Bernie – as he prefers to be called – grew up in Buckinghamshire and, after some questionable A Level results, travelled to North Wales to study Business & Finance at an HE College. Leaving with an HND (Distinction) he began a series of corporate roles in logistics & management with Unilever. He then worked in property & construction at Salford University and innovation & enterprise at Lancaster University.

At the end of 2005 Bernie had the feeling that ‘there must be something better than this’ and, with the help of his counsellor wife Val, he re-evaluated his approach to work and life. He started Innovative Enterprise in 2006 with the aim of supporting schools and young people to ‘Bring The Future To Life’. Since then he has used his ideas, designs and workshops to work  with over 165,000 young people. He wrote The Ladder which was published by Crown House in 2021.

Bernie started supporting CforLP in 2009 when Dream Placement was created for young Cumbrians and since then the Centre hasn’t been able to get rid of him! Bernie has worked on designing activities, delivering workshops and he also designed the SkillsBlox toolkit for PBP.

“Working with young people of all ages is an absolute joy – helping them to uncover their leadership and teamwork skills is a privilege. As someone who didn’t enjoy or succeed at school, I want to help young people to make the most of the chances they have to develop themselves as individuals and carve a future for themselves that they will prosper within”.

Bernie’s Leadership Top Tip

“Your time is valuable – work to manage distractions and maintain focus on one thing at a time”