Who we are

Michael Gray

Michael is an Economics graduate from Bristol University. He worked for 3 years as a marketing analyst at Mitsubishi Electric (UK) Limited where he was responsible for all qualitative and quantitative research into the consumer electronics market. In June 1984, he was elected to the role of vice chairman of the British Radio and Electrical Equipment Manufacturers' Association (BREMA).

Moved to Marketing Solutions (the largest specialist marketing consultancy in the UK and part of the Boase Massimi Pollitt Partnership), where he spent a further 3 years. Worked as an account planner on a wide variety of marketing projects for clients including the British Waterways Board, British Telecom, Sinclair Research, The Mortgage Corporation, Nabisco Foods (Grocery Division) and ICL.

Briefly assisted in the establishment of a New Business Development Unit within Marketing Solutions, before being promoted to the position of consultant/account manager. Further strategic and tactical marketing projects undertaken for clients including British Telecom, The Meteorological Office, Coca Cola and Schweppes Beverages Ltd, Sketchley plc and Allied Breweries.

Set up Gray Associates Ltd in August 1987.

Howard Gray

Before joining Gray Associates, Howard worked for Daniel J Edelman Ltd, an international public relations consultancy. As an account manager in their large publications division, Howard was responsible for the writing and editing of a wide variety of corporate publications, from glossy magazines to sales brochures. Some of these publications were produced as an integrated part of a public relations campaign, others were designed to exist in their own right as, for example, magazines sent to a company's customers and other interested parties.

Howard also spent some years in magazine publishing prior to joining Edelman's, working on the editorial team of a group of arts magazines. Since joining Gray Associates, he has written on a wide range of business subjects and has produced magazines, brochures and multimedia presentations for a variety of clients, including BT, Network Rail, Martin Dawes and O2. Howard has an English degree from the University of East Anglia.

Simon Priestley (Senior Consultant: Contact Centres)

Simon has seven years experience of contact centre senior management in change/ development roles, always in multi-site, multi-skill operations of 800 - 4000 agents. Following senior management roles at AIR MILES Travel Promotions Ltd, part of British Airways and T-Mobile, his latest role was as Head of Capacity and Yield, Thomas Cook Sales Centres, based Peterborough. Fast payback major transformations that Simon has worked on include: three workforce management solution implementations including Europe's first 1000 agent Blue Pumpkin install; the first Virtual Contact Centre in Europe built on Energis /Aspect technology for intelligent call routing; and the implementation of a queue management system. He has also worked on several process, integration and business improvement projects including: three planning & forecasting process implementations based on own business models; optimisation of resource management processes, optimisation of contact routing structures, contact / resource integration; call quality monitoring systems implementations, procedures and standards; multi-media systems including Email, SMS and web chat; and bespoke integrated MI & balanced scorecard solutions. Simon is a regular conference speaker on call centre & workforce optimisation, including Call Centre Expo 2003, Customer Service Excellence Forum 2003, Customer Contact Solutions 2004, European Contact Centre Summit 2004. He worked on change and automation project management for several years before working in contact centres.

Philippa Sidle

An Oxford English graduate, Philippa began her career as a journalist writing for the computer games press. She moved into publishing and PR, working first to promote business and management books, and then in the corporate communications department of AEA Technology where she wrote and produced corporate brochures and a magazine for schools. From there she became a consultant with Le Fevre Communications, a full service PR agency with a broad client base. As well as managing communications for international ingredients manufacturer Cerestar, she provided specialised writing support for every other account handled by the agency - including BT, Lloyds TSB, HFC Bank, computer games giant Eidos and many other financial, trade, technical and consumer clients. Started working for Gray Associates in mid 1999.

Richard Gregory

Richard is the principal of Richard Gregory Design Company, an independent design company that specialises in the creation and production of corporate identities, corporate and promotional communications, advertising and design for print. His career in design dates back to 1971, since when Richard has held senior positions at several major design and advertising agencies including Marketing Solutions, Edward Briscoe Design and Primary Contact. Richard is currently also a part time lecturer at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design.

Stewart Bickel

Trained at the London School of Printing, Stewart is the principal of Supergiant Publishing, a design and production studio located in the West End of London. Stewart's work experience spans many years of creative writing and magazine production working for major publishing houses - as well as for Trinity Publishing, a state-of-the-art production and repro house. Stewart set up Supergiant Publishing in 1993.