Management Team

Chairman

Paul Williams

Paul was born in Wales but grew up in South London.  He has a degree in Law from Sussex University and Masters in Business Administration from the London Business School, after which he worked in a number of Sales and Marketing roles in both B2B and B2C markets.  In 1996 he moved to Newcastle where he ran the UK business of the US Contact Centre Service Provider Convergys , and then in 2003 founded his own company – Voicentric. From 2004 when the first Life Science company started with Voicentric, Paul saw the opportunity of this specialist niche, and progressively built up the organisation from its origins in Consett, Co. Durham, to moving to Durham City and then to establishing second and third offices.  Paul has built up a very knowledgeable and capable management team who run the day to day affairs of the company and he recently has started to take an increasingly back seat involvement. In his youth Paul played a lot of sport, principally being a rugby Fly Half through school, university and Club rugby .  Today he plays less dangerous sports like tennis, cycling and golf, although he does present a danger to anyone on an adjacent fairway who can’t hear the shout “Fore!”.  He still has his old vinyl records from the 1970’s and will argue with anyone that it was the best decade for music and film.  History and contemporary politics complete Paul’s list of interests.

Managing Director

Ali Turner

Ali grew up in the North East, attending local schools before relocating to Birmingham and subsequently London, where he studied English Language & Linguistics. He subsequently completed a BA in Music at the Open University.

Following stints in the charity, HR and recruitment sectors and having narrowly escaped the prospect of a career in local government, Ali joined Voicentric in 2009, initially on a temporary basis. The best part of a decade later he his still here, having realised at a relatively early stage that he’d wandered into a truly unique environment, where the accommodation of his passion for leadership and the thrill of “mission accomplished” would be unrivalled. Over the years, graduating from the role of Advisor, to Supervisor, Programme Manager and latterly General Manager, he has amassed experience on every campaign type and is perfectly positioned to advise any client on how to get the best results from their project investment. These days, Ali is responsible for all client activity and internal operations, at the heart of which lies the responsibility of helping a dynamic, talented and fast-growing team drive its success.

Away from work, Ali is a keen outdoor survivalist and can be spotted wandering through any number of the British Isles’ remaining wildernesses (he confesses, ‘not least of all to escape the sound of his own voice’). When not adding to his post-apocalypse toolkit, he can generally be found enjoying the company of his two daughters (a.k.a. ‘drill instructor 1 & 2’), making loud noises on guitars and planning his next ill-conceived jaunt into the wild.

Client Services Director

James McVicker

James was born and grew up in Durham but studied Biological Sciences at Oxford University, attending Balliol College. Prior to joining Voicentric in 2013, James was the Field Coordinator of a sea turtle conservation project on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. His initial work with Voicentric provided the flexibility and funds to pursue his real interests of travelling the world conducting wildlife research and conservation work.

After extensive wildlife research in the Canadian Rockies, and then charity work facilitating the creation of evacuation plans in areas at high risk from natural disasters in the Philippines, James returned to Voicentric in 2015 to work full time as a team leader and quickly moved into a Programme Manager role. James continues to have a passion for wildlife conservation and likes to explore different countries and their cultures when time permits. He enjoys playing squash and has an eclectic collection of musical instruments, primarily playing the electric violin and alto saxophone.

Business Development Lead

Côme Ponroy

Côme was born in Paris but grew up in the Charolais (Burgundy) region of France.  This was punctuated by 5 years Middle East before returning to France for his Baccalaureate at the Lycée International de Lyon. He moved to Durham do a  Masters Degree in Ancient History and Archaeology at the University of Durham which involved yearly involvement in Ukrainian, French and Spanish archaeological excavation programmes.

Fluent in both French and English Côme started working at Voicentric in 2015 and quickly established himself as an outstanding performer.  He was appointed a Programme Manager in January 2016.

Côme is a rugby enthusiast who played rugby on the wing for Lyon Rugby Club.  Now married with a young son, he no longer plays but still follows it closely.  He is an avid reader of French Literature and an aficionado of Burgundy wines.

Senior Client Relationship Manager & Voicentric Trustee

Connie Twyman

Connie, a self-confessed anglophile, came to the UK from Stuttgart, Germany to study at Newcastle University before joining Voicentric in 2011. She has a PhD in Marine Ecology and Microbiology, bringing to the table a valuable mix of disciplinary understanding, multicultural appreciation and project management skills. In her role as Programme Manager, Connie is directly responsible for client programmes; maintaining key client relationships and managing multi-linguistics teams to ensure campaign success.

Recruitment Specialist

Flavie Pommiès

Flavie was born in Dax in the south of France.  She got her Masters Degree in English Language, Literature and Civilisation at the University of Pau. After university she spent 5 years in Nevada and California, teaching French and working as a telemarketer before moving to London and to the North East of England.

In 2012 she started working at Voicentric on French speaking campaigns before moving to a local International Recruitment company.  In 2015 Flavie then returned to Voicentric where she is now responsible for recruitment, which is a permanent ongoing process at Voicentric.

Outside of work Flavie enjoys music, cooking, cinema and literature.  She continues to have a passion for travelling and discovering new cultures.

Senior Programme Manager

Paul Reavley

Paul was born and grew up in Durham before leaving for Leeds Beckett University where he studied for a Degree in Politics.

Alongside and following University Paul worked in a bookstore, indulging in a love for literature. On returning to Durham in 2014 he started working at Voicentric, where his qualities quickly became apparent and he was made a Programme Manager at the beginning of 2015.  While working on client campaigns Paul became the first person to work directly in Salesforce.com and soon became a skilled user of this and other CRM solutions.  Working in CRMs has become a focal point of our work here at Voicentric and Paul is Voicentric’s “Go To” person whenever we have queries or are trying to optimise our interaction with this medium.

Paul is a keen football player and supporter. As a lifelong Sunderland fan he has developed a thick skin and been given some heavy doses of reality, punctuated by occasional moments of unbridled joy.  He also enjoys hiking in the Lakes with his partner and 2 daughters, growing vegetables and is an avid Radio 4 listener.

Senior Programme Manager

Rieke Hinrichs

Rieke was born in Wilhemshaven, Lower Saxony in North Germany. She is a Certified Multilingual Administrative Assistant of the Euro Akademie Oldenburg, and has a Degree in Management, Business and Administration from Leeds Metropolitan University.

Rieke first worked for Voicentric in 2012 while she studied in Durham. Post University Rieke gained practical experiences in different sales and customer service roles in Germany but also spent a couple of months working in Spanish hotels to practice her favourite language (and spend time on the beach). In 2014 Rieke returned to Durham and started working again at Voicentric. As the company grew she was quick to progress and now manages different accounts at Voicentric, working as a Programme Manager.

Rieke is still a great fan of warm climates and never lets slip an opportunity to visit Spain or Mexico to improve her Spanish. Her hobbies also include literature and sport and in her youth she was an accomplished horseback gymnast – i.e. performing gymnastics while on a galloping horse!

Senior Programme Manager

Ben Jiggins

Ben was born in London and grew up in Southern England before moving North to Durham to study for a BSc in Natural Science with a focus in Biology and Chemistry. After graduating he taught science in a local school for six years while studying for a Masters in Education. He switched careers to join Voicentric in early 2016 and was appointed as a Programme Manager in January 2017. Alongside managing campaigns for various clients Ben also takes a lead on ensuring the various internal cogs of the Voicentric machine keep turning smoothly.

Ben also has experience in team leadership and event, project and facilities management through his involvement in a local church.  He is known for his efficiency, his competitive nature, and his habit of making lists.  Outside of work, Ben is lover of sports, hill walking, reading and board games.

Programme Manager

Aude Croguennec

Programme Manager

Loredana Trifanov

Loredana was born in Botoșani, Romania, and has a Bachelor’s Degree in Foreign languages (French and Spanish) as well as a Master’s Degree in Marketing and Business Communication from one of the best universities in Romania, Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Iași.

She’s held different positions in a multinational company in Romania (last of which was as an Asset Coordinator), before moving to the UK in spring 2013. She joined Voicentric in 2014 and is now proud to be one of our Programme Manager.

She used to lead her old school’s gymnastics team, now most of her exercise consists in running after her two year old daughter (she says laughing). Most of her spare time is dedicated to family activities and city breaks, which are the best excuse to reunite with old friends.

Programme Manager

Elena Matucci

Elena is Italian and was born in the beautiful city of Firenze (or Florence to us Anglophones).  She has a degree in Asian studies from the University of Bologna, which she likes to point out is the oldest University in the world (established in 1088) and is almost 750 years older than Durham University!  But she came to Durham anyway and got her Masters Degree in International Relations. Elena also lived in China before moving to the UK, thus experiencing life in three quite different countries.

Elena started at Voicentric in 2016, and the company quickly discovered that it is incredibly helpful to have someone who is fluent in Italian, French, Spanish, English and Mandarin!  She is now a Programme Manager and directly works with the teams to ensure client objectives are met.

Outside work, Elena enjoys travelling, dancing (swing and blues) and dining out with friends. However, she loves nothing more than a night in with a good book or movie and her cat.

Programme Manager

George Wing

George was born and raised in South-East London before braving it ‘oop North’ for his undergraduate degree at Durham University. Three degrees and ten years later, George is still living in Durham and hasn’t decided to ‘gan yam’ (go home).

George is one of our Programme Managers, and over the years he has gotten involved in several roles such as delivering product demonstrations and coaching our staff. George is a problem-solver and likes nothing more than diving into databases and reports to crunch numbers. He is also passionate about other cultures, so George enjoys the diversity of the office as well as the global reach of our campaigns.

During his time at Voicentric, George has also won a Student Employee of the Year Award. George’s award takes pride of place on the wall of our main office. There are some other awards on the wall, but George doesn’t look at those. George is also an incredibly humble person and you will never catch him bragging or showing off his Student Employee of the Year Award… Outside of work, George is a keen Museum volunteer with expertise in Ancient Egyptian and Asian cultures. He is also a self-proclaimed Jaffa-ologist and rumour has it that he even produced a giant jaffa cake for a baking competition (which he won). George is a passionate beard-wearer. To start with, he wasn’t sure about his beard, but it grew on him… George also eats two oranges a day. We all know that one apple a day keeps the doctor away, but no one is quite sure exactly who George is keeping away with those oranges… Most of George’s spare time is spent with his young family who he affectionately calls the Wing Dynasty.

Programme & Coaching Manager

Alan Neale

Head of IT

Alex Treddenick

Alex is from Newcastle and has worked in a variety of sales positions before getting a BSc in Applied Computing from Teesside University and joined Voicentric in 2015. Alex is responsible for the IT and Telephony infrastructure at Voicentric as well as managing the IT team. As a senior member of management team Alex also oversees the company’s IT developments in an ever-changing industry.

Alex plays football and is also a die-hard Newcastle United supporter and frequent visitor to St James’ Park and bears up remarkably well in the circumstances. He also likes to keep active through cross-fit and the rest of his time he spends looking after his young family.

Systems Development Manager

Tom Kelly

Office Manager

Katharine Grabham

Katharine’s clear passion for language and cultures led her to start working for Voicentric in 2012, calling on German campaigns.  Before this, she had spent four years living in Austria teaching English as a foreign language.  Graz (not the most famous Austrian city, but nonetheless second in size to Vienna) felt like a second home, although Katharine grew up here in Durham.

Having such an understanding and accommodating employer as Voicentric meant that Katharine was able to take breaks from her time calling at Voicentric for extensive travels.  She has spent periods travelling and volunteering in Mexico and Kenya, as well as shorter trips when time (and budget!) have allowed.

Katharine still very much enjoys working in a multi-lingual, multi-cultural environment.  She has been Office Manager at Voicentric since January 2016.  This is certainly a varied role and keeps her on her toes.  Katharine is responsible for payroll, client billing and making sure our offices and maintained and supplied.  She most commonly receives requests for post-it notes!  Katharine also maintains an active interest in client programmes and staff development, and is responsible for some of our client relationships and programme management.

Scientific Development Specialist & Data Protection Officer

Nick Rudd

Nick grew up in the outskirts of Newcastle before moving “down the road” to Durham to study Physics at Durham University.  He completed his Masters in 2016.

He originally joined Voicentric in 2014 after completing his second year and realising that his student loan could no longer keep up with the NERF gun buying habit he had developed as President of the University Assassins Society. Working periodically for Voicentric whilst studying then returning full time upon completion of his degree, Nick was able to utilise his scientific background to both improve his understanding of the scientific material and help to develop his colleagues’ understanding as well. Having recently joined the management team he now works to develop the scientific understanding of callers as well as applying his technical expertise to campaigns.

Just for the avoidance of doubt, NERF guns are not real weapons and Assassins Society should not be taken literally so Nick will not find himself one day on trial in The Hague.  He is a LARP (Live Action Role Play) enthusiast and has fought battles both as an armoured knight in a fantasy world and as a survivor in a post apocalyptic world bought about by the war between technology and magic – and he still in his mid-20’s!  He is also a trumpet player and can be found performing some local brass bands in Durham.

Scientific Training Specialist

James Hartley

James is originally an Edinburgh native, though moved to Wrexham in North Wales for a significant portion of his life before finally settling in the North East after reading Music, with a specialisation in Composition, at Durham University. Despite this focus in a traditionally artistic subject, James has always been a keen scholar of Mathematics and the Sciences, even submitting an equation for a composition piece wherein you could select notes and lengths for your variables and would receive a Fugue as the output.

He put this interest to good use when beginning work at Voicentric in 2013, working on a huge variety of campaigns and increasing his knowledge whilst rising through the ranks before becoming Scientific Training Specialist in 2018. He now utilises his passion for both Science and Education by training staff in the technical background of instruments and technologies they discuss on the phone, all while including as many terrible puns as possible.

Outside of work James’ interests lie heavily in mentally challenging and strategic games; sometimes known as Mind Sports. These include board games, such as Go and Chess, and the card game Magic the Gathering; in which James is a qualified Level 2 Judge (kind of like a referee) and travels around the country to participate in tournaments at a high level. He also continues to enjoy creative processes and is in the process of (slowly) writing both a Musical and a Novel.