Sean Akins, Shareholder and Director
DHP Group hired Michelle in 2008 to rebuild a finance function from the ground up. As a leisure company in a fast moving consumer environment, tight cash controls and timely management information is critical to the success of its operations. Michelle succeeded in building a team – recruiting, training and developing – and instituting structures and systems which yielded tangible benefits: virtual elimination of theft & waste, tight control of cash, floats and working capital and timely production of pertinent management information.
Michelle possesses particular skill and competency in relation to process excellence and business transformation. Building upon the sound foundation of a rebuilt finance function, she conceived, planned and implemented a number of projects designed to lead to enhance business performance. These included a number of IT related initiatives, including EPOS and Accounts software implementation as well as personnel projects, including incentivization schemes.
From 2010, Michelle was tasked with addressing business performance at a sister company, Bildurn, a property holding company. Showing persistence and discipline, she drove a number of initiatives designed to greatly improve risk management and the control of the project management of development schemes.
More latterly, Michelle has instituted a range of measures designed to improve team-working across the 2 businesses including communication, training and use of personality profiling.
As an executive, Michelle is highly productive, disciplined and organized and possess the persistence and energy required to drive challenging projects through to their conclusion. She is, in addition, clear & concise and not afraid to give her judgement and opinion. These are all qualities to engender confidence.
Thanks to Sean for his testimonial
George Akins, Chairman, DHP Family Ltd
I have worked very closely with Michelle over the past 6 years and she has shown an array of skills to support my business. Employed as a finance director, she implemented our whole finance system and staff with great success. Michelle turned her hand to many projects at DHP, her skills helped us with everything from IT systems to purchasing businesses. She leaves us in far better shape than she found us in and I will be ever thankful for that.
I wouldn’t hesitate to employ Woodhouse May for any future projects that DHP may require.
Alan Earnshaw, Vice-chairman, Portland College
Michelle provided support as independent Expert Advisor to the College Audit Committee. Her experience and knowledge both financial and in general commerce have proven to be an invaluable asset to our team
Dave McDerment, Financial Controller, DHP | Bildurn
I first met Michelle in 2008, when she joined the firm that I work for – DHP Family. I was reasonably new to accountancy and had just moved into the finance team. I was working towards sitting some exams and hoping to gain a professional accountancy qualification, but wasn’t quite sure of the best way to do this/which route to choose. It was Michelle’s guidance and support that helped me make these decisions. She taught me many new skills and was an excellent hands-on mentor, who was always available to work through the more tricky, and sometimes daunting tasks.
I have worked with her for 6 years, as I gradually made my way through the ranks, and have watched her help others to realise and reach their potential, by encouraging them, and always seeming to know exactly what roles they would be best suited to. I am grateful that she saw that potential in me, and helped me to achieve my goals, and look I forward to continuing to work with her.
Geraldine Grandidier, Founder
Michelle prepares monthly financial reports and is present at our monthly meetings, this helps us focus on the company goals and keeping us on track. It’s been a great experience working with Michelle. She is very accurate, flexible and supportive of the business. Michelle has a wealth of experience and working with her has made all the difference for us to be on track for growth and realising our vision for the company. She is also a pleasure to work with!
“Michelle coached and assisted me during a time of substantial change. Using her breadth of experience and expertise she was able to help me to stay focussed on what was important and ignore distraction. An added bonus was her ability to help me view situations and ideas from different perspectives and really explore the directions and opportunities that they presented.” Mike Tuck
“Business Coach…and head clearer” Alan Chidgey, Arc Textiles
“Michelle is a fantastic coach and really made the sessions interesting. Working on a live projects really helped me understand the skills and knowledge we discussed. Michelle put me at ease from the first session so I could ask all the questions I needed to.” Jade Brindley, Koa Consulting and Xenon Advisory
Alan Chidgey, Founder
I met Michelle early 2016 and she soon became a key member of our team and is great to work with.
We are a small business that can’t invest in lots of different people but because of her background, experience and approach Michelle is able to cover off so many aspects of our business challenges. It is like having a team of people in finance, back office, planning and strategy all in one person.
I am able to pick up the phone and know I will get a speedy response, knowing that what she takes on will get done.
Michelle has got to the heart of our business. She gets her hands dirty so that she understands the fabric of the operation from production to sales to supply chain.
Michelle gives me the confidence to move the business forward and as a consequence ARC is planning a long term relationship with her as a key part of the team to help us do that.
I highly recommend Michelle as a key part of any business team.
Nick Gall, Joint Managing Director and Owner
Michelle delivered a series of project management training sessions to key personnel within our business in late 2014. We have subsequently adopted many of the practices and techniques demonstrated to us on the course and utilised them in projects both for our clients and internally for our own business. The courses were extremely well delivered and Michelle demonstrated a clear understanding of our business operation and ethos. We can’t recommend Michelle enough and will continue to work with her in the future.
Eileen O’Reilly, Human Resources Manager, Futures Advice, Skills & Employment
Michelle has proved her value as a supportive mentor in my development as a Project Manager in delivering the transformation of the Human Resources function within Futures. Michelle is meticulous in detail and diligence, has the ability to quickly grasp the practicalities of our business and adapt her style to support our culture whilst remaining focused and on task. Michelle is positive, helpful and supportive.
Andrew Needham, Partner
I really value working with Michelle in delivering a major management development programme for a leading, blue-chip business. Michelle has a real skill for engaging with business managers from all disciplines to develop their commercial knowledge and ability. A skilled facilitator, she is able to leverage her finance background with confidence and credibility to help people make better business decisions.
John Yarham, Chief Executive
Michelle supported us with a tricky implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning software project. She was very successful in supporting the company to develop our project management skills, strengthen our relationship with the software supplier, analyse our expenditure and make key decisions. The result of this support has been a far more successful implementation process than it would have been without Michelle’s skillful input.