ABOUT
Nick Skinner was inspired to set up Poppyfish in 2012 to prove to his kids - and to himself - that life is what you make it and to fulfil a career dream of helping businesses capitalise on the potential of the human in the system. Our work since has been varied and challenging - but always rewarding. Our combined experience and our access to a growing number of high quality associates and learning partners has allowed us to work successfully as coaches, consultants, trainers , facilitators and leaders of learning and behaviour change for many individuals, teams and businesses.
We pride ourselves on delivering high quality and impactful work.
Nick Skinner
Lead Consultant
Amie Burke
Associate - Inclusion
Nick is the founder of Poppyfish and has developed leadership and coaching programmes, talent initiatives and bespoke learning packages for clients across many industries, working both in the UK and overseas. Nick has facilitated hundreds of learning workshops, team engagement sessions, focus group style events and project managed change programmes in the public and private sectors. Nick is an expert in decision making in critical incidents and is fascinated by human behaviour in the workplace. Nick has an MSc in People and Organisational Development and an MBA with distinction from the University of Hertfordshire. He is the co-author of three books on behaviour in business and is currently working on a fourth book on the topic of group facilitation.
Since 2018 Nick has led a programme of facilitator training for a leading FTSE100 business and has experience of creating guiding principles and practices for facilitation of remote and hybrid teams. He commonly facilitates strategic team events, workshops and away days and provides coaching to support leadership teams.
A graduate of Harper Adams University, Amie has spent 15 years engaging with businesses across the whole supply chain. Her background is in the agricultural, food and service sectors and has included working internationally in Brazil, Guatemala, China, Madagascar and Vietnam. In the UK Amie worked for the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board where her focus was on people sustainability in UK farming.
Today, Amie helps businesses create inclusive strategies where everyone can thrive. She supports and coaches management teams and has worked to develop apprenticeships schemes, employee resource groups, learning events and leadership skills workshops. Her insight and experience is well applied at the Institute of Grocery Distribution where Amie’s work as Inclusivity Programme Manager has broken new ground.
As a passionate LGBTQ+ member, Amie uses her excellent domain knowledge to deliver insightful programmes around inclusion and diversity, often including best practice and reverse mentoring schemes.
In 2023 Amie was listed by The Grocer magazine as a Top 10 activist making grocery a better industry for the LGBTQ+ community.
Stephen Jarrett
Associate - Behaviour
Stephen is a specialist in change, HR, OD and strategy and is also a qualified life coach and CBT counsellor. A founding thinker behind the SPECTRUM behaviour profile and EvaluationStore.com, Stephen published his first book “Across the Spectrum” in 2017 and followed this with the three volume “Blood, Sweat and Tears: How to Succeed in Business” in 2018, a book which he co-authored with Nick Skinner. Stephen is an expert facilitator who has also worked as an ER manager, ER caseworker, HR manager, HR director and L&D manager. Always busy, Stephen is also a qualified sports therapist and has helped footballers and business people alike with mental health stress and wellbeing.
Stephen excels in 1-to-1 coaching engagements with managers wanting to unlock their own potential, and understand those around them, placing a key focus on relationships and behaviour to drive individual and team performance. This support can be especially useful for newly appointed managers