The Women's Organisation Staff
Officers
Maggie O'Carroll (Chief Executive Officer)
Maggie has lived and worked on Merseyside for over 15 years and is a founding member of The Women's Organisation (formally Train 2000). She has led its development as an award winning women's economic development agency and social enterprise since its inception in 1996. Together with the Board, she is responsible for the overall strategic development of the organisation.
She is a leader in the field of women's enterprise and a key contributor to the women's policy agenda. She has been actively involved in women's enterprise research and influencing women's economic development and social inclusion policy on an international, national and regional basis. She is a Business Studies graduate with a Masters in Community Enterprise from Cambridge University. She is currently undertaking research for a PhD in female entrepreneurship and education, at Liverpool John Moore's University.
Maggie lectures part time at Liverpool John Moore's University on Measuring Social Impact within their Masters in Social Enterprise programme.
Helen Millne (Chief Finance and Operating Officer)
Helen provides programme and operations management for The Women's Organisation (formally Train 2000), taking on responsibility for: Financial management; Operational development; Human resources development; Health and Safety and Quality and Impact Measurement.
She has worked for over eleven years within the social economy on Merseyside and has extensive experience of organisational development within the public and third sector. Whilst working in the Community Based Economic Development Team in Liverpool City Council, Helen facilitated the development of the Social Enterprise Network and designed and implemented the Social Accounting training programme. She is a registered Social Accountant through Social Audit Network and is experienced in acting as verification panel chair and representing the network at conferences.
Previously, as North West Regional Training Officer for the National Association of Citizens' Advice Bureaux, she successfully devised comprehensive training programmes for management committees, paid staff and volunteers for the 110 bureaux in the region.
In a voluntary capacity, she is a director of a community based learning organisation. Helen completed her Masters in Business Administration in 2007, awarded with distinction.
Jackie Williams (Enterprise Director)
Jackie started work as a management trainee at House of Fraser, in Liverpool and after several promotions and moves to various cities across the UK, she was appointed as a Group Fashion Buyer managing a multi million pound budget for 48 stores. Following this she joined the Jonathan Logan Group as Northern Area Manager, eventually relocating to Milton Keynes, to fill the post of National Sales Manager.
As a lone parent, she found it difficult to balance work and family life and moved back home to Liverpool, starting her own domestic service business, which enabled her to spend time with her daughter whilst providing an essential income.
In 1997, Jackie accessed The Women's Organisation (formally Train 2000) services. Because of her personal knowledge and experience of the issues faced by women re-entering the labour market, she was invited to join the board and later served as Chair for 2 years.
In 2005, she resigned from her post on the board and joined the Enterprise Team at The Women's Organisation (formally Train 2000), as a full-time Business Adviser. She was promoted to the position of Enterprise Co-ordinator in late 2007, since when she has supported the team to ensure they work together to successfully deliver The Women's Organisation enterprise contracts.
Jackie serves on Toxteth CAB's Management Committee and is an active member of the Knowsley Women In Business Network Steering Group.
Lisa McMullan (Development Manager)
Lisa is The Women's Organisation's (formally Train 2000) Development Manager based in our Manchester office. Lisa returned to Train 2000 after working in Belfast at the Special EU Programmes Body, Managing Authority for EU Territorial Cooperation Programmes INTERREG and PEACE.
Lisa's wealth of experience in women's enterprise support and European programmes has been built throughout her career, initially as a Business Advisor and Trainer, at local enterprise agencies and Business Link Merseyside. From here she joined Liverpool City Council to manage the implementation and development of an ESF Employment Initiative to support women's entrepreneurship. Demonstrating her success the project was selected as a model of good practice by the European Commission.
Following this, Lisa became a self employed Business Advisor & Economic Development Consultant, successfully delivering contracts in the fields of women's enterprise, European project management and social accounting and auditing. Prior to her move back to Northern Ireland, she was Enterprise Manager at The Women's Organisation (formally Train 2000), where she worked directly with partner organisations to ensure contracts were delivered successfully.
Lisa has a Masters in Entrepreneurship from Stirling University.
Thiri Mo Soe (Finance Manager)
Thiri has a degree in Economics from the University of Rangoon and holds a London Chamber of Commerce & Industry Business Book-keeping and Accounting Certificate. She has used her expertise to establish and develop internal controls and comprehensive financial management information systems for The Women's Organisation (formally Train 2000).
Lynn Kelly (Operations Manager)
Lynn Kelly joined the The Women's Organisation (formally Train 2000) team as Operations Manager in September 2009, bringing with her almost 20 years experience of working in the learning development sector.
Throughout her career she has gained considerable experience in managing government funded training and development contracts and has spent more than ten years managing welfare to work projects throughout the North West region. Lynn is extremely proactive and believes strongly in driving projects forward - and over the years she has sat on a number of networking and steering groups, to inform and influence the delivery of regional projects.
As Operations Manager at The Women's Organisation (formally Train 2000) Lynn oversees and coordinates a number of key areas including; policies and procedures, developing new contracts, marketing, administration, and much more. In 2007 Lynn attended Liverpool Hope University to undertake the CMI (Chartered Management Institute) Level 5 Diploma.
Enterprise Enablers
The dedicated team of Enterprise enablers provide one to one business advice and training to women who are starting up or wishing to expand their businesses
John Jones
Huda Mamoun
Huda has extensive work experience in community economic development and area based regeneration schemes. As project officer for the Granby Toxteth SRB programme, Huda applied her knowledge and skills gained with an MBA degree from the University of Liverpool and become fully conversant with the development and implementation of effective management structures for large-scale programmes.
She gained in depth knowledge of women's development through her work with the University of Liverpool as a support officer on research and gender based projects, then as an outreach trainer for women groups. She has legal experience, as a qualified lawyer in the Sudan and has knowledge in working with and providing support for a wide range of Black and Minority Ethnic community groups in Merseyside.
Huda is a SFEDI accredited Business Adviser and delivers the Business Enterprise Training and Personal Development courses in different languages. She received Merseyside Woman of the Year Award 2007 for Community Matters.
Mike Marsden
The combination of his experience running a family business and his time as a Business Manager with the NatWest Bank meant Mike was ideally suited to support developing businesses. In his 3 years as a Business Adviser with the Prince's Trust, he developed personal knowledge and experience of the issues faced by young people setting up their own business. He has advised hundreds of people to set up their own businesses and has helped with successful funding applications from £500 to £250,000. Whilst at Princes Trust, Mike also worked part time, as a College Lecturer.
Mike has recently completed his SFEDI business qualification and is also a qualified Mortgage Adviser.
Rhian Pavitt
Former Princes Trust Business Manager, Rhian has a wealth of experience advising, guiding and developing young unemployed people setting up and growing their own business. Frequently representing the Princes Trust at strategy meetings and having worked in Knowsley, Liverpool and Cheshire, she brings with her a healthy network of contacts with local agencies.
Rhian gained a degree in Business Studies at North East Wales Institute, is SFEDI Qualified and is also a Qualified Trainer.
Francine Taylor
Amanda Ordish
Amanda graduated in Business Management. During her time at university, she also worked for Lloyds TSB in business banking and became actively involved in developing and teaching under graduate programmes, in particular Graduate Enterprise and E-Business Technology.
After completing her degree, she worked for a financial/accountancy training company and taught Business studies within secondary schools, before moving to Liverpool John Moore's University, where she set up and delivered an EU business start-up programme, building her contacts and networks throughout Merseyside.
Amanda has developed a Website Awareness short course which provides women with the information and knowledge they should consider when using a website. She has spent considerable time researching the factors effecting business launch rates within Merseyside and had her research published through the Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
Enterprise Engagement
The Enterprise Engagement team use their skills and experience to seek out and engage with women within our local communities, to encourage them to investigate training, business or employment opportunities.
Jo Dunn
Sabah Shams
Sabah joined The Women's Organisation (formally Train 2000) in 2004 as part of the Business Advice Team and is a SFEDI qualified business adviser, becoming an Enterprise Promotion Worker in August 2006.
Sabah is multilingual and uses her skills in engaging women from diverse communities where she provides one to one business diagnostic guidance to our clients. She is an accomplished interpreter and is a panel member of the Liverpool City Council Translation and Interpreting Service. She offers interpretation in a variety of languages including Pushto, Urdu, Punjabi and Hindi.
Joanne Austin
Joanne has always held strong interests in arts and theatre and enjoys contributing her time on a voluntary basis to arts based community organisations. Before joining The Women's Organisation (formally Train 2000), she co-ordinated two projects supporting young people and adults seeking to start businesses within the creative industries.
Training Team
The Training Team use their wealth of experience to design and deliver a range of learning activities for women, to encourage, inspire and build confidences.
Bernie Cox (Training Co-ordinator)
Bernie's background is in training and she has also applied her skills to develop and co-ordinate enterprise events for young people. Having run her own business prior to joining The Women's Organisation (formally Train 2000), she brings these combined experiences in training and enterprise to the role of Learning Co-ordinator. She complements these skills with a particular interest in coaching and mentoring and has developed numerous training packages throughout her career, covering a wide range of subjects from employability skills to emotional intelligence.
Bernie encourages the training team to adopt innovative approaches to engage, encourage and support women who are seeking to develop their skills. She is committed to creating opportunities for women to reach their potential.
Administration & Finance Team
From monitoring achievements to data input and accounts, the Administration and Finance team are key to the smooth running of the organisation.
Laura Anderson (Administration Co-ordinator)
Laura joined The Women's Organisation (formally Train 2000) in October 2004, as Administration Co-ordinator. Working closely with the Enterprise Co-ordinator, Employment and Training Co-ordinator and the Programme Co-ordinator, she is responsible for leading the design and management of administration functions and contributing to effective communications systems within the organisation, to make sure everything runs smoothly.
Laura gained a History degree from Liverpool John Moore's University, during which time she worked for the Post Office and the Inland Revenue, gaining experience in both administration and customer service.
Sandra Sipaviciute (Data Input Clerk)
With her excellent IT skills, Sandra is responsible for data inputting, maintaining the systems and keeping the records accurate and up to date. Ever efficient, she is used to working in busy office environments.
Lisa Stanley
Lisa Sayonas
Aaron Holmes
Alison Ryan
Natalie Burney
Sarah Keeler
