Programme Leaders

Ivan Hickmott
Ivan graduated in History from Leeds University and has completed Post-graduate qualifications in Human Resources and Organisational Consulting.

He began his career with the GEC group where he spent 10 years in a variety of HR roles within its computer manufacturing and defence electronics businesses before joining the Unisys Corporation, a global IT services company, as Director of Human Resources for its UK subsidiary and subsequently for its European Information Services business. From 1996-2000 Ivan was European Head of Organisational Development & Business Effectiveness.

Ivan has consulted to and delivered a range of leadership and change management development programmes for a range of clients that include Ernst & Young, Marks & Spencer, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, BT, British Airways, Lucent Technologies, Nokia, Agfa and Chiron Vaccines.

His entire professional career has been dedicated to helping business leaders and HR functions to enhance business performance and implement transformation initiatives, being part of or consulting to management teams, supporting and coaching senior executives and leadership teams, very often in periods of turbulent change!

Gill McKay
A graduate in Mathematics and Management Sciences, Gill has worked in a variety of organisations holding a broad range of roles, predominantly in the IT sector. She has worked in Sales and Marketing, Human Resources, Training and Development, a Corporate University , Business Effectiveness and Employee Communications. She has long international experience and regularly works with diverse and multiple nationality teams. She has held national and international roles, in large blue chip organisations as well as smaller companies and the e-commerce environment and is experienced at executing programmes tailored to the requirements of different countries and situations. Her last role was as VP, Human Resources, Baltimore Technologies and prior to that she was HR Director for LetsBuyIt.com.

Gill is an accomplished course leader having led numerous programs and having achieved certification for numerous licensed programmes. Gill is also an expert in 360° feedback and psychometrics and leads this function on behalf of Extensor.

Alistair Schofield
Following a degree in economics Alistair joined the computer industry as a Branch Administrator with Burroughs Machines, later to become Unisys. He quickly moved into a sales role and, in the mid 1980's, took responsibility for sales into the electricity supply industry. In recognising an opportunity that was emerging as a result of the privatisation process, Alistair defined and implemented a sales strategy based on niche domination and, during the next 5 years cornered 90% of the market for retail systems in electricity companies.

During the 1990's Alistair held a variety of senior management positions within Unisys ending up as Director of European Alliances and driving partnership programmes with the other major IT companies across Europe.

In 1997 Alistair joined Scottish Provident as Sales Director. He radically reorganised the sales division and during the next 4 years achieved compound annual growth in excess of 55% with the target market share rising to more than 32% while Sales Division costs were reduced by more than 20%.

To achieve step-change results, Alistair had used training and development programmes to lay the foundations for change within the organisations he had worked for. However, his disillusionment with the training industry had led him to develop and lead his own programmes that were intrinsically linked to the business goals. It is on the basis of this experience that Alistair established Extensor.