Introducing the team who make it all happen.
Founder and CEO
Chief Operating Officer
Non-Executive Finance Director
Head of Client Services
Head of Communications
Head of Partnerships & Collaborations
Operations – EMEA Logistics
US Logistics
Our dedicated global network of experienced expert trainers from the field of communications.
The founder and CEO of Working Voices, Nick Smallman has been at the top of his profession for 25 years. Advising global blue-chip clients on engagement, productivity, and retention, he counsels leaders on increasing revenue via simple cultural adjustments.
Overseeing the successful expansion of Working Voices across the UK, the US, Asia, and the Middle East, Nick supports the leadership and communication capabilities of clients in a wide range of sectors. In particular, he has advised companies such as JP Morgan, Barclays, Sony, Nomura, M&S, and Blackrock for more than 15 years.
Developing his reputation for thought leadership, in recent years Nick has been leading work on The Sustainable Human, the subject of his forthcoming book. A concept unique to Working Voices, The Sustainable Human offers a package of solutions focusing on leadership enablement, future skills, and cultural harmony.
Working closely with HR specialist Mercer, Nick has developed solutions to four key modern workplace challenges:
“I’m excited to share the conclusions of three years of research that, if implemented, can make an immediate practical difference to leaders and their organisations.”
In June 2023 Lara added the senior board role of COO to her existing responsibilities for all of Working Voices' worldwide Sales & Marketing activities.
Lara's career started in The City with companies in the Investment Banking, Financial Services and Insurance fields (including Goldman Sachs and Prudential). Working with such multinational companies gave Lara early insights into what drives modern global businesses and encouraged her to seek opportunities to use what she had learned in smaller, growing businesses.
Before becoming part of the Working Voices' team, Lara established and developed her own events’ management operation serving major global clients such as Avon Cosmetics, Nike, The Body Shop and Bear Stearns. In 2011 Lara moved to Working Voices to use her entrepreneurial, marketing and business development skills in a young, exciting and growing operation.
In the last 14 years Lara has been responsible for developing marketing strategies, business plans, products, service offerings and a global CRM system, giving the company direct representation in the UK, across the United States and APAC. In these regions, due to Lara and her team's efforts, WV now have many of the world's top financial powerhouses as firmly-established clients, who rely on WV to provide all or some of their management and staff training.
Lara's role in overseeing all WV's marketing campaigns, her management of the entire WV support staff team and her recruitment and development of qualified and experienced trainers around the world, have been of great benefit to WV's expanding business and have provided a stable platform for the successful growth of the company.
As a key member of the small team who direct all of WV's strategic operations, Lara's Board responsibilities involve her in developing and reviewing ideas, budgets, forward-planning, hiring of all senior appointees medium and longer-term strategy and business planning for the future.
Stephen is a qualified accountant with over 25 years experience as a Finance Director and Non-Executive Director within UK listed groups, venture capital backed MBOs and private companies. During that period he has raised more than £60 million of equity and debt finance including funding for an MBO and various acquisitions. In addition to acting as a corporate finance adviser, Stephen also serves as a board director of growth companies.
Our Client Services team is the hub of Working Voices – they oversee everything from New Product Development to Logistics, liaising with clients and ensuring everything runs smoothly.
Jo came to us in 2012 from an operations background managing teams in healthcare, education, airline charter and the Royal Air Force. She brings to the table both a mature understanding of the business and exceptional organisational skills.
With 24 years’ experience in the media, Dan Parry is a professional content producer with a strong track record in film and television. He began as a broadcast journalist, spending eight years with the BBC where he was a duty editor on BBC News Online.
He later switched to television and spent eight years as Head of Research at indie Dangerous Films where he found stories and interviewees for international factual dramas. In this role he secured interviews with President George H. W. Bush, Rudy Giuliani, Ted Kennedy, Mohamed al Fayed, 9/11 survivors, D-Day veterans, and the bodyguards who were with Diana the night she died in Paris. For much of his time at Dangerous, Dan focused on space history, and was the only person in the world to secure a TV interview with Neil Armstrong in the last 10 years of his life.
Dan later freelanced as a story producer, working with – among others – David Yates and David Heyman (Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts) and Peter Kosminski (Wolf Hall, The State). With Yates and Heyman, he worked on a cinema film about refugees, spending a week in the Jungle refugee camp in Calais. With Kosminsky, he worked on war-crimes in the former Yugoslavia, tracking down special forces soldiers, CIA agents and Serb spies.
He has published three best-selling books and joined us from BBC Factual.
Robert graduated from the Management College, Henley, before joining the workforce. He became part of Working Voices in early 2015 to spearhead the development and rollout of Working Voices Digital, now Learnflix. With a career in business development spanning 45 years, the last 30 years as a marketing and client services professional.
Robert has held many senior business positions in FSA regulated companies including Juno Capital LLC, Sirius Investment Management LLC, IGS Group Ltd/AIS LLP and Jacobson Fund Managers Ltd. Robert is a trained Psychotherapist and became an Executive Coach in September 2014.
Kate joined Working Voices in January 2015 from a background of administration in Higher Education. She manages our EMEA courses taking care of the whole process from initial enquiry, liaising on dates, confirming contracts and ensuring the session runs smoothly on the day.
Nicola brings 30+ years’ knowledge from the commercial world, working for a number of years as an International Sales Co-ordinator for a US IT company with a client base in the UK, South Africa and the Middle East. Nicola’s strong administrative background is complemented with product sales, conferences, events and trade shows alongside setting up new departments within established businesses in IT, education and PR.
Learn to tackle the day-to-day challenges faced by women in the workplace with confidence, control and conviction.
This fast-paced interactive talk delivered by our motivational keynote speakers provides insight on how women can communicate with more impact and how they can develop within a leadership role by enhancing their personal presence. Our women’s speakers aim to help you build the confidence to be included in meetings, and raise your visibility as an authentic and influential leader. This talk can be tailored to your business and any specific requirements you might have.
All articles by Nick Smallman
Our motivating keynote speakers will help you to gain an understanding of how you present yourself to others and how they identify with you. You’ll also gain an understanding of how influence and the development of a personal brand can enhance your impact. In this enthusing talk our expert business speakers will explore the practicalities and techniques involved in developing a suitable personal brand and creating a strong personal impact.
Networking skills are important for achieving success in business. This talk delivered by our engaging keynote speakers will provide you with an insight into good networking etiquette. Our business speakers will focus on understanding the importance of networking, how to plan and prep before an event. You’ll learn some good tips for reading group body language and some essential icebreakers to get you started.
Parents all over the world are becoming increasingly worried about the effect of screen use on their children’s mental health. In addition to a lack of understanding as to what they are looking at there is the deeper issue of how online behaviour is shaping the way that children think and form relationships. We unpack the neuroscience behind the addictive nature of screen time and offer a blueprint to help parents coach their children towards a more fruitful relationship with the internet.
The internet is lauded as a giant leap for communication and a vehicle for mass connection in a busy world. What is also becoming clear is the opportunity for bad actors to manipulate important social, cultural and political conversations through the dissemination of misinformation and disinformation. We lay bare the methods that are used to inject confusion and grievance into the conversation and how we as consumers are not naturally wired to combat this. We will offer a framework to help protect you from fake news, distraction and getting sucked in to destructive communication
70% of people will experience a genuine fear of being exposed as not good enough, of being a fraud in their working lives; this talk will help you combat such feelings and deliver practical guidance that will help you feel confident and comfortable when taking on the next big challenge.
In a world dominated by showmen, charismatics and influencers it is becoming more and more difficult to find leaders that are intellectually credible as well as influential. The ability to think critically is being downgraded while the ability to attract attention is lauded. It is possible to do both and we will show how strong mental models can underpin a long-term leadership persona.
The self-help industry is an ever expanding and hugely popular vehicle for personal development. Humans have an innate desire to improve themselves and raise their status – what’s not to love? However, some of the ideas and tropes used in many of the self-help products available rely on flawed thinking to be successful. We explore 6 major themes, deconstruct their effectiveness and relevance in the modern world and provide an alternatives that are more effective.
“Your personal brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” Jeff Bezos (Founder and Chairman of Amazon) that’s why it matters so much. It’s all about creating the right external impression, ensuring it is authentic and makes you stand out from the crowd. This inspirational talk by our expert keynote speakers will explore the methods, techniques and practises of developing an authentic personal brand that gets you noticed.
Presenting can be a daunting ordeal at the best of times but this highly interactive and fast paced talk will help build your confidence and improve your delivery with any audience. Our keynote speaker will take you through how best to prepare for your big moment, along with helping you look and sound the part as well.
TED Talks can be both informative and inspiring, but how do the best speakers deliver their message with such impact? In this talk, one of our inspiring keynote speakers will walk you through the TED method and help you deliver your very own idea with confidence and precision.
Emotional intelligence is about the ability to identify, assess and manage the emotions of yourself, of others and of groups. Having a high EQ will improve your ability to maintain good working relationships and communicate successfully. This highly interactive talk will give you a practical insight into how emotional intelligence works. Our expert keynote speakers will give you a concise overview of the emotional intelligence know-how and stratagems you need to interact commendably with clients and colleagues.
Making a good impression and having a strong personal presence is an important part of being successful in business and in life. Personal impact is about having presence and charisma. In this engaging talk our motivational keynote speakers will explore what both of these actually mean, what they look like and feel like. We will look at the practicalities of each and punctuate both topics with brief exercises to help you to become more aware of the way you interact with others. This is an exciting and interactive talk which our expert business speakers deliver in an inspirational style.
Successful people are super communicators – they think clearly and are expert at interacting with others. They understand themselves, other people and know that superior relationships are the cornerstone to a fulfilling life These characteristics are learned attributes. Now you can master these skills and behaviours and work towards becoming a super communicator yourself.
Improving your influencing skills is important in helping you to build better rapport and have positive relationships with your clients and colleagues. This fast-paced talk delivered by our expert business speakers helps you to explore and develop your existing influencing skills. Our inspiring keynote speakers will focus on maintaining mental and linguistic flexibility when interpreting and presenting information helping you to become an effective influential leader. Our keynote speakers can adapt this talk to your business needs and requirements if requested.
Our sentiments and feelings towards people are created by our own experiences but we’re not always aware of how those sentiments affect the way we act towards people and make decisions about them. Our engaging keynote speakers will bring to light your unconscious bias in this thought provoking talk: how it works, the affect this has on decision making and most importantly, what you can do about it; making sure you are the inclusive leader you wish to be.