Nigel Cooper
Chairman

Email: nigel.cooper@zibrant.co.uk

Nigel is Divisional Managing Director of Motivcom Plc, Managing Director of P&MM Travel, Chairman of AYMTM and heads the Zibrant board as Executive Chairman.

A graduate in politics, Nigel joined the incentives industry in 1990 and the Board of P&MM in January 2000 where his responsibility was for the travel and event operations division. Nigel’s significant commercial background was of benefit in helping to lead a management buyout in 2003 and stock market flotation in 2004.

Nigel has also been instrumental in leading Motivcom’s acquisitions of AYM, MTM and Zibrant to create one of the most successful and dynamic events businesses in the UK.In addition to his responsibilities at Motivcom, Nigel was the founding Chairman of Eventia and served on the board until leaving in July 2008.
 

Fay Sharpe
Managing Director – Sales & Marketing

Email: fay.sharpe@zibrant.co.uk

Managing Director – Sales, and founder shareholder of the UK’s largest MICE agency with over 20 years experience working in the hotels, hospitality event management and venue sourcing arena. Fay works on a strategic level with Zibrant’s blue chip client base advising and supporting them on their global MICE policy.

Early in her career, Fay was awarded Caterer and Hotelkeeper’s Acorn Award and more recently won Lloyds TSB CBI’s First Woman of Tourism and Leisure award for her outstanding contribution to business.

Always looking for a challenge, Fay set up the company’s CSR committee and more recently brokered a £15.9million deal to join Motivcom PLC, making Zibrant part of the UK’s largest events, venue finding and incentive travel business in the sector.

Chris Parnham
Managing Director - Operations

Chris has a long and varied career history within the events industry and the corporate sector, working as Head of Global Events for Barclays in the mid-90s.

In 1999 Chris joined IBR to take it from one of the UKs largest venue finders to a full service events agency. Having set up its internal events division, ILLICO, Chris went on to integrate further acquisitions including McGarvey Russell and Rand. With Fay, Chris led the group rebrand strategy to Zibrant in 2005.

Chris has an MBA in Communication Strategy from Leeds University, and is a Chartered Director and fellow member of the Institute of Directors. In 2008 Chris was voted Young Director of the Year by the IOD.

After the sale to Motivcom in 2008, Chris took over Zibrant Operations as Managing Director.

Morag Alabaster
Sales Director

Email: morag.alabaster@zibrant.co.uk

Morag has been with Zibrant for five years and in the industry for over 13. Morag has considerable experience as a Buyer and Hotelier and brings this expertise together to deliver commercially astute solutions to her clients delivering value for money and tangible savings, without compromising the creative approach required with MICE business.

Delivering a road map for implementing MICE Policy that engages all stakeholders and enhances existing relationships is where she believes she can really add value and where Zibrant can provide ‘Safe Hands’. Morag currently manages a team of 16 that account manages all Zibrant’s existing clients in addition to dedicated resource for New Business
 

Debra Nightingale
Events Director

Email: debra.nightingale@zibrant.co.uk

Debra joined the board of Zibrant as Events Director in January 2009. Her early career as a TV commercials producer provided an excellent grounding for a move into the events & communications industry, and with over 20 years experience she has worked for some of the industry’s major players. She joined P&MM in 2000 to head up the marketing communications team, where her unique blend of creativity, strategic vision and commerciality ensured the development and delivery of many award-winning events and communications campaigns.

Debra is now responsible for the teams that develop and deliver Zibrant’s events and communications. She advocates very high standards of account management, combined with exceptional creativity and all that is new and exciting in the world of production technology and blended media. She not only believes in the Zibrant values of Passion, Pride, Creativity and Leadership, but expects that she and her team live by them on a day to day basis.

Helen McCabe
Operations Director

Email: helen.mccabe@zibrant.co.uk

Helen is one of Zibrant’s longest serving members of staff having joined Zibrant in December 1991 from Bass Hotels and Resorts. She started out a as a Conference Consultant, sourcing suitable venues for a number of blue chip companies.

Over time Helen has been promoted into various senior management positions in Zibrant within venue find – operations, and her venue and systems knowledge is second to none.

Helen joined the Zibrant board in January 2009 and is now fully responsible for the operational delivery of venue find from our Head Office, heading up a team of over 40 consultants.  She also sits on the training committee of the HBAA.

Liz Rodrigues
Finance Director 

Email: liz.rodrigues@zibrant.co.uk

 Liz trained and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Bristol, having graduated from the University of Bristol with a 1st Class degree in Mathematics. Following a move to the East Midlands, she spent time working as an accountant in a number of industries, including events, construction and financial services. She joined Zibrant in January 2007 and was promoted to Finance Director in January 2009.

Liz manages the Zibrant Finance Department of 10 people, including the billback processing team. The billback function processes over 1,000 client invoices per week, and in 2008 processed £25m of cash.

Grant Appleton
Accommodation Services Director

Email: grant.appleton@zibrant.co.uk

Grant has been involved in the hotel industry for over 22 years. Starting in hotel operations in Southern Africa, Grant moved to the UK 20 years ago where he worked in both hotel operations and sales before working in senior roles at both BSI and HRG, two of the most significant agencies in the business travel arena. Grant went on to open and build the UK online business of HRS.com in 2006 before joining Zibrant in June 2009.