Our Board Members

Yvonne Emery is an International Property Coach, Mentor and Speaker and MC. For the last 20 years she has taught property investors to build portfolios of property and build property businesses. Yvonne has a background in Finance, R (Chartered MCIPD), Sales and Marketing as well as 15 years of board experience.

Yvonne has taken on the role as Interim Vice Chair as aswell as continuing the Learning and Development Director.

The Learning and Development Director role is new to the Board, and so she will be working alongside all the other Directors to bring the community of the PSA together through courses, mastermind groups, mentoring and other ventures. Watch this space for more opportunities to grow your businesses.

When she’s not coaching clients, Yvonne can be found renovating derelict properties, singing Karaoke, playing board games with friends and taking occasional stunt driving lessons.

Denise Fay is a marketing mentor, speaker and author who helps coaches, consultants and service providers get more clients, more community members and more visibility.

As UK & Ireland President, Denise champions the PSA, is responsible for the Momentum Matters theme and organises our flagship conferences, including Impact! and the Speaking Business Summit.

When she’s not talking or writing about marketing, she’s often out running the roads of Co Louth, Ireland, training for her next marathon.

As an author, speaker and podcaster specialising in Generational Communication, Alastair helps organisations understand generational differences. He helps them bridge the generation gap to create a more cohesive workplace, while building stronger business relationships. He is the founder of Present Yourself Ltd, which delivers communication workshops to corporate clients, as well as being an experienced event MC and moderator.

Alastair has served on the board since 2021, firstly as Director of Regions before Vice President and Immediate Past President (2025/26). With the theme of "The Art of Connection", he helped members connect more effectively with their clients, their audiences, and each other.

Having spent 16 years in the travel industry, Alastair loves to be on the move and still delivers lectures on board the ships on which he once worked.

Leon Bamforth is an award winning business and Future of Work speaker. As a business consultant he leads and facilitates multi-million pound (GBP) large scale transformation programmes for large and multi-national corporations. Leon works with leaders to enable their employees to thrive, deliver and adapt to the changing work environment. "I am looking forward to serving the membership as a whole and as individuals to get the most out of the PSA. Ours is a unique tribe. As experts who speak we have a network of speakers, but also of experts in almost every area that you could need. I would like to help each member to grow their business and impact by having the PSA at their back and also having the back of their fellow speakers."

Coming from a background of Corporate, and Retail Management, Patrick Mercie is since 2007, a fully Qualified Life, Career & Business Coach with the Irish Lifecoach Institute, a Master NLP Practitioner, Qualified Trainer, Professional Speaker, 2024 President of the Professional Speaking Association of Ireland, and Radio Presenter with Limerick City Community Radio. Patrick has been a Support Director and Trainer for BNI (Business Network International). He also ran weekly networking events for Your Holistic Academy, a holistic network. And MCed networking events, amongst others for Skillnet and Limerick Chamber. Through Career and Life Design Programs, Individual Coaching, and Mastermind groups Patrick helps workers, professionals, C-suites, managers, business owners, solopreneurs and entrepreneurs to ‘Have A Life While Making A Living’. He also works as trainer, speaker, and MC and delivers workshops in companies and organisations on resilience, the self-developed D.A.R.E system (Discover, Awareness, Review, Engagement), the Future of Work, and recruitment strategies. As a hobby Patrick has run 128 Full and Ultra Marathons and is a Member of 100 Marathon Club Ireland. He is also a season ticket holder for Irish Premier League side St. Patrick’s Athletic. And as a native Belgian, he is of course an authority on all things chocolate, waffles, and beer (even though he doesn’t drink alcohol himself).

Phil makes understanding business and finance easier. As a result, people develop new skills to improve organisational sustainability. He delivers training both live and online, with recent programmes including Finance for Sales for Tata Steel Europe, Advanced Financial Statement Analysis in Mauritius, Presentation Skills for a Scandinavian Bank, Negotiation Skills in Mergers and Acquisitions, plus Strategy & Business Planning Skills. Phil’s training programmes have been delivered in 42 countries across Europe and the Middle East, with clients in at least 150 organisations, including insurance companies, banks, energy services, plus hotels, automotive companies, retailers, agriculture, charities and public sector organisations. Phil’s qualifications include an MBA from Cranfield University, and he is a Master Practitioner in NLP. He also holds the Financial Planning Certificate, is Level A qualified in Psychometric Testing through the British Psychological Society, and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development. In addition, he is a Member of the Institute of Training and Occupational Learning, The Chartered Institute of Bankers, and a Fellow of the Professional Speaking Association, and Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts & Commerce. Phil believes that no organisation should be run as ‘not for profit’, and one way the PSA will demonstrate its professionalism is through a sensible balance sheet. In changing economic environments, there will always be challenges. Finance is both an enabler and an outcome for organisations: a Finance Director will remember both.

Gary Parsons is a keynote speaker, leadership mentor and founder of Selfish Thinking Co. He works with leaders and high performers to challenge the belief that putting yourself last is a sign of strength, and to focus on their SELF instead.

Through his SELF Framework, Gary shows that being selfish, in the best possible way, leads to better wellbeing, stronger leadership and longer-term success. He also champions the work of Visible Difference.

Gary is East Midlands Regional President and joined the PSA UK & Ireland Board of Directors in 2026 as Marketing Director, where he focuses on attracting and retaining members, building community across the regions and growing the visibility of the PSA.

If you are looking for an impactful and motivational speaker on self-leadership, transformation and change, you just found her! Olga Geidane is a global (she spoke across five continents!), thought-provoking speaker and award-winning mindset coach working globally with high achievers and C-suite executives.