Meet the Team
Board
Prof Steve Davies
Founding Director
Prof Davies is a Consultant Endocrinologist at the University Hospital Wales. He has an established reputation in medical education particularly in online learning, having been the founder of OnExamination.com and setting up a number of diploma courses. He has also been involved in establishing training courses for weight management in community pharmacy. His clinical interests include hypogonadism, growth hormone deficiency and obesity. He has published over 100 peer reviewed publications and his research interests include the application of novel technologies in delivering medical education.
Courtenay Probert
Chief Executive Officer
Courtenay is a company founder, technologist, business analyst, systems architect and project manager with extensive hands-on expertise. After graduating with a first-class honours degree in Business Information Management, Courtenay established a web-application development company, MAWR Ltd, specializing in risk assessment management software. After disposing of his concern in MAWR Ltd, he was appointed as C.T.O. at 'OnExamination'. As the key decision maker for the planning, design and development of OnExamination's technical infrastructure, Courtenay was instrumental in revitalising their failing computer infrastructure. These factors allowed OnExamination to evolve from a small speculative business to a larger one that was then integrated within the BMJ Group when it was acquired in 2007. Quickly promoted within the BMJ Group to the role of CIO/Deputy Managing Director, Courtenay was directly responsible for delivering 60% growth in sales while maintaining a 40% margin. Today Courtenay is the C.O.O. of Diploma MSc. He is responsible for the organisational operations/staffing, sales and marketing, technical infrastructure, and business strategy.
Rachel Ellis
Chief Marketing Officer
Rachel has over 20 years’ experience managing marketing and commercial departments across a variety of industry sectors including business, web development, marketing, publishing, e-learning, and medicine. Rachel is energetic, entrepreneurial, and instinctively commercially focused. As the Chief Commercial Officer of Learna, she has successfully created and worked with an international network of educational institutes and providers to design and develop a number postgraduate level programmes, courses, CPD, and exam preparation material. Currently, Rachel’s focus is to grow a range of postgraduate programmes and resources across a variety of professions. She's always on the lookout for commercial partners, new project ideas, and content authors/editors.
Academic Board
Professor John Alcolado
Chair, Academic Board
Professor John Alcolado brings over 25 years of leadership experience in UK medical education, research, and clinical practice. He is currently supporting the University of Wolverhampton with the development of the planned Black Country Medical School, as well as being a GMC Associate, sitting on fitness to practice tribunals, and maintaining his clinical practice as a Consultant Physician in the NHS. John has held senior academic and leadership roles at the University of Chester (Faculty Dean), Aston Medical School (Dean for Medical Education), University of Nottingham (Head of Graduate Entry Medicine), Queen Mary University of London (Director of Medical Education), and Director of the North East Thames Foundation School. He has played a pivotal role in the development of new medical programmes at institutions including Chester, Bolton, and Wolverhampton, and in expanding medical student numbers at Aston and Nottingham. He is Editor in Chief of the British Journal of Hospital Medicine. A Consultant Physician in diabetes, endocrinology, and acute medicine, he combines deep clinical insight with a strong track record in academic governance, curriculum design, and quality assurance - making him exceptionally well placed to lead our Academic Board.
Anish Kotecha MRCGP, FAcadMEd, MBBCh, BSc
Director of Education
Anish Kotecha works as a GP in South Wales. He has an expanding role in medical education and has been elected to fellowship of the Academy of Medical Educators. He has written many clinical and non-clinical articles for Pulse, GPOnline, MIMS Learning, Health Education and Improvement Wales and has chaired and spoken at several medical events. Some of his other roles include work as a GP appraiser, RCGP PCI Accreditation Clinical Lead, RCGP SE Wales Education Lead, RCGP PCD GP Adviser, InnovAiT AKT editor, RCGP Clinical Events Quality Assessor, Cardiff University Communication Skills Tutor and Examiner for medical students and GPnotebook TV presenter. As the Director of Education at Learna, Anish is responsible for the strategic planning and development of new postgraduate programmes. He contributes to managing relationships with our partnering universities and his role includes supporting the editorial team and those managing projects for both Diploma MSc and StudyPRN. He is also the MRCGP AKT editor for the StudyPRN site taking responsibility for the overall quality of the revision resource.