About iAM

At iAM Learning, we’re passionate about making learning fun while driving real change. On this page, you’ll find out how our story began, as well as what makes us unique, and what drives us these days. You’ll also find out about the amazing individuals in our talented team, not just professionally, but personally – including their unique superpower and more.

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Fun, engaging courses which harness the awesome power of storytelling. Our courses are designed to engage learners, using a mixture of themes, narratives and interactivity. It all adds up to a memorable learning experience!

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Bitesized courses (learn new skills in just 2 - 15 mins). Time is critical - you often don't have enough of it for traditional long-form learning. With iAM, you can learn new skills within minutes, not hours!

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You can access our courses from any device, wherever you are. From the classroom to your desk or even on your commute; Our portable courses let you access quality training at the point of need and around your schedule.

Our story

When our two founding Toms first met in a previous role, they swiftly decided that the world needed a different type of learning. Their 'simple' mission? Go back to basics, focus on application rather than just theory, and disrupt eLearning with something it was severely lacking - fun. This helps us have a good time while learning, rather than #DeathByPowerPoint. Mixing all the good stuff from eLearning, adding a pinch of storytelling, a dash of expert learning design and a bucketload of high-quality animation, they created a delicious learning cake that everyone wants to eat.

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Meet the team

Tom Moore
Tom Moore (Tom 1)

Chief Operating Officer

About:
One half of the Tom duo, Tom 1 is our Chief Operations Officer. Tom set up all the systems, so got to the naming first and so beat Tom 2 to the numbering system. Tom has worked on £750m of transformation and was lucky enough to learn from the best at Harvard. Sometimes called the Godfather, he's in charge of all operations and processes for iAM.

Superpower:
Having the number one after his name, rather than 2!

Tom Gagen
Tom Gagen (Tom 2)

Chief Design Officer

About:
The other (better 😍) half of the Tom duo, Tom 2 is our Chief Design Officer or flouncy diva creative director as the wider team affectionately know him. Jeep-loving-check-shirt-wearing-fruity-tea-hater. Ex-Dreamworks, Cartoon Network and Hasbro to name drop, T2 is the director/producer of the iAM brand & content library, marketing activities and bespoke client assignments. Oh and he whips his beloved creative team into shape. Not whips, erm… motivates 😂.

Superpower:
Queen ‘creative type’ Diva

Pete Joannidi
Pete Joannidi

Chief Finance Officer

About:
A proud Bristolian with 25+ years of work experience across many industries, Pete’s last job is the one we’re most impressed with – Trunki, the ride-on-suitcase maker. And yes, we immediately said ‘wish they made an adult-sized one’ – those are the rules. He’s well qualified for the CFO role, but you just want to know what he’s like outside of work, don’t you? Well, he’s a treasurer of a Rugby club and spends loads of time watching his beloved Bristol Bears with his son. He’s a foodie, equally happy eating in a restaurant as cooking at home and foraging for mushrooms. He’s also well-travelled, with more than 50 countries ticked off his list already. You’re never short of topics to chat about with Pete. He’s basically the perfect dinner guest!   

Superpower: 
Can identify a Ludlow Blue from a Yorkshire Fettle – a cheese connoisseur indeed. 

Gemma Glover
Gemma Glover

Head of People

About:
Gemma is our only Head of People & L&D and so (by default), the best. As a previous Head of Operations in Cyber Security, with a real passion for workplace culture, her brain is a melting pot of solving business problems, employee experience magic and learner-centric initiatives. When she’s not forcing the team to bond or championing reflection and feedback you will find her killing houseplants, catching her knees on stationary objects and watching admittedly terrible television.

Superpower:
Being a fun sponge by interrupting the creative team’s idea sessions to impose metrics, ROI and evaluation models.

Chloe Potts
Chloe Potts

Head of Marketing

About:
Chloe lives and breathes marketing. Well, that and y’know, air. But she really does have a passion for crafting engaging online content. Perfect for us, then. If she’s not devising strategic campaigns, you’ll find Chloe indulging her wild side (that’s out in nature with her beloved doggo, or travelling to far-flung corners of the world, rather than all night raves). Although she does LOVE a live gig too. Recent ones include Muse, Mumford & Sons and Ed Sheeran - y’know, the stuff we tend to avoid at iAM HQ. Depends who’s in charge of the radio, obvs.

Superpower:
Problem solving & investigative skills to rival Sherlock Holmes!

Nik Brown
Nik Brown

Head of Sales & Partnerships

About:
Nik’s biography reads like a dating profile. Y’know; “Nik is a great listener - always there to help solve problems and offer advice. He spends time writing short stories, paints, is a great photographer and always has a smile on his face…” All true, like. Fact is, Nik is your ideal partnership manager - he’s got the credentials and swagger to back it up. He’s also a jack of all trades - when he’s not building lasting relationships, you’ll find this family man taxiing his daughter around or watching sports, including his beloved Aston Villa. A real charmer. Some people have all the luck.

Superpower:
Looks and acts younger than he actually is, convincingly.

Jake Barnell
Jake Barnell

Art & Content Director

About:
Jake is our Art & Content Director having previously served as Creative Manager, and plain old writer. Once upon a time he was also a musician and voiceover artist. He was even the voice of Darth Vader for a (very, very) short period. Now he directs animated content for iAM and writes lots of screenplays. Drawing on over 20 years' experience as a professional script and screenplay writer for some of the biggest brands in the UK, Jake lovingly crafts and polishes iAM courses until they shine like diamonds.

Superpower:
Crafting screenplays into well-baked story cakes.

Becs McDowall
Rebecca McDowall

Head of Learning

About:

Rebecca is an integral thread, weaved through the iAM tapestry through the years. She was brought in originally as someone to add closed captions to our courses, upgraded to a scriptwriter, and then a developer. But with exceptional talents like hers, she’s now found a more interesting and rewarding position as our Head of Learning. With a passion for psychology and a Masters in Mental Health Science, Rebecca is fascinated by creating effective learning content. She loves travel, particularly to cold places like Norway, and relaxes with ^checks notes^ horror films?! Well, blood and gore isn’t everyone’s way to chill, but you do you. 

Superpower

Keeps our creative director firmly grounded in reality and expertly tempers expectations. 

Clare Sheptsone
Clare Shepstone

Programme Manager

About:
Just like the Terminator, Clare’s mind functions like a finely tuned supercomputer, seeking out and destroying problems with ruthless efficiency. Yes, Clare is our Programme Manager, And that means she organises scriptwriters, artists, and animators with the precision of a steely, heartless automaton. She’s the one responsible for making that ‘Course Roadmap’ from a mad fever dream to a reality. For Clare, a great Friday night is one spent alone with a bottle of wine and a complex spreadsheet, bringing order to the chaos and a plan to the workflow. But if you mess with the filters on that spreadsheet, it’s, “Hasta La Vista, Baby.”

Superpower:
Extraordinary ability to find missing things and solve problems creatively.

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Charlotte Allan

Creative Project Manager

About:

Charlotte joins us as Creative Project Leader. That means all the fun of... ORGANISATION! Essentially, she looks after our in-house and external writers, artists and animators, deals with voiceover artists and ensures courses get built. A thankless task, but she does it with a smile. Outside work, Charlotte is a keen camper and rambler, loving the countryside but struggling to do it as often as she’d like because it’s tricky to do with a toddler in tow. Try saying that after a couple of drinks. Charlotte loves to travel, enjoys chocolate and wine (now you’re talking!) and joins the trend of iAM superstars who seem to love true crime novels and shows. She’s a perfect fit for our eclectic team. 

Superpower

Has a bag that contains everything she could possibly want. She says it’s the result of her time spent as a kid in the Brownies, but we think she’s secretly a wizard. 

Sophie Rennison
Sophie Rennison

Assistant Project Manager

About:
Sophie has worked at loads of top businesses with transferable skills, so working with our production team should be a breeze. Outside work, Sophie has a wanderlust, travelling for months at a time through breathtaking parts of the world whenever possible. An unofficial member of iAMs exclusive book club (there’s an induction period), Sophie loves a psychological thriller or true crime novel / podcast / show. A hidden dark side, perhaps? Mwah-ha-ha!

Superpower:
Makes the best pornstar martini cocktail in the world!

Oliver Smith
Oliver Smith

Lead Storyboard Artist

About:
The top dawg design and storyboard artist at iAM. Oliver enjoys fancy footwear (62 pairs and counting) and spending his time getting lost in the Welsh mountains. Oh, and he‘s also pretty pretty good with Adobe Creative Suite. Oliver has 20 years of experience on the design and storyboarding scene. A true traditionalist when it comes to planning our art using an actual pencil and paper. Oh yeah, he also is the North-Walian-Gangster-Rhyl-Massive. Not like the GLC, that would be hideous.

Superpower:
Jellyfish

Hanna Sikorska
Hanna Sikorska

Lead Animator

About:

An iAM original, Hanna has risen through the ranks from junior to lead animator. It’s well deserved, too. She’s really put in the hours to hone her craft, creating rigs and rubber-hose to keep our little blue crew moving, and is now our very own in-house master animator / office queen. But her animation skills are just a tiny piece of what makes Hanna. She’s just at home in a quaint Victoria café as she is in a rock club. With hobbies ranging from hiking, climbing and reading graphic novels to building robots and painting miniatures, she’s always busy. If you need a sci-fi or fantasy book or TV series recommendation, or are just down for an obscure board game or too, give Hanna a call.

Superpower

It’s been established that Hanna is a cat whisperer – she can chill any savage beast. 

Steph Charlesworth
Steph Charlesworth

Customer Delight Manager

About:
Hailing from God’s own country, (does Leeds count?), our Steph is a reet skilled lass. Not only is she a former Olympic gravy swimmer and chief Yorkshire pud tester, she’s actually got a load of useful teaching and people skills. That’ll help her with her new role as iAMs chief client support. Or ‘Customer Delight Manager’ as we like to call it (sounds friendlier, right?) Don’t let our Yorkshire jokes put yer off, Steph is a northern powerhouse of intellect and is excited to sink her teeth into any problems our customers might have. Let’s say ow do to Steph. Working at iAM is waaaay better than workin’ da’n pit. Probably.

Superpower:
Will batter you at boardgames and is a voracious book reader.

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Sophie Williams

Executive Assistant

About:

Despite learning English in Australia and Canada, our resident Frenchie and executive assistant Sophie hasn’t lost her accent – and we like that, it adds a bit of glamour to the office. Sophie has certainly acclimatised to British culture though; she loves a pint at the pub. No wonder she fits in so well here. To combat the beer, she’s a keen mountain climbing, hiker and skiing enthusiast. Well, with all that ‘belle campagne française’, you would be, too. At the weekend, she’s got a blooming marvellous second career – she's a trainee florist. Just think of all that lovely moolah during wedding season. 

 

Superpower: 

Can polish off a burger and fries in next to no time 

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Natasha Arnold

Senior Content and Campaign Marketing Manager

About:

With a useful degree in Business Studies with HR in her back pocket, Tash has her pick of key business roles. Her previous one in the prestigious Redrow team as Marketing Coordinator quenched her need for event planning, & now she’s iAM’s ‘in-house’ (get it?) campaign manager. Well, she does thrive on pressure and problem-solving. Outside the office, Tash loves travelling, baking [waits patiently for cakes], playing netball, running and gym work. All that exercise makes her thirsty though, so after a nice countryside walk, it’s time for a pub lunch, obviously. She’s also down for a girly brunch after a successful shopping trip. Why not, eh? 
 

Superpower:

Bargain hunter extraordinaire – can sniff out a yellow sticker from 100m 

Emily Jacob
Emily Jacob

Digital Marketing Executive

About:

Bringing some much-needed glamour to iAM HQ, Emily’s a whizz at the digital marketing game. She’s got some powerful experience in the role, crafting content and campaign management with other top companies. Outside #MKTLIFE, you might find Emily relaxing with a glass of Pinot Grigio and her feet up in front of FRIENDS. Could she BE any more chilled? Well, yes. You could stick her fave, Harry Potter, on afterwards. But “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live”, so she regularly enjoys gigging with Radio X-style bands, you know, The Killers, Foo Fighters, Paramore and the like – or taking long walks with her Cocker Spaniel, Penny. 

Superpower:

Emily is a ticket master (in that she can get hold of those gold-dust tickets, not that she’s a rip-off corporation). 

Dani Maguire
Dani Maguire

Marketing Copywriter

About:
A wizard with words, and now featuring the appropriate hair/beard combo, Dani’s an iAM original. A former bank worker and, bizarrely, radio DJ, he swapped his calculator and microphone for a keyboard to let his creative side shine. Dani has written for websites, wrasslin’ magazines and even rap songs, but his true passion is heavy metal. Could you have guessed? When he’s not headbanging at a gig, he’ll be quaffing a cold beer in the garden with his little white cat, Jadzia.

Superpower:

Has the power to perform religious ceremonies, provided they are pirate-themed.

Hannah Tadgell
Hannah Tadgell

Marketing Assistant

About:
Having just joined us from Liverpool University, Hannah is determined to distinguish herself in the marketing world. That is, if she can adapt to regular working hours after all those long lie-ins - it’s a shock to the system for sure. Hannah has a passion for anything creative, so she’ll be a regular producing social content and talking to customers who get in touch. She’s also keen on bold content that pushes boundaries - a perfect fit for our disruptive team, then. If she’s not being creative, you’ll find her at the Maccies drive-through - or better yet, on the sofa in front of some rubbish telly. Some of those student habits are hard to break, right?

Superpower:
ALWAYS has a lip-balm with her.

Kirsty
Kirsty Treherne

Education Lead & Inclusion Champion

About:
Some people relax with a good book, a bubble bath, perhaps a glass of wine. Not Kirsty. Her idea of chilled is watching true crime documentaries. Yeah, alright, it’s a phenomenon, but we just don’t get it. Brutal murders and the like - not exactly relaxing. She also eats chocolate while watching, which is something we CAN get behind. Nom. Kirsty is our educational lead with a background as an English teacher and a Special Education Needs & Disability teacher, as well as being a headteacher, so very qualified and knowledgeable - your learning is in safe hands.

Superpower:
Likely the most talented performer in the company. We’ll test those skills at the Xmas party.

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Get ready to learn like never before!

Check out our extensive learning library, packed with hundreds of bitesized, animated courses delivered through the power of storytelling.