Key Personnel

Russell Crisp, as well as being Chief Executive of Crisp, is one of Crisp’s Senior Consultants.  

Russell started his career working for his father’s firm, eventually taking it over. In 1988, Russell sold the family business and created Crisp Associates, a marketing and business development consultancy practice.

Through Russell’s ability to motivate and inspire those around him he has built up the original Practice to its current size and diversity. The company now advises on all aspects of Business and Organisational Development, E-Commerce, has a Training Division and continues to advise on Marketing issues all through its subsidiary businesses.

During the last 5 years he has worked extensively in the UK, Europe and the United States helping businesses re-engineer in line with the e-commerce revolution.

Russell has over 15 years management consultancy experience and acts as a non executive Director of several client Boards.

However, Russell continues to work as a Lead Marketing Consultant as well as holding several Non-Executive Directorships within certain client companies.

Today, the consultancy which Russell started is recognised as being one of the key Strategic Marketing & E-Business Development Consultancy practices in the South West, now employing over 40 Consultants and Trainers.

Russell is an Accredited Consultant with South West Business Link and a member of the Institute of Directors.

John has over 30 years experience in both marketing and communications gained in the Public, Commercial, Educational and Consultancy sectors and has worked with Crisp-UK since its foundation.

Over recent years, he has successfully combined roles as a Marketing/Communications Consultant, Researcher, Writer, Corporate Trainer and Higher Education Lecturer.

Working with Crisp as a Senior Consultant, John has successfully worked on a wide range of strategic development and applied marketing projects for a great variety of businesses and organisations, with particular specialisms in Leisure/tourism,Heritage, Professional Services, Education, ‘Not for Profit’ and Construction.

As a contributing trainer/writer with Crisp Professional Development, John has also undertaken regular Corporate Training work, developing, writing and delivering courses and workshops in Marketing, Communications and Design for: Reed Training, Business Links and Wessex Chambers of Commerce.

His writing activities include PR, creative copy writing, and video scripting, together with research and editing for informative & factual works.

More recently, John has worked extensively developing Research programmes in the Accountancy/Tax Publishing field and as a Marketing & Communication Specialist within the Social Housing sector.

Janis has over twenty years experience in marketing, market research, business development and sales management with the ability to work strategically or on a ‘hands on’ basis. Her career has spanned manufacturing, distribution and service environments and she has broad experience and understanding of business practice in small through to large concerns.

Janis is a creative thinker and systematic worker with a determined, tenacious but flexible approach. She is keen to build and maintain effective business relationships and enjoys the challenges of providing practical and affordable marketing solutions to suit individual requirements. As a Chartered Marketer and full member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Janis undertakes continued professional development.

Kath created, developed and recently sold The Cheese Gig www.thecheesegig.com an award winning Internet based retailer of West Country cheese.

After a successful career in British Gas where she became a Regional Director she moved to the South West and the Open University. Here she not only managed the post graduate business programmes offered by the Open University Business School but wrote a number of short on-line business programmes too. Most notably she is author of a 30 hour on-line course concerned with the challenges of setting up and running a rural business.

As a consultant she has worked in a strategic role for many companies large and small in the south west, nationally and internationally. She is particularly skilled in enabling business owners to develop their own strategic direction, in challenging misconceptions and working with executives to think through business issues creatively.

She has developed her own very practical model to assist business owners in evaluating the benefits of networking. She implemented this with clients nationwide.

Kath was founder and chair until 2009)of a SW based women’s networking group, SWIRE, which continues to flourish today. She also served on the Governing Body of Somerset College in Taunton and chaired the Quality and Curriculum committee for many years.

Trained initially as a Lawyer then Consultant and Project Leader P.E. Inbucon with various assignments; Glass, Chemicals, Manufacturing and Distribution. From 1973 was a partner with leading Commercial Solicitors in Scotland.

Specialising since 1980 in developing Franchising Licensing Concepts in Fast-Foods, Restaurants, Signs and Printing, Retail, Interior Decorating, Mobile Services, etc.

Michael has been involved with client companies from USA, France, Spain and from large to SME’s in the UK. Michael has lectured and written extensively on the subject in specialist franchise magazines, guides and text books and various commercial journals.

Founder of Solicitors Financial Services - the Solicitors Financial Co-operative.

With Crisp Group, Michael has developed marketing strategies and implemented plans for professional practices, such as Solictiors, Consulting Engineers, Insurance Brokers as well as developing franchise concepts such as Riverford Organics, Oggy Oggy Pasty Co., etc.

1999 - 2001 had a lengthy secondment to establish a leading directional drilling business to remediate contaminated land.

Mike is also a Public Relations Specialist and works closely with some of our clients in this area.

Jon has strong business development and marketing experience, formerly working successfully in developing the HP/Compaq & Oracle relationships into the number one alliance partnership for two years running.

He has proven experience in business development, managing and planning at the strategic and operational levels - having developed and launched new products and services.

He brings to Crisp over 15 years of business development and sales experience.

Helen joined the Crisp Group in 2005. Her role is to oversee the development and management of the company’s open and in-house business skills and personal advancement programmes, executive coaching and the ILM programme. She is also a very active contributor to CPD’s Business Management training programme.

Helen has over 25 years of experience in consulting and training programme design, development and implementation. She has a host of relevant and successful management and leadership experience gained through both the ownership and management of businesses in the USA and the UK.

Her very active career has included the management of an international franchise operation and a partnership in a Florida based management and consulting agency which specialised in mounting tailored management and business skills seminars for major US corporate organisations, health providers, educational establishments, charities and commercial enterprises of all sizes.

Bill’s particular focus is developing in-house training. With over 25 years experience in the business world, Bill’s experience has ranged from Radio Journalism, PR account management,taking over and successfully running the family business to working in the West Country as a General Manager and Company Ambassador for a multi-national. The later role led Bill into training and to a long association with influential bodies such as Business Link, Exter Chamber of Commerce and the Education Business Partnership.

As well as working on identifying and developing client’s training needs, Bill is an active trainer specialising in Sales and the ILM programme.

Soozie is the first point of contact for Crisp Professional Development.

She has over 35 years of experience in the Customer Relations field and has a diverse range of management experience gained through working with businesses in Australia, Europe and the UK.

Her career spans across the Airline industry, a well-known UK and International Conference company and prior to joining Crisp Group she was responsible for implementing the current CRM programme within the Mercedes Benz franchisees throughout the South West of England.

Having qualified with a BSc (Hons) in Information Technology at Manchester Metropolitan University. Donna has over 10 years experience in web development and eCommerce coupled with an interest in making the most of the Web’s potential for promotion and business development.

Interested in all things digital, Donna’s role is crucial in allowing our clients to get the most out of their web site. This expertise, together with proven project management and client liaison skills allows her to effectively deliver client projects on time, within budget and without confusion.

Unlike many web developers, John’s commercial sense and strong communication skills have enabled clients to achieve far more with their web site than is usually possible. The attention to detail applied to every aspect of system architecture, database design and coding ensures maximum speed and compatibility with the minimum of errors.

John’s responsibilities include the structure and functionality behind every web site or ecommerce solution and he will often be involved with larger projects to offer technical consultancy and practical advice. John is an Adobe Certified Expert in Advanced ColdFusion and manages the Adobe ColdFusion User Group for Devon in his spare time.

Andy has a well deserved reputation for producing stunning visual designs for web sites both large and small. His ability to blend the client’s design brief with his own experience and knowledge has proved to be very popular, bringing even the most challenging ideas to fruition within budget

Andy is fluent in all the major technologies including HTML5 Flex, Flash and CSS with special emphasis being placed on accessibly design and other important standards.