John Hardwick
John leads the North Manchester Peer group and the Operational Excellence peer group with a passion for helping SME leaders deliver superior performance for customers, employees and owners. John has over 35 years in the pharmaceutical industry, as well as a period as factory director for the Horlicks Factory in Slough. He is also an expert on change management, particularly in the area of Operational Excellence. He has a passion for coaching the best from leaders and spreading best practice.

Likes: Table Tennis, Rock Music, Bass guitar, walking, family time, travel, spontaneous fun.

Dislikes: Disorganised thinking, negativity, enforced fun.

Gary Sheader
Gary leads the Manufacturers Alliance team with an infectious drive and passion to support progressive people within UK manufacturing. He has spent the last 20 years delivering change projects that lead to strategic breakthrough within £1m - £1bn t/o manufacturing businesses. He has a passion for learning and pushing the boundaries of people’s potential.

Likes: Progress, Laughing, Running, Cooking, Music, Poetry, Family Time

Dislikes: Dishonesty, Bungee Jumping, People who moan a lot

Jonathan Wurr
Jonathan fell in love with manufacturing in his grandad’s pickle factory at the age of 8 and has done every manufacturing role from Team Leader to Managing Director. Jonathan has been a qualified coach and mentor for over five years. Jonathan's training as a coach combined with his experiences running manufacturing companies gives him a strong empathy and understanding of the people challenges in manufacturing.

Likes: Rugby league, mountain biking, chocolate, reading non-fiction

Dislikes: Anchovies, people who always blame others, getting up early

Victoria Hopkins
Victoria began her career in manufacturing in 1998 when she was asked to help out in her family’s engineering business. Eventually becoming Managing Director and taking turnover from £2 million to £6 million. She also expanded into exports opening a subsidiary of the business in Canada.

Likes: Sauvignon Blanc, travelling, Yorkshire puddings, hanging out with my Daughter, upcycling furniture

Dislikes: Running out of Sauvignon Blanc, mushrooms, heights, cold weather, Robert Peston

Simon Carin
Simon has been a General Manager for over 3 decades and has worked at Board level as an MD in the UK and in Europe, for nearly 20 years. His experience covers a wide range of activities and disciplines including; Distribution, Manufacturing and Installation. At the heart of all of this was our customer, typically an Owner Managed or SME business.

Likes: laughing, people, cooking and eating with friends and family, motorcycles, fundraising, family holidays,

Dislikes: people who don’t do what they say, procrastinators, injustice, tripe

Mark Booker
Mark chairs Senior Leaders peer groups and has worked as part of the Manufacturers Team since September 2022. Mark has a passion for supporting and coaching others with their development and growth and has 30 years experience initially in the military and laterally within Aerospace and Defence across Leadership, Human Resources and Organisational Management and a range of diverse Shared Services Operational environments. He loves the flexibility and the speed of change within SMEs.

Likes: Music, All Sports, Reading, Family Time, socialising with mates (to put the world to rights) and baking.

Dislikes: Negativity, unkindness, talking more than listening.

Juliette Yardley
Juliette has an academic background in psychology and over 25 years’ experience within the field of applied positive psychology in both training and coaching. Juliette is passionate about people, understanding what drives them and how they behave. Juliette encourages MA customers to ask themselves challenging questions about themselves and gives them the support to help them make positive change to themselves that in turn helps others.

Likes: Cheese, dancing, camping, music, being creative and jumping in muddy puddles

Dislikes: People who take themselves too seriously, marmite and refrigerated chocolate

Trish Sheader
Trish is a highly organised member of the Manufacturers Alliance Team as our customers will testify. Throughout her career she has been customer facing and understands the value of providing a great customer experience. She has passion for helping others and exploring new ideas.

Likes: Star Filled Skies, Forests, Spin Biking, Family and Friends Time, Growing Vegetables and Fruit

Dislikes: Continuous Rain, Queueing, Porridge, Noisy Eaters

Carol Blackburn
Carol has 20 years’ experience in administration and accounts, predominantly in the automotive industry and with a local manufacturing business in Blackburn when she first left school. She has a thirst for knowledge and self-improvement and a superb attention to detail. She is super approachable and states, “I have really enjoyed meeting the wonderful Manufacturers’ Alliance team since joining them just over a month ago. I can already see what great relationships are held with everyone in the community. It's a breath of fresh air!”

Likes: Cooking, Music, Holidaying with the kids, Red wine, Springtime & Loyalty

Dislikes: Rainy days, Traffic, Spiders and Sushi

Kerry Leigh
Kerry loves people, end empowering them. She has experience and knowledge of performance, comedy, and psychology, and has been facilitating training in self-development for a wide range of people in business and education for 20 years. She is passionate about learning being fun and experiential, and really cares about being authentic, one of MA’s core values. Her strength is quickly developing a rapport with people and helping them to feel safe to push themselves out of their comforts zones.

Likes: Good food, laughing, dancing, cold water swimming, playing, time with friends, theatre

Dislikes: Falseness, beige, fast food

Catherine Smith
Catherines career started in manufacturing enjoying roles in organisations including Kimberly Clark, Black and Decker and the car seat manufacturer Britax. Her career has progressed into a passion and desire to help and support leaders and their teams in their professional development and performance through coaching and facilitation. Throughout her career she has supported a very broad range of world class organisations and sectors, the experiences of which support her when working with clients and their teams.

Likes: Fresh air, the wind on my face and blue skies Mountains, and coastlines Good food, Love and laughter

Dislikes: Green peppers & celery Cruelty to others Wet dark days Inequality in society

Nicki Campbell
Nicki has worked in the HR and Learning & Development fields for over 30 years and was HR Director for 12 years within a manufacturing organisation. Nicki now runs one of the HR Leaders’ Peer groups for the Manufacturers Alliance. She is particularly passionate about supporting SME’s with their People strategies, particularly in the areas of Leadership development and coaching, Culture & Values, Employee Engagement and Wellbeing.

Likes: Weekends in Wales, Walking, Mexican food, Gin & Tonic, Chocolate, Chilling at home with family

Dislikes: Getting wet, Being up too late, injustice, cruelty to animals, empty biscuit packets