Toronto 416-763-3017Team Bio
We believe that our team is not much different from your team. In order to thrive in our environment we need to be able to count on and trust each other. We rely on the dedication of the group to drive our business forward based on our vision and company direction. Our team comes to Big Fish from many different backgrounds and industries, from some of the largest companies to leading community organizations, from the IT and engineering professions, to HR and adult education. Together we continue to learn, teach and share our insights with each other and with the people we serve.
This adds up to a team that delivers strong, measurable results to our clients.
Read the individual team bios to learn more about the people that make up Big Fish.
Andrew Reid, Biggest Fish
Linda Ferguson
Edye St. Hill
Gavin Maxwell
Lida Preyma
Ada Tang
Andrew T Reid, Biggest Fish, Management Consultant.
(andrew@bigfishinteractive.com)
Company founder Andrew Reid is the prototypical big fish in search of deeper, wider seas to explore. He began Big Fish so that he could invite others to share his passion for exploration, business relationship and innovation. He attracts strong swimmers who know when to move with the currents, when the tides are turning, and when to swim upstream. Andrew has worked as a senior management consultant with clients such as Teranet and Effem-Mars Inc. for over 7 years. He has also specialized consulting with rapid growth technology clients since 1991.
Andrew’s focus on alternative training practices began with his degree in Sociology in the 1980s with a focus on corporate human structures and management systems. Andrew’s focus on alternative training practices began with his degree in Corporate Sociology in the 1980s. It fishtailed into marketing solutions with international players, an experience that whetted his appetite for training professional teams. He cut his teeth with the world’s largest outdoor adventure company. Then he spawned Big Fish Interactive Inc. (1995-96), now one of North America’s freshest, fastest training companies.
Today, Andrew’s desire to make the workplace an optimized experience is the current that drives every training program Big Fish delivers. He makes it inspiring, relevant, and fun to Think Outside the Bowl™. Most recently, the fish has jumped from the water into the halls of historic Guthrie Castle in Scotland. Five hundred years ago, Andrew’s ancestors built the castle. Now it hosts fast-paced training programs for world-class business leaders.
Andrew learned how teams move fast as a member of Canada’s International Dragon Boat Team in Sweden in August 2000 where that crew surprised the Euro locals with a 500m win. Today, Big Fish Interactive sponsors its own dragon boat team that is on its way to becoming the fastest in the country. They rely on tenacity, teamwork and a focus on winning. Andrew brings his fierce, competitive racing edge to clients in helping them find their own new competitive edge through their people.
These same qualities characterize the leadership, management, sales and technical training Andrew has produced for leading clients since 1989.
Linda R. Ferguson, Management Consultant, Leadership and Coaching
Linda Ferguson is a Senior Management Consultant under contract to Big Fish Interactive Inc. In this role she provides coaching to client’s senior management as well as designing leadership strategies for clients such as Dollar General, York Region, and many of our client’s sales teams.
Linda blends her time at Big Fish with NLP Canada Training Inc. She joined this firm as a management consultant in the summer of 2002 and has been a Senior Partner and Management Consultant since 2003. As a Senior Partner she is responsible for consulting with corporate and individual clients to improve productivity, motivation and satisfaction. She designs group training and individual programs to facilitate development in business communication, sales and influence, and management. Clients have included individuals and groups from these organizations: the CIBC, the Calgary Police Service, the Michener Institute, Proctor and Gamble, Toronto Dominion Securities, ADT Security, Investors Group, and many entrepreneurial and mid-size enterprises.
Linda designs new courses including all relevant resources, leads all course offerings and corporate trainings, and trains new consultants.
Edye St. Hill, Management Consultant & Facilitator, Business Development; Leadership Retreats.
(edye@bigfishinteractive.com)
Edye St. Hill is a dynamic business builder. With approximately 20 years of experience in leadership, sales performance, and change management training, Edye brings a conviction for client results. With specialized expertise in the financial sector, Edye recently excelled in leadership training in the rapid change environment of a client merger. This resulted in year-one, top 10 overall ranking of a balanced score card of Profit, Volume, Customer Satisfaction and Employee Satisfaction. Implementation of disciplined sales and service management practices was key to successful results as well as fostering strong collaborative internal partner relationships.
Part of Edye’s focus at Big Fish is to meet the unique needs of leadership retreats and the incentive travel market.
Gavin Maxwell, High Performance Coach & Team Development, Management Consultant.
info@bigfishinteractive.com>
Gavin Maxwell is a high performance coach in the truest sense. Having raced C1 canoe in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics for Canada, he knows a thing or two about pushing limits. Gavin balances an intense focus on results with engaging humour when facilitating Big Fish teambuilding events.
You’ll see Gavin running our Dragon Boat team building events as well as inspiring positive growth during corporate training. He is a powerful speaker, motivator and high performance coach with a long history of achievement and inspiring the best of people. To his credit, Gavin has been the driving force within the Big Fish sponsored Dragon Boat Crew. In 4 seasons he’s coached the Big Fish team from being a “good competitive team” to now being one of the fastest in the country…a force to be reckoned with.
Lida Preyma, Business Development and Facilitation, Management Consultant.
info@bigfishinteractive.com
Lida Preyma is one of our very resourceful facilitators. She brings a wealth of global life experience to her consultation with clients. Her bold and direct approach grabs attention and inspires results. She is also an accomplished athlete, author, and keynote speaker.
Lida’s diverse experience includes being the Director of Trade Policy Research for the G8 Research Group, based at the University of Toronto since 1987. She has been an analyst with the group since 2003, and attended the 2003 Evian, 2005 Gleneagles, and 2006 Moscow G8 Summits.
She ran as a candidate for the Conservative Party of Canada in Etobicoke Centre in the 2004 federal election and is the former Managing Director of Corporate Citizenship at Magna International Inc. Previously, Lida worked at Guardian Capital Inc. as an Associate on special projects and, from 1995 to 2000, she worked at BMO Nesbitt Burns in various roles until assuming the position of Retail Mortgage-Backed Securities trader in the Securitization and Structured Finance Department.
Ada Tang, Management Consultant, Facilitation.
A University of Toronto instructor and physiotherapist, Ada is an inspiring facilitator who brings a supportive focus into participant issues. As a fishy freelancer, Ada is a quiet, gentle leader who has the rare ability to make each person feel like they are the most important in the room.
When she is not demonstrating leadership in the classroom, Ada is living her leadership abilities in the dragon boat. Ada is a long-standing member of the Big Fish dragon boat crew and the Toronto Women’s crew.
Shilpa Panchmatia, Management Consultant, Facilitation.
Based in London, England, Shilpa is a natural people communicator, with special knowledge in teambuilding, business development, and personal development. Shilpa is also the founder of Human Xpression based in London, England.
Her early background in marketing and business development was followed by IT training and helping get a dot com off the ground. Shilpa is a published business writer in the fields of sales management, stress management and personal achievement. She also appears regularly as a keynote speaker, empowering and motivating entrepreneurs and women in business.