Profile: Chris Scoble

Following a career with Barclays Bank and two major international law firms, Chris set up his own consultancy in 2007.  Under the brand of Esprima Consulting, Chris provides his clients with practical tools to help them express themselves more effectively across a range of situations, specifically aspects of Presentations, Networking and Business Development.  These tools are delivered through one-to-one and group training and coaching sessions.

At Barclays, he spent over twenty years working in a variety of functions across the bank’s international arm, and later held the role of European Director of Marketing and Communications at Dewey Ballantine LLP and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.  This experience in the worlds of banking and professional services gives him an understanding of a wide range of markets and industries, allowing him to work confidently across a breadth of subject matters and audiences.

He brings to his clients a practical background in business development, an analytical approach to setting strategic direction and a genuine enthusiasm to maximise potential through training and coaching.  In particular, he has focussed on working closely with partners and associates at professional services firms to develop the skills required to achieve success.

Chris obtained a degree from Cambridge University in Modern Languages and has spent well over ten years living and working in France, Spain and Italy. His lifelong passion and fascination for languages has maintained his fluency in French, Spanish and Italian and he has delivered coaching and training sessions in each of those languages.

In 2019, studying with the Animas Centre for Coaching, Chris obtained a Diploma in Transformational Coaching, accredited by both the International Coach Federation and the Association for Coaching.

Profile: Simone Douani – Actor Consultant

Simone has been working as a professional executive coach, trainer, facilitator and actor in corporate organizations for the past 10 years with experience in one-to-one sessions, performance and person-centred coaching, forum theatre, role play, personal development, presentation skills, influencing skills, negotiation, unconscious bias, courageous conversations and advanced communication workshops.

Among his clients are senior managers, lawyers, and C-suite professionals. He has been working in the corporate field in the UK, Italy and worldwide delivering programs and coaching sessions both in English and in Italian.

He is a qualified transformational coach. He received his diploma from ICF certified Animas Centre for Coaching and has also gained a postgraduate diploma in Mindfulness coaching, Relationship coaching and Group Coaching.  He is a member of the ICF. Above all, Simone has developed a holistic approach to coaching and training with a particular focus on tailoring his work to the specific needs of the client. He believes that through a deep understanding of ourselves and how we react to others we can unlock our full potential and achieve our personal and professional goals.

Profile: Marco Smith – Leadership and Business Growth Consultant

Marco is a leadership and business growth consultant who has worked at board level in global companies and partnerships. With a track record in strategy, business development, team leadership, project delivery, running multi-million dollar budgets and working with multi-discipline / location teams, Marco has transformed businesses and their team members to be more strategic, effective and engaged. 

Marco combines his natural people-skills with deep leadership and business growth experience. Working across all continents, he has great cultural sensitivity and connects with people from all walks of life. 

Marco’s service is tailored. He focuses on his clients’ objectives, builds strong relationships and partners to deliver the required outcomes with the highest level of service. In his coaching, training and facilitation work, Marco enables deep insights, learning and lasting change. He listens, engages, asks the right questions and delivers with warmth, relevance and impact. Marco is a highly engaging public speaker. He regularly gives key speeches at conferences on the topics of business growth, influence and the art of public speaking and speechwriting. 

Marco has spent over 30 years working in industry. Before starting his consultancy practice in 2012, Marco was Global BD Director at DTZ (real estate advisory) and EMEA BD & Marketing Director at Baker McKenzie (law). Marco has deep experience working in-house and as a consultant in a number of sectors. In particular, he has strong experience working with the legal, investment, real estate consultancy, construction, insurance, broking, logistics, music and political sectors. 

Marco has an MBA and a BA in Economic and Social Studies.  He is a Certified Leadership Coach, having qualified within an ICF accredited programme and also provides pro-bono career development coaching.

Profile: Alex Dyce – Associate

Alex has a professional background as a senior executive, managing businesses and people across frontiers and cultures, with a strong history of coaching and mentoring both teams and individuals. 

He spent over 30 years with Barclays Bank, developing new businesses and turning around underperforming operations in USA, Europe and UK. He has faced the challenge of roles at director, COO and CEO levels in sales and marketing, product development, finance, IT & operations and country management and believes passionately in the importance of building team confidence and motivation. 

More recently Alex has worked as an adviser for companies in the software solutions, property and wealth management sectors in the UK and Europe, helping them develop their services and people. He holds a number of directorships and is a regular facilitator and panellist on seminars and programmes, testing the participants’ ability to develop, negotiate and close sales and build commercial relationships. 

Tom Scoble – IT Consultant

Tom has a professional background in Project Management, mainly working in the Telecommunications and IT sectors. He completed his APM-PMQ in 2016 and has worked for large corporations such as Virgin Media and Solera.

Tom obtained a degree from Aston University in Automotive Product Design and as part of his degree took a sandwich year abroad, living and working in Spain. He is fluent in both Spanish and Italian.

Through his experience working for large organisations he has acquired valuable hands on IT skills, and he now provides IT support for Esprima on a consultancy basis.