Persuasion and Advanced Business Communication was founded by Bill Docherty MBE.
Bill Docherty MBE was awarded the MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in June 2009 for charity work that he conducted for several organisations over the past 20 years.
After graduating from Strathclyde University Bill started his career in the Civil Service and was a District Inspector of Taxes in the Inland Revenue. He joined Arthur Andersen in Glasgow and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1986.
He was head hunted into Robson Rhodes as a Partner where he built a specialist UK team generating £1.7m in fees using Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) in Business and Rainmaking skills.
In 1996 he was head hunted back to Andersen as a Partner to set up and head a new UK practice area where he built a UK team generating £5 m a year in fees within 4 years once again applying the Rainmaking and NLP in business skills.
In 2000 he resigned his Partnership in Andersen to found Persuasion and Advanced Business Communication, which specialises in the Science and Art of Persuasive Communication. He trains and develops Rainmakers, Rainmaking Teams and Persuasive Leaders in the Professions and Business worlds.
Bill is a Chartered Accountant who is qualified in NLP as a Master Practitioner and NLP certified trainer.
Bill was Chairman of the Manchester Branch of the Institute of Directors for 3 years 2006-2009 and an advisor to the North West Regional Assembly and the North West Development Agency on the interaction of the European community and the North West of England in 2008.
Professional Bodies
- Member of the Institute Of Chartered Accountants Of Scotland
- Fellow of The Institute of Directors
- A Fellow of the Institute of Sales & Marketing
- Member of the Professional Speakers Association
- An Associate of the Chartered Institute of Management
Sue France Chartered FCIPD
The Times Crème & DHL PA of the Year 2006
Sue France – Marketing Manger, Trainer and Coach to PAs and secretaries and PA to Bill Docherty has won the prestigious Times Crème DHL PA of the Year award 2006. Sue is delighted to have won the award and even more delighted that Bill appreciates Sue enough to have taken the trouble to nominate her.
Sue's book "The Definitive Personal Assistant and Secretarial Handbook" published by Kogan Page will be launched on Monday 3 August 09 and can be bought from all reputable book sellers and internet sites.
Sue started work as a shorthand typist/word processing operator and worked her way up becoming a senior secretary, team supervisor, events manager and Personal Assistant to the Head of Andersen in Manchester which was the leading accounting firm in the UK. Sue attended Salford University part- time to be awarded a post graduate diploma in human resource management and became a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). Sue then became part of the global training team as training manager responsible for 600 secretaries in the UK. Sue took redundancy in 2002 when Andersen collapsed worldwide and started working with Bill Docherty, an ex Andersen partner who had left in 2000 to set up his own training and development company – Persuasion.
Sue is the UK National Chairman for European Management Assistants (EUMA) and has held the roles of the UK National Training & Development officer and UK National Public Relations Officer. EUMA is a voluntary secretarial networking organisation which helps to develop PAs and provides global links for PAs.
Sue has been involved in sponsored walks in such places as the Grand Canyon, Mount Etna -Sicily, the Inca Trail in Peru, the Alps and the Great China Wall in order to raise funds for children’s charities.
Sue has 2 children, Sara aged 29 and Samantha aged 16 who keep her young and busy!
Sue presents at PA conferences around the world.
