Management Team

Simon Philips, Chairman

Simon Philips, Chairman of KnowledgePool, is an experienced entrepreneur in the technology services sector, and has considerable expertise in both deal structuring and operational management. He graduated from Cambridge University with a first class honours in engineering and initially worked for Bain & Company in London. He is currently chairman of KnowledgePool Group Ltd and Autocue Group Ltd, and a non-executive director of IGG Holdings Ltd, Adval Group plc, Country Foods Limited and Mettoni Group Limited. Simon has made several other principal investments in the technology and support services sector, with a strong track record of wealth creation.

Paul Jefferson, CEO

Paul Jefferson joined KnowledgePool in 2004. He has nearly 20 years' experience in management consultancy and operational roles, including seven years as a consultant with global firm A.T. Kearney, working on assignments across operations, supply chain management and procurement including in Hungary, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. His consultancy experience included training for a financial services company in strategic sourcing. He holds an MBA from INSEAD and an engineering degree from the University of Cambridge.

Lindsay Grieve, Chief Operating Officer

Lindsay Grieve joined from Centrica, where he spent 22 years in operational management, programme management, training and development, human resources, marketing and business planning roles. He established and managed a new customer service support organisation and created a central co-ordination unit to manage the 25 million calls that Centrica receives from customers each year. He holds an MBA from the University of Bath. Lindsay's role centres on formalising client relationship and customer service functions to provide improved support to clients at both the corporate and individual levels.

Kath Grover, Finance & People Director

Kath Grover joined KnowledgePool in 2004. She is a Chartered Accountant with 14 years post-qualification business experience gained in dynamic fast growth companies. She has responsibilities for all aspects of the finance function including the role of Company Secretary. Her responsibilities also include Human Resources, Facilities and legal functions. As well as having considerable experience of managing day to day administrative operations she has experience of raising and managing Venture Capital funding, floating companies on both the London Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, and on the acquisition and sale of companies.

Kevin Lovell, Learning Strategy Director

Working in Learning & Development since 1994, Kevin has a wide range of experience delivering learning solutions for large organisations in Financial Services, IT Services, Retail, Central Government and Utilities. Kevin has designed, developed and delivered many blended learning solutions, including pan-European interventions to multiple regions in the local language. Building on his experience of performance and needs analysis, he has developed KnowledgePool's innovative approach to evaluating learning outcomes, also offering strategic learning consultancy to KnowledgePool's clients. Kevin has an MSC in Training and Performance Management.

Craig Hyslop, Account Director

Craig Hyslop was one of the co-founders of the managed training services company Business Training Partnership (BTP) which was acquired by KnowledgePool Group in March 2008. Craig has been instrumental in developing the vendor independent learning outsourcing model since 1998, and has implemented a variety of long standing Managed Training Service solutions for clients. He brings a wealth of industry experience with extensive knowledge of pan-European training suppliers and has a very clear understanding of the value proposition an outsourced learning service can deliver to clients. Craig continues to lead the former BTP Sales operation within Knowledgepool whilst providing knowledge and support to the wider business development areas of the business.

Al Bird, Learning Consultancy Director

Al joined from Accenture, where he spent over 11 years, latterly as Business Development Director of Accenture Learning, responsible for promoting Accenture's learning and HR outsourcing services across Europe. Al's role involves working closely with KnowledgePool's business development team, where he works with prospective clients to define the business case for outsourcing aspects of their L&D activity. He also oversees the ongoing development of the company's market offering. Al holds a Masters in Physics from the University of Oxford and a Masters in Cognitive Ergonomics from University College London.