Melanie Rees - A fiery, lively Leo, Melanie was born 7th, August, 1963 in Swansea. Just a few weeks after her 4th birthday, she started Knelston Primary School. This is where her love of “all things educational” began!

Melanie found secondary education particularly challenging. In 1974, both the content and delivery of the curriculum did not accommodate Melanie’s preferred learning style and so she found herself participating in increasing amounts of sporting activity to combat her frustration. In 1981 she left with 5 “0” Levels, 2 “A” levels and 2 International Caps for playing hockey for Wales! She headed for teacher training college.

She qualified as a teacher at 21. Her own early experience of education was once again reflected in her experience as a teacher. This time to combat her frustration she set up, “National Non-Uniform Day.” a national scheme aimed at school children. In its first year 512 schools participated raising £57,000. This money was used to provide water pumps to bring clean water to villages in the Sudan. Following its initial success, Melanie handed the reigns over to UNICEF who now host this annual event. 2007 sees the 19th National Non-Uniform Day / Day for Change. To date this event has raised over £5,000,000.

At 34, Melanie was asked to set up a school. With no former experience of this there followed a very steep learning curve and just six months later in September 1997, Cornerstones Independent School opened its doors. The school offered therapeutic education to young people with severe emotional and behavioural problems. Melanie became head teacher and successfully led the school through two HMI and two OFSTED inspections. She handed over the reigns to her Deputy in July 2002 and took a well earned rest.

In 2003 she started working in partnership with Tony Nisbett of Helmstone Communications to transform her vision, World of Workshops, into a website.

In September 2004 Melanie was diagnosed with incurable Lupus. Just 3 months later while taking a break in Thailand to reflect on her health condition, Melanie was caught up in the Tsunami. She was rescued from her hotel by a young Thai boy named Ood.

Since this time, her outlook on life has changed considerably and her ability to work has been hampered by her health condition. She has developed The Green Workshop which operates on the streets of Brighton and Hove and at fairs and festivals throughout Sussex, as and when her health permits. The workshop aims to raise awareness of environmental issues. It has been a great success and she is now working towards opening the first high street store, The Green Centre, dedicated to tackling environmental issues. In conjunction with this Melanie is forming the Green 100 to raise funds to finance this community project.

Tony Nisbett - Tony brings a rare mix of the most up to date technological skills and astute business acumen. He has been involved closely with technology from when the power delivered in his current laptop was neatly harnessed in a room the size of most 21st century open plan offices. Keeping up to date is a significant demonstration of adaptability and ability to embrace change head on. He possesses an entrepreneurial mindset, carefully balanced with caution and an enviable depth of integrity.

Finally taking the plunge and heeding the call to run his own business, he left a cosy insurance company after 25 years and became a divisional MD of a software development corporate. Within 2 years, he had successfully negotiated an MBO of his division with a personal majority shareholding, which is still retained today.

Among several business streams, he runs a chain of distributors in the US for his data base interrogation software and provides full software and consultancy support to a leading global computer manufacturer, specifically for their online payment systems.

Tony’s experience of weathering a variety of economic storms and the diverse business activities in which he engages, make him an ideal director, one who challenges ideas but allows the professional in their own roles to do their jobs. His tolerance levels are low: everyone knows it.

His technology team responds well to his leadership and consistently delivers above expectations. The rapid development techniques they employ, together with superior thinking approaches make them vital members of the WOW team.