Meet the Talence Team
#recruitmentreimagined
Managing Director
& Founder
Ian Knowlson is a leading voice in the recruitment sector, recognized globally as a thought leader, business strategist, and personal growth coach. With a deep expertise in NLP, employment trends, and talent acquisition, Ian helps businesses and individuals not just meet, but surpass their growth ambitions.
With a wealth of experience in recruitment transformation, Ian specializes in guiding organizations through evolving market dynamics, ensuring they stay ahead of industry shifts. His expertise spans corporate client acquisition, training & coaching, RPO/MSP strategies, and innovative business development approaches. As a widely respected social media influencer and speaker, Ian’s insights into the Future of Work and Recruitment continue to shape the industry.
Ian’s ability to energize teams, inspire innovation, and deliver results makes him a visionary leader in the recruitment and talent space.
Specialties: Future of Work | Future of Recruitment | RPO | MSP | Talent Strategy | Training | Coaching | NLP | Corporate Growth | Sales | Leadership
Executive Coach &
Leadership Consultant
Lorrain Green is a certified executive coach and performance consultant, helping CEOs, MDs, and senior leaders navigate complex people challenges to drive business success. With experience working with top organizations like Marks & Spencer, Barclays, John Lewis, British Airways, Vodafone, AXA, Accenture, Deutsche Bank, and many more, Lorrain has built a reputation for transforming leadership teams and optimizing performance.
She specializes in organisational development, talent engagement, and leadership coaching, from scaling operations, empowering teams, hiring new managers, or stepping back to let their leadership thrive.
Balancing relationship-building with commercial realities, Lorrain works alongside senior executives to reshape culture, refine leadership strategies, and recruit top talent for the future. Her expertise in assessment, customer service excellence, and high-impact coaching ensures businesses maintain their quality standards, engagement, and long-term success.
Specialties: Executive Coaching | Leadership Development | Organisational Strategy | Performance Consulting | Talent Engagement | Business Growth
AI Strategy & Change Leadership Expert
James Crawford is an AI Strategy & Programme Lead, guiding organizations through the evolving AI landscape to maximize impact and future-proof their success. He specializes in helping businesses define their AI vision, establish a strategic roadmap, and implement transformative AI-driven solutions.
With expertise spanning Change Strategy, Change Initiation, and Change Delivery, James has led hundreds of projects, driving innovation in customer experience, operational performance, and emerging technologies like Generative AI and Blockchain/Web3.
James brings deep industry knowledge from B2B, B2C, and public sector organizations, having led the Change function in five companies. As an Interim Director, Fractional AI Lead, and Consultant, he has spearheaded strategic reviews, acquisitions, mergers, and high-impact transformation programmes across many sectors.
James thrives on collaborating with diverse teams and tailoring solutions to each organization’s unique challenges - earning recognition as a catalyst for change and a leader in AI-driven business transformation.
Specialties: AI Strategy | Change Leadership | Emerging Technologies | Digital Transformation | Business Growth | Leadership | Consulting | Innovation
Chief Marketing Officer
Pauline is the Chief Marketing Officer at Talence, driving the marketing strategy behind self-paced learning solutions designed to empower business leaders and founders. Through cutting-edge digital marketing, recruitment expertise, and data analytics, she crafts targeted initiatives that enhance brand positioning, boost customer acquisition, and strengthen user engagement.
A results-driven strategist, Pauline’s expertise spans demand generation, performance marketing, campaign optimization, and content strategy - the core pillars of modern marketing leadership. From SEO-optimized content and marketing automation to brand storytelling and audience segmentation, she ensures every campaign aligns seamlessly with Talence’s mission to future-proof businesses.
At Talence, Pauline is pioneering the next generation of business education, ensuring organizations identify skill gaps, build actionable strategies, and scale effectively.
Specialties: Marketing Strategy | Digital Growth | AI-Driven Recruitment | Performance Marketing | Brand Positioning | Leadership Development
Fractional CAIO
Toby is a leading expert in AI strategy and implementation, helping forward-thinking SMBs future-proof their growth in an increasingly AI-driven world. With a hands-on approach to AI development, Toby works closely with businesses to identify high-impact AI solutions, build company-specific automation tools, and ensure seamless integration that delivers measurable results.
Navigating the rapidly evolving AI landscape can be overwhelming - but Toby cuts through the complexity, providing clear, actionable roadmaps to help businesses stay competitive and drive long-term success.
Alongside his AI expertise, Toby is a civil engineering recruitment specialist, connecting top-tier talent with leading contractors and consultancies. His relationship-first approach ensures the best possible match between candidates and companies, leveraging deep industry knowledge and a strong professional network to deliver high-impact hiring solutions.
Specialties: AI Strategy | AI Development | Automation | Business Growth | Civil Engineering Recruitment | Talent Acquisition | Strategic Hiring
Recruitment Leader & Talent Strategy Expert
Sara Thompson is a high-performing recruitment professional with over 25 years of experience in talent attraction, management, and large-scale recruitment programmes. Known for her ability to deliver top-tier talent while maximizing stakeholder satisfaction and ROI, Sara has built a reputation as a trusted leader in the industry.
Her expertise extends beyond placements - she excels in developing strong relationships at executive levels, shaping strategic hiring initiatives, and transforming recruitment concepts into reality. Respected by clients, peers, and senior leaders, Sara is a results-driven talent strategist committed to optimizing workforce solutions and ensuring businesses thrive through exceptional hiring practices.
Specialties: Executive Talent Acquisition | Large-Scale Hiring Programmes | Stakeholder Engagement | Recruitment Strategy | ROI Optimization | Workforce Planning
Learn Why We’re Their Go-To
Simon Bucknell
Founder & Tech Director
Ian has given the leadership team at EMBS real clarity of thought. Through his coaching and training sessions he has been able to elevate the leadership team and our employees to the next level.
As a result we've seen a significant uplift in revenue. Ian has also helped us to create a vision for the business that will see us work towards 'hyper growth' in the next 12 to 18 months. For us engaging Ian and the wider team has been a game changer!
Andy Wadsworth
Director
I've worked with Ian in two different organisations after being impressed by listening to him speaking in 2015 at a recruitment conference.
Finding a coach you can work with is a really personal thing. They've got to 'get' you, and be able to hold a mirror up to the behaviours that are holding you back, without causing offense to your inner chimp. It's a fine art.
From my perspective as a coachee, he's patient and methodical and I find him to be challenging in an appropriate manner. Over time we've worked up a relationship where we can take shortcuts to the place we need to be on a range of situational business topics.
He's well-educated in the field of organisational psychology and draws upon this during practice in a way that's approachable at different levels of knowledge.
He's well respected by many of my peers for the value he provides to their career progression and capability as managers/leaders.
Highly recommended.
I've known Ian for approximately 3 years now and having been impressed with his style of group coaching and training sessions he'd delivered to our wider business group, I hired Ian to help coach me and assist taking my business to the next level. Ian is a fantastic mentor, trainer and coach. He has not only been instrumental in helping me put a 3 year business plan together but extremely engaging and inspiring as an individual which has helped me achieve much more than I had anticipated from a personal development point of view. If you run your own business and feel you need some direction in implementing growth plans or even manage a team and need some coaching around your approach and personal development, Ian is your man and I couldn't recommend him highly enough.
Gareth Carpenter
Executive Director
I have had the benefit of Ian's leadership coaching for the past year - coinciding with taking on a larger role, managing a complex business comprising multiple teams, and navigating the unique work environment posed by Covid-19. Ian has helped me navigate multiple strategic and tactical challenges through a combination of deep understanding of the recruitment industry, working through a range of leadership concepts and most importantly providing a trust-based forum based on his understanding of me as a professional and as a person. I have had the benefit of Ian's leadership coaching for the past year - coinciding with taking on a larger role, managing a complex business comprising multiple teams, and navigating the unique work environment posed by Covid-19. Ian has helped me navigate multiple strategic and tactical challenges through a combination of deep understanding of the recruitment industry, working through a range of leadership concepts and most importantly providing a trust-based forum based on his understanding of me as a professional and as a person.
Richard Pedreschi
Executive Director
We have worked with Ian for over 2 years now across our Global business and he has provided some amazing sessions on how to grow your business, managing teams, and even how to manage managers which has been a great help to me personally. Along with training Ian has supported and helped me on a personal level on his own personal time showing he how much he values everyone he works with, the door is always open.
Ian has always been incredible professional and extremely warm and easy individual to approach while being very direct, honest, and clear in his advice. Coming from Director level positions within the Recruitment industry he can provide some real-life truths and learns which for me was the standout difference between himself and other trainers I have worked with in the past.
James Doyle
Founder
Ian delivers our future leaders training and development/executive coaching and has been integral in that hugely important next wave, who we can grow the business around. Helping them with robust techniques for motivation, time management, man managing and efficiencies.
His teachings are used daily and account for a large part of how we culturally manage our teams. This appointment has been massively successful and all the managers like/relish his time with them each month.
Given his experience he has also been influential in visioning sessions at Director level and how we drive the business forward generally. I truly believe he is passionate about our success on all levels and to have someone of his pedigree supporting us has been invaluable.
