Our People
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Meet the Team
Martyn Barmby
Founder
Director Martyn Barmby is the driving force behind MSB. Passionate about empowering talented professionals, his mission is to tap into a person’s true potential and give them the ability to communicate their brilliance.
A professional actor with 15 years senior executive experience in consultancy and project management, he has an innate understanding of the skills needed for exceptional presentations. Having led consultancy businesses in the UK, US and France, Martyn has also performed around the world as a professional actor. It’s no surprise that he’s skilled in advanced communication techniques and has developed powerful methods and influencing skills from the worlds of acting and business.
Martyn is a respected speaker on all aspects of Communication Skills. He regularly runs events for CFA societies across Europe and for industry bodies such as Women in Banking and Finance.
Nicola Hainey
Head of Coaching
Nicola is an experienced professional performance coach specialising in leadership development. Having previously spent over a decade working in strategic roles within the financial services sector, she understands well the demands and pressures incumbent in the modern workplace.
Nicola’s experience includes both individual and team coaching for large multinational banks and consultancies. She is enormously passionate about helping leaders do the quality thinking required to understand and develop their own leadership style, and how to inspire and bring their team with them. She creates bespoke workshops to encourage creative thinking and help businesses overcome specific challenges, as well as delivering group coaching sessions on essential life and business skills.
Steven Maddocks
Head of Voice
Since training as an actor, Steven has worked in almost every area of theatre, including acting, writing, producing and directing. He also runs a drama school for children and adults, where he teaches drama and public speaking.
As a Voice Coach, Steven works with professionals across a range of industries and at all levels of seniority. Drawing on his theatrical training and experience, Steven teaches vocal and physical techniques to help his clients communicate brilliantly and effectively under pressure, whether they are presenting to large groups or negotiating across the meeting room table.
Steven studied English at Oxford University, where he was also president of the OUDS (the Oxford University Dramatic Society). He has published several successful guides for drama teachers.
Wendy Shearer
Wendy Shearer is a Professional Storyteller and Author of African and Caribbean Folktales, Myths and Legends; and Bedtime Stories: Beautiful Black Tales from the Past. Her background is in writing and producing children’s television programmes for CBBC. Wendy regularly works with schools throughout London and institutions across the arts, including the British Library, the British Museum and the Royal Academy of Arts, whose work she brings to life through storytelling.
“Wendy Shearer is a masterful storyteller, bringing everyone with her imaginatively and playfully at the Just Imagine Festival.”
— Literature & Spoken Word Programmer, SouthBank Centre.
Nick Bird
Nick brings a wealth of practical knowledge from his 25 years in financial services. A regular presenter on the industry circuit, he speaks on a range of investment areas in which he has held senior sales positions. His recent work in private markets, covering venture capital and infrastructure investing, has led him to present on complex tax matters, with a specialism in IHT. He knows what it is like to present to rooms large and small, to engage an audience and importantly drive action from them.
As a coach Nick understands the power of great communication, not just to educate but inspire and motivate. He is well known for making the complex simple and bringing stories to life with humour and authenticity. Nick passionately believes that everyone can be a great speaker with the right coaching and loves developing people to be the best version of themselves.
Isabel Scott Plummer
Isabel has over twenty years experience as a communications coach and business role player. She works at all levels, helping individuals and groups to develop interpersonal skills, implement behavioural change and communicate with impact. Her work as a a facilitator has taken her all over the world. She has written and delivered programmes on Presentation Skills and Working in the Virtual Space.
Isabel’s passionate belief is that everyone can change, gain personal insight and maximise their impact in the workplace given encouragement and constructive feedback in a safe environment.
For over twenty years Isabel was a professional actor working in theatre, film, radio and commercials. She has just completed her first novel, which is due for publication in 2023.
John O'Connor
John is a professional actor, director, playwright and business communications specialist. He runs an international touring theatre company.
After studying Drama at Manchester University, John spent a year in Japan teaching English and communication skills in business settings. He then worked as a speechwriter to a diplomat in Singapore before living and working in Hungary, Czech Republic, Finland and Germany.
John is passionate about helping clients to flex their communication skills. He has brought his role-play and coaching techniques to a range of public and private companies all over the world. Adept at creating a comfortable creative space in which to try out new things and to grow, John is a firm believer that learning should be playful, fun and exciting.
Rachel Schofield
Rachel is an accomplished broadcaster and communications expert. She reported and presented for the BBC for nearly twenty years before training as a personal development and career coach.
Rachel brings her journalist’s passion for challenging questions, powerful listening and fact-led storytelling to her coaching and training work. She helps her clients, who come from a wide range of industries, to explore and expand their own communication and leadership style and to become powerful communicators, whether in meetings, news interviews, podcast appearances, keynotes, panels or chairing events.
Rachel’s book The Career Change Guide: Five Steps to Finding Your Dream Job is published by Penguin.
Jakki Bendell
Jakki Bendell brings 12 years media and marketing industry experience with a specialism in launching publishing businesses in Europe. For the past decade she has provided workshops and coaching to businesses with the aim of helping them to communicate more effectively at work. Pragmatic in her approach, Jakki’s skill lies in business writing that communicates clear compelling messages and engages audiences. Her focus is on helping people to develop better written skills that will inspire and influence others and importantly, enhance their career and business success.
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