Strengths Stories

Since appearing on Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's programme River Cottage: Gone Fishing, Jimmie Hepburn and his wife Penny are becoming celebrities in their home county of Devon.

Their innovative organic carp farm is receiving orders from across the country and visits from journalists from the Guardian and elsewhere …

The carp farm is not their first ecological innovation though. Indeed, back in 1997, Jimmie, the managing director of the sustainable aquaculture specialists Aquavision, drew participants together from over 60 organisations to arrive at the UK’s first organic aquaculture standard.

 

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Simon Walker is many things – arctic explorer, mariner, sports marketing MD and co-founder of talentsmoothie, an innovative HR consultancy specialising in helping organisations recruit and retain the best of the * millennial talent pool. Above all, he is a leader …

As an inspirational skipper on a 10 month round the world yacht race, Simon learnt a lot about how to transform a diverse and disparate group of individuals into a motivated, professional crew that not only looks after the ropes but also looks out for each other.

‘At the end of the race we had all grown,’ he says. ‘People have used the self-knowledge to give them a confidence and perspective which is hard to match.'

This  is Simon's super team story.

* talentsmoothie defines the millennial generation as people born after 1980.

Alison Fulford is addicted to shopping. So when she was asked to take her experience from the technology sector to set up a new service centre for one of the UK’s leading retailers, she could not believe her luck. She set about talking to all the stakeholders. She crafted a vivid and specific picture of what that service centre would look and feel like. She recruited a team of people to make it happen. Within 18 months the service centre was up, running and receiving much applause …

Ever since she can remember, Fiona has loved animals. Enchanted by the TV series All Creatures Great And Small, she set her 8 year-old heart on being a vet. Today, having overcome many obstacles to achieve her dream, Fiona is a partner in a very special vet’s practice …

Ecologist Archie Duncanson set his heart on being a writer when he was a little boy. Disappointed by his teenage attempts at fiction, he gave up. Then, driven by his passion for the environment, he finally committed pen to paper and wrote his first book at the age of 40. It is now a recognised standard reference book, available on the ecology shelves of most good book shops …