Zircon.

Dr Amanda PotterCEO

Amanda is an expert in psychological safety and organisational psychology. She founded Zircon in 2000, co-founded BeTalent in 2016 and established The Chief Psychology Officer podcast in 2022. An accomplished speaker and award winning Chartered Psychologist, she has extensive expertise in talent strategy, assessment, development, leadership, and executive coaching.

She completed her PhD in 2003 and is an Associate Fellow of the Division of Occupational Psychology within the British Psychological Society (BPS) and a Fellow of the Association of Business Psychologists. Amanda has nearly 30 years experience aligning businesses’ talent strategy with their organisational strategy and objectives.

Amanda is the lead trainer on the BeTalent Strengths and Team accreditation courses. Amanda's signature strength is Decisive.

Sarah LintonCOO & Talent Director

Sarah joined Zircon in 2005 and became a co-founder of BeTalent in 2016. She came to the business with a high honours degree in Business Studies and operates as the COO & Director of Talent at Zircon.

Sarah is our Executive Practice Lead and has decades of experience working at the most senior levels in executive assessment, development and coaching. She's highly personable and manages our largest global clients who want to develop a conscious leadership style. As COO, Sarah has been the force behind our ISO 27001 certified status and inspires the team to be innovative, efficient and robust in every aspect of their work.

Based in Essex, Sarah is an active member of her community and charity endeavours as she is energised by taking a genuine interest in those around her. Sarah's signature strength is Attentive.

Tim HepworthIT Innovation Director

Tim has been working with Zircon since 2000 and became the fourth co-founder of BeTalent in 2016. As the Technical Innovation Director, Tim is an expert in the design and development of complex business systems.

He brings a pragmatic approach to problem solving and delivers high quality solutions that provide tangible business benefits. Having worked for some of the world's largest IT companies, Tim was Technical Director of a start-up internet recruitment firm, which first started flotation on the NASDAQ for $100m.

Tim is a keen game show contestant and a bit of a genius; he was the finalist on Fifteen to One in 2016 (Channel 4's equivalent to Mastermind) and has brought a deep sense of wit as Amanda’s interviewer on The Chief Psychology Officer podcast. Tim’s signature strength is Innovative.

Stu Scott-DaviesIT Director

Stu is one of the co-founders of BeTalent, established in 2016, and has 30 years of experience in the development and deployment of enterprise systems for international corporates.

For the last 20 years, he has exclusively focused on the development, sales and implementation of HR-related software solutions.

A former Managing Director of a leading pan-European job board & recruitment platform - JobPilot - and former Group IT Director of a £500m UK plc responsible for 2,500 people in seven countries, Stu has an extensive understanding of security, cloud environments and risk mitigation for businesses working at scale. Stu's signature strength is Responsible.

Antonia LewryClient Director

Antonia’s passion is understanding how organisations achieve their goals through their people. With a MSc in HRM focusing on Organisational Change and Transition and having worked in client development roles for 20+ years, she has been the ears of the business and the voice of the client to deliver innovation and drive satisfaction.

Antonia is an accredited mediator, experienced facilitator, and trainer, with vast experience in bringing together and managing multi-disciplinary, multi-locational, teams, physically and virtually to solve problems and create value.

Antonia is our Senior Leadership Practice Lead. Her signature strength is Energising.

Angela MalikClient Relationship Manager

Angela joined Zircon in 2022. As a qualified professional translator with over a decade of experience as an entrepreneur in the translation and localisation industry, she brings excellent communication skills, cultural awareness and customer focus to Zircon.

Building strong and lasting relationships with clients, Angela is driven by a passion for collaborative engagement. She loves working with clients to understand their needs, identify opportunities, devise strategies, and help them achieve their goals. She is an enthusiastic problem-solver who is always striving to drive value and deliver top-quality service.

As our Early Careers Practice Lead, Angela works with organisations to help shape and develop their early talent strategy, manage risk and effect truly impactful change to attract, recruit, retain and develop high-quality emerging talent. Her signature strength is Risk-Taker.

Kristian Lees-BellSenior Business Psychologist

Kristian Lees-Bell is a business psychologist, therapist and executive coach. Combining his expertise in coaching psychology, hypnotherapy, NLP, and an academic

background in Occupational Psychology, Kristian’s coaching addresses the root cause of people-related issues. He coaches with directness and compassion and provokes his clients to generate new insights that they can apply immediately.

Through his auditing and development coaching and a profound understanding of an individual’s occupational ‘psyche’, Kristian has a talent for helping people identify

their strengths and development areas, so they can perform at their best. His signature strength is Enabling.

Caitlin CooperSenior Business Psychologist

Caitlin is a Senior Consultant based in London who joined Zircon in 2019 whilst finishing her Master’s degree in Occupational and Business Psychology, for which she achieved a Distinction.

Since joining Zircon, she has managed a number of international projects which include leading the management, design and delivery of projects related to assessment for selection and development, talent strategy, leadership development and high potential identification. She is the lead trainer on the BeTalent Resilience questionnaire accreditation course.

Caitlin's natural presenting ability shines as a cohost on The Chief Psychology Officer podcast.

Naturally inquisitive with a keen interest in human behaviour, Caitlin leverages her active listening skills to create strong connections with clients and colleagues. Her signature strength is Influential.

Jessica RossSenior Business Psychologist and Psychometrician

Jessica is a highly composed individual who is involved in the validation for BeTalent's products. Her main goal is to ensure our products are robust, valid and reliable. Her work on Decision Styles has led to the British Psychological Society verified status, which was achieved in 2022.

Based in North London, Jessica joined Zircon in early 2021 following completion of her MSc in Occupational Psychology. She is a member of the British Psychological Society (MBPsS) and is on the Register of Qualifications for Test Use.

She has applied her passion for inclusion in the workplace, especially diversity, mental health and chronic conditions, to the expansion of our technical manuals and client programmes designed to address the inclusion gap.

Jessica’s signature strength is Meticulous.

Sharon QuinnBusiness Psychologist

Joining Zircon in 2021 as an industry placement student, Sharon went on to achieve a first class honours degree in Psychology at UEL.

With a keen interest in the field of Occupational Psychology, Sharon has focused on developing cognitive diversity through decision styles. Her personable approach as an effective communicator with high levels of emotional intelligence provides our clients with the benefit of flexibility and collaboration, ideal for motivating a solution or defusing any challenging situation.

Ultimately, Sharon's ambition is to help people find fulfilment and happiness within their lives and to make a positive impact within our client's business.

Her signature strength is Inspiring.

Emily WillisBusiness Psychologist

Emily is an award-winning business psychologist based on the Isle of Wight, who initially joined Zircon as a placement student in 2021, and now works at Zircon full-time after earning a First Class BSc in Psychology.

Emily supports Zircon by helping to develop the suite of BeTalent products, with a focus on researching and validating our BeTalent Resilience tool. She also manages a number of our client projects, with a particular emphasis on the management and delivery of 360s. Emily assists with research and articles for our Leading with Perspective newsletter and the CPO podcast, as well as facilitating in a number of our training courses and client events.

Emily won the ABP Outstanding Student Achievement Award 2022 for her BeTalent Impostor Syndrome, Self-Belief, and Resilience research during her placement year with Zircon, which has directly led to the development of new BeTalent products.

Structured and organised, Emily enjoys thinking ahead to anticipate problems, meet deadlines, and ensure maximum productivity within her projects. Her signature strength is Methodical.

Jessica Lloyd OLYBusiness Psychologist

Jessica is a part-time Trainee Business Psychologist based in Manchester who joined Zircon in 2023. Jessica is currently completing her BSc (Honours) Psychology at the Open University, with the ambition to progress onto a Masters in Occupational Psychology.

Jessica’s background is in professional sport as a swimmer, with some of her highest achievements being Commonwealth, World and European Junior medallist as well as qualifying for the final and placing 5th in the London 2012 Olympic Games. Jessica is now applying the dedication and drive learnt from years of professional sport to her new ambition of being a psychologist.

Alongside assisting in product design and development, Jessica uses her caring nature as well as understanding and experience of performing under high pressure to assist in BeTalent training and accreditation programmes.

Her signature strength is Enabling.

Kashayá StewartBusiness Psychologist

Kashayá Stewart is a Trainee Business Psychologist from Trinidad & Tobago. She holds a BSc (Honours) in Psychology, an MSc (Honours) in Neuroscience, and is currently pursuing an MSc in Occupational and Business Psychology.

Kashayá's strong interest in applying neuropsychology to employee selection, engagement, and talent development is driven by her dedication to promoting inclusivity and well-being in the workplace. She possesses a natural warmth and a cheerful personality, complemented by an unwavering "can-do" attitude.

Kashayá thrives on challenges and has a track record of learning on the fly, as evidenced by her work on the vaccine rollout during the pandemic — a heroic effort that benefited us all. She brings a wealth of knowledge, purpose, and energy to our team.

Her signature strength is Innovative.

Candace ReadingMarketing Manager

Candace is a purpose-driven and empathetic marketing professional with a diverse background in marketing and communications. Her innovative, data-driven approach has played a pivotal role in enabling digital transformation and the successful execution of high-profile campaigns across organisations in both the private and third sectors including coverage from ITV London News and the BBC.

With a proven history of nurturing robust community bonds, she is deeply committed to understanding the needs of organisations interested in exploring the team development potential offered by Zircon. With her head in analytics, a keen eye for design and mastery of compelling copy she puts a lot of heart into creating an engaging user experience.

Her signature strength is Innovative.

Joe WarrenDesign Director

An artist and designer, Joe is a First Class Honours graduate of Central St Martins School of Art and has worked for leading design agencies from London to Los Angeles.

He has decades of knowledge and a deep understanding of how humans connect through the experiences he creates. From his studio in North Essex, he was the lead visionary for the new Zircon and BeTalent branding and continues to oversee all aspects of our visual design as the business grows.

As a creative with extensive commercial experience, he finds novel ways to weave our unique identity into every touchpoint.

Joe joined the Zircon team in 2022. His signature strength is Meticulous.

Andrea ContiDesigner, Administrator & Tech Support

Andrea is our first line of technical support and our graphic designer with almost 10 years of experience in the field.

As a project coordinator and administrator, he brings structure and knowledge when collaborating with the team or supporting our clients. Andrea is a passionate and focused team member who has been involved in shaping the BeTalent brand experience, from the creation of the product support material through to elevating the data insights into simple visual representations. He is primarily responsible for BeTalent platform support and his blended style of creativity with a methodical mindset always guarantees excellent work.

Andrea joined Zircon in the UK in 2013 and has continued his work from Catania, in Sicily (Italy), since 2018. His signature strength is Meticulous.

Sarah GreenFinance Manager

Sarah is an evaluative, meticulous, and attentive member of the team who cares about the wellbeing of her colleagues and loves taking a rigorous and objective approach to solving problems.

Sarah is our bookkeeper and office manager who also enjoys coordinating projects and creating processes to keep projects on track from start to finish. Joining the business in 2008 as a PA to the Directors, Sarah has become a core and vital member of the team who is responsible for all financial management.

Her style is methodical and driven. She is a supportive member of the team who takes time to check in with each of her colleagues.

Based in North Norfolk, her signature strength is Modest.

Syrie BibbyPA & Project Administrator

Syrie's career spans over 20 years as a PA, events planner and marketing professional, gaining her experience whilst at one of the Big Four accounting firms in the UK.

Her style is highly organised and efficient with excellent people and communication skills. Since joining Zircon in 2016, her work as the PA to the Directors, office manager and project coordinator has earnt her the respect of colleagues and clients alike.

Syrie has the responsibility to ensure everything is planned, booked and communicated effectively; this she does with effortless style and is calming in the most difficult of times.

Based in Surrey with her family, her signature strength is Achiever.

Heidi TanfieldFinance Administrator

Heidi is an analytical thinker who gathers knowledge in order to make decisions and enable a disciplined approach across the team she manages.

As a seasoned professional, she brings over 20 years of customer service, and managerial and administrative experience to her role. Heidi is primarily responsible for project co-ordination and administration for Zircon and is core to the streamlining and successful delivery of all client projects. Joining the business in 2019, Heidi has introduced continuous improvement processes which have been significant in helping Zircon to achieve and maintain our ISO 27001 certification.

Based in Surrey, her signature strength is Meticulous.

Robert HepworthCompliance & Standards Manager

Robert graduated with a First Class Honours Media Technology degree from the University of Salford in 2018.

He went on to consult on the future distribution models of media; i.e. film projection, streaming and social media, to bands wanting to make it in the music industry.

Joining Zircon in 2022, his passion for creating an impact through digital channels has led him to become the Engineer and Editor of The Chief Psychology Officer (CPO) podcast.

With a detail-oriented mindset and technology focus, Robert is responsible for maintaining the high standards of quality and conformity in our business products and practices today, while future-proofing our systems and approach for tomorrow's brave new world.

Based in Wilmslow, Robert is a very meticulous and attentive individual. His signature strength is Influential.