about us

MBA, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, is one of the UK's leading providers of training and consultancy to voluntary, community, and statutory sector organisations. In the past 20 years we have delivered training to hundreds of organisations across Europe, including the National Trust in London, DePaul Trust, Mencap, Newcastle City Council, ReThink, Scope, Shelter, the European Cultural Foundation in Amsterdam, the Carmichael Centre in Dublin, and many other organisations.

We offer training, consultancy, information, and mentoring in the areas of:

The team

We are a small company with a very personal focus on the needs of our customers.

Mark Butcher

Our Director, Mark Butcher, has been a manager, consultant and trainer for 26 years.  He is a nationally renowned speaker on strategic planning, income generation and personal effectiveness and has had two books published on this latter subject by the Directory of Social Change.

Mark has worked as a trainer and consultant for hundreds of organisations in more than a dozen countries, including North Tyneside Council, Barnardos, Relate and British Waterways.  He was recently instrumental in a successful bid for £2.5 million to launch England’s first Community Legal Advice Centre and was the architect behind ‘Lead the Field’, a £500,000 capacity building programme for voluntary sector organisations.

He has vast experience of working with nonprofit organisations, large and small, in the arts, social welfare, sports and health.

More than likely you will work directly with Mark, but we also have a virtual team of world class professionals who we can call upon to solve particular problems for our clients if need be. These include:

Trudy Hayden

Formerly Senior Director of Foundation and Government Support at the American Museum of Natural History and Deputy Director of the Campaign at The New York Public Library, Director of Foundation Relations at the Natural Resources Defence Council and many years a policy analyst and advocate in the field of civil liberties and civil rights.

Nigel Scott

Senior Lecturer in Charity Accounting at London South Bank University and Course Director for their MSc in Charity Finance & Accounting.

Alan Lawrie

A leading management consultant and trainer who specialises in working with public and voluntary sector organisations and has published widely on management, organisational and strategic development, including the best-selling 'Complete Guide to Business and Strategic Planning for Voluntary Organisations'.

Derek Hall

Derek is a certified Institute of Leadership and Management trainer with a particular interest in strategy and business development, performance management and quality issues.

Strategic Partners

Over the years we have worked closely with a number of regional national and international partners to develop and deliver mutually beneficial programmes. These include:

• A three year programme to deliver training in Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Estonia and Bulgaria with The King Bauduoin Foundation
• Nearly half a million pounds worth of training delivered to North East voluntary organsations commissioned by the Northern Rock Foundation
• and at a more discrete level, a short development programme for a dozen community based SMEs with the Tyneside Economic Development Company.

How might we work together?

Joint ventures

We have the ability to deliver fantastic training. If you have a room, a teasmade, a George Forman Lean Mean Grilling Machine and a mailing list of potential delegates, then we could be in business! We come to you, provide the trainer and training materials. You provide the room and lunch and market the event locally. At worst you get other delegates to subsidise your own participation. At best you make a profit for your own organisation. If it doesn't recruit then we don't go ahead - with no cost to you. If the bums get put on the seats then you earn money for your core costs, we get to pay the rent and the delegates get some great training and a sticky bun at lunchtime.

Licensed management materials

We can give you a licence to sell our ebooks and other products to your constituency, contacts and networks. You provide a service, we've done the work. You make money (and so do we). It's that simple! We can even structure this so that there is no financial risk to you at all - and you are guaranteed to make money by giving people access to the best management training materials around. No, honestly. We can.