Ready to meet the team?
Explore our individual profiles below and discover how their unique expertise can benefit your organization.
Chris Malpass
Chris is Executive Director and co-owner of the Helpful Digital Group.
He is an expert in crisis and reputation management.
Chris develops and delivers high-end crisis preparedness training and is adept in live crisis response.
Chris’ 10+ years of experience includes roles for Cohn & Wolfe, Regester Larkin by Deloitte and the BBC. He has a Masters in International Public Relations from the Cardiff School of Journalism.
Chris’s featured projects:
Crisis exercises to build digital triage and engagement skills for Vancouver Airport Authority.
Stress-testing strategic responses of students at the US National Defense University.
Global crisis communications training and digital marketing training for L’Oréal.
Tim Lloyd
Tim is Managing Director and co-owner of the Helpful Digital Group.
He designs and delivers digital capability programmes and actively develops the scope and purpose of our business in accordance with developing clients’ needs.
With 18 years’ experience, he has supported complex organisations, including the UK Government’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and Dept. of Health and Social Care.
Tim has delivered guest lectures for Melbourne University and the University of Zurich.
Tim’s featured projects:
Digital storytelling with the Royal Air Force.
Social media training programs for energy and technology clients.
Crisis simulation exercises to prepare operations and communications teams at Expo2020 Dubai.
Sonja Palmer
Sonja is an Account Director
She helps clients build digital confidence through training, crisis simulations, and advising teams on digital strategy.
Sonja assists clients with developing and delivering digital training programs, crisis preparedness training, social media strategies and policy materials.
Roles include for Edelman New York City and Washington D.C. on their Energy and Financial Communications and Healthcare teams.
Sonja’s featured projects:
Global crisis simulation exercises for one of the world’s largest energy companies.
Weekly social media training and support for 300 communicators in the US, Europe and Asia.
Developing social media strategy for global philanthropy.
Phil Banks
Phil is our Technical Director
He manages our infrastructure and market-leading platforms supporting our crisis training.
Phil’s experience developing for high profile, multinational audiences makes us more agile and resilient than competitors.
With 10+ years in web development, DevOps and platform management, roles include lead web developer at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology “the Nobel Prize factory”.
Phil’s Featured Projects:
Leading the development of our Social Simulator and Crisis90 platforms.
The roll-out of our Digital Action Plan platform to more than 5000 L&D users.
Security and governance of data and information for the Helpful Digital Group.
Dan Pollard
Dan is our Platform Manager
He is responsible for the technical setup of the platforms, designs simulation media and supports our clients through their crisis exercises.
With over a decade’s experience developing user-friendly, business-critical web applications, Dan’s roles include Product Owner at the International Student Identity Card in Amsterdam, where he designed a web platform for 3000+ international users.
Dan is fluent in Dutch, and his international experience of working cultures ensures the simulations are accessible, accurate and culturally appropriate.
Dan’s featured projects:
Monthly validation exercises for two of the world’s largest energy companies.
Simulation and war-game management for the US National Defense University.
Claire Turner
Claire is Senior Consultant, Social Strategy and Training
Claire writes and delivers our digital communications training. She supports our Digital Action Plan blended learning programme as a coach and mentor, sharing practical help and advice.
Claire is a communications all-rounder and digital specialist: from social media, PR and marketing, to internal communications and events. Her roles include working for the Environment Agency and Oxford University Press.
Claire’s Featured Projects:
Audience engagement for Royal Air Force social media.
Global crisis communications training and simulation exercises for L’Oréal.
Social media audits for public sector clients.
Jess Evans
Jess is Senior Consultant, Issues and Crisis
Jess is highly experienced in leading crisis preparedness programmes, from development through to delivery.
She advises clients on their internal response structures and communication and stakeholder engagement strategies.
With more than 10 years in the world of crisis management, Jess has worked for Regester Larkin by Deloitte, risk advisory firm ILS and the OECD.
Jess’ Featured Projects:
Developing a crisis communications toolkit for a major US technology manufacturer and embedding it through training and testing.
Leading global training and crisis exercises for multiple teams for one of the world’s leading beauty brands in both English and French.
Delivering crisis exercises for the senior leadership team of one of the UK’s leading charities.
Leah Tedesco
Leah is a Senior Consultant
She helps design webinars, crisis preparedness training, and social media strategies in order to help clients build confidence in their digital presence.
Leah takes a human approach to social media strategy, working to understand broader communicative values and using that to inform how individuals treat social media.
Leah has an MA in Anthropology from the University of Virginia; linguistic and communicative practices in online spaces.
She speaks Italian and Spanish.
Leah’s Featured Projects:
Global social media training, channel auditing, and consulting for one of the world's largest energy companies.
Developing a crisis communications preparedness toolkit and trainings for the crisis management agency in a US major city.
Developing and delivering a crisis simulation for a top US airline.
Susy Wootton
Susy is the Marketing Manager for the Helpful Digital Group
She is developing a marketing strategy for the organisation to ensure a seamless client journey to accessing the services we offer.
Susy has a keen interest in digital engagement, open consultations, social media, marketing and communications and developing leadership skills in digital engagement.
She has a solid background in the UK government sector in digital and communications roles. These include working for the Department of Health and Social Care, working on projects such as the crisis response to Ebola, and the Home Office, working on the UK exiting the EU and COVID communications responses. More recently she has worked within digital roles within the charity and green energy sector.
Susy has a postgraduate diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing and is currently working towards an MSc in Psychodynamic Counselling and Psychotherapy.
Sophie Pattison
Sophie joined the team as an intern during her penultimate year at the University of Southampton, where she earned her degree in History. After graduating, she transitioned into a full-time role, bringing with her a passion for communication, social media marketing, digital strategy, and crisis management.
With the belief that a strong understanding of digital communication is crucial in today’s fast-evolving world, Sophie applies the analytical and linguistic skills from her humanities background to offer a creative, human-centred approach to crisis management, understanding that one size does not fit all.
Throughout her time, Sophie has contributed to a variety of high-profile projects, including:
- Providing social media training and support to one of the world’s largest energy companies
- Creating content for digital skills workshops with a global reach
- Supporting content creation and execution for a large-scale crisis management exercise
- Contributing to the management of the company’s own social media channels
Amanda Hewett
Amanda is our Partnerships Account Manager
She oversees our partner offering, delivering projects with our trusted partners and actively nurturing partner relationships, influencing positive outcomes through successful collaboration.
Amanda has 19 years experience in digital across UK Government sectors, global technology giants and as a small business owner.
Amanda is also a fitness expert. She founded and championed women’s health and wellbeing brand SHE Active. She created a digital presence and marketing strategy focused on delivery of both virtual and in-person coaching and training programmes.
She is an ambassador of the This Girl Can campaign, funded by Sport England and nominated for the Sevenoaks District Council ‘Making it Happen’ Community and Voluntary Awards 2023.
She has a BSc (Hons) in Multimedia Technology from the University of Hertfordshire.
Amanda’s digital interests and specialisms include:
- Training Workshops and Programmes
- Strategic Partnerships
- Digital Marketing and content production
- Digital product innovation
Ayla Miller
Ayla is a Digital Account Executive
Ayla is involved in client-facing projects, from Helpful webinars promoting best practices for an enhanced social media presence, to crisis simulations.
As a recent college graduate from UC Santa Barbara, she uses her Bachelor’s degrees in both Cultural Anthropology and Communications to take an adaptive and thoughtful approach in her client relationships.
Ayla places great value on maintaining a people-first mindset and is dedicated to fostering comfortable and empowering relationships between clients and their online spaces.
Ayla’s digital interests and specialisms include:
- Creating captivating social media content
- Identifying and implementing cultural nuances
- Feed and media aesthetics
Nelly Lawrie
Nelly is an independent consultant
Nelly specializes in strategic communications and leadership, with over 20 years’ experience across charity, government, and private sectors.
She is passionate about the strategic role of communications, and how it shapes an organisation’s direction as a key lever for change.
She loves bringing a strategy to life and leading the change to make
that happen. with a knack for breaking down big complex, strategic issues into simple (but never simplistic), tangible actions that people can buy in to.
Nelly has successfully engaged diverse audiences on issues including natural disasters, displacement & migration, Covid-19 vaccine development, cutting carbon emissions, housing & homelessness, health, science and military operations, leading to positive attitude and behaviour change, increased growth, and exciting shifts in organisational culture and mindset.
