head office as a marketing manager within the Parts Company. Dominic’s next step was to the Motorcycle Industry & spent 7 years at Triumph as General Manager of their Accessory Division.
Dominic is a freeman of the city of Coventry and therefore has the right to graze sheep on the common land!
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Joanne Walton
Joanne Walton is a hugely committed learning and development professional with a passion for high quality standards in everything she does. With 17 years’ experience in a fast moving automotive retail sector, Joanne has used her performance management and quality expertise to systematically develop her clients’ business.
Joanne’s keen interest in circuit training, horse-riding, gardening, travel and family keep her busy when she is not in work.
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Craig Ross
Craig Ross graduated with BA Honours in Recreation Management and also attained a Post Graduate Diploma in Outdoor Education from Edinburgh University.
He has delivered outdoor learning programmes worldwide in his capacity as both a trainer and team leader before forming his own company in 1997.
Craig participates in a range of outdoor pursuits and supports his local football team, Hibernian FC.
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Daniele Trevisan
Daniele Trevisan has worked as a marketing executive in the international retail business of branded consumer goods, automotive and agriculture machinery industries.
Based in Switzerland, he has cooperated in many European projects with the industry’s leading companies. With a focus on the areas of management, finance and sales, he considers training and coaching people in a multicultural environment to be his preferred challenge.
On request, Daniele speaks English with a German, French, Italian or Swiss accent!
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Jan Verkerke
Jan Verkerke began his career with a US-based consultancy company. After returning to The Netherlands, he held various international management positions in marketing, sales, and general management. Jan has worked internationally with companies in many industries and also works as a freelance lecturer, examiner and trainer at various institutes. Jan is fluent in Dutch, English, French and German and conversant in Spanish.
His motto: “Always look at the total picture!”
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Neil Elsender
Neil has extensive experience in effective dealership management. He has held both depot and group management positions and has experience in agriculture, commercial vehicles and the automotive sector. Neil’s area of specialisation is all matters aftersales. His hands on experience of running group service and parts departments means he understands the real issues associated with delivering highly effective levels of customer service, while maintaining excellent levels of sales and profitability.
Neil likes to run but we think he’s just compensating for his passion for real ale!
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Mark Fairbairn
With a lifelong love for the moving image, Mark graduated university and went on to supply VFM with a multimedia service providing 3D, video, audio, photographic and interactive material. This expertise has been used for conferencing & events, training videos, e-learning and product promotion.
VFM’s multimedia division pride themselves on pushing the barriers of creativity.
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Sue Vogan
As an ex-human resources director for a major UK retailer, Sue provides us and our clients with expertise in employment law, recruitment and selection and other HR matters. Sue’s excellent ability to both coach and train in these areas has benefited many of our clients to date. Sue also assists our clients by producing tailored company personnel procedures manuals.
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Vicky Thelwell
Vicky’s area of expertise centres on project management. After graduation Vicky gained experience working for a consultancy organisation developing and delivering global corporate projects. Vicky has added value to both VFM and our client base by using her skills on internal and external consultancy projects.
Apart from being a dedicated mother of two, Vicky enjoys making lists!
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Jamie Miller
Jamie has extensive experience in outdoor, experiential learning and management / leadership training. He has worked in multi-cultural contexts and various parts of the world such as South Africa, Kenya and India. Jamie, with his qualifications in the field of occupational psychology, has applied these experiences to provide training and development that are of benefit to both the individual and organisation.
Jamie takes a pragmatic approach to work based problems and his solutions always have a robust theoretical underpinning.
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James McLaren
James joined VFM Associates in 2002 as a specialist Associate providing expertise in the design, management and hosting of outdoor learning events.
An experienced farm and property / land manager with specialist skills in conference management, outdoor learning and facilitation, James provides VFM Associates and their clients with first class facilities, planning and execution of learning events.
James always gets a ‘thumbs up’ from our clients.
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Michael Tattersall
Mike was a member of the English U16 Kayak team from where he discovered and developed his love of the outdoors. Mike graduated in 2004 with an honours degree in Mathematics but was destined instead to find employment in delivering outdoor learning. Mike’s client responsibilities within VFM include specific responsibility for the safety of clients participating in outdoor learning courses delivered from Shielbrae and other venues.
Beware that you don’t get caught out by Mike’s very dry sense of humour!
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Clive Naylor
was brought up on a farm in the Midlands and joined the farming business after leaving full time education; he later started and ran a successful haulage company which he sold after 10 years. Clive then began a career in sales which included several years with a major truck manufacturer in sales and dealer development.
After forty years Clive has still not broken the farming habit and continues to run the family farm in his spare time, if anyone knows of the farming equivalent of alcoholics anonymous Clive would welcome the information…
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