Antony Smith

Antony is the lead coach and facilitator for Pals. As a qualified training consultant, Antony has made a real difference to businesses and individuals. Before Pals he successfully worked freelance and as consultant for the UK’s biggest overseas tour operator and the leading provider of UK holidays, Thomson/ TUI.

Born and brought up in Cambridgeshire, Antony left home to study Spanish language and tourism in Madrid. To pay for his studies in Spain, he worked as a student guide and tour manager during the summer breaks as well as teaching English in an institute and recording English tapes for language laboratories. He returned to England at the age of 23 to run his own business, a pizza and pasta restaurant, whilst finding time to further his Spanish studies at the Spanish Institute in London.

Feeling the pull of overseas once more, Antony returned to Spain after a few years to work as Tour Manager for Spanish, then Italian, cities. Staying overseas for eleven years he furthered his career as Area Manager based first in Venice, then Málaga and the Dodecanese Islands before taking on the role of Regional Trainer in Southern Spain. Returning to the UK he continued in the training role, travelling frequently to the Eastern Mediterranean.

More recently he was Training Manager for over two years for Bourne Leisure, the UK’s leading leisure group, heading up training and development for over four thousand team members. Antony likes to maintain his knowledge of the tourist industry by taking overseas and UK tours when the schedule allows.

Member of
CIPD

Christine McKee, Consultant

As an experienced trainer, facilitator and executive coach, Christine has spent more than ten years developing individuals, teams and organisations to achieve success.

Having studied Business Studies, Human Resources and Training, Christine joined the UK’s leading tour operator for a Summer season in 1992.  Ten years later she returned to the UK.  Having developed a diverse range of skills from successes in various roles, Christine also became skilled at using her flair and passion as a facilitator of learning.

Within the travel business, Christine has worked in several European countries including Spain, Portugal, Italy and France.  She developed skill in customer facing roles and applied her knowledge and skill of business and people management in roles including Area Manager, Sales Manager, Business Development and Trainer.  During this period of her career, Christine was seconded to a project team to set up a new call centre in Glasgow.

Christine returned to the UK to her home of Fife and joined a leading Scottish HR and Training Consultancy as Learning & Development Consultant in 2003.  Over the next 5 years, Christine progressed to the role of Senior Consultant and built a varied portfolio of experience including diagnosis, design, delivery and evaluation of many development programmes for a whole host of clients across all spectrums of business and industry.  Latterly, Christine has also been involved in developing several teams of training professionals in their own field and has inspired a more learner centred, brain friendly approach to training and development in both her colleagues as well as her clients.

Christine is passionate about allowing individuals to find the answers in themselves and as an executive coach she has also helped clients to unlock their own potential to solve issues, problems and blockages in their own performance.

Now based once again on the South coast and intermittently in Scotland, Christine has been involved in projects in both Spain and Italy as well as imminent moves into projects based in the USA. 

Speaking 3 languages, Christine is fluent in Spanish, can get by in Italian and, though fairly rusty, is proficient in French.  Her interests include travel, cookery, exploring culture and history, self development, writing, fitness, latin dancing and yoga.

Member of
CIPD

Jacquelyn Ross - Raynor

As an experienced trainer and Tour Manager, Jacqui enjoys being with people and using her training, experience and skills to maximise their enjoyment of a tour or reach their full potential in whichever travel industry field they have chosen.

Brought up in a RAF family, Jacqui spent her earlier life constantly moving, but time in France and Germany made it easier for those two languages to become fluent. Initially her training as a tri-lingual interpreter led to jobs in Brussels working with the EEC and later in Geneva with United Nations.

After a nine month overland journey on public transport from London to India in her early 30’s, she spent the following three years in Europe as a freelance Exhibition manager, representing companies at major exhibitions in Germany, France and Italy before accepting a position in Athens as an English teacher. A year later found her in Chicago working for an Exhibition company, handling all the logistics including staff training of large conventions and exhibitions in New York, Chicago and Japan. After three years, she moved to Florida to run a business on the east coast.

During a visit to Australia five years later, Jacqui accepted work in the ski industry as a Project Manager, training staff and facilitating the building of the resorts at Perisher Valley and Smiggins Holes. She remained in Australia working as a freelance trainer in the hospitality and IT industry before opening her own fitness centre in 1994. During an interlude in 1989 she explored Africa overland for eight months by truck, travelling through 19 countries and doing volunteer work in Congo and Central African Republic.

Returning to UK in 2000, she worked full time for five years with the leading tour operator as a Guest Services Manager/Rep on their Long Haul programme in the Caribbean, Africa and Egypt and Short Haul in Italy, mainland Spain and the Canary Islands. She is currently working as a trainer and freelance Tour Manager in UK and taking groups into Europe.

Simona Garoscio

Being half Italian and half English it seemed only natural to move overseas after completing her college course in Sports and Leisure.

Signing up with the UK ’s largest tour operator in 1989 she was posted to the Canary Islands, a far cry from her native Nottingham but she never looked back. During her 17 years with a the tour operator she worked a couple of summers in the Balearics but her main stay was Tenerife which she made her home and where she still lives today with her husband and animals.

Her 17 years in Tenerife have been varied, same company different positions, from repping to admin, Team Manager to Office Manager and all the bits in between. Simona finally found her niche in training in 2000 and latterly held the position of Training Manager for Spain and Portugal . Having training and development responsibility for all front line, back office and Management staff was certainly a tall order but one that ensured enormous personal development and experience. All of this really cemented her passion for training and development and a few years later she decided to take the skills, experience and learning from her time in the hospitality and leisure sector and set up as an independent.

The rekindling of her friendship with Anthony and their mutual goals saw the birth of Pals.

Simona speaks Spanish and rusty Italian. When she is not working she enjoys researching on the net, walking her dogs and catching up with friends, she would love to cook but has been banned from the kitchen after so many culinary disasters.

Member of
CIPD

Naetha Uren

As an experienced trainer/consultant and counsellor, Naetha has an infectious passion for hospitality, customer service and people and performance.

Naetha was born in the UK and raised in the USA, after graduating she went on to become a licensed counsellor working within both private and public facilities. After several years Naetha returned to the UK where she incorporated her counselling and people skills with a career in hospitality management; due to her enthusiasm for travel and customer service. The next natural step was to use her knowledge and skills as a consultant and trainer.

Of late, she has been involved in culture change within the hospitality industry and supporting teams in properties that are changing owners.

Naetha enjoys reading, creative writing, theatre, good food (especially Thai) with good friends and travel in her spare time. She lives with her partner in Hertfordshire.