Apex Leadership Co. was founded in 2017 by two former HR directors who had spent a combined 30 years buying leadership training for large organisations. They kept running into the same problem: workshops full of theory that participants forgot within a fortnight. The slide decks were polished, the facilitators were charming, but nothing changed back at the office.
So they built something different. Our first workshop ran in a rented room in Birmingham with nine participants, no slides and a stack of real scenarios pulled from actual workplaces. Every minute was spent practising, not listening. Participants gave feedback to each other, made mistakes in a safe environment, and left with written notes about what to do differently.
That first cohort referred enough colleagues to fill the next three sessions. Word spread. By 2019 we had a permanent training space in Great Maggio and a team of four facilitators. Today we run roughly 40 workshops a year and have trained over 1,200 managers from more than 80 organisations across England.
We still do not use slides. We still cap every session at 14 people. The format works, and we see no reason to dilute it.
These five commitments shape every workshop we design and deliver.
Participants spend at least 70% of each workshop day in active exercises: role-plays, case studies, paired feedback sessions. We believe people learn management skills the same way they learn to drive: by doing it, not by reading about it.
We never run a session with more than 14 people. This is not a marketing gimmick. It is a practical limit that ensures every participant gets direct, individual feedback from a facilitator during the day.
Our facilitators are trained to give specific, constructive criticism. We do not soften observations to the point where they lose meaning. Participants tell us this directness is what makes the experience stick.
Every exercise is based on situations drawn from actual UK workplaces. We update our scenario library twice a year to keep it current. Generic case studies from American MBA textbooks do not reflect the context our participants work in.
Each participant leaves with a written action plan. For our five-day intensive, a facilitator checks in by email at the 30-day and 90-day marks to see how implementation is going. Training without follow-up is a waste of everyone's time.
Our facilitation team brings a mix of corporate management experience, coaching qualifications and a shared belief that training should be practical above all else.
Co-founder and lead facilitator
Helen spent 16 years as HR director at two FTSE 250 companies before co-founding Apex Leadership Co. She designed our conflict workshop and personally facilitates most of the five-day intensives. She holds an ICF Professional Certified Coach credential and a master's degree in organisational psychology from Birkbeck, University of London.
Co-founder and programme designer
Marcus ran learning and development for a multinational engineering firm for 14 years. He writes our scenario exercises and manages the relationship with the actors we bring in for the conflict workshop. He is a chartered member of the CIPD and holds a postgraduate diploma in executive coaching from Henley Business School.
Facilitator
Sana joined the team in 2021 after seven years as a team lead and then operations manager in the NHS. She facilitates our new manager foundations programme and brings a public-sector perspective that resonates with participants from government, healthcare and education. She completed her coaching certification through the Association for Coaching in 2020.
Facilitator
Tom came to us from a fintech startup where he managed a product team of 22. He facilitates the strategic decision-making workshop and is particularly good at pushing experienced leaders out of familiar thinking patterns. He holds an MBA from Warwick Business School and has completed over 400 hours of facilitation with Apex Leadership Co. since 2022.
Since 2017, these figures have grown steadily through referrals and repeat bookings rather than advertising spend.
The recommendation figure comes from post-workshop surveys we send to every participant. We have collected responses from 87% of all attendees since we started tracking in 2019. The question asks: "Would you recommend this workshop to a colleague in a similar role?" 94% answered yes.