Manny joined the Parachute Regiment as a soldier in May 1971. After several operational tours of duty in Ireland he was promoted to Sergeant in 1978; to WO2 in 1985 and to WO1 (RSM) in 1989 as RSM (I) of the Infantry Signal Wing in Warminster, where he had made his home in 1978.

In 1992 Manny was commissioned; his first post being Unit Families Officer with 3 PARA. After a tour of duty at the Infantry Training Centre, Warminster, he returned to 2 PARA as Mechanical Transport Officer. This duty included a 6 month Operational tour in South Armagh, Northern Ireland, as officer in charge of Europe’s then busiest Heli-port at Bessbrook Mill.

In 1997 Manny successfully applied for the post of Adjutant/Quartermaster at the University of Wales Officers Training Corps in Cardiff where he remained until April 2006. Whilst serving with the UOTC he was awarded the Commander in Chief Land Command’s Award for Meritorious Service for services to Reserve Army Recruiting and Wales UOTC. He was then selected for the post of Officer Commanding 160 (Wales) Brigade Recruiting Advisory Team in Brecon, in the rank of Major.

Manny retired from full time service in August 2011 at the age of 60 having completed over 40 years with the Parachute Regiment – something he is very proud of. On retiring he transferred his commission to Dyfed & Glamorgan Army Cadet Force where he served as the Area Commander for Ceredigion. In 2015 he was appointed as a Deputy Cadet Commandant in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel with responsibility for Dyfed. He retired fully in August 2017.

During his service, Manny has been deployed in many areas of the world including North and Central America, South East Asia, most European countries and, most notably in 1982, to The Falklands where he saw action as a Platoon Sergeant in A Company 3 PARA, taking part in the Battle for Mount Longdon. He has given many presentations on his experiences during the Falklands Conflict, his largest audience to date being to 400 passengers on a P&O cruise ship during a South American cruise. He regularly presents to Infantry Battle School Section Commander and Platoon Sergeant’s Courses.

Manny is an active member of Reserve Forces & Cadets Association for Wales.

Huw is the Founding Managing Director of the Motivational Preparation College for Training (MPCT).

Huw joined the Royal Welch Fusiliers at the age of 17 where he served in Northern Ireland, Berlin, Bosnia, Uzbekistan and Malawi.  Huw completed his military career reaching the rank of Captain in the Royal Welsh.

After leaving the Army, Huw quickly became known for his passion and ability to relate to young people instilling motivation and determination in the youth of today to succeed and fulfil their ambitions. In 2001, Huw received an MBE for his work with young people.

MPCT has been hugely successful since its conception in 1999 and has been awarded the Investors in People Gold Award three times, the first organisation to achieve such status in the UK. Through Huw’s persistent drive and commitment to help young people, MPCT has now trained over 12,000 Learners, aged 14-19 and 16 – 23  across both England and Wales. The company’s operation has expanded to 32 locations across the UK, employing 176 full time staff.

In August 2014, MPCT was awarded the highest performance grade possible by Her Majesty’s Inspectorates OFSTED, achieving Grade 1 Outstanding across all areas. Huw’s leadership and management skills were recognised as outstanding where “senior leaders place their highest priority on supporting all Learners to succeed”.  Huw, along with his team, has helped enlist over 2,730 young people into the Military, resulting in MPCT achieving a Defence Recognition Scheme Silver Award in 2017.  Huw was awarded Wales Director of the Year 2017 by the Institute of Directors.

Huw and his team have worked extremely hard to make MPCT the best place to work and these efforts have been recognised as MPCT ranked in the Sunday Times Top 100 Best Small Companies to Work For in 2017. Alongside this, MPCT was awarded 3-Star Accreditation status from engagement specialists Best Companies, which represents extraordinary levels of engagement.

In 2017 MPCT was named as the TES “Training Provider of the Year” – this is one of the most prestigious awards a training provider can receive. Whilst working at MPCT is rewarding, engaging and positively challenging for staff, it is equally rewarding for all of the young people who attend the Colleges.

Hailed from Gwynedd, in North Wales, where he was born in 1968, Huw now lives in Monmouth. Huw is a passionate cyclist andwalker as well as a keen runner, having completed many marathons over the years. In 2017, he took on the challenge of completing one of the toughest foot races known to man – the Marathon des Sables. The marathon consisted of six marathons in seven days, carrying all of his own kit and equipment across the Sahara Desert. Huw, together with MPCT Senior Director, Brian Edwards, raised £11,705 for the Motivation and Learning Trust. The charity supports, develops and enhances life opportunities for MPCT Learners’ past, present and future. Huw is planning to tackle this challenge again in 2020.

Huw also loves to spend his spare time with his partner Mel and son Charlie, aged 8 and is an enthusiastic rugby coach for the Monmouth Under 9’s rugby team.

Edward Saville was born and brought up in Newport South Wales. He began his career working for British Steel Corporation and later joined Wedge Group Galvanizers Ltd. Working in various roles within the business, he is currently General Manager of the Welsh Division of the company.

Edward has a keen interest in the local community and has stood as both a local and a community councillor.

Edward saw the potential that MPCT students could offer to industry as well as the military and has employed students into apprenticeship and full time roles in his company and is committed to further developing this industry / employer link with the MPCT.

“I was honoured to be asked to become a trustee of the MLT. I have always been impressed with the calibre of the students and I believe that British industry would benefit from having employees with the core values instilled by the MPCT.”

Steve Williams was born in St Asaph in 1969 his Hometown is Denbigh. He served in the Army for 23 years having joined the Army as a Junior Soldier in Cwrt-Y-Gollen (Crickhowell) in 1985, he served with 1st Battalion The Royal Welch Fusiliers, later to become The Royal Welsh for the duration of his career and serving in the UK and on international exercises and on Operational tours he left in 2008.

He retired from service after his injury and medical complications, which resulted in a below knee amputation and he felt he could no longer do what he wanted in regard to his future in the Forces due to his reduction in his physical capabilities and mobility.

Whilst in the Army Steve performed a variety of leadership and challenging roles both within the Regiment and on posting from Company Sergeant Major (CSM), Regimental Quarter Master Sergeant (RQMS), Welfare Officer and Regimental Careers Management Officer (RCMO).

On leaving the forces Steve joined MPCT as the Area Manager for North Wales and the knowledge he has learnt throughout his forces career, was put to good use in enabling the Managing Directors vision for the Company to be implemented further.

Steve was made a Director (Director of Operations for MPCT) in 2009 responsible operationally for all the college locations.

In 2010 unfortunately and frustratingly due to some complications still from the original injury and infection he had to undergo an above knee amputation reducing his mobility further.

In 2013 Steve moved to the role of Director of Risk Management for MPCT focusing on H&S, Safeguarding and Welfare.

Steve is thankful that he is part of a team that is making a positive impact supporting young peoples’ lives to empower them to reach their personal goals.

He fully supports the Motivation & Learning Trust (MLT) seeing the benefit to groups enabling them to take part in educational visits they would other wise not have been able to attend as well as to individual support for some learners as required.

Emma is the Director of Finance at MPCT and the Treasurer for the charity. Emma is a qualified accountant and fellow member of the Association of Certified and Chartered Accountants (ACCA) since 2006.

In her early career she trained and specialised in payroll related work. It was payroll work that saw Emma employed by a local firm of Chartered Accountants as a Payroll Bureau Manager, which in turn led to her training to become a qualified accountant. Emma was promoted through the company to position of Business Services Manager where she specialised in company audits, management accounts and assignments to help companies set up efficient accounting functions. Emma left this role in 2009 in order to gain experience as an accountant working in industry and secured the position of Financial Controller with a computer components distributor, before joining MPCT in June 2014.

Born in 1966 in Hannover, Germany, I spent the next 16 years experiencing the churn and social diversity of a service child moving around the world. I then joined the Army as an Army Apprentice at the College in Chepstow and completed my Apprenticeship as a welder/fabricator. Developing these skills, I qualified as a coded specialist welder, a peak in this field. I was selected to train the potential future specialist welders of the Royal Engineers, at the Royal School of Military Engineering.

During my full career in the Army I experienced many different working environments within the Royal Engineers. Roles included Combat, Air Mobile, Air Support, Amphibious, Armoured and Air Assault in different operational areas around the world. My career spanned almost 30 years, culminating in my final appointment as the Warrant Officer Class 1 (WO1) of the 160 (Wales) Brigade Recruiting Advisory Team based at Army HQ in Brecon. In addition to other tasks I was responsible for the preparation and delivery of training, monitoring of recruiting standards, and MIS support to the regional recruiting framework across Wales. Part of my responsibilities was the validation of the regular army staff attached to the MPCT Colleges throughout Wales.

On retirement from full-time military service in 2011, I was delighted to be employed at MPCT and in 2019, joined the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) as the Deputy Director of Communications. My involvement with the MLT has been from the embryonic stage where we first realised the need for our own charitable trust. I have supported the MD from the onset in identifying Trustees and Patrons and have also actively engaged in fund-raising activities both as a participant and from a planning and delivery perspective. I was delighted to be approached and appointed as a Trustee of the charity.

My interests are golf and rugby and I continue to play, coach and referee in squash, which has been my main focus over many years. Previously I have represented the Army at Junior and senior levels. I am currently an International Referee and have had the honour of representing Wales as an official at World and European Squash events.

I have been married to my wife Karen since 1992 and we are the very proud parents of our two daughters, Rhianydd and Alys. We live in North Cardiff, conveniently placed to visit the Rhiwbina Squash club; a short walk from my home.

David joined the Royal Engineers as an Apprentice Fitter in Sep 81. After several postings, promotions and tours to Kenya and The Falkland Islands he attended a 2-year Clerk of Works (Mechanical) Course in 1991. On the successful completion of the course David was promoted to SSgt in 1993 and posted to 36 Engineer Regiment at Maidstone. After operational tours to Croatia/Bosnia and another 7 months in The Falkland Island he was posted to St Kilda in the Outer Hebrides as the Resident Engineer. Promotion to WO2 in 1999 brought another posting to a training role at the Royal School of Military Engineering, followed in 2001 to RAF Odiham as a WO1. A very interesting tour of Oman/UAE during the second Gulf War was the highlight of this period.

In 2004 David was commissioned as a Captain (Garrison Engineer) and posted to a Royal Engineer specialist works unit in Chilwell, Nottingham. After short tours to Cyprus and Afghanistan, David took the difficult decision to leave the Army and devote more time to his newly-born daughter Ella.

So in Dec 05 another career commenced in ‘civvy street’. Using the wide-ranging engineering and management skills 24 years in the Army had given David, he was offered a facilities management (FM) role via an ex-Army colleague. For the last 11 years he has worked his way up the FM career ladder in a variety of roles from the Deputy Estates and Property Manager at Gibraltar Barracks in Surrey with Babcock, to the FM Account Manager at Twickenham Rugby Stadium (handy for those Army v Navy matches!). David is currently the Deputy Head of FM with the defence company BAE Systems; a busy role based in Farnborough where he helps lead a £30M+ FM business across the UK.

David is living with his partner Teresa and daughter Ella in Farnham, Surrey. His hobbies include squash (Army colours were proudly received in 2002!), triathlon, running, cycling and reading (mainly sport and military history). This years’ challenge is a full Ironman, so he’s being kept very busy training!

John Charles was educated at Tonypandy Grammar School, Polytechnic of Wales and Coventry (Lanchester) Polytechnic. On graduation in 1984, John took up full time employment in the construction industry moving from Project Engineer, through planning and design co-ordination roles to Projects Manager on a wide range of complex building & civil engineering schemes in the UK & Germany. In 2010, he moved into Asset Management and now looks after a portfolio of PFI hospitals with a capital value of c£120M.

John joined the TA in 1977 as a Sapper in the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers (Militia), commissioning in 1980 via Wales UOTC and has since served continuously at Regimental Duty and on the Staff; he has four unit Second-in-Command tours to his credit. He has been active with the Reserve Forces and Cadets Association for Wales as the Chairman of the South Wales Forum, Chairman of the Estates Committee and is a Trustee of the Wales Reserves and Cadets Fund.

Professionally John has been Chairman of the Cardiff Centre and South Wales Region of the Chartered Institute of Building.

John is a Trustee of Mid-Glamorgan Scout Area, Secretary of the Army Benevolent Fund’s Glamorgan Appeal, Chairman of SSAFA’s Mid-Glamorgan Branch, Court Assistant of the Worshipful Livery Company of Wales, Community Governor of Tonypandy Community College, Member of the Cwm Tâf Community Covenant Panel and President of Taff Rhondda Youth Rugby Union.

In 2012, he was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant for Mid-Glamorgan; John has carried out a number of duties on behalf of HM Lord Lieutenant.

John joined the Motivation and Learning Trust as a Trustee in September 2015.

Steve joined the Royal Engineers as an Apprentice in September 1979. After a two-year Fitter Plant apprenticeship at Chepstow and a brief spell Combat Engineer training in Camberley, Steve was posted to Maidstone. During his 2 1/2 years there he managed to fit in two 6 month tours of the Falklands, a United Nations stint on the Green Line in Cyprus and numerous exercises in BAOR. A posting to Germany followed, with detachments in St Kilda, the Outer Hebrides, France, Northern Ireland and attending as many courses designed to physically test, exhaust or injure him!

Back once again in the UK within weeks he was deployed on Operation GRANBY, based in Saudi Arabia. Promoted to Sergeant Instructor he returned to where it all began, at Chepstow Army Apprentices College. After 3 excellent years there, with plenty of skiing, more courses and his first expedition to Corsica, then a 3month spell leading a Caving project in Siberia with Raleigh International, Steve found time to get promoted, married and posted to the Royal School of Military Engineering at Chatham.

Continuing his newly found passion for expeditions he was very fortunate to be asked to be Deputy Expedition Leader with Operation New World leading forty 16 year olds on a life skills adventure in the jungle. More expeditions followed to India and Nepal trekking, and charity work in Ethiopia and Sri Lanka.

After 22 years’ colour service, Steve immediately signed back on as a Reservist Permanent Staff at HQLF Wilton as the RQMS (T). He currently serves as the RQMS at Army Headquarters Andover.

Julie and Steve have been happily married for 21 years and live in a village just outside Salisbury. His spare time includes fair weather riding his cherished Harley, playing golf (albeit poorly), squash (ditto!), downhill skiing, reading military biographies and trying to justify a civilian gym membership!

Steve is a Member of the Institute of Royal Engineers, an Engineering Technician, a TechIOSH, a Graduate in Leadership and Management (GCGI), a Member of the Scientific Exploration Society and ‘Just a Drop’ Water Charity. He has also recently been appointed as a Trustee for The Motivation & Learning Trust, a Young Peoples Charity.

Garry began his Army career at Cwrt-yr-Gollen, Crickhowell, the Prince Of Wales (POW) Division Depot, in 1977 and joined the 1st Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers (RWF) in May 1977. Rising through the ranks he served on tours of Germany, Denmark, Canada, USA, Falklands and multiple operational tours of Northern Ireland where he was awarded the GOC’s commendation. He was also selected as an instructor at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and was promoted to WO1 in 1994, taking post as the Regimental Sergeant Major of the 5th Battalion Royal IRISH in Ballykelly, Northern Ireland.

In 1996 he was commissioned into the POW Division and posted as a Lieutenant to 1 CHESHIRE in Ballykelly as Second-in-Command of a Rifle Coy before taking over as the Maintenance and Transport Officer with promotion to Captain. He was part of a successful 1 CHESHIRE orienteering team, winning the Northern Ireland competition two years in succession. He returned to 1 RWF as the Quartermaster Technical with several tours of Northern Ireland and a second overseas exercise to Kenya. He completed a post as the Second-in-Command of the Junior Division, Infantry Battle School, Brecon before being promoted to Major.

As a Major he served on several postings as a Quartermaster in 1 RWF with tours of Iraq and Northern Ireland, the logistics mentor with Kabul Military Training Centre in Afghanistan and the 2nd Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles in Brunei. The Headquarters Land, as the SO2 Infrastructure Hard in Wilton, moving the Headquarter ARRC from Germany to UK. The 3rd Battalion Royal Welsh, Training Major in Cardiff during the amalgamation process and returned to the Infantry Battle School, Brecon as the Quartermaster Technical.

He was selected for promotion to Lieutenant Colonel and moved as the Field Director Gurkha Welfare Scheme in Pokhara, Nepal in 2012. He played a very active role during the strategic development for the Gurkha Welfare Scheme encompassing the establishment, Area Welfare Centre infrastructure, pension payments, school infrastructure and education plan, rural water and sanitation programme, medical scheme and residential home construction. He coordinated the emergency disaster relief aid, during the aftermath of the Nepal earthquake in Apr/May 2015 and was awarded the OBE.

Since retirement from the Army in 2016 he has been employed with Transport for Wales in Cardiff, to provide advice, support and expertise to the Welsh Government to assist in the delivery of key transport projects in Wales. The initial remit is to procure the next Wales and Borders Rail Service and the South Wales Metro.

Garry is a keen mountaineer, an active cyclist and rugby supporter. He is married and has two grown up children.

Lisa was born in Tidworth, Hampshire, in an army garrison town and spent the next 14 years moving around with her family whilst her father was stationed in various military bases.

She then settled in Wales when her father left the forces, completing her education in Aberdare, Mid Glamorgan. She joined NatWest age 18 working in the lead branch in Cardiff St Mary St before moving to their head office in London when she was 21. Lisa took an active part in various team sports from age 10, playing netball for Hampshire and hockey for Mid Glamorgan.

A career in Banking continued for 24 years where Lisa held various managerial positions in Natwest, Royal Bank of Scotland and Coutts. Lisa moved from roles in Lending and Credit Scoring to then specialise in Project and Programme Management. This led to an opportunity to change her career path in 2013 where she joined a UK trade body (Payments Council) whose aim was to help consumers gain better access to payment services. From there she moved to Faster Payments Service (the system that supports moving money around via on-line and mobile banking) which has recently merged with other payment schemes Bacs and Cheques to form the UKs leading retail payments authority ‘Pay.UK’. Her work has been varied and challenging and primarily involves delivering payment infrastructure projects which make things easier for consumers and business. She works with banks and building societies all over the UK as well as the software providers and regulators. 

Lisa lives in Beckenham, Kent and in her spare time has held Treasurer roles for both a local school’s PTA and Bromley Junior football club. She has played hockey and squash for over 34 years and, when several knee and back injuries forced her into retirement, she became a qualified hockey umpire and now umpires both ladies and men’s teams in the Kent league. She currently holds the role of Club Secretary for New Beccs Hockey Club, which has 3 ladies and 3 men’s teams and helps run the club and organise social events.  

She has been married to Paul since 1992 and has two grown up children. George is a postgraduate studying Computer Science in Birmingham University and James, who has recently finished his A levels, is currently working locally while he decides on his future career path.

Lisa has been fortunate to see some of the amazing work undertaken by both MPCT and the Motivation & Learning Trust (MLT) charity, having attended events in the Croydon and Battersea centres and at the Tower of London. The learners and alumni stories are very inspiring and is the main reason for Lisa becoming a Trustee. She is looking forward to helping support and contribute by raising much needed funds for these amazing young learners.

Born in 1970 and raised in Wigston, Leicestershire, Jason attended Bushloe High School then Guthlaxton College to gain his qualifications.

Jason has always been a very keen sportsman and was part of both football and rugby squads during his education. He represented Leicestershire in his age groups at both Football and Rugby, and Leicester City and Ipswich Town Football Clubs, as a youth footballer.

Having been spotted by a talent scout, he was able to realise his dream of becoming a professional footballer by being awarded a full contract with Grimsby Town Football Club as goalkeeper. He remained with the club for 5 years also playing for Mansfield Town during that time.

Since leaving the game, Jason was employed in the Brewery and Technology industry and joined Ricoh UK in 2005.He is currently the Ricoh UK branch manager for Wales, based in Cardiff with sales exceeding £5 million last year. He is responsible for 8 staff and was awarded the accolade of “Ricoh Top Branch in the UK” for both 2016 and 2017.

He is married to Amanda and has 2 children; he currently lives in Cardiff. His hobbies are Football, Golf, Music & DJing, Socialising and travelling.  He also enjoys supporting and assisting in charitable events for a number of different organisations including the Motivation & Learning and Prince’s Trusts.

I have been a leader with Girlguiding for over 40 years and I held the post of County Commissioner for Central Glamorgan from 2005-2010. In 2010 I became Chief Commissioner Girlguiding Cymru – this was a five-year term of office, which I held until 2015. During this time, I was a Trustee of Girlguiding UK. I currently Chair the Girlguiding Cymru Awards Committee and am a director of Girlguiding UK Trading Board – this is the retail arm of the charity which turns over £8,000,000 annually!

In 2010 I was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant of the county of Mid-Glamorgan and have been able to represent the Lord Lieutenant at many citizenship ceremonies, civic services, mayoral inaugurations and other events. I am also an ambassador for The High Sheriff of Mid Glamorgan Youth Community Awards. These awards recognise young people who have made a difference in their community – they are between the ages of 11 and 21 and they could be helping a neighbour, a family member, or a local organisation. My job is to promote the award and seek eligible young unsung heroes – something I am totally committed to.

I have championed young people and their projects for many years, particularly those who have not always had the best chances, not succeeded academically but often have unrecognised skills and abilities.

For the last five years at the annual Women in Wales Lunch we have been privileged to have Learners from MPCT Cardiff College to assist us on the day: they are amazing! They welcome our guests and sell raffle tickets where they are responsible for a considerable amount of money. The Learners help with our electronic auction and we are all greatly impressed by their confidence, standards of behaviour and general willingness to help – no request is too much trouble.

I have chatted to many of them and heard the stories of how they have developed and their plans for the future. This has sparked my interest in the MPCT and in particular the Motivation & Learning Trust which supports these Learners. I can clearly see how these young people learn new skills at the college which are with them for life. They work well together as a team and they are proud of their achievements.

I am delighted to have been accepted as an MLT Trustee and greatly look forward to the challenge of assisting my fellow Trustees in moving the charity forward.

Human Resources Manager, MPCT

Born, raised and educated in South Wales, I know the meaning and importance of having a strong sense of community. As a result of my work within the community, in 2007 I was honored to be selected to be Carnival Queen and represent my hometown of Blackwood, Gwent.

At college I studied Media Production and Theatrical & Media Make-up with an aspiration of becoming a journalist and TV presenter. Whilst studying I had the fantastic experience of working behind the scenes during the 2010 Ryder Cup at the Celtic Manor Resort.

I have always had a strong work ethic, working part-time from the age of 15. After college, little did I know that a temporary job as an office junior at a local training company would lead me on my new career path within the field of Human Resources.

I joined MPCT in 2011 as an Administrator, working directly with the young people that the Motivation and Learning Trust supports. I loved everything about the role, especially seeing the young Learners develop and grow in confidence. My own journey within MPCT has also developed me personally.

As I progressed through the company, I worked within different departments and in a variety of roles. These included Communications, HR and Finance, gaining accredited qualifications in business administration, sales and management along the way. I am currently working towards my Chartered Institute Of Personal Development (CIPD) Level 5 Qualification.

In my spare time I also volunteered at a local Equestrian Centre, assisting with the care and fitness of the horses and delivering riding lessons to novice and intermediate riders. In March 2014 I was privileged to be appointed as Secretary. Unfortunately the Centre has now closed. However, I still retain a strong interest in equestrian matters and ride whenever I get the opportunity.

The interest that gives me the most pleasure is travelling to new places, meeting people, and learning about new cultures. Physical fitness is also very important to me along with a busy social schedule and spending time with family and friends.

I have supported many Motivation & Learning Trust events in the past and I am very much looking forward to contributing and offering many more life changing opportunities to young people that will help and support them to achieve and succeed.