 Mike Eadie
Mike is a dynamic, top-level communicator, with extensive skills and qualifications in sales, management, HR, training and business development. He spent ten years in financial services then telecoms, both in Operational Management and Senior Training roles. He is AFPC and MBTI qualified and is a Fellow of the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management.
Having ditched the ‘corporate grind’ he then worked with many of the top UK and worldwide consultancy companies, designing and delivering bespoke human development and behavioural training solutions. Mike manages a variety of projects within Blue Chip companies that create positive changes to individuals, teams and organisations. He has established himself as one of the leading specialists in the fields of training and corporate development.
Away from work Mike enjoys a quiet family life with Mel, building renovation, playing guitar, everything French and enjoying the simple things in life!
 Melanie Pledger
Mel is an inspirational and solutions-orientated communicator, with a track record of excellence. She has inspired hundreds to adopt new concepts and ideas in a variety of differing business and personal situations.
Mel was a top business performer with Yellow Pages and then spent the next 7 years setting up and successfully running Marketing and Call Centre Outsourcing companies. She has used her entrepreneurial flair to implement new standards of performance in many of the UK’s top companies.
Through her many years spent studying personal growth and development, Mel brings special warmth to the business, and now helps people from many backgrounds to achieve their personal and professional goals.
She continues to be fascinated by personal development and (among other things) is an Advanced Louise Hay Trainer and NLP Practitioner, currently working on a confidence-building book for children!
Away from work, Mel now spends much of her time renovating an old farmhouse in rural France with Mike, and loves relaxing with her old LP’s and a bottle of red wine (or two!)
 Heather Cotton - Office Manager
Heather heads up our small office team. Before becoming a lecturer in Business Administration and IT in 1993, Heather was an experienced PA and had worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in both London and Caracas, Venezuela and for the Chairman of HarperCollins Publishers. She joined the top-banana team in 2008 and has worked with a number of clients during this time.
Dave Carpenter
Dave runs our team of outdoor specialists, and has been working with the company for over four years. He is an accomplished, commercially sensitive individual with a passion for maximising business learning through experience-based outdoor activities. Dave has spent more than 12 years developing his skills, running all manner of programmes from Management Development and Team Building for major blue-chip organisations, through to Adventure Holidays for children with special educational needs. A focussed, dedicated and highly qualified programme designer and outdoor instructor, Dave also holds nationally recognised qualifications in a wide range of adventure sports, including mountaineering and sailing. Away from work, he relentlessly pursues his passion for outdoor development, studying to achieve further qualifications just for fun – he also adores playing practical jokes on both his wife and team members!
 Mandy Rossi
Mandy heads up our training and course design team, and has been working with us since the middle of 2000. She is a highly skilled, learner-centred facilitator with extensive experience in sales, recruitment, call centres and the travel sector. Vivacious and fun, she continues to add a human element to her successful and varied career. She has managed several major projects including setting up and developing of call centres, and designing creative behavioural-change courses for a wide range of companies. Her most recent position prior to top-banana was with Eurostar as their Training and Recruitment Manager. A skilled and dedicated personal coach, she is also an NLP Master Practitioner. Away from work Mandy enjoys personal development, chilling with friends and doing “crazy stuff” like Firewalking – just for fun!
Tracy Palmer-Scott
Tracy is a highly self-motivated trainer, facilitator and coaching specialist, with over 20 years front line managerial experience at the forefront of cultural change. A professional training consultant since 1999, Tracy has a track record of success, designing and delivering bespoke training events to a wide variety of companies within the blue-chip, public and private sectors.
A committed people development specialist, she delivers inspirational training messages with energy and enthusiasm. Tracy has specific expertise in the development and introduction of new processes and approaches for the EFQM Excellence Model, which allows her to facilitate senior managers and their teams to identify and resolve key business issues.
Her people focus and commercial background enable her to relate effectively to people at all levels of organisations, equipping them with practical skills and techniques to improve productivity for sustainable business results.
Away from work, Tracy enjoys personal challenge and self-development, and works with young people through the Guiding Association. You might also find her indulging in her needlework hobby, including crosstitch, tapestries and ancient sewing methods!
 Rob Pugh
A qualified teacher and mountain instructor, Rob worked for many years in outdoor education centres before deciding to pursue his interest in experiential development training. Working on a multitude of projects with Dave and his team, Rob continues to add his unique style of enthusiasm and confidence to every training programme.
A key member of the top-banana team, Rob says: “I see a practical learning environment (including the outdoors) as an incredibly effective arena for teaching, in which teams and individuals can strive to reach their full potential. I feel that fun and an appropriate level of challenge are conducive to effective learning and after all, if you are going to learn, what better environment to do it than in the fresh air!"
Away from work, Rob is using his excellent persuasion techniques to persuade his new wife to allow him to disappear off to Everest on an expedition – for Fun!
Piers Carter
In his working life, Piers is passionate about people and behaviour. He works specifically in the area of teams, leadership and effective performance, and has been working with top-banana for over three years. He specialises in a subtle combination of psychometric tests, behavioural workshops, challenging business simulations and active outdoor projects, and is renowned for his entertaining delivery-style.
Piers is qualified in the latest human resource and development theories including Meta Planning, NLP, the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, the Strength Deployment Inventory and Experiential Learning. Away from work, he loves spending time with his wife and two young sons and training for Triathlons. |
