about us

Kevin Lawrence

Founder and Managing Director

Kevin is Managing Director of the Odyssey Group.
His unique style and insight has been instrumental in transforming and revolutionising the development functions and practices in major household known companies across the retail, insurance and construction service industries.

With a background in Operations, Sales Management, Service, PR & Communications and Human Resources, Kevin’s pragmatic understanding and commercial application of development theory and practice continues to add value across a broad range of businesses both nationally and internationally. Committed to eradicating the mediocrity he sees in the development industry, Kevin’s approach has been described as a ‘breath of fresh air’ by those he works with.

Kevin specialises in leadership and management development, change, executive team development and organisational development strategy.

Sarah Adams

Director

Sarah is a Director of the Odyssey Group and is totally committed to supporting individuals and teams in becoming ‘be the best they can be’.

With an operational background in the financial services and hospitality industries, Sarah’s no-nonsense and pragmatic approach continues to add value long after she has disengaged from the organisations she works with. As a leader, manager and coach Sarah has made a profound difference to the outlook, skills and careers of people at all levels by blending her wealth of experience with innovative development solutions.

Sarah has worked with Directors and Executive levels within all major professions and facilitated organisational and team development programs that have immediate and sustainable impact on performance by challenging and confronting the status quo.

Mark Aspinall

Director

Mark is a Director of the Odyssey Group and has over 23 years Organisational Development, Training and HR experience.

Having held a raft of leadership roles in both the public and private sectors in the UK and overseas, Mark is well placed to use his extensive experience coupled with his innate pragmatism to our clients’ benefit. Mark is a behavioral specialist and has worked with blue chip clients across the globe in the areas of leadership and management development, talent identification, development and management, coaching and organisational change. He has worked with a range of top teams; identifying needs, designing and delivering development solutions and evaluating hard commercial benefits.

Mark is committed to delivering high quality, high impact solutions that make a fundamental difference for the benefit of our clients at the individual, team and business level.

Michael Green

Senior Consultant

With a background in politics and consulting, Michael is Senior Consultant at Odyssey and has over 25 years’ experience working with the leaders of blue-chip organisations.

He effects significant and sustainable performance improvement through the implementation of fundamental behavioural change. Over the course of his career he has worked across a wide range of industries in Europe, North America and the Middle East. Additionally, he has experience in operational management and strategic change roles with a global financial services provider. In all these settings, he has demonstrated the ability to engage, to challenge and to mobilise clients – from the boardroom to the shop floor – in ways that result in their personal growth and development, as well as in the delivery of tangible benefits to their organisations.

Michael combines his academic background with this breadth of experience to help his clients to make genuine changes in the way they think, act and perform. An American national, Michael and his family have lived in England since 1989.

Andy Giles

Senior Consultant

With a background in both the public and private sectors Andy is one of our most versatile associate consultants.

With 20 years’ experience in development, including 10 years at senior management level, Andy has a unique perspective on the differences and similarities between public and private enterprise. A respected coach and facilitator, his specialist areas include team development, performance management, effective leadership, staff engagement and organisational development strategy.

Andy has a passion for developing people and helping them fulfil their potential. A strong believer that development is more effective if it is fun, his interactive and flexible style is characterised by the use of humour coupled with a hard business edge, and an emphasis on the practical application of skills whether at first line manager or executive board level.

Administration Team

Sue French - Office Manager

Sue is our very patient and understanding Office Manager whom we all rely on to ensure things happen!

Sue has significant experience in both the project management and administration of learning solution delivery and is currently supporting both single and multi- cultural development programmes for a range of clients based in the UK, France and US.

Sue has worked for the Odyssey Group since January 2005 prior to which she spent 11 years in learning and development functions of the NHS.

Denise Welling - Administrator

Dee is our office administrator and provides critical support for our marketing, programme management and client support activities. Dee’s background is in banking, travel and insurance, working in both front-line operational and development and training roles.

Albert Rossbacher

Associate

A talented and multi-lingual international associate who runs his own people development business in Switzerland.

Albert holds a degree in Business Administration and held a variety of senior positions in international companies before moving to training and coaching on an international level. In a training capacity he has been responsible for the evaluation, design and implementation of the training courses for a variety of companies, especially in the high-tech and service environment.

In addition to his expertise in leadership, management and team development, Albert has also works as a facilitator for cultural integration following mergers and acquisitions. Albert’s experience of line management functions, the training and coaching of leading personnel in a wide range of branches, as well as his communication skills, make him well placed to provide highly effective training solutions. Albert is a Swiss National and speaks German, French and English.

Henry Bak Zinglersen

Associate

A highly experienced associate consultant who works with us on high profile senior team development initiatives

Henry is based in based in Dubai, UAE. Since 1999 he has been serving as a trainer, facilitator, consultant, and executive coach, conducting high level client interventions. Henry has worked with senior executives, SVPs and VPs, business travellers, international assignees, as well as multinational teams and global departments in more than 60 countries throughout the Middle East and Africa, Europe, Asia/Pacific, North America, and Latin America.

Henry has worked with many prominent companies around the world such as AT&T, Bechtel, Carlsberg, Cisco Systems, Dell, E&Y, Godiva Chocolatier, Goldman Sachs, IBM, Lafarge, LEGO, Lenovo, NOKIA, Novo Nordisk, Saint-Gobain, Saudi Aramco, SONY, Standard Chartered Bank, Starbucks and Wal-Mart.

Julia Payne

Associate

Julia is one of our highest profile associates and is an internationally recognised expert on leadership, executive coaching and management development.

Julia specialises in the assessment and development of leaders ranging from first time managers to CEO’s. Julia has coached C-Suite and Senior Executives on developing key leadership skills within some of the world’s leading companies.

Her accomplishments and business acumen have not gone unnoticed. Julia is frequently quoted in the national press on leadership and business matters, including FT, The Times, The Telegraph, and The Guardian, together with numerous trade publications. She is a prolific writer, being extensively published in the field of leadership, high performance behaviours and development, strategy and implementation.

In addition, Julia is a highly sought-after speaker on leadership and business growth, presenting keynote speeches in the US, Europe and UAE. Julia has advised FTSE 100 companies, mid tier companies looking to enter the FTSE, owner managed companies, royal families, associations and governments on several continents.

Julia is a Board member of the International Institute of Leadership

Mitch Smith

Associate

An experienced business manager and people development consultant we are pleased to welcome Mitch to our team of high performance associates.

Mitch has a passion for development and for making change happen supported by 30 years’ experience in managing, designing and implementing change and business improvement solutions.

His success working in multi-functional and multi-cultural environments has been achieved by combining his business management acumen and experience with the application of appropriate management and development techniques. He has managed and led large teams, implemented 6 Sigma and Business Process Re-engineering projects and has an MA in Change Management as well as qualifications in Business Research, NLP, Program/Project Management and coaching.

Shirley Kavanagh

Associate

A highly experienced associate consultant who works with across a range of initiatives and high profile projects.

Shirley is a Masters graduate of Trinity College Dublin and an alumnus from a number of Business Schools including, IMD in Lausanne Switzerland, the University of Michigan and Harvard. During her career Shirley spent fifteen years in a number of senior Executive positions in AXA and was appointed as Executive Director at age 32, and appointed to the Board at 35. During this time she acquired extensive business experience and was responsible for Change and Strategy formulation and implementation for; the Irish Business, Business Unit Responsibility for Key delivery channels, Head of HR, Director of the Claims Business and Head of Underwriting. She was also responsible for leading an organisation wide transformational ‘Business Process Re-engineering Programme’.

Shirley now applies her practical experience in facilitating clients in the desig and implementation of strategic change through increasing leadership capability and improving senior executive effectiveness. She has extensive experience in the Financial, Pharmaceutical, Manufacturing and the Telecoms sectors. Her current Doctorate research is focused on ‘Accountability in Leadership’.

Simon Lingard

Associate

With a background in the Royal Artillery, mergers and acquisitions and consulting, Simon is one of our most experienced associate consultants.

A dynamic, innovative and focused manager with proven leadership skills, financial enterprise and commercial acumen, Simon is an effective motivator and facilitator with excellent interpersonal skills. Since joining the Training & Development Industry eleven years ago his effective communication, facilitation, presentation and interpersonal skills have been proven in his considerable international experience of large and small team leadership, management, sales, personal development and client consultancy work. He has provided strategic and operational development interventions that out-deliver against client needs and business objectives. He has also facilitated the implementation of strategic change at Board and Senior Management Level.

Wendy Mack

Associate

A consultant, speaker, coach, and trainer whose specialty is helping leaders engage, align, and motivate their employees.

I have collaborated with clients in the high-tech, non-profit, and government services industries to create tailored leadership, supervisory and management development programs. Additionally, I have designed and facilitated off-sites aimed at helping clients determine their strategic direction, identify goals, and improve teamwork and communication. As an experienced facilitator, I have also worked with numerous in-house trainers to improve their presentation and classroom management skills.

I hold an M.A. in Organizational Communication from the University of Maryland and a B.A. in Communication from Slippery Rock University and a member of the National Speakers Association, the International Association for Business Communicators, and the Society for Human Resource Management.