One simple vision.
To make a difference to people’s lives in the workplace and beyond.
Think differently. Do differently.
And stand out from the crowd.
We are PeopleUnboxed and our mission is to make a difference to people’s lives in the workplace and beyond. We do this by inspiring and empowering individuals and organisations to transform the way they work.
We’re passionate about unboxing people’s potential to make organisations more effective. We’ve operated in fast-paced, multi-site businesses, and facilitated change from small scale projects through to large, complex organisations of over 100,000 employees. If there’s one thing this has taught us, it’s that business is simply about people.
Ready to make a difference?
Why choose us?
Above and beyond as standard.
The people, behind PeopleUnboxed.
Passionate. Inspirational. Creative. Disruptive. Fun.
It’s our people that make the difference for our customers. You can count on us for some of the best expertise in the industry. With a breadth of experience on client side and agency side, we understand the challenges faced by senior HR and L&D professionals, as well as how to solve them. We’ve worked with large corporates, SME’s and everything in between, across a range of industry sectors. With us, anything’s possible.
Jo is a highly commercial and dynamic senior HR and L&D professional, with over 20 years’ experience in the hospitality and retail industry.
Prior to launching PeopleUnboxed, Jo led the employee experience strategy for the McDonald’s UK market, rolling out forward-thinking cultural engagement and wellbeing initiatives for a 120,000 strong workforce. A firm believer in empowering people to be their true selves and organisations to develop forward-thinking, psychologically safe cultures, she has a passion for wellbeing, resilience, mental health and inclusion in the workplace.
Jo’s broad strategic experience and expertise across the employee lifecycle, means she’s also perfectly placed to support organisations with selection and onboarding, performance and talent development, values and behaviours and employer brand. Her passionate, warm and empathetic approach make her a skilled facilitator and respected advisor.
Outside of work, Jo is a Mummy to two young girls, an avid traveller, lover of the outdoors and believer in living life to the full, with a generous dose of kindness! A competitive swimmer in a younger life, Jo is as comfortable scuba diving 30m below sea-level, as she is trekking up Snowdon. She also loves putting her hand to anything creative; cake decorating, craft making, painting and digital design.
Jo Morgan
Director & Co-Founder
With over 20 years’ leadership experience and a fast-paced, commercial business background, Tony is eminently skilled in strategic organisational development across a range of sectors.
Before launching PeopleUnboxed, Tony led the McDonald’s UK L&D Design Team, responsible for developing blended training interventions and digital learning resources for over 120,000 employees. Since then, he has transformed the learning journeys of many high-profile organisations, from single development programmes to full-scale curriculums.
Tony has a passion for inspiring and empowering organisations to transform the way they work. A strategic thinker, his determination along with a unique combination of analytical and creative thinking, means he is adept at getting to the heart of an organisation’s need and challenging the norm to deliver profoundly impactful and innovative solutions. Tony’s expertise also encompasses creative, experiential instructional design, both digital and classroom, plus with his naturally charismatic style, he is an exceptional facilitator.
Outside of work, Tony enjoys anything competitive, whether that be playing sports or trying to find his way out of an Escape Room. He appeared in the TV show Countdown, winning eight consecutive shows and achieving Octochamp status!
Tony Manwani
Director & Co-Founder
Prior to joining PeopleUnboxed, Paul, or Westy, led McDonald’s UK through the digital transformation of their L&D offering, being personally responsible for developing online learning interventions and shaping the strategy for over 120,000 employees.
Following a 10-year spell with McDonald's UK L&D, he moved ‘supplier side’ as a Digital Solutions Consultant with Kineo, where he designed multiple ground-breaking, award-winning learning solutions for many high-profile clients.
Westy is a true learning technology geek! Highly skilled in digital design and delivery, along with LXPs and all things learning tech, he’s also a talented instructional designer and facilitator. He loves nothing more than thinking up innovative solutions to his client’s technical challenges! This deep expertise has earned him great credibility in the L&D world, and he is frequently invited to join expert panels, deliver talks, judge awards, and join podcasts.
Outside of work, Westy is married with two young daughters, a keen runner and is also an award-winning Wedding Photographer. His photography company sponsors a car in the MR2 racing series, so weekends are an odd combination of grease, spanners, running and taking photos.
Paul Westlake
Digital Director
Prior to PeopleUnboxed, Rich’s career spanned over 10 years’ L&D experience within the voluntary sector. Working for a youth organisation as a Training & Volunteer Development Manager, he designed, delivered and adapted a variety of training aimed at both adults and young people.
Since joining PeopleUnboxed, Rich has pursued his passion and determined belief in the power of raising awareness around mental health. He is accredited to deliver MHFA nationally recognised qualifications, where he infuses the ‘required content’ with high energy, practical learning. His calm and sensitive nature make him a highly credible and respected instructor. He is also extremely versed in designing and delivering, impactful blended leadership programmes to high-profile clients. Combined, these attributes resulted in him being shortlisted in The LPI (Learning and Performance Institute) Rising Star category at the 2022 Awards.
Rich’s training reflects his infectious personality - fun, passionate, high-energy and thoughtful. He strives to make a genuine difference to the learner, empowering them to grow and enabling practical application of their skills within their individual workplace.
Outside of work, Rich is a sports and fitness fanatic with a keen interest in gym classes and running, completing half marathons, 10km races and zombie runs! From a young age he has been inspired by travel, with the aim of going to a new country every year. He lived in Egypt for three months working as a scuba diving instructor and loves life under the sea.
Richard Jennings
Director of Learning Experience
Prior to joining PeopleUnboxed, Rachel spent 12 years in the marketing sector. Predominantly managing successful event and digital campaigns for some of the world’s largest brands, largely in the entertainment and technology industries. She sat on the Direct Marketing Association’s Brand Experience Council for two years and has taken separate qualifications in addition to her university degree to expand her skills. She has previously been nominated into the EVENT 100 (the top 100 most influential people in the UK’s Event industry).
Rachel is a passionate and knowledgeable professional that enjoys seeing a project come to fruition and bringing a brand to life – with experience in managing all elements from strategy, creative, delivery through to measurement. She takes pride in her attention to detail and has an ability to think both creatively and analytically. Used to working in a fast-paced environment, she is competent at multi-tasking and does so with a friendly and approachable style.
Passionate about making a difference to people, and helping them grow and learn, the move to PeopleUnboxed was a natural fit.
Outside of work, Rachel is married and a proud mummy of two children. She adores spending time with her family, out and about on adventures and holidays. She also enjoys setting herself running challenges and has completed various 10Ks and half marathons.
Rachel Jennings
Brand Manager
Kate has over 16 years’ experience working in wellbeing across a variety of roles. She is a qualified psychotherapeutic counsellor, hypnotherapist and masseuse, coupled with an impressive knowledge and enthusiasm for holistic wellness strategies for individuals, she is uniquely placed to support individual and team wellbeing.
Kate is incredibly passionate about mental wellbeing and health, and since joining PeopleUnboxed she has channelled this passion into supporting and developing mental health, wellbeing and resilience in the workplace for a variety of large organisations. She also has a passion for emotional intelligence, inclusion and psychological safety.
Kate’s infectious bubbly personality, mixed with her calm and empathetic approach has earned her immense credibility with her clients and learners alike. She loves to empower people on their journey of not only supporting those around them but discovering and developing their own mental wellbeing and their ability to be resilient in the face of modern-day life challenges.
Aside from working with the PeopleUnboxed family, Kate specialises in bereavement support as a volunteer counsellor for Cruse. Outside of work you will most likely find Kate hitting the gym, practising yoga, taking long dog walks and grounding (being as barefoot as possible in nature!
Kate Peters
Mental Health &
Wellbeing Consultant
With over 30 years’ leadership experience in a fast paced, retail operations environment, Arlene is incredibly well equipped to build organisational capability across a range of core skills and industry sectors.
Before joining PeopleUnboxed, Arlene was responsible for delivering operations strategy and leading senior management teams of over one hundred people, across multi-site restaurants within the McDonald’s Franchising community. Her natural flair for leading people, was proved early on in her career, when she was awarded the prestigious Ray Croc Award, which recognises the top 1% of McDonald’s restaurant managers, globally.
Not long after this, Arlene’s passion for developing her people, earned her the opportunity to join the McDonald’s UK training team, designing and delivering leadership training across the company’s core curriculum for a variety of leadership levels in the UK market. Arlene’s approachable and empathic nature means she has a natural ability to build rapport and genuine understanding in the classroom environment, ensuring knowledge transfer back into the workplace.
Arlene is obsessed with people solutions consultancy and making a tangible difference to individuals and organisations in the areas of L&D and employee engagement. Her extensive leadership experience and passion to help people grow, develop and believe in their own capabilities means she‘s a perfect fit for the PeopleUnboxed team.
Outside of work, Arlene has two daughters, one who is soon to be flying the nest and the other who is currently at university. In her spare time Arlene has self-care at the top of her list, from massages to spending time with friends and family out for nice meals. She loves to go to Boxing, spinning on her bike and walking, so much so, she has recently signed up for the Kiltwalk, walking 22.6 miles for charity!
Arlene Marsella
Training Consultant
Prior to PeopleUnboxed, Doug got a taste for training and developing talent whilst working in the Experience of the Future team within McDonald’s head office. Here, he was part of the team responsible for deploying the largest scale change McDonald’s has seen across the UK in recent years. It involved significant changes to the restaurant technology and service platforms, that entailed both precision project management, as well as in-depth re-training of all staff and managers to achieve operational success.
Doug then moved on to work within a McDonald’s franchising organisation where his passion for developing talent was further evident; he helped develop and manage over 270 employees, including salaried managers and future store managers. Of notable success was his lead in opening a brand new store, having grown and nurtured the talent to support that. Since then, his retail management experience saw him take on a slightly different challenge where he was responsible for opening up a brand new café, again with people at the heart, he made this a great success.
Doug’s training style is a reflection of his personality – passionate, fun and energetic. He has a natural ability to build relationships and his approachable nature means he can adapt to a variety of different personality styles. He has a genuine interest in wanting to make a difference and help people grow and develop their skills.
With over 13 years’ experience in retail management and training, coupled with a huge passion for developing people and nurturing talent, Doug is an asset to our team. He has already helped support companies deliver top quality training and will continue to share his leadership experience skills with our partners.
Doug Clayton
Training Consultant
Blake has a wealth of customer service experience, from previous roles she had, before joining us at PeopleUnboxed through the Kickstart scheme.
Her motivation and passion for discovering new skills, specifically within graphic design and creative writing, is apparent in the quick speed she learns. After living in 4 different countries, she now has a deepened world view and cultural understanding.
Due to her caring and compassionate nature the appeal of working with a company that makes a difference to people’s lives meant she was the perfect fit for the role. She is also a qualified Mental Health First Aider in the workplace.
In her spare time Blake is an avid puzzler and dedicated Games Master, enjoying challenging logic puzzles such as escape rooms and riddles. Setting aside at least one night a month for Table Top Role Playing Games, Blake enjoys taking on the role of the GM and guiding others through worlds both fantastical and horrifying.
Blake Jones
Trainee Digital Designer
Cat is an experienced and highly versatile Digital Designer and eLearning Developer. With over 12 years’ experience in design Cat has devoted her career and design talents to the learning world.
Having spent time working in the Games Workshop, she moved into the L&D team within McDonald’s Restaurants Ltd, where she specialised in instructional design, and complete end-to-end project management and eLearning creation for everything from frontline restaurant staff to hierarchy, to head office.
Cat has her own very successful Consulting business, and, alongside this, has been a long-time partner of the PeopleUnboxed team, turning training into exceptional digital content for a whole range of high-profile clients.
Cat has a particular interest in experiential learning and is passionate about creating an engaging and immersive learner journey that really lands. Her incredible creativity coupled with a strong problem-solving mindset, enables her to develop unique and ‘out of the box’ client learning content, from concept to creation.
Cat Austin
Assoc. Digital Designer
Jez is a learning and development professional with 30 years of experience. He has worked as a strategic learning leader, consultant and practitioner across multiple sectors and provides unique and valuable insight that he is passionate about sharing.
Whilst Jez has spent the last ten years consulting in the digital learning and vocational skills sectors it’s his passion for coaching and personal development that him brings to the PeopleUnboxed team. Spending 13 years of his career working with the Brathay Trust in Cumbria he specialised in leadership development and coaching. During that time, he worked with clients such as McKinsey & Co, Shell and TATA Steel.
He is passionate about helping individuals and teams realise their potential and helping them achieve their targets and goals. As a trained and qualified ICF coach, Jez works 1-to-1 or with groups, to help unlock individual resourcefulness and improve personal performance.
Jez delivers a range of psychometric tools, including MBTI and ESCI. He has a particular interest in the concept of ‘mental toughness’ and uses the MTQ48 profiling tool to support individuals and teams to improve performance through the development of mental toughness.
Jez lives in Normandy with his wife and two pugs. He is a keen cyclist and when not working on his 300-year-old cottage, likes nothing more than to enjoy a glass of French wine in the evening sunshine.
Jez Anderson
Assoc. Personal & Team Performance Coach
Cat is an experienced and highly versatile Digital Designer and eLearning Developer. With over 12 years’ experience in design Cat has devoted her career and design talents to the learning world.
Having spent time working in the Games Workshop, she moved into the L&D team within McDonald’s Restaurants Ltd, where she specialised in instructional design, and complete end-to-end project management and eLearning creation for everything from frontline restaurant staff to hierarchy, to head office.
Cat has her own very successful Consulting business, and, alongside this, has been a long-time partner of the PeopleUnboxed team, turning training into exceptional digital content for a whole range of high-profile clients.
Cat has a particular interest in experiential learning and is passionate about creating an engaging and immersive learner journey that really lands. Her incredible creativity coupled with a strong problem-solving mindset, enables her to develop unique and ‘out of the box’ client learning content, from concept to creation.
Cat Austin
Assoc. Digital Designer
Getting to the heart of your business.
It’s at the heart of the way we work.
Everybody is different. And every business is different. That’s why we get to know your business, your culture and your people, so we can provide you with the best advice, guidance and long-term partnership.
Define
We’ll take the time to truly understand your business, its makeup and culture. That way we can identify where your priorities are and find the perfect solutions just for you.
Design
We’ll work with you to build a plan that’s as individual as your business and the people in it.
Deliver
We’ll develop and deliver simple bespoke solutions to get the best out of your people.
Do better
We’ll help you determine key success factors to ensure a return on your investment. We’ll provide ongoing consultation and continual improvement.
Our values.
It’s who we are and what we believe.
Team spirited
We believe in collaboration, long-standing partnerships, and of course having some fun. Think of us as an extension to your team.
Let’s win together!
Inspirational
We aspire to inspire culture changing, forward thinking, modern workplace ethics.
Driven to excel
Change doesn’t happen by standing still. We’re inquisitive, creative and innovative. There’s always an answer, you’ve just got to know where to look.
Passionate
Plain and simple, we love what we do. Making a positive difference to people's lives, how they think and how they feel. There is no greater reward!
Trustworthy
You can count on us to be open, honest and authentic. That’s how you know you can trust us with your business.
Customer-centric
It’s all about you, your business and your people. With tailored solutions, anything’s possible. Let’s reach for the sky!
"People may forget what you said, but they never forget how you made them feel."
Our friends, our partners.
A creative power-house of possibilities.
No (wo)man is an island, as the saying goes. We partner with other businesses, large and small, as well as freelancers, to bring you the best the industry has to offer. Our partners have been handpicked for their shared values and approach. This means you can partner with us as your ‘all-round’ trusted advisers, and you know you’re in safe hands.
Want to partner with us?
If you can dream it, we can do it.
Let’s reach for the stars.
If you have a challenge and a vision of your perfect solution, you are our kind of person!
We all need a little helping hand to inspire us and turn our dreams into reality, and we love nothing more than working up creative ideas, side-by-side with our clients.
Let’s chat, and together we can work out your dream solution!
Ready to make a difference?
