Our Board

Our Board Members

Joanne Lockwood
FPSA – Chair of the PSA
Joanne Lockwood, Founder and CEO of SEE Change Happen, is an Inclusion and Belonging specialist, speaker, and Fellow of the PSA. She works with organisations throughout the UK, Europe and beyond, challenging corporate mentality, and providing a service that goes far beyond “just” Diversity & Inclusion. Living by the mantra: “Smile, Engage and Educate,” Joanne believes that people are people, whatever their ethnicity, gender and abilities, deserving to be treated with dignity and respect to work well and thrive.
Chantal Cornelius
FPSA – National President 2023-2024

Chantal has over 20 years of experience working with coaches, consultants and speakers, showing them how best to use marketing and speaking to grow successful businesses.

As Marketing Director for the PSA, Chantal is responsible for planning the strategic marketing  used by the PSA for attracting new members. Launching the new website in February 2023 was a major project, of which Chantal is very proud.

When she's not advising her clients and the PSA on the best marketing to do, she can be found riding one of her horses, walking her dog or growing her own fruit and vegetables.

Nathan Littleton
FPSA – Immediate Past President

Nathan is a marketer, speaker and author with over 20 years experience. He specialises in helping businesses to grow by attracting and winning more customers. Each year he sends more than a million emails on behalf of his clients, and his proven track record has led to him working with leading brands including Microsoft, Virgin Care, and the BBC.

When he’s not speaking, writing, or sending emails, Nathan is a long-suffering Aston Villa fan, stand-up comedy fanatic and proud geek.

As National President for 2022-23, Nathan promotes the PSA around the UK and the world. He leads the team in creating our annual national Spring Conference, Impact! and our 3-day Convention, the Speaking Business Summit.

Nathan's theme for this year is ‘Just one thing,’ encouraging you to focus on one thing from each speaker you see, that you’ll implement right away to make the biggest difference in your speaking business.

Denise Fay
MPSA – Marketing Director

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.

In her role as Marketing Director, Denise uses marketing strategies and tactics to attract and retain more members to the PSA, build on the community across the regions and grow the visibility of the PSA.

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.

Alastair Greener
FPSA – Director of Regions

As a speaker specialising in Generational Communication, Alastair helps organisations understand generational differences, to create a more cohesive workplace, while building stronger business relationships with effective generational communication. He is the founder of Present Yourself communications training as well as an event MC and moderator.

The 13 regions are the lifeblood of the PSA and the Director of Regions is the conduit between the Regional Presidents (RPs) and the PSA Board. Alastair works closely with the Operations Team who support the Regions, while keeping in regular contact with the RPs.

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.

Michelle Mills-Porter
Michelle Mills-Porter
FPSA – National President Elect
Michelle is known as The People Reader – a behaviour expert specialising in unleashing potential. As the creator of a suite of profiling tools, she speaks, consults and trains in values, motivation, communication, performance and collaboration. She works with organisations to help increase engagement, performance and results through empowering their people, alongside her family of Certified Practitioners. As Membership Director, Michelle sees herself as being in service to, and representing the voice of the members. She celebrates being able bring an alternative perspective to the board. Fairness is of paramount importance to her, which isn’t far in front of having fun, as anyone who has been to one of her New Members Days will attest to.
Mike Pagan
FPSA - Foundation Director

Mike is an expert in helping clients achieve positive mental wealth through building handpicked support networks and helping them unlock significant performance improvements. Mental wealth comes from pursuing your true potential and positive wellbeing with a committed support network, the Mental Wealth Team. Mike is a coach, author of four books and a non-executive director that is a little different; his approach is not standard – he can be blunt, direct, honest and open where necessary.

As the PSA's Foundation Director, Mike's main responsibilities are to support members in need and raise funds for their financial assistance. He offers help and lend a listening ear to members facing difficult situations. The support is tailored to individual needs. He makes discretionary payments for regional meetings and national conferences and can provide financial aid too. Some members approach Mike directly for support; others are mentioned to him, in total confidence, by other members.

Mike is passionate about fundraising for the Foundation – encouraging donations and running auctions and raffles at the Gala dinner, at our annual Speaking Business Summit – so we can continue to support our members.

William Buist
FPSA - Programme Director
William is a mentor to business leaders and the author of the book, Intentional Mastery. He specialises in guiding his clients along the journey to mastery so that they can deliver consistently excellent value to their clients. William is a Fellow of the Professional Speaking Association (PSA UK) who speaks on building better business and intentional mastery. William is committed to lifelong learning; he's a keen photographer and skier and enjoys walking.
Phil Ingle
FPSA - Finance Director
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.
Marina Ibrahim
MPSA - DEI Director
Marina, an esteemed Cultural Diversity & Inclusive Leadership Consultant, Speaker, and Facilitator, recognised with prestigious awards for her contributions in the field, brings a bilingual proficiency in English and German to her work. With a unique blend of British-German heritage and Egyptian roots, Marina’s multicultural journey is reflected in her 25 years of international marketing and training experience. She has successfully collaborated with Executive, Expat, and Expert leaders and teams from over 50 countries, empowering them to thrive in diverse environments. Marina's expertise spans multinational corporations and organisations worldwide, guiding professionals, leaders, and teams in navigating international talent development and diversity strategies. Now, as EDI Director, Marina embraces her role as a champion for diversity, inclusion and belonging, committed to serving, attracting, and representing the rich backgrounds of all members. Marina's approach to leadership fosters an environment where every voice is valued and respected, driving innovation and collaboration.
Yvonne Emery
MPSA - Learning and Development Director
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. 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.
Patrick Mercie
MPSA - Commercial Director & Regional President - PSA Ireland
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).
Leon Bamforth
MPSA - Membership Director
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."
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