About SDI

Anne is the CEO of SDI. She specialises in partnering with organisations to design and implement leadership development programmes where learning is real, strategic, aligned and results in significant individual and collective action. She is also a dedicated executive coach to leaders and teams, creating psychologically safe spaces where thinking and behaviour can be holistically explored, challenged and changed. 

Anne holds an MSc in Managing Change and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts & Manufacture (RSA).   As a thought leader, she is co-editor of the book  ‘Developing Leaders for Real’, is the Editor-in-Chief of a peer-reviewed international journal called ‘Development & Learning in Organizations’  and speaks regularly on the latest trends in leadership development.

She was a founding director, trustee and past chair of the UK registered charity, Centre for Self Managed Learning, a non-executive Director of the Stackpole Centre (as part of the registered Charity ‘Ability’) and has been a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Innovation in Education at Sussex University.

Before her 30 years in consultancy, her career spanned leadership, HR and L&D roles in small, medium, and blue-chip organisations, both in the UK and Europe.

Ben has been actively involved with Self Managed Learning for more than 30 years and has published articles and co-authored four books in Self Managed Learning, coaching and work-based learning.  He has spent the greater part of his career as a researcher, consultant and practitioner in the fields of individual and organisational learning.  His academic work included time as a senior lecturer in individual and organisational development at the University of Westminster. 

Ian is the former chair and a founding director of SDI. He is the originator of the Self Manged Learning approach, developing the theory and establishing its name in the late 1970s.  Ian left the Board of the company in 2021 to devote more time to the Self Managed Learning College based in Sussex, UK. He founded the College in 2000 and serves as its Chair of Governors.  SML College is currently the key project of the UK registered charity, Centre for Self Managed Learning Limited, bringing the SML experience to young people aged 9 to 16. Previously, as Chair of SDI, Ian worked as a consultant to organizations around the world for over 40 years. He held visiting professorships at universities in Hungary, India, the UK and the USA . He was the Chief Executive of Roffey Park Management Institute from 1987 to 1993.  He has published 8 books and over 100 articles and papers on education, organisational change, learning, strategic management, leadership and management development, self-management and cross-cultural management.

Liz is COO with SDI and works with organisations and individuals at all levels. She assists with organisation-wide and personal change and has extensive public and private sector experience at a senior level. She has a practical knowledge of HR, leadership, change and operational management, business excellence, culture change, team working and management development.

Liz has held senior roles in both line and HR management and has successfully led large teams through extensive periods of change. She is a skilled facilitator with extensive experience as a Self Managed Learning group adviser.