Who we are
Work Pirates was founded in 2020 by James Eves and Michelle Minnikin, right in the middle of the pandemic.
Michelle had been self-employed with her own organisational psychology practice since 2016 and now felt that something wasn't right.
After making a cup of tea, she announced to James that she’d realised her brand was not her. It was too plain, stale and no longer something that would get her (or clients) excited about sorting their people problems.
Within 30 minutes, they had agreed a new brand was needed, settled on the name, registered the company and secured the social media urls.
Work Pirates was born.
With 40+ years of combined professional and international experience - across SMEs and large corporates - you get the value of their knowledge and wisdom from the decades of challenging the status quo and making an impact.
James CV Highs
MBA
Completing a Masters in Business Administration at the Stockholm School of Economics
Real Estate
Managed 600 properties and a team of 6 - led to acquisition by a French national player and achieving perfect fluency in French
Manufacturing
Inherited a UK Business Development Team after a corporate rebrand, consolidation and sales downturn. Proved the team's worth & doubled headcount
Gallup Certified Strengths Coach
Coached leaders and those with ADHD since 2020 to use their strengths for success
Construction
Convinced hardened New Yorkers to implement quality assurance processes on the $2 billion United Nations HQ renovation
Entrepreneur
Set up a consultancy business in the USA post-2008 financial crisis within weeks of redundancy and becoming an illegal alien
Michelle CV Highs
Chartered Psychologist
Gained a Masters in Occupational Psychology & became an Organisational Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society
Recruitment Manager
Oversaw the recruitment of hundreds of team members for the Shared Services division and enabling functions at Balfour Beatty
BPS Level A&B Trained
Trained in the selection and use of psychometric tests, including Hogan, 16PF, Wave, TalentQ Dimensions and NEO PI-R
Leadership Coach
Recent training includes completing The Playing Big Facilitators Training with Tara Mohr, co-active coaching fundamentals and intro to Internal Family Systems
Public & Private Sector
In corporate career and in self-employment, worked in public and private sector organisations including NHS, local & central government
Entrepreneur
Been self-employed since 2016, working with leaders in organisations to help them solve their people problems and coaching them for success
Stuff you didn't think you needed to know about us...
James
Being taught how to ask for “the bill” in a restaurant on holiday in France lit his language learning fire. He is now bilingual in French and English.
Can juggle 3 objects at a time.
Once on the front page of Sweden’s financial newspaper Dagens Industri
His first game for the Newcastle Falcons colts rugby team – got to wear his idol winger Tony Underwood’s shirt (their kit wasn’t ready yet).
As a young boy (much to his parents’ horror) he would scale the walls between the house and next door’s garage, as he was wearing his Spiderman trainers.
Is a self-confessed salt snob (if you know, you know!) – his favourite is “Fleur de Sel” from the Ile de Re in France.
Would much prefer wearing shorts all year round than formal wear.
His favourite smell is a French bakery / patisserie.
He passed his Level 2 Diploma in Plumbing.
He's currently writing a Christmas story for children.
Michelle
Her most famous Twitter follower is Chesney Hawkes.
She spoke French before she spoke English.
She has 2 Degus - Hermione and Hedwig (they did belong to her son, but you know how things go with kids and pets) and 2 rabbits - Bellatrix and Minerva.
Had an argument with someone who insisted she had a Bristol accent. She's only been there once. For a day.
She has misophonia - so don't breathe too loudly around her.
She loves tomatoes. She does not like mushrooms. Or fish/seafood.
She has a thing for castles - her favourite is Hampton Court Palace.
Her pet peeve is boring power point presentations.
She loves reading. Sci-fi /dystopian and historical fiction for fun and loves a personal development book for work.
She's currently writing a book called Good Girl Deprogramming.