Our Team

Bev Garside BA (hons) Cert Ed MIED
Director/Trainer/Coach/Change Agent
A qualified trainer (PGCE Oxford Brookes University) and qualified change agent (University of Surrey) she has delivered training to a variety of audiences including prisoners in a top security men’s prison, adults with learning difficulties and public and voluntary sector agencies across England and Wales. Her background in regeneration has led to a reputation for intervening and turning around problematic regeneration programmes. Bev is on the London Development Agency’s specialist consultancy panel for Business Development; Project and Programme Management; Impact Assessments; Education and Training and Equalities. She has a reputation for providing high quality interactive training which is accessible and has application in the workplace. Bev’s interests are in leadership and personal effectiveness and she is developing a clientele across all sectors for whom she provides coaching and mentoring support.

Owen Davies
Finance Officer
Owen has recently joined the Empower team as the Finance Officer, having previously worked in a variety of operational and customer service roles. Owen is passionate about Empower’s work to support the Third Sector and is really looking forward to working with all the great organisations that Empower supports. Owen combines his financial skills with a friendly and outgoing personality and a sense of fun which fits in perfectly at Empower. He also has qualifications in wine, which will be a great asset to the team!

Jo Barton
Trainer/Human Resources/Equalities
Jo has worked for 23 years in the voluntary and public sector. During this time she has been the Director of a voluntary sector organisation and has been responsible for the operational management of various teams in the public sector. Jo is a qualified trainer and has experience of running national training programmes and of training for the voluntary sector. Having represented clients in the Employment Tribunal for eleven years Jo has used this knowledge to facilitate her work on employment advice for voluntary sector managers and committees. Key areas: Dealing with potential tribunal claims, support with disciplinary and grievance issues, drafting documents ranging from equalities policies, recruitment and selection guidance to terms and conditions of employment. Jo also provides a tailored consultancy service to the voluntary sector on a variety of employment issues.

Ahsan Malik BSc MA
Project Manager/Fundraiser/Business Advisor
Ahsan Malik has been working in project management and consultancy in various UK and EU funding programmes since graduating in 1995 with an MA in Economics. He has worked with public, private and third sector institutions including academia in delivering initiatives that have developed individuals and SMEs in a wide range of areas, including international business, innovation, diversity, operations management and general management. Ahsan has worked as a Project Director of a well-reputed international charity that focuses on the development of black and minority ethnic communities in the areas of employment, enterprise, health and social care. This included undertaking large scale evaluations of EU funded projects, project management, accessing funds and writing UK and transnational tenders for clients (with a high success rate), and providing administration/monitoring/budgeting support. Ahsan is also a Project Management Mentor to a number of initiatives and projects, supporting the project management teams in successfully delivering to the administration, reporting and financial needs of projects and the funders, including the European Social Fund.

Clare Lucas
Trainer/Housing/Young People
Clare Lucas has been involved in the voluntary sector in a variety of capacities for many years. As a board member, fundraiser and, since 1995, a member of staff in a number of voluntary organisations, large and small, she has a wide experience of working with organisations to improve practice and help deliver high quality, effective services. Her background is working with homeless young people and more recently since the introduction of Supporting People in 2003 in supported housing. She is an experienced trainer on a range of subjects, specialising in skills for frontline staff.

Antonina Mendola
Associate Trainer/Consultant
Antonina’s experience spans 21 years within the community/voluntary sector in Wales. Her work within regeneration has included devising, implementing and co-ordinating special innovative programmes for young people and adults. She has worked within: Galon Uchaf, Gurnos, Penywaun, Perthcelyn, Gellideg, Twyncarmel, Fernhill and Townhill . Her passion for the impact of policies on communities and practitioners led her to play a major role in creating an all Wales CD organisation and is a Board Member of Community Development Cymru. Antonina has worked within supported housing where she developed her organisational/ management skills. She managed The Swansea Foyer (a homeless hostel for young people) and played a key role in Gwalia Group’s in- house education programme. Later she had Regional responsibility for a range of services e.g. people with mental health issues, offenders and homeless people across Powys. She now runs her own company offering a wide range of services to the sector. Her unique training programmes have been commissioned by Genesis Cymru Wales, Lliw Valley Womens Aid, Duffryn Community Link and Oxfam. Antonina is a Practitioner of Neuro Linguistics Programming, has an ILM Diploma in Senior Management and DIPHE in Community Education. She also co-wrote Community Development in South Wales.

Trish Holland
Associate Trainer/Consultant
Trish Holland has more than 25 years extensive experience of working in the voluntary sector whilst at the same time liaising and working in partnership with Local Authorities. Her areas of expertise are community and youth development in inner city areas, charitable fundraising, project and event management and residential care standards for England & Wales. For 17 years she worked in the Charitable fundraising sector working for various national charities in senior management roles. She has also worked as Director of a small children’s charity in Wales for children with special needs. Throughout this time she has accessed numerous grants, worked with many corporate sponsors such as Barclays and Tesco, produced business plans, budgets, and cash flow systems and devised fundraising strategies for new charities. Her skills also include recruitment of staff, producing job descriptions, personal specifications and staff management. In her role as assessor, currently for Children in Need, Local Food, and in the past the Prince’s Trust, Trish has been able to use her skills and knowledge of the voluntary sector to evaluate grant applications. Trish also has a lot of experience of working with BME groups in and around the North West of England and the Midlands. For the past 7 years Trish has been successful as a self employed Consultant in North Wales. During that time Trish has worked with large organisations such as NSPCC, Welsh Assembly, North Wales Police and Save the Children and smaller regional and local charities.

Huw Thomas (Sglein)
Trainer/Facilitator/Welsh Speaker
Huw greatly enjoys meeting and working with people all across Wales, hearing and sharing experiences about business, bilingualism and everything else. He takes a delight in helping to put a Sglein on people’s work, especially as they deal with members of the public. Having worked extensively in customer service across several sectors, Huw worked in economic development for a number of years, honing his communication, presentation and training skills. He has extensive experience of presenting to audiences of all sizes and on all levels, from primary school children to directors and chief executives. Over the years, Huw has created and delivered a host of successful workshops and courses throughout Wales, and he enjoys making a difference to people’s work across all sectors.

Sarah Richard (Sglein)
Trainer/Facilitator/Coach/Welsh Speaker
Sarah believes in enjoying every day, maximising people’s potential and creating a fabulous working environment which will in turn reflect on the customer service which we give. Sarah believes that creating a good atmosphere and having a positive attitude are paramount to success. Sarah is a qualified Performance Coach, and her career began in banking where her roles included responsibility for customer care analysis, monitoring and influencing performance against targets covering a vast range of criteria and implementation and delivery of training programmes to staff at all levels. She also has extensive people management and people development experience and has led several successful teams. She is fully conversant with effective training techniques, and has designed and run numerous courses and workshops through the medium of Welsh, English and bilingually.

Angela Elniff-Larsen MBA. MSc PG Cert Ed, C&G & RSA Train the Trainer.
Associate Trainer/Consultant
Angela Elniff-Larsen is a competent and experienced Trainer and Consultant whose skills in people development, management, training, strategic and business planning have been gathered over the past 25 plus years. She is a qualified trainer, mentor and coach, at present coaching senior women at the Sports Council for Wales, Women in Management for Welsh Government, Women in Business for Venture Wales, Blackburne House School for Social Entrepreneurs and for Business Link Liverpool. Her last position prior to going freelance was as Associate Director (Regeneration and Economic Development) at ECOTEC Research and Consulting. She managed the Wales office and managed the division’s women and families work for the UK, Eastern Europe and Turkey. She was also part of the senior marketing team. Within this role she undertook training in house for staff and for external clients at various levels .This included design and delivery of a programme for BURA for senior managers in organisations related to regeneration, capacity building with women entrepreneurs for WECOE and training voluntary organisation directors and CEO’s in the South East of England for RISE. Before joining ECOTEC she was Chief Executive of the Community Enterprise Wales group. That encompassed a charity, a fully commercial consultancy and a Company Ltd by guarantee that ran the membership of over 500 social enterprises and their supporters. During this time Angela designed and ran courses for community development, personal development, assertiveness, equality and diversity as well as PR, marketing and business development. Angela has particular specialisms in mentoring and coaching for women, capacity building for people, skills for change management and policy making. She has wide experience in private, public and voluntary sectors. She is a frequent contributor to national journals and publications and an invited speaker at conferences in the UK and Europe.