Developing young people for the business world

Having been involved with summer sales programmes since 2001, Al has much experience in the field of direct marketing. During his first summer, he became the top first year agent. The following year he ran the top team. 2003 saw him become the first undergraduate to achieve top division, whilst achieving a record turnover of £330,000 with a team of 22 students. To date, he is the most successful person to have come through a Champions programme.

John has a decade of experience working with the student programme, running both top divisions as well as becoming Programme Director from the age of 26. During his very first summer as director, leading 3 divisions, John achieved the company turnover record of £1M sales in 12 trading weeks. Providing invaluable sales and management training, along with all round industry knowledge, John forms an integral part of the management team.

Chris is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and a graduate of Bristol University. He is a highly experienced business executive having held directorships in a number of public and private companies.

From 2003 to 2007, Chris was a partner in DB Consultants, the corporate turnaround specialists, where his assignments included periods as Finance Director of Baltimore plc and Finance Director of Langbar International Limited.

Prior to DB Consultants, Chris held a broad range of senior positions in a variety of business sectors. He was European Finance Director of Kroll, the US Risk Management Specialist. Chris has also held internal management roles at Ernst & Young and KPMG. At the top of his game, Chris continues to build relationships with Champions, providing invaluable support and advice to all those in the programme.

An English graduate from York University, Hannah joined the programme in Summer '08 and achieved the greatest individual accolade of the summer: ‘Fundraiser Of The Year'. In 2009 Hannah went on to become the top fundraising manager, leading the entire management field during another record breaking charity campaign. Leading by example, one of her team followed suit and achieved top fundraiser under Hannah's guidance. As well as finding the most donors over the last two years, to this day Hannah retains the best individual donor retention rate in the industry. With expertise in Charity donor recruitment, Hannah has huge impact in constantly improving programme performance in both upfront sales and customer retention. Responsible for much of the 2009 student recruitment campaign, Hannah is already well versed in building the organisation.

Hailing from the University of Birmingham, Alex earned his place on the full time team whilst achieving the ‘most improved sales person' award during his first summer in 2008. Alex was the only candidate to date who has successfully made the transition from sales person to divisional manager the following year. With a background management CV including several years coaching the University of Birmingham Football teams, Alex is well qualified and in line to act as regional manager for one third of the programme this coming year, being responsible for recruitment within the Midlands region.

Being part of the initial Easter campaign that kick-started the new era of champions and its association with the charity sector, Adam will be a vital part of the West regional recruitment campaign, whilst being based in Cardiff. With two Easter and two Summer campaigns under his belt, Adam is the most experienced of the senior managers. Being the first candidate to complete his divisional management year as a second year undergraduate, Adam has been nominated for the ‘Outstanding Contribution by a Student' Award at the 2010 ‘Ratemyplacement' Awards Ceremony.

Bringing six years of Champions experience to the table, Mary is responsible for co-ordinating many aspects of the programme.

Mary provides key office support to the teams, drawing on previous experience in Recruitment, Event Planning and Office Management.