Andrew is a former local authority Chief Executive of two authorities, one in England and the other Wales (Wyre BC and Swansea DC).

He has been a Director of the Company since its inception in 1996. He was also a founding Director of Solace Enterprises until leaving that company in 1999.

He has extensive experience of managing major recruitment assignments.

Susan is a Director of the Company.

She has worked in Local Government and the health services.

She specialises in the design of assessment materials and management of assessment centres.

Lynne Jack became a Director of AS Associates in 2008 having been a freelance HR consultant and AS Associate since 2003, a role which fitted in perfectly with her family responsibilities.

Lynne is an HR specialist and is a Chartered Member of the CIPD. She has extensive experience in both the private and public sector in a wide range of HR activities having held a variety of senior posts prior to becoming a consultant.

She is trained in and able to administer a vast range of psychometric tests and has a particular interest in the design and management of assessment centres.

Lynne has taken over responsibilities of managing the Company’s administrative organisation and is also the Company Secretary.

She is married with two children who she loves dearly but who drive her bonkers on occasion. Her hobbies include skydiving, sailing and skiing. She enjoys singing and playing guitar and in her misspent youth she used to be an Am-Dram Queen.

Michael started his career as a Solicitor in Glasgow having obtained a Law degree at Aberdeen University. After some time working as a junior court practitioner, he decided to move to Local Government in order to augment his meagre earnings. The plan was to spend 2 or 3 years in the public sector and then return to private practice.

Some years later, about 30 to be accurate, he terminated a lengthy and, in the main, enjoyable career in Local Government in order to spend more time with his family. Post he held include Assistant Secretary – Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, Director of Law and Administration – City of Dundee Council, Chief Executive – Wyre Borough Council.

His family soon decided that they did not wish to spend more time with him and consequently he has over the past five years operated as a consultant, tendering advice to both public and private sector organisations on Town and Country Planning issues.

In addition, he is Chair of the Regenda Group, a group of Housing Associations based in the North West of England, and a non-executive director of the Blackpool Fylde & Wyre NHS Foundation Trust.

Michael lives in Lancashire, with his wife, Carys, and their two children, Lucy and Jonny. Both Jonny and Michael are devoted, but often disappointed, followers of Blackpool Football Club.

Michael undertakes a lot of Assessment Centre work for AS and is delighted to be involved more with the company. He has a wide range of skills which he can deploy in assisting AS as a Director. In addition, it is work which enables him to meet a large number of interesting people. (Who wants to spend more time with their family anyway?)

For 23 years Denise worked as a corporate policy officer, initially for a trade association and later for local councils.

She began her local government career in 1982 working in her home city of Bradford with a substantial role in the introduction and monitoring of the Race Relations Strategy.  During her time at Bradford she completed an MBA course with a dissertation on barriers to change.

In 1993 Denise moved to Belfast and took up the post of Head of Policy Services at the City Council, taking principal responsibility for the Corporate Plan and strategic objectives. She was also involved in developing the Council’s strategic approach to Best Value and took a leading role in the development of the Council’s Equality Scheme.

In 2001 Denise established her own consultancy and has since worked on a wide range of projects for public authorities, mainly in relation to strategic planning and statutory equality duties.  She has also conducted training courses, particularly in relation to equality, and has organised a number of equality conferences. 

Denise lives in south Belfast with a one eyed cat called Josie.  She occasionally sings with the Queens University Choir and enjoys dining out at Belfast’s increasing number of high class restaurants.

John has a long experience as a Director of a large servie department within a Unitary Council but retired from local government as Chief Executive of Swansea Unitary Council in 2003.

He now works for the Company on a regular basis and also is on the board of the Food Standards Agency.

Graham is an experienced manager and former local authority chief executive.  He has a background in local government finance.  He has a breadth of experience of working in a multi-disciplinary environment with senior professional, government and political interfaces.

Graham has been an independent consultant for over 6 years and has a very successful track record as an interim manager specialising in organisational improvement.  In addition he has experience of assessment centre techniques for senior manager recruitment to a range of local and public authorities; has undertaken organisational reviews and financial investigations. Graham has worked for a range of organisations across the United Kingdom including district and unitary local authorities, national park authorities and public bodies such as the Audit Commission and the Electoral Commission.

His excellent interpersonal skills ensure delivery of quality outcomes for his work as a consultant. Graham has recently extended his portfolio by taking on and mentoring a number of senior local government colleagues who were facing particular issues in their careers and wishing to learn from Graham’s extensive experience.

Graham is a former chairman of the board for a large further education college and has also served on an NHS Hospital Trust.

Married with two sons, Graham enjoys walking, travel and watching sport from his armchair.

Susan is a Management and Organisation Development (OD) Consultant with 18 years experience of staff, management and organisation development and has managed a Strategic T & D Unit and Held the position of Head of OD for a large County Council.

She has worked at a strategic level as a manager, corporate policy-maker and Consultant for a number of years and had a successful public sector career in Housing, Education, HR and OD.

Susan set up her own consultancy and coaching business in 2000 and has been an associate of AS Associates since 2001. As an associate, Susan is an Assessor for Assessment and Development Centres in Northern Ireland and England and delivers assessment centre training in Northern Ireland to help managers and staff prepare for Assessment Centres.

Susan has considerable experience of carrying out research and developing and evaluating strategies and programmes as well as training and facilitating in a wide range of topics including team development, leadership, managing change and transition, performance management, selection and recruitment, customer service, coaching and mentoring, diversity and business skills.

She is also an experienced performance and executive coach for managers at all levels and a workplace mediator.

Following the completion of an MA Arts degree from the University of Glasgow Helen successfully achieved the Post Graduate Diploma in Personnel Management, and associated IPD membership, from Strathclyde Business School.

Her career started as an HR officer, involved in both policy formulation and its implementation. She then moved onto and up through the selection and recruitment field in a number of challenging appointments that covered both the public and private sectors but specialising in HR, policy and Northern Ireland employment legislation related issues. She has been involved for many years in the marketing and creation of business development with extensive executive search experience for a wide range of clients. She is an effective and practised recruitment expert with over 15 years knowledge across the diverse field of employment.

Helen thoroughly enjoys working with AS Associates and has been involved with the company for the past four years, during which time she has participated in a variety of assessment centres in a number of roles utilising my experience.

She is married with two gorgeous girls and based in the South East of England. When she is not working for AS Associates she enjoys walking her very well trained, but badly behaved golden retriever, skiing when available but most often taxiing the children.

Jennifer is a highly motivated enthusiastic corporate director who wants to be known as being “as far from a bean counter as you can get”. She has worked for five Authorities in Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Cornwall and Cheshire. Her first Directorship post was with Penwith District Council, in Cornwall at the tender age of 33. Jennifer’s work with Penwith for some eight years was around Strategic, Financial and Corporate management in a small and economically challenging District operating within the management team of four without a Chief Executive.

Since July 2000 Jennifer worked as Executive Director, Treasury and Corporate support in the Borough of Crewe and Nantwich in Cheshire, which operated with traditional views and values. The area has a very mixed economy from the wealthy to the most deprived wards in Cheshire.

Jennifer’s skills encompass Strategic Resource Management; Finance, Audit, Facilities management, Information and Communication Technology, Revenues and Benefits, E-government, Customer Service and Corporate Strategy and Service Planning.

She has a strong interest in performance management and efficiency.

With the consent of her previous employer and by taking her annual leave she has worked as an associate with AS Associates occasionally during the last eight years. Gaining good experience of the assessment centre processes we use during this time.

Geoff is also a former local Authority Chief Executive having been Chief Executive of both Calderdale MBC and Sunderland City Council prior to his retirement.

He then spent a spell of 12 months as a consultant in South Africa prior to elections in that country.

He has worked with AS Associates on a regular basis since 1999 working on a range of assignments and has significant experience in recruitment and selection to senior posts in the public sector.

Arwyn has worked as a consultant business psychologist for the last 18 years operating within both the public and private sectors.  Before working as a consultant, Arwyn worked for over 10 years in the steel and microchip manufacturing industries in operational, training and development and human resource management roles.

His management and business psychology experience gives him a unique perspective on the problems that organisations face and the solutions that can make the most impact on business performance. He specialises in assessment, executive coaching and leading projects to improve organisational effectiveness by defining performance standards, identifying training needs and training solutions.

He is also bilingual English/Welsh, and he delivers services in both languages to meet client needs. He has co-authored a Self-Assessment Quality manual based on the Business Excellence Model, and he has authored a Coaching Skills Handbook to help managers develop their coaching skills.

Arwyn is married with 2 children. He has strong sporting interests, particularly in rugby, where he was a member of Llanelli and Bridgend’s first teams for several years. He played for Llanelli Rugby Club against South Africa when they narrowly lost by a single point. Arwyn is also a keen and regular golfer.

Cynthia is at the heart of our administration. Not only does she manage our recruitment administration, she also takes an active part in most of our assessment centres ensuring that all stages work efficiently and to time. Cynthia has experience of working in both the private and public sectors. She worked for many years as a senior manager responsible for Members’ Services in a large Unitary Council.

Cynthia is married and has one daughter and granddaughter. She has strong sporting interests, particularly in swimming, where she was a member of Welsh Team during the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff and four years later in Perth, Western Australia.

Kim has had a varied and interesting career with quite a bit of it set around the HR Function in the Public Sector.

She is a qualified Assessor and currently is specialising in the design and management of assessment centres.

Kim lives in the Scottish Borders with her husband and rather large Labrador, Murphy.

John is an experienced senior manager and has held posts as Chief Executive of a District Council, Chief Executive of the largest cultural and leisure trust in the UK, Executive Director of a large unitary Council together with other senior appointments in the NHS and local government. He has a background in environmental and regulatory services. In addition to being an AS Associate since 2001 and involved in a wide range of high level recruitment in England and Northern Ireland, John has worked as a transformational change consultant and interim manager within his own consultancy business.

John has trained and been accredited as a Chartered Director at the Institute of Directors and has led the formation of shared service companies within local government, and served as both an Executive Director and Non-Executive Director of Boards. Non Executive roles have included the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities Business Regulation Solutions shared services company; a large New Deal for Communities Board in the North West and currently a Trustee and Non-Executive Director of Peshkar Productions Limited – a registered charity which exists to “push the boundaries of young British Asian theatre”.

John is married with two daughters and enjoys sub aqua diving in both UK and warmer waters.