Our Team

Alex Linley is a psychologist and social entrepreneur. After time spent working first in business and then in academia, in 2005 Alex founded the Centre of Applied Positive Psychology, where he is now Director. CAPP is a social business, registered as a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee, and is focused on the applications of strengths in organisations and schools. CAPP’s profits are reinvested in its mission of Strengthening the World, a mission which is also supported through the charitable works of The Strengths Project, of which Alex is a Founding Trustee.

Alex holds the position of Visiting Professor in Psychology at the University of Leicester, and has delivered keynote presentations on strengths and positive psychology throughout Europe and in the Caribbean, the United States, and India. Alex has a first class BSc (Hons) Psychology degree from the University of Leicester and a PhD in Psychology from the University of Warwick. He is a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society, holds the British Psychological Society Certificates of Competence in Occupational Testing (Level A and Level B), and is an accredited business coach, having graduated from the Meyler Campbell Business Coach™ program.

He has written, co-written, or edited more than 120 research papers and book chapters, and four books, including Positive Psychology in Practice (Wiley, 2004) and Average to A+: Realising Strengths in Yourself and Others (CAPP Press, 2008). He is an Associate Editor of the Encyclopaedia of Positive Psychology and the Journal of Positive Psychology, as well as Co-Editor of the International Coaching Psychology Review, and a regular reviewer for a number of journals, publishers, and grant awarding bodies.  He has just finished his new book, "The “The Strengths Book: Identify Your Strengths, Be Confident, Be Successful, and Enjoy Better Relationships by Realising the Best of You” being launched on the 27th April 2010.

Alex wrote the business case that was used to help launch the National Talent Bank, an initiative of the Council on Social Action, chaired by the Prime Minister and launched at 10 Downing Street in July 2009. He is currently serving as a member of the Steering Committee for the National Talent Bank.

Please follow the links for further details of Alex’s publications and presentations, including forthcoming talks.

Nicky is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and Consulting Director of CAPP. Her particular areas of expertise include strengths-based selection and recruitment, leadership development and performance management. At CAPP, Nicky is involved in taking a whole system approach to business issues, working with the CAPP team to develop approaches to a variety of projects including strengths-based role profiling, assessment centre design, and manager and leadership development.

Nicky is experienced in working across many client sectors and countries. She has most recently supported Ernst & Young in developing a Strengths-based Graduate Recruitment Process. Other clients include Aviva, Foreign and Common Wealth Office, Loughborough University, Royal Mail and Boehringer Ingelheim.

Along with Alex Linley and Sue Harrington, Nicky edited the Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology and Work which will be published by Oxford University Press in 2009.

Robert Biswas-Diener is widely known as the "Indiana Jones of Positive Psychology" because his scientific pursuit of the emotional good life has led him to such far flung places as India, Greenland, Israel, Kenya, and Spain. He sits on the editorial boards of the Journal of Positive Psychology and the Journal of Happiness Studies. His research has been featured in Time, India Outlook, Professional Manager, CNN, CBC (Canada), Science & Spirit, and a variety of other media.

Robert is CAPP's Programme Director for Education and Learning. He holds a Doctorate in Philosophy, and is a Certified MentorCoach. He is part-time instructor of psychology at Portland State University (USA). Robert is the author of the books, Positive Psychology Coaching: Putting the science of happiness to work for your clients (Wiley, 2007), and Happiness: Unlocking the mysteries of psychological wealth (Blackwell, 2008).

Reena Govindji is a consulting psychologist who joined the Centre of Applied Positive Psychology in September 2006, having graduated from the University of Leicester with a first class BSc (Hons) Psychology. She was awarded the Peace-Cotton prize for the highest mark in clinical psychology, and a first class mark for her dissertation on strengths use and well-being.

Reena works to support CAPP projects across a variety of areas, and is currently evaluating the impact of strengths in schools funded by the North Lincolnshire’s Local Education Authority. As part of CAPP’s current Employee Engagement Forum, Reena has also been involved in conducting interviews to understand the drivers of employee engagement.

Reena's interests are in the development and applications of positive psychology across the areas of work, education, health and forensic settings. She will begin her doctoral research in leadership strengths and virtues in work, education and health in October 2007.

Emma Trenier is a Consulting Psychologist at CAPP who specialises in the area of individual and team development. She also leads CAPP’s Outplacement work.  She is passionate about enabling individuals and teams to understand their strengths and how they can use them more. She holds a BSc in Applied Psychology from Cardiff University, an MSc from London Metropolitan University and Level A and B Certificates in Psychometric Testing. She is currently working towards chartership as an Occupational Psychologist and is a member of the British Psychological Society (BPS) and the BPS Special Group in Coaching.

Emma has designed and delivered a range of outplacement, management and team development, diversity awareness and employee development programmes. She has worked as a coach, facilitator, assessor and researcher with both public and private sector clients including Transport for London, Greater London Authority, London Development Agency, Cisco Systems, NHS, BT and Johnson and Johnson.

Strengths: Creativity, Engager, Purpose, Esteem Builder, Growth.

Jonathan is Consulting Psychologist with CAPP. He has specialised in the strengths psychology of successful leaders, managers and professionals across a wide range of occupations and blue chip companies.

Previous posts included: Research Director for Kenexa, Lecturer in Occupational Psychology at the University of Leicester, Director of Talent Research with Gallup and Chief Industrial Psychologist with the Anglo-American Corporation in Central Africa.

Jonathan has lived and worked in the USA, Thailand and Zambia as well as the UK. He has also worked on assignments in Dubai, Egypt, India, Hong Kong and Singapore. His doctoral research, at Birkbeck College, was on the design of ideal learning environments, and was sponsored by the SRC, the Rank Organization, London, and the Responsive Environments Corporation, Hartford, Connecticut.

His publications on positive psychology and strengths have appeared in the Psychologist, the Training Journal, the Selection and Development Review, and Pharmaceutical Sales Management.

Janet Willars passionately enjoys discovering the talents and strengths of individuals, positioning them for success and allowing them the opportunities to use their talents in the workplace every day.

Janet has been involved in the work of strength-based organisations for the last 12 years. Originally trained with The Gallup Organization, she has a wealth of experience in developing and conducting strength-based interviews. She has interviewed approximately 22,000 people, discovering talent for the financial services sector, and both the service and retail industries. Janet also has experience of interview-based qualitative research for the retail and health industries. She now works as a freelance consultant for CAPP, focusing on qualitative research, facilitating focus groups to identify the key strengths of talented individuals and developing interview strategies to allow the recruitment and retention of talent.

Originally a research scientist, Janet holds a BSc (Hons) in Biological Sciences from the University of Aston in Birmingham. Following this she was awarded a PhD from the University of Nottingham for research sponsored by the Leukaemia Research Fund. Subsequently, Janet spent several years involved in clinical research, working both in the laboratory and co-ordinating clinical trials of novel drugs for the pharmaceutical industry. Janet also has passion for teaching and learning, particularly in numeracy and science to which end she conducts practical science classes at her local primary school, focusing very much on making science ‘fun’.

Martin Stairs is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and specialist in occupational assessment, leadership development, and employee engagement.  Martin enjoys drawing on a wide spectrum of research and expertise to develop and deliver best-practice approaches that benefit people and organisations.

Martin has worked extensively with public sector clients and leading blue-chip organisations across the UK and Europe, as well as internationally in Asia, the US and Australia.  His experience extends across a broad client base including clients in the Automotive, Banking and Financial Services, Consumer Goods, Education, Energy, Government, Health, Insurance, Pharmaceuticals, Professional Services, IT and Telecoms, and Transport sectors.

Throughout his career Martin has led the design and delivery of numerous assignments including employee engagement surveys, job analysis and competency development work, the design and delivery of talent management programmes, and the design and delivery of HR system audit and evaluation processes.  He is an experienced coach, assessor and facilitator, and through his international assignments has gained expertise in delivering assignments that are truly inclusive and work across diverse cultures.  Martin’s current research activity is focused on understanding the relationship between people and work.  This has resulted in the development of a holistic, and evolving, approach to modelling and measuring employee engagement.  Martin’s other particular interest is focused on enhancing realism in assessment through effective deployment of IT-led solutions.

Martin is a member of the British Psychological Society and the BPS Special Group in Coaching Psychology, and an Affiliate Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).  Martin holds a Masters degree in Occupational Psychology from the University of Nottingham, as well as first degrees in Psychology and Physics.  He is a qualified teacher and previously worked in the NHS and with a children’s charity dedicated to providing care, education and therapy to traumatised children and young people.

Martin is still fine tuning his view of his strengths – he is very aware that this means his signature strengths are very likely to be Improver, Reconfiguration and Optimisation.  Martin’s other key strengths include Balance, Detail, Generativity, Planful, Prevention, and Delivery – all of which he enjoys using in his role as ‘architect’ of projects and systems.

Linda Woolston is a business coach and consultant at CAPP. She is committed to supporting clients in articulating their goals and dreams for their organisation or themselves and, through coaching, to enable clients to access more of their abilities, strengths and potential to achieve those goals.

Before starting to work as a business coach and consultant, Linda was the L&D Director of RAC Motoring Services and previously Dalkia plc (Vivendi) including responsibility for facilitating Board strategy events and Board effectiveness at RAC.

As a coach and consultant Linda has worked in both small and global companies on a range of projects including developing business vision and strategy, delivering 360 feedback, Assessment Centre design, business development and organisational change. For the last 17 years Linda has also been a trustee and business supporter of Community Links. She is also a Trustee of CAPP's charity The Strengths Project.

Tony is CAPP’s IT Manager.  He holds a B. Eng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and has twenty years professional experience in engineering, IT and project management.

Tony started his career with the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, Middlesex in the area of Environmental Standards, where he started in electronics and field work, gradually moving in to IT and was ultimately responsible for running a national Air Quality Network on behalf of DEFRA.  After 10 years he moved to the University of Leicester as Principal Computer Officer where he was responsible for the IT service delivery supporting administration, teaching and research in the School of Psychology.

At CAPP, Tony is responsible for implementing and managing all of our IT strategies whilst ensuring these are in line with current market trends .  Tony has been key to the launch and development of CAPP’s Realise2 assessment tool and will be responsible for the development of new products to market in the future.  Tony supports the whole team at CAPP and implements our IT security and policies whilst ensuring our internal systems are up to date and as efficient as possible.

Tony’s strengths lie in personal responsibility, detail and improver making his role at CAPP vital for taking our IT capabilities into the future.

Trudy is CAPP’s Marketing Manager. She is currently driving our marketing strategy and business development activities forward. She has worked in this area of business for the last ten years. Her particular area of expertise is in business to business marketing, product launches, large scale conference, event planning and branding. Trudy’s past successes include running client research projects, large scale conferences, re-branding projects and other long term consulting partnerships with BP, BT, Royal Mail, Sara Lee and TFL.

At CAPP a key area of focus for Trudy is developing our systems and processes to enable CAPP’s long term vision. Trudy implements and oversee’s the CAPP marketing strategy and is currently working on the product launch for Realise2 and the supporting book which will be available in April 2010.  She also works with the team to deliver the existing programmes effectively and to help the launch of new programmes.

Trudy takes great pride in supporting CAPP and their client relationships to develop and sustain the mission and vision through her organisational, planful and nurturing strengths.

Gurpal Minhas is Professor Alex Linley’s Business Manager at CAPP. He holds a BSc in Human Psychology from Aston University, an MSc in Organisational Psychology from Aston Business School and Level A and B Certificates in Psychometric Testing with the British Psychological Society. He is currently working towards Chartered Status as an Occupational Psychologist and is a member of the British Psychological Society (BPS) and BPS Division of Occupational Psychology.

Gurpal works to support Alex in achieving CAPP’s mission of Strengthening the World.  He achieves this by his dedication to research, client management and his continual administrative oversight.   He also works with the wider team to support consultancy projects and clients. As part of CAPP’s ongoing research objectives, Gurpal has been involved in a wide variety of research projects looking into the impact of strengths on wellbeing, self esteem and life satisfaction. Gurpal has previously worked in the NHS, providing support for individual’s diagnosed with psychosis, and with a young person’s charity providing care and support to people with schizophrenia.

Gurpal’s interests are in the application and implementation of positive psychology interventions within organisations. He strives to ensure that best practice methodologies are adopted in order to ensure long term organisational efficiency.

Kissa is CAPP’s Team Administrator. She holds a BA (Honours) in International Business from Coventry University. She also holds an AVCE Double Award in Business and a GNVQ Intermediate in Business. Kissa got a distinction in her dissertation based on International Assignments. She has also received other awards such as The Jack Petchey Achievement award, The highest Level of Commitment award and The Most Outstanding Student award during her education.

Kissa has previously been working for organisations such as Axa Sun Life, HSBC, Coventry University, Clinton Cards, and McDonald’s for roles that involved administrative support.

Kissa works with our consulting team by providing them with all areas of invaluable administration and support. She also works with our products, in particular Realise2, ensuring our clients receive a first class response to any queries. You will probably speak to her when calling the CAPP office and experience her award winning customer service skills.

Kissa’s strengths lie in pride, work ethic and personal responsibility. Along with her positive team impact strengths and optimism, she is an invaluable support team member.

Avirupa Bhaduri was recruited to lead CAPP’s work in India through a joint role as a CAPP Consultant and as the Strengths Project Leader for India. Avirupa has worked extensively in the field of positive psychology from as early as the year 2000, both as a research assistant to Robert Biswas-Diener, the then co-ordinator for India for the multinational study on happiness, organised by the University of Illinois, and as a research assistant to a number of diverse international research projects, both for CAPP and other international organisations.

Avirupa has been a freelance social worker since her early college days, and has specific areas of expertise in working with youth groups. She is a practicing performing artist, and serves as a part time anchor of All India Radio and various television channels. Avirupa uses her skills in the field of theatre to coach on building confidence, public speaking, interaction skills, and oration, particularly for underprivileged children and adolescents, a strength set that she puts to extensive use in leading the work of The Strengths Project with the Shiriti slum community in Kolkata, India.

Avirupa holds a postgraduate degree in Human Resource Management from the Indian Institute of Social Welfare & Business Management. She has worked for the leading media houses of India, including The Anandabazar Group, and worked as a manager in the India Today Group prior to joining CAPP.  

Debasish (Micky) Sen Sharma works for CAPP as an Advisor to The Strengths Project in Kolkata, working with Avirupa Bhaduri. Drawing on his extensive media skills and experience, Debasish directed and produced The Strengths Project film that features on YouTube, and which describes the work of The Strengths Project with the underprivileged population of Shiriti slum in Kolkata, India. Additionally, Debasish has worked as a research assistant for CAPP, designing and delivering international research studies from an Indian perspective.
Debasish is a postgraduate in English and Film Studies from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. He began his career as a journalist, before moving to focus on advertising.  Currently, he works as an independent film maker in India, making documentaries, corporate films and television commercials. He has also written and directed several plays and conducted many workshops on media and communications.

Debasish is also a Visiting Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Calcutta and Jadavpur University. He has delivered presentations in several national and international seminars and workshops. He has contributed in several journals, magazine and books on film studies, media and cultural studies. He is the Chief Editor of Thoughts, a journal on cultural studies.