John Waterman – Head of Training

John was born in Hawaii, grew up in America and the UK and lived and worked for 13 years in Spain as a teacher, a teacher trainer and School Director before opening his own school.

On returning to London he became a Lecturer at Thames Valley University specialising in Teacher Educatio and Intercultural Communication. He wrote and delivered training programmes around the world with teachers from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. He also designed and delivered intercultural communication courses for the Council of Europe and wrote two books on the subject.

Later John moved into the world of publishing where he drove business plans, managed budgets and led internal and external teams. The job involved extensive travelling working with teams of authors and editors from other cultures in Latin America, Europe and South East Asia.

After 10 years in publishing he moved into Management Training to be closer to his training roots. He focuses primarily on university lecturing skills, international communication skills, intercultural communication, course design and delivery. He works with universities such as TU Vienna, Bundeswehr University, Munich, Regents University, London and Kings College, London, and Training Centres like the DiZ, Bavaria and the Berliner Zentrum für Hochschullehre, Berlin. John also works with international law firms, engineering companies and banks across Europe.

Mark ter Haar – Trainer

Mark studied International Relations, spent 2 years with a law-firm on assignments across southern Africa, following on with a long-term career in business training and consulting.

At Learning International, a pioneer in B2B training and consulting, he worked in sales, undertook best practice research, and managed product development teams across European markets. These experiences demonstrated how excellent methodologies and tools – in sales, customer relationship management, EQ, inter-cultural, train-the-trainer – can be leveraged across diverse business cultures.

Over the last 20 years Mark has partnered with a range of corporate and academic organisations in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, designing and delivering performance improvement initiatives in sales, coaching, leadership, and employee development. He has authored and show-cased a number of books and papers on sales, coaching, and customer loyalty.

Kate Gilbert – Trainer

Kate is an award-winning public speaking coach (coachingfoundation.com 2021) with seven years of coaching experience and over twenty years as a workshop facilitator in communication and performance techniques.

Her work includes a wide range of clients from business to the creative industry including CEOs, entrepreneurs, creatives and even boxers. She has led workshops for SKY, London School of Economics, Maverick Media, Jazz North and government-funded NCS among others.

Kate’s style is supportive, energetic and fun. With a background in acting, playwrighting and singing, she specialises in storytelling, voice and performance, supporting clients to cultivate captivating stage presence with stories that inspire, transform and engage.

Kate has a wonderful ability to take her clients from tearful to genuinely enjoying public speaking. Her style is highly practical and uses holistic elements such as meditation, visualisation and relaxation techniques.

Kate speaks English and German.

Julia Haythorn – Trainer

Julia is a highly experienced trainer, voice coach and certified NLP Master Practitioner and Trainer. She studied acting at East 15 Acting School, English Literature at Leeds University and is a Licentiate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

In addition to her acting experience, Julia has worked in the corporate field for over ten years. She’s designed and delivered many team building, networking, presentation skills and communication skills courses for a wide variety of clients throughout Europe.

Julia also provides one-to-one executive coaching in subjects such as vocal skills and increasing impact, energy and confidence.

Her clients include PricewaterhouseCoopers, 3 Video Mobile, Nationwide Building Society, Associated Newspapers, J. Sainsbury and the London Borough of Richmond Upon Thames.

Julia speaks English and French.

Joanna Burnett – Trainer

Joanna Burnett trained and works as an actor in tv, film and theatre.

She uses her creative skillset as a foundation in the field of communication/presentation/leadership skills. Joanna enjoys working with organisations across the globe. She trained as a facilitator at The National Theatre where she continues to deliver regular workshops alongside coaching sessions.

She is a visiting lecturer at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama for BA Acting courses, short courses in performance as well as an acting coach.

Joanna also sits on adoption and fostering panels which includes being Vice Chair for Adopt London West. She is a speaker at preparation courses alongside training for adopters, adoptees and professionals.

Simon de Deney – Trainer

Simon has an MA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University. His first job after Oxford was working as a Senior Account Manager at the advertising agency, Young and Rubicam, where he worked on HJ Heinz, Legal & General and British Gas.

He then trained to become a professional actor and has appeared in everything from feature films to shows in London’s West End. He has a wide range of writing and directing experience, in both the commercial sector as well as for television, film and radio (BBC and Channel 4). He coaches organisations internationally and in the UK, develops and delivers courses up to board and trustee level.

Simon specialises in communication skills including, storytelling, persuasive writing, social media, brand development, feedback and crucial conversations. Recent clients that Simon has worked with include Goldman Sachs, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Shell, The Liberal Democrats (National Party), The Institute of Education, The University of Surrey, Camden Council, Lambeth Council, Redbridge Council and Moody’s.

Simon speaks English, German and French.

Kate Montague – Trainer

Kate is a communication skills trainer and actress with over 10 years’ experience in the international corporate sector in Europe.

She specialises in the effective use of the voice and body language in presentation skills training. She has a BA in Acting from London’s Central School of Speech and Drama, and is an experienced actress in theatre, television and film.

Since graduating from the MA Voice Studies course, at Central, she has established herself as a visiting voice lecturer at drama schools, and continues to deliver voice and communication skills courses in the business environment. Kate’s pursuit of excellence in her field is underpinned by her enthusiasm and confidence. She is passionate about helping clients to achieve their full potential in effective communication to meet the needs of their respective working environments.

Her client portfolio includes Allen & Overy, Herbert Smith, Hogan Lovells, BP, Statoil, McKinsey & Co, Barclay’s Wealth and Bank of America.

Kate speaks English and French.

Andrew Weale – Trainer

Andrew is a widely experienced coach, trainer, writer, and actor. After studying classics at Oxford he trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and has since worked with luminaries such as Sir Alec Guinness and Kevin Spacey. He lived in Germany for six years where he played leading roles in musical theatre and co-starred with Dirk Bach.

For the past seven years he has been working as a senior consultant and trainer at Avocets Consulting where he has trained CEOs, lawyers, managers, engineers, politicians, architects and other executives from a variety of business sectors. Because of his background in performance Andrew has specialised in pronunciation, body language and voice projection.

Andrew has edited two theatre books and published five children’s books with Hodder and Random House.

Andrew speaks English and German.

Christine Bunnenberg – Director

Christine was born in Germany and studied German and Music at Hanover University. After graduating, she moved to Spain where she worked as a German teacher at the Goethe Institute (The German Cultural Institute) in Madrid. After moving to the UK in 1990, she worked as a lecturer in German for Business and Law at the Goethe Institute in London, the City University and at Birkbeck College. Christine also worked with blue chip clients including SAP, KPMG, Goldman Sachs, Ove Arup, Heidelberg and the Compass Group. Recently, she became a guest lecturer in Cross Cultural Studies at the European Business School.

She founded Avocets Consulting in response to the need from existing clients to develop ways of working more successfully in the international market. She is now developing management training and consultancy, specialising in intercultural communication and effectiveness in business. She published Just Enough German in 1994.

Christine speaks German, English and Spanish.