Jacqui served in the Women’s Royal Naval Service for 10 years specializing in educating and training sailors. She went on to become a soft-skills training specialist leading courses in presentation techniques, interviewing skills, leadership development, and ran IBM’s graduate assessment programme for a number of years. She worked closely with several large blue-collar businesses to identify their core values and competencies and help them develop appropriate recruitment and training systems.
Accompanying Mike on postings abroad gave her the opportunity to excel in a diverse range of appointments, from magazine editor and radio reporter to business development and sales & marketing. During one posting, after working with the business owner on a new property deal, Jacqui was invited to lead the marketing effort for a real estate company in Canada. This further fuelled her passion for property and developed a close mentorship bond with the business owner which continues some 15 years later.
On returning to the UK, Jacqui decided to join an estate agency to gain some insider knowledge – this has proven invaluable for research and building contacts. She then spent 4 years running business development activities for a specialist engineering consultancy, winning projects from Peru to Perth, and increasing turnover by over 30%. Now, and as a graduate of Asset Academy, she is devoting all of her time and skills to building Dryad Properties and getting great returns for our financial partners.
Mike served in the Royal Navy for 30 years. Joining as an engineering apprentice, he rose from the ranks and left the service with honour as a Commander. He commanded the Gibraltar Squadron on maritime anti-terrorism operations, saw active service in the Balkans crisis, 1996, Gulf War, 2003, and led the Joint air, land and sea Current Operations’ Team for NATO’s UN-mandated operation to protect civilians in Libya, 2011.
He was head-hunted to lead the European growth and development of a VC-backed technology startup developing artificial intelligence to tackle one of the biggest problems faced by online media; balancing user experience and revenue.
In 10 years, Mike has grown the UK Newcastle team from a one-man band to 61 degree educated sales, support, and account managers. The company now employs almost 400 people worldwide and is a Google Certified Partner. While not a coder, he knows his cookies from his caching, and his team can address wide-ranging technical issues, saving tech resources for development rather than debugging!
Mike completed a BTEC HNC in Engineering and holds 3 degrees: BA(Hons) in European History and MA in Environmental Policy from the Open University, and a Master of Defence Studies (Royal Military College of Canada) where he graduated at the top of his year. He speaks fluent German and is a graduate of Asset Academy Advanced Property Training.
