Home  | Our team

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Our team

Steve Thomas
Managing Director of Grass Routes

​Steve is the Managing Director of Grass Routes with expertise in bringing about change in individuals and teams to create more effective organisations. He has worked for several charities before setting up his own for disadvantaged young people at the age of 28. Since that time he has set up three limited companies and two community interest companies.
His easy-going style has helped many organisations in a wide diversity of sectors to progress successfully. He has been designing and delivering learning and development interventions since the inception of Grass Routes. These include executive coaching, team and leadership development, graduate development, soft skills workshops, team building events and a wide range of consultancy assignments.
Steve is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development, a Fellow of the Institute of Consulting, a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management, an Investors in People leadership advisor and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Steve is a registered consultant on the National Consultant's Register.
Steve is on the board of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) in the South West and has specific responsibility for the Institute of Consulting and CMI institute liaison.  In 2017 he was the instigator and coordinator ofthe highly successful Leading Edge conference held at the new business and law school at the University of the West,UWE.
He also volunteers locally for several educational and environmental groups.
In the UK almost 9 out of 10 clients claim they have been let down by consultants in the past, due to poor delivery, over-charging or lack of skills and experience. The Institute of Consulting's National Consultants' Register aims to remove the hard work and risk associated with buying in consultancy and business advisory services. You can view Steve’s profile on the National Consultant's Register.

Steve is very knowledgeable in his field, engages with people with an assured and interested approach and for that reason is great at cultivating business relationships. He continually pushes the boundaries in his field and has the energy and drive to create success in whatever project he undertakes.”
​​Anita Hayne, SW Chair CIPD - Chartered Institute of Personnel Development.

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​Roy Carter
Commercial board level director and retail specialist/consultant

​Roy has global experience in store operations, branding, ethical sourcing, supply chain logistics, online retailing and corporate finance.
Roy quickly recognises the needs of the customer/market and provides rapid response and solutions through strategic direction, staff leadership, team building/dynamics, product/range development, merchandising and staff training on a territorial/global scale. He is driven to succeed, believing that change comes through people and great people with direction who can achieve dramatic performance and change.
After fifteen years’ experience in field management in the USA and the UK plus ethical buying experience in the Far East, Roy became a consultant and operated across four continents before accepting a Vice Presidency with a division of Adidas.

​Malcolm Love
Public communication skills coach and trainer

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Malcolm is a public communication skills trainer with 18 years’ experience. In the past he has produced and directed Ian Hislop, Brian Redhead, Alexie Sayle, Clare Rayner, John Cleese, Kate Adie and John Humphries to name just a few.
Today he works all over the world and builds the confidence and develops the skills essential to public speaking, presenting, media interviews, other media activity, chairing, panels, writing, webcasts, festival and conference events. He works with corporations and individuals, covering the areas of politics, academia, business, public and private, local and international. He frequently works (but by no means exclusively) with leaders and coaches on a range of leadership communication issues. He is an experienced public speaker and broadcast media professional – (both as presenter and producer/director). His goal is to help his clients deliver their best performances, speeches, presentations and interviews. Although a freelance, he relishes forming or joining teams to deliver short term or longer term projects, and always welcomes opportunities to do more of that.
Malcolm's specialties include, training/coaching in: public speaking, corporate presentations, media interviews, TV and radio presenting, webcasting, panels, podcasting, writing for mass media, public appearances.

June Burrough
Social entrepreneur,  facilitator, coach and mentor

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June is a Social Entrepreneur. She was recently appointed as the Bristol Representative with the School for Social Entrepreneurs and has an MSc in Management Development and Training from Bristol University,
June is presently involved in investigating the international field of Social Enterprise and in particular the idea of a leader as a community builder - using that process for social impact on the wider society of which their organisation is a part.
June founded the Pierian Centre in Bristol in 2001, which ran for a decade until December 2011. During that time she was a National Ambassador for EY2010 – the European Year for Combatting Poverty and Social Exclusion and the Pierian Centre was the lead project partner for Bristol. Activities included the launching of Bristol as a City of Sanctuary in June 2011, engaging with Speakers Corner, The Anne Frank exhibition, mounting iWITNESS at Temple Meads and Portents on College Green. The Pierian Centre “incubated” numbers of new projects, many of which are still thriving around the city, by supporting them with rooms for meetings, sponsorship, launch events and Press and PR activities.

​​Raymond J Davis
Management consultant and SME specialist        

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Ray has an enviable broad knowledge of industries, businesses and management with experience gained as senior manager and director. He has worked in the public and private sectors (large and small service & manufacturing organisations) and charities.
Ray had a successful 10 years in sales and sales management before becoming a General Manager of a plc manufacturing subsidiary. There, he trebled net profit two years running then sold the business, becoming a group internal consultant and trouble-shooter. In 1991 he became an independent management consultant and until 2015 has concentrated mainly on the SME market, tailoring performance improvement, leadership and management development programmes, business turnarounds, preparing businesses for sale and selling them.
Ray has extensive experience of Investors in People, leadership and management development. He mentors at Director and Manager level in private and public sector organisations. Ray has worked extensively with the legal profession to introduce rigorous management and business practices and help them prepare for the Legal Services Act.
He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, and is a Chartered Manager member of the Chartered Management Institute. He is a member of the Institute of Consulting, a Certified Management Consultant and Certified Management Consultant Assessor.

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​Julie Davis
Employment law specialist

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​Having been an employment law partner with a Bristol- based law firm Veale Wasborough, Julie is now a consultant providing fixed-fee people management solutions to employers of all shapes and sizes.
With Julie's expertise, we are able to offer a seamless one-stop shop between practical HR management and pragmatic employment law. Julie is a true expert in her field: she is professional yet approachable and down to earth. Her clients often comment on her ability to present legal information in a simple and understandable manner.

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Outdoor Specialists

​Andy Hills
Outdoor Co-ordinator

We have delivered outdoor development training since 1985. Consequently, we have developed a wide network of highly qualified outdoor tutors.
The key to our successful teams is that all of our team members appreciate that our main goal is developing people, with the outdoors providing a vehicle to achieve our aims.
​We have fielded over 20 outdoor instructors at a time but generally operate with much lower numbers. When there is an outdoor element to our programme our trainers and consultants work closely with the outdoor ​co-ordinators to bring about the outstanding results that we are well known for. Andy or Steve are likely to head up those teams.​

Andy has been professionally involved in outdoor activities since 1996. During this time he has been the Senior Instructor and operations manager for Devon Adventure Training and Senior Instructor for Bristol City Council and Fairbridge (now the Princes Trust).
​He has a wide range of experience working with Grass Routes for organisations such as Cranfield University, Royal Bank of Scotland, Clarks , Halfords, Siemens, Rotork, The Rotary RYLA, News international, The Fire Brigade and the NHS .
Andy’s qualifications include BEng, BCU Level 3 kayak coach with A1* entitlements (inland), BCU level 3 coach (sea), power boat level 2, SPSA, MLTB summer, NCA cave leader trainee, outdoor first aid, D32/D33/D34 NVQ
Assessor/Verifier, DBS cleared. He is MIA and MLTB winter and summer qualified. Outside of work he enjoys canoeing, climbing, mountaineering, ice climbing WI grade 4+, skiing, and caving.

​Steve Booker
Indoor and outdoor development training co-ordinator

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Steve's competence stretches over both the indoor and outdoor environment. This former member of the Brecon Mountain Rescue team holds qualifications in the following areas: Climbing -SPSA, Caving - Cave Leader, Hill walking. He has MLTB Summer and over 20 years of experience in management development, working with Grass Routes for Siemens, Rotork, Halfords, Clarks, the NHS, Coventry Building Society, the Rotary and many others.
Today he also runs Touchstone Foundation. Their goal is to advance the development of personal leadership and interpersonal skills, confidence, self-belief and self-discipline of young people from differing social and ethnic backgrounds primarily between the ages of 16 and 18. It is designed to deliver a varied programme of activities including mental, physical and spiritual challenges. Including environmental projects, overseas cultural programmes and project work and to offer experiences of life beyond the classroom and, by doing so, enrich our own lives and positively change the lives of those we meet.
Steve is also a keen adventure racer.