Mike Carson’s overriding passion is leadership. His dream to help people live and work to their full potential inspired him to found MCA in 2006.

During his 12 year Naval career as an operations officer, Mike developed and studied leadership closely and had personal counselling relationships with more than 10 senior officers. He served in a war zone on multiple occasions, and was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff in the UK aircraft carrier in the Arabian Gulf during the tension of 1998 – leading the task force leadership and planning team. In more peaceful times he was Aide de Camp in the Royal Yacht Britannia.

Most recently, Mike has worked as a senior client counsellor, facilitator and team leader and business strategy consultant at McKinsey and Company, where he was regarded as one of the outstanding people leaders of his cohort. Inspired by his MBA from INSEAD, his five years with McKinsey offered him magnificent variety. In one season, he was counselling NHS Chief Executives on how to improve hospital performance, just months after working with leaders in a global oil company to derive and communicate the value for the Group from a transformational approach to purchasing

Mike is the personification of passion! He is passionate about his family, his clients, his friends, Manchester City, sailing, cricket, the church, soft-top motoring and singing (usually falsetto, and usually in the shower). He also loves languages, and can say ‘2 beers please – my friend will pay’ in 15 of them.  

Brian Draper loves to nurture people’s spiritual intelligence. He has worked nationally and internationally in the SQ space for several years, having graduated from the London School of Theology with first-class honours in 1994. For four years he was editor of the Christian current affairs magazine Third Way, which featured high-profile interviews with figures such as Tony Blair, Anita Roddick and Noam Chomsky. At the same time, he helped to provoke a national conversation about church and culture by pioneering ‘alternative’ forms of reflection, such as the Labyrinth, which has recently toured Britain’s cathedrals (starting with St Paul’s) as well as Feltham Remand Centre.

He has, for several years, worked for a London based think tank as a writer, speaker and thinker on matters of faith and culture. In a freelance capacity, he regularly writes and presents Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. He often writes for the official website of the world’s biggest band: U2.com, and performs interviews for publications such as Developments magazine (DfID) and Sublime (the world’s first ethical lifestyle magazine).

Brian loves to help people make the link between their own story and a bigger picture. To that end, he wrote ‘Searching 4 Faith’ recently, which was published in the UK by Lion, and was subsequently published in Holland and the US. He is now researching and writing his latest book on Spiritual Intelligence (again for Lion).

Andrew Walsh is a Partner at MCA and an experienced financial and general manager. Andrew has held the role of Finance Director within a medium sized public company and has enjoyed 2 spells as Chief Executive within 2 different businesses. He has been responsible for up to 150 staff and for managing significant customer bases and has a good record in turnaround scenarios. He is also expert in managing investors, both public investors in a listed company environment and private investors in private equity and venture capital situations.

At MCA Andrew has a passion for developing new paradigm thinking in client situations, which will allow individuals to flourish and clients’ profitability to improve simultaneously.

Andrew also has private mentoring and coaching clients. He has 2 clients in particular who have been with him for the last 12 months, both of whom engaged him at crisis points in their businesses and both of whom have seen serious business improvements in that time.

Andrew is a qualified Chartered Accountant and has an Economics degree from Cambridge University. He is married to Wendy and has 3 girls aged 17,15 and 10. He is a sporting enthusiast, being a keen skier, football fan, golfer, swimmer and runner..

Alison Coulter believes passionately that work is a place where people should flourish. She loves to work alongside people, encouraging them and helping them find a way forward for themselves and their teams, and helping them to make change happen. She has an interest in teams and what makes them work well. Alison has worked as a facilitator for leadership development programmes and transformational change programmes across different sectors, including health, manufacturing, the service sector, and with non-profit organisations. She enjoys working as a coach with individuals, and mentors a number of people, both at work and in her own time. She is a partner at MCA.

She has 20 years experience of working in the NHS, as a clinician and a manager, and in Public Health. She has a geography degree from Cambridge University, an MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and she is a Member of the Faculty of Public Health. Alison is married with 4 children and loves singing early music, ‘girl sailing’ and sunny skiing.

Alison is Director of Operations, linking with clients and associates to organize work, and working closely with Sarah in the office. She also works as a facilitator for groups and workshops, and as a coach, working with individuals to encourage them to develop and flourish.

Sarah Nance is a Psychology graduate who caught the MCA bug in the Easter of her final year. She was intrigued by areas of her degree course that touched on deeper issues of living a fulfilled and joyful life, and she specialized in management psychology in her final year. She cares deeply about supporting and journeying with people and is passionate releasing them to become everything that they can be.

Sarah loves spending time with her friends, has recently taken up running and horse riding, (and is suffering the consequences!) and is addicted to The West Wing. She is involved in the leadership of a Church Youth Group, and mentors a number of teenagers.

Sarah is the team administrator, supporting and facilitating the other members of the team in the various areas of their work. She helps Alison keep the office running smoothly, is the blessed keeper of Mike’s diary as his PA, has been known to spend a few hours at a time working on creative content with Brian and also helps Andrew with finances. Most importantly, she makes a mean cup of coffee.