Meet the team

Nick Horrell

Nick has spent more than 17 years in broadcasting. After leaving Cambridge with an economics degree, Nick turned his attentions towards journalism. He started as a researcher at Anglia TV in 1990 and within a year had been awarded a place on the BBC Regional News Trainee Scheme. By 1993, at the age of 26, he had become one of the BBC’s and the country’s youngest full time television reporters.

Based at BBC Three Counties Radio in Luton, he produced more than 1,000 television reports on topics as varied as riots, floods and political protests, and he has interviewed people from all walks of life including William Hague MP, Paddy Ashdown MP, John Prescott MP, Michael Heseltine MP, Dame Barbara Cartland, Cleo Lane and Paula Radcliffe.

In 1998 he became a freelance producer and media trainer and in April 2006 he established NH Communications Limited. His educational DVDs are used as study aids across the world. He is also a much sought after media trainer, helping delegates far and wide; one of his most recent courses was for a pharmaceutical company in Istanbul.

His films have won awards and been shown across the United Kingdom. These include a documentary called The Sunflower House and a short fiction film called Blindspot. He is also a composer and pianist and has written and produced an album of classical piano music called Changed Priorities Ahead. Go to Nick Horrell for more details.

John Venables

John is a journalist with many years’ experience in BBC radio, television and online news as a reporter, producer, specialist science and environment correspondent and journalism instructor.

John also has 20 years experience as a media trainer and runs his own PR consultancy, NewsCrews. He is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) and a CIPR trainer.

He is a former Press Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge, and the author of four books about the media.

Arif Gardner

Arif has been a broadcaster for fifteen years and runs his own company called AG Studios based in St Albans.

Together Arif and Nick have worked for a wide variety of clients including Jaguar, Mercedes Benz, The London Development Agency, Shire Hotels, The European Bioinformatics Institute and Buckinghamshire County Council.

Arif is also a stills photographer and takes images for weddings, events and commercial projects.

Jonathon Stevens

Jonathan is an accomplished camera operator, sound operator and technician.

With almost ten years of broadcasting experience under his belt, Jonathon regularly films for Anglia Television as well as working for NH Communications Ltd.

Carolyn Lee

Carolyn has more than 20 years experience working with children aged 0-5 years. A former head of an early years unit, Carolyn left full time teaching in the late nineties and became a trainer and consultant.

She has helped plan, write and produce five DVD productions aimed at raising awareness of different aspects of early years practice.

These cover how young children learn through play, how they need to be given many opportunities to develop outside and also on how the new early years foundation stage will affect practitioners.

A number of these DVDs have had accompanying training books which have all been written by Carolyn.