Our People
Founded in 1998, Maple Associates comprises a team of professional trainers, consultants and specialists. All members of the team have worked across a wide range of sectors and developed genuine reputations for exceeding their clients expectations and assisting them in delivering sustainable outcomes for their people and their businesses.
In total we have a team of more than 20 associates working across industry, headed by a senior team of highly experienced professionals who lead our training and consultancy projects.
Senior Team
Simon Batty – Managing Director
Simon is a highly regarded organisational development consultant and professional trainer, with successful projects completed in a wide variety of organisations both in the UK and overseas. His combination of formal business training, senior management experience and flexible facilitation style, mean that he is equally effective in the boardroom, running group learning workshops, large events, or coaching clients on an individual basis in their place of work.
Original Models, Tools and Articles
3DL Leadership™ 360 Degree appraisal and profile
Cornerstone Coaching™ model and START Coaching™ process
PCM™ Organisational Change Framework
Conflict Resolution Cycle™
Awards and Qualifications
Master of Business Administration (MBA)
Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management (FInstLM)
Fellow of the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management (FInstSMM)
Member of the Chartered Management Institute (MCMI)
Graduate of the Royal Air Force College
Winner – Loudon Trophy for Leadership & Communications Skills (RAF College)
Mick Walker (ILM Programme Lead Tutor)
Mick spent a total of twelve years with a UK High Street bank and two International Financial Services companies, firstly in Sales and Sales Management roles, and then designing and delivering training events, before becoming a freelance training consultant in 1996.
Mick’s special area of interest, and indeed the area around which he bases all events, is communication. Using his experiences as a salesperson and manager, theory and relevant real-life example stories are combined in his training events to ensure that new skills and behaviours are linked to the competent ones that are already possessed.
Qualifications and Accreditations
Accredited NLP master practitioner,
Accredited to use the TMS Team development tools.
MBTI accredited user
Member of the Institute of Leadership and Management
Level A & B BPS qualification through Saville & Holdsworth,
Cognitive behavioural accredited coach.
Ken Moore (ILM Programme Lead Tutor)
Ken is a highly experienced international trainer focusing on team building, inter-personal communications, managing emotions under pressure, negotiating, stress management, coaching, management skills, management development and psychometric assessment. Whatever the subject, group or industry, his workshops are always practical, involving, inspiring and motivating.
He has been a senior manager in both the UK and Holland so has personal, relevant experience to draw on. His years as a senior manager have also given him valuable insight into the difficulties and issues managers face with clients, staff and commercial realities.
Specialist Qualifications
Registered ISO 9001 Quality Consultant with ISOQAR (Auditors)
Member of Institute for Independent Business
Associate Member of British Psychological Society
OPQ, 16PF and MBTI
Tony Dance (Retail Management Lead)
Formerly a Retail Operations Director, Tony has over 15 years of experience in developing and providing management development training throughout the UK. He specialises in helping managers engage with the performance and motivation of their teams and individual team members.
Over the last few years he has achieved much acclaim for his area and regional management development programmes that have helped those new to field-based management establish themselves quickly and effectively. He also writes articles on management and management development.
Publications and Articles
Retail Week
Grocer magazine
Mike Ponting (Leadership, Motivation and Engagement Lead)
A confident and outstanding public speaker and trainer with extensive experience in designing meaningful training from sales to leadership development. Helping clients make the link between people and performance through experiential learning using aspects of The Human Element® model. Mike has worked with a truly diverse range of clients including; The Polar Challenge, O2, Morrisons plc, Royal Bank of Scotland, Kuwait Investment Authority, Bureau of Public Enterprise Nigeria, GEOX Retail, Komatsu, Brand Events, The RNLI, and Home-start
Qualifications & Accreditations
BSc (Hons) Graduate, Reading University
BPS Level A and B in Psycohmetric Occupational Testing
Individual Effectiveness (IE) Accredited through JCA Occupational Psychologists
Warren Portlock
Formerly a Director for a major retail brand and with over 20 years in operational business management roles, working in all areas including sales, supply chain, service and product procurement.
His extensive experience of multi-site team accountability and responsibility for very large teams delivering turnover in excess of £100Mpa mean that he is comfortable and capable advising on major change projects as well as guiding the management teams charged with implementing them. Initially trained as a British Army Officer, Warren has a wealth of real life business experience and uses his quick intellect and insight to make the right recommendation at the right time.
He has successfully delivered change projects in Quality Control, Buying, Customer Service and Store Operations.
John Loud (Distributor and Dealer Development Lead)
Having developed a solid reputation as a professional educator and trainer in the agricultural machinery sector John went on to spend many years in business management roles with one of the worlds largest agricultural machinery manufacturers.
In addition to working with clients in the manufacturer, distributor and dealership environment, John is also working with us on training and consultancy projects in other sectors. As a respected and valued professional with proven experience helping staff, managers and owners of businesses improve their performance he is a valued and important member of our core team.