Our Founder
David Sykes is by profession, a chemical engineer who has worked in a variety of diverse businesses in both the UK and USA. David has predominantly filled senior roles and has been a director of three companies and chairman of the board of directors of a fourth. He is Managing Director of Vanilla Training Solutions Limited
David has over 25 years experience in FMCG manufacturing in a variety of industries including chemical manufacture, injection and blow moulding, printing, bottling and liquid and powder filling His roles have focussed around change management in FMCG companies, helping to improve profitability through reorganisation, restructuring and culture change initiatives. During these, he has used the training process to maintain morale and effect a step change in performance |  |
He started Vanilla Training Solutions to help other businesses successfully manage the change process assisted by the powerful motivational benefits of the Vanilla Effect
Our Senior Partner
John Barnacott is a Bachelor of Education, Professional trainer, Industrial Psychologist, but first and foremost a Business Improvement Facilitator. John is Managing Director of the Training Dept. Ltd which is the accredited training centre for the Institute of Leadership and Management. (ILM), the most recognised management training body in the UK
John also runs an accredited training centre for City and guilds for those companies who wish to align their training courses to a nationally recognised standard John is licensed to deliver a number of psychometric testing instruments including NEO-PI Personality Inventory, 16PF, LIFO and specialises in running assessment centres for both recruitment and individual development. John is also a certified NLP practitioner |  |
Most recently he has introduced professional actors into the training arena to add a new dimension in personal development where realism is essential to the learning process
Our Patron
Formally Head of Training and Development for a major financial services group, Bernard Wynne has worked in consultancy for 17 years. During this time he has had extensive experience working with a wide range of clients in all business sectors, internationally
 | Bernard's work has frequently been concerned with personal development planning, self-develoment, performance management and appraisal. In addition he has had considerable experience in helping organisations to develop and implement Total Quality and Service Excellence processes, supported by his expertise in training line managers to present, communicate and energise change processes in their organisations Bernard has worked closely with organisations of all sizes |
in manufacturing, commerce, finance and public bodies in Europe and Asian and his expertise is in much demand. Besides driving through the implementation of projects linked with the above, he has also gained a strong reputation for helping organisations build effective teams
His extensive work with one client - one of the world's largest insurance companies - was so successful that they formally appointed him as their Human Resource Consultant for Asia Pacific and Australasia Regions
