Rob Lewis Managing Director

Rob Lewis is a founding member and Managing Director of Mission Performance. He has over 18 years of leadership training and facilitation experience with a wide variety of international clients. He has designed and delivered in excess of 250 separate programmes for a range of international corporate organisations. He has been published by both the Institute of Directors and the Institute of Management for his views on leadership and experiential training techniques and has been featured in both the Financial Times and the Times newspapers for his unique approaches to leadership and organisational development. He speaks regularly at learning and development conferences about specific case study examples of how to achieve high performance in business teams. Mission demands that all of its people refresh their leadership and team experiences on a regular basis. To this end, Rob was part of the winning Fujitsu Polar Team who successfully retained the title when they raced to the Magnetic North Pole in 2004.

Christiaan Mcleod Marketing Director

Christiaan Mcleod is a co-founding Director of Mission Performance. He has a broad range of training and consulting experience working in partnership with Mission’s clients to design and project manage challenging solutions. A recent project was for a global oil company and involved Mission delivering a company wide change programme to the entire middle management in their African industry. Christiaan’s leadership experience includes a 10 year career in the Royal Marines. He was awarded the Wilkinson Sword of Honour and Commando Medal during Officer Training and also received The Commandant Generals Commendation for leading a multinational training project in support of operations in Bosnia. He was attached to the Royal Hong Kong Police Anti Smuggling Task Force, reporting directly to Chris Patten prior to the hand over of Hong Kong to China. Christiaan lead the winning team in the first ever race to a Northern Pole in 2003 and again with fellow Mission Director Rob Lewis in 2004 for a BBC documentary. He regularly speaks at conference events on the Polar Challenge.

Karen Fraser Operations Manager

After completing a degree in Medical Microbiology and a PhD in Immunology, Karen worked as a Senior Research Scientist for a small cancer research company in Scotland. During this time she competed and came 3rd in the 2004 Challenge Business Round Britain and Ireland Race. It was after this race that she decided cancer research was not for her and she decided to take a year off and sail. Karen started working for Challenge Business International Ltd. taking corporate guests out for team building days. Following on from this, Karen set up her own company to teach sailing to beginners and worked for Clipper Ventures plc. training crew volunteers for the Clipper Round the World Race

Rachel Dickinson Marketing Manager

Following a degree in Applied Social Science, Rachel completed a 5 month trans-Atlantic and Caribbean voyage onboard a square-rigger as trainee crew, further developing a love for travel and a passion for sailing. On her return she spent 2 years in France and Spain teaching watersports before returning to the UK to run operations for a sailing school on the south coast. Since April 2001 Rachel worked for the Challenge Business International Ltd on their yachts for a variety of events including: yacht support for the EDS Atlantic Challenge and Ward Evans Atlantic Rowing Race; skippering crew training for the Global Challenge and Round Britain races and competing in the 2003 and 2005 Fastnet Races; running numerous Adventure sailing trips, most notably for 4 months in the Arctic and carrying out international corporate hospitality tours.

Yvonne Lister Finance Manager

After training in Medical Laboratory Sciences at Leeds Metropolitan University in the 1970s, Yvonne initially followed a career as a Medical Microbiologist responsible for the laboratory investigations and the training of doctors and junior technicians in techniques of Pathology at York District Hospital. After stopping work to have a family, she worked for some years as a laboratory technician at a secondary school, before deciding upon a completely new career in accounting. She gained her qualifications through the AAT and worked for several years in the financial department of Network Medical (a specialist surgical equipment company based in Yorkshire) before moving south in 2003. She joined Mission Performance in October 2004 as Finance Manager responsible for the organization and management of financial accounts.

Anne-Marie Beacham Operations Manager

Anne-Marie’s passion for adventure and foreign cultures developed early on in her career when working with Colonel John Blashford-Snell at The Scientific Exploration Society (SES). Since then she has followed a colourful path in expedition planning, operations, logistics, and management, and more recently worked with acclaimed photographers Beckwith & Fisher as Manager for African Ceremonies. Her projects at SES included research, logistical and financial planning for expeditions into remote areas of scientific interest. The SES projects have become renowned for their groundbreaking discoveries in archaeology, medicine, anthropology, and conservation. Intent on experiencing life in the field, Anne-Marie then spent a year in Malawi as assistant manager for Kayak Africa, with much of her time underwater or paddling between lodges and dive sites. Her love of African culture led her to join African Ceremonies where she managed the studio and carried out cultural research and logistics for Beckwith & Fisher in their 30 year photographic quest to capture a complete record of rare African tribal ceremonies for National Geographic and their book publications. Anne-Marie’s recent expeditions include skiing the midnight sun and exploring the cultures of Sumba in Indonesia; but her real love is for the British Countryside. Anne-Marie is currently on maternity leave.