Our Team

Managing Director

Martin is a self proclaimed workaholic and the founder of Professional Academy. As a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and the Institute of Sales and Marketing (ISMM) he successfully blends a broad range of business disciplines. Coupled with his in-depth knowledge of all areas of business and keen interest in IT and programming, and financial management skills, Martin leads by example.

He is often asked to speak at conferences and events on a wide range of subjects ranging from Internet Strategy, Sales and Motivation. Martin is a sales person at heart and has written on the subject for a wide range of purposes not least the material used in Cambridge Professional Academy's sales training programmes.

Having started his career as a welder, progressing on to a range of senior sales and marketing roles, Martin has been either MD or General Manager since the age of 25 for whoever he has worked for.

An energetic, positive individual who seeks to inspire and motivate everybody he works with, Martin never shies away from a challenge and revels in the ups and downs of running a business.

When he is not working you will often see him buzzing around the skies in a four seat light aircraft as the proud holder of his Private Pilots License.

Operations Manager

Sarah has held management positions in retail and retail banking in various different areas of the country from Staffordshire to Wales, Hertfordshire and London. After a career break, to have her children, she joined the Professional Academy in October 2019 and now looks after the students and training staff involved in our apprenticeship programmes. In her spare time when not driving Mum’s taxis, Sarah loves to garden and cook and enjoys spending time with friends and family.

Senior Qualifications Adviser

Philip left school and took a year to expand his horizons and embrace some of the sights and sounds of Europe, before heading to University to complete a degree in Drama. To help balance his university life he was a prominent figure in the university Rugby team, regularly playing and leading the social events. Following the completion of his BA (Hons) in Drama Philip undertook a short tour for a Children’s theatre company before falling into a career in hospitality for 6 years.

During this time Philip also became a Dad and now pushes his dreams of a professional rugby career on his son whilst enjoying arranging the next adventure to zoos, farms, seasides and theme parks.

Undertaking various roles within hotels Philip has developed a very adaptable and varied approach to work through a diverse range of challenges from refurbishments to re-branding. With a heavy focus on Customer Service, Philip now effectively uses his skills in a Sales environment. With Philip now undertaking the Qualifications Advisor role he will be able to do what he does best, meet with people and get to know their needs with the view to overcoming challenges together. 

Downtime for Philip includes terrible TV and a continued interest in Rugby following the England team’s ups and downs.

To find out more about Philip’s career history feel free to look into his LinkedIn Profile.

Student Support

After leaving school Ethan joined Needham market football club Academy where he began to chase his dream further to become a professional footballer. He also started in a customer service-based role in a local restaurant.

He wants to use the skills in customer service that he has gained over the last year to help him better himself and see the other side of customer service. Ethan is a very sport orientated individual trying to stay at peak fitness by continuing his football or spending most days in the gym. He also loves spending time with his friends and trying to jet away to some of his favourite countries.

Apprenticeship Adviser

Wendy started her career working in the travel industry as a Travel Agent where she also studied travel & tourism on a Youth trainee scheme. She discovered a passion for seeing the world during this time and was lucky enough to visit many countries. Her passion for travel has never left and she still spends a lot of her spare time researching with country to visit next!

Since leaving the travel industry she has worked in various sales/ account management roles within various industries including property, finance & more recently the leisure industry.

Wendy realised quite early on in her career that working in a sales environment was what she loved and giving clients great customer service is really important to her. Her love of working as part of a team and building relationships brought her to her role as an Apprenticeship Adviser at Professional Academy in March 2020. She's looking forward to building relationships with Professional Academy’s existing apprenticeship client base as well as bringing on board new businesses to work with us.

Hayley comes from a retail background, originally to earn those extra few pounds for the weekend as a teenager, but soon developed into a genuine love for customer service and meeting new people every day. After completing a degree in Film and Television Production, Hayley continued down the retail path until she figured out what she wanted to do with these newly acquired skills.

The answer was revealed when the opportunity to join Professional Academy emerged. Now Hayley spends her time creating ideas and content for future video blogs and campaigns as well as building the new online system for eLearning, working closely with both the marketing and operations departments. She is very much looking forward to working more directly with students in the future. In the working environment Hayley adopts an organised approach with a tidy desk and lots of colour coding! Hayley prides herself on being hard working and a team player.

Growing up with two older brothers, Hayley is not the most girlish of girls and on many weekends you will find her enjoying a pint of cider watching some sporting activity or another. She of course has a very keen interest in the film industry which inspired her choice of degree, and can talk for hours about films and actors with anyone who will listen (with a special interest in Tom Hardy). She is also partial to a bit of vinyl collecting.

Apprenticeship Administrator

Dominik was born in Poland but began living in Cambridge in 2013. Back in Poland he worked in different roles: from salesman, through office support to DJ in a local club, recording singles and tons of remixes on the way as a producer. For several years he has been part of Lublin Film Group where he coordinated international actions, assisted on the set and played a few minor roles in short movies. He hopes that one day he will be able to convert his hobbies into a way of living.

Dominik holds a Bachelors degree in British Linguistics and teaching qualifications from his country, although his work never went further in that direction than private tutoring. For the last decade, he has been working for many different companies, mainly in the fields of customer service and administration.

Qualifications Tutor

Philip has over 40 years of sales and marketing experience, mainly in the engineering sector. His experience varies from airfield lighting, nuclear power, water treatment and railway signalling. He has taught for over 30 years for FE Colleges and Universities. He has taught topics from HR, Management, Marketing, Purchasing and Project Management on courses from accountancy to, believe it or not, zoology. He is also a PRINCE2 Practitioner.

Philip now shares his extensive experience by supporting Professional Academy's learners with their CIM Marketing, ISM Sales, and CMI Management Qualifications.

Business Admin Apprentice

Whilst studying media makeup at Cambridge Regional College, Shannia worked in the hospitality industry as a waitress and then supervisor. During the pandemic this role was paused so she decided to do something different and pursue a career in business administration.

She is now a Student Support Administrator at Professional Academy while completing her Business Admin Apprenticeship! Shannia helps support learners with their studies, assignments, and exams, and also manages workshops and book packs.