Alex O’Rourke
Before founding LockSmith, Alex worked for 23 years in marketing & innovation roles at Fever-Tree, Diageo and The National Lottery. She is a qualified life coach and champion of gender quality.
LockSmith is…
LockSmith is a small team of top-tier marketing capability experts. Founded in 2020 by long-time friends Chris Lock and Alex O'Rourke (née Smith), LockSmith was born from Chris & Alex's 25 years' experience leading world-class brands and passion for unlocking growth in the people behind those brands. LockSmith has since grown into a small team of Master Learning Smiths, our guild of marketing subject matter experts, learning designers and highly-experienced facilitators who are at the top of their game. The best part? Every single one of our team truly shares our passion for unlocking the potential in people and creating a generation of better marketers.
Chris
Alex
Alex isn’t quite as old as Chris but like him has 23+ years marketing experience gained working in multinationals, SMEs and start ups, on some of the world’s best loved brands. Alex & Chris worked together at both Camelot and Diageo, and most recently Alex spent 3 years at Fever-Tree where she set up the Innovation department and was instrumental in one of the most successful challenger stories in history.
Alex has experience across the full marketing mix and particularly loves all things brand strategy and creative development related. But most of all she is passionate about people and loves nothing more than coaching, training and developing teams & individuals and seeing them thrive. She is a qualified transformational life coach and an accredited DISC (behavioural profiling) practitioner.
Master Learning Smiths
Chris Lock
Chris, founder, has 24 years of experience with multinationals (Coke & Diageo) and scale ups (Camelot, Lily’s Kitchen & The Collective). He is a supercharger of collaboration, and has a lot of time for cats.
Claire Harding
Claire brings 25 years of marketing, sales & L&D experience from Suntory, McVities & Disney. She is a qualified coach and currently studying for a Master’s degree in Business Psychology.
Sarah Jones
After working at Mars and PepsiCo Sarah joined Brand Learning as their Marketing Capability Director where she led client relationships and large-scale blended learning programmes. In her spare time, she hangs out with her son Kyffin & lively Labrador Luna.
Caroline Boyd
With 12+ years’ experience in FTSE 100 and blue-chip FMCG businesses including Diageo, Mars and Johnson & Johnson, Caroline brings heavyweight marketing know-how to every session. As a facilitator, she is known for her infectious positivity. Her sessions are uplifting, inclusive and just the right mix of stretch and support.
Tori Haller
With 20+ years driving growth and transformation at Diageo and William Grant & Sons, Tori knows big-brand thinking inside out. As a facilitator, she is an expert at creating interactive learning environments, prioritising games, movement and group work.
Jeanette Edwards
Jeanette brings decades of experience from the world of premium drinks, having built profitable brands at Suntory and William Grant & Sons. As a facilitator, she is a calm, inclusive presence, blending storytelling, listening and practical workshopping to create real trust in the room. She’s also a proud DE&I leader.
Georgie Denny
Like Alex, Georgie was instrumental in growing Fever-Tree. Her years in insight & innovation, running focus groups & qual research, make her an exceptionally empathetic facilitator. Her sessions strike the perfect balance between relaxed and informal, yet always structured and on point.
Sophie Cobley
Having cut her teeth in the start-up world, Sophie brings 10 years of plate-spinning across copywriting, events and project management. When not working, you’ll find her escaping reality, either in the cinema, the kitchen or a cold body of water.
Nicole Martin
Nicole is a highly organised and an experienced project manager with over 25 years experience in marketing, event management and account management. Away from work, Nicole is a Mum of two who enjoys socialising with friends and family and is never too far away from a list of some sorts.
We are proud to have signed up to 1% for the planet. That means that we donate 1% of our revenue every year to charities and causes that support the environment.
To play our part more directly, we plant a tree for every person that has a meeting with us, and every delegate on one of our courses. Our partner is sustainably run meetings.
What’s it like working with LockSmith?
But don’t just take our word for it. Listen to what these lovely people have to say.
“If you have ever met Alex or Chris – you won’t need me to tell you how engaging they both are and put them together in a room and they deliver their materials with oodles of fun & energy. My team are already asking when they are coming back...``
``I can’t recommend Chris and Alex highly enough. The training they provided for UKTV was rich, impactful, educational and entertaining all rolled into one. They are experts in their field and you’d be hard pressed to beat them.”
“Alex is a brilliant leader, she creates high performing teams who deliver big outcomes. She is a thought leader who builds a stretching agenda and strategy, her breadth of experience makes her a highly skilled and rounded marketer who is committed to delivering amazing work.”
“Chris is an outstanding marketer with a track record second to none. Whilst working with him at Coca-Cola it was clear he not only has an astute marketing brain but also possesses a natural ability to get the best out of people.”
LockSmith Clients
