Meet some of the amazing people helping Habia

At Habia we are privileged to have some of the best in the industry working for and with us. If you are interested in getting involved please feel free to get in touch.

We work with organisations, agencies, educators, employers, and experts to…

Develop national occupation standards (NOS)

Champion high-quality education

Recognise and endorse excellence

Promote careers in the hair and beauty sector.

Our Board

Our Board include highly qualified industry and education specialists, many with 25+ yrs in education. They have taught, assessed, verified, examined, managed and judged. Work with us, the Standard Setting Body, if you value quality and high standards. Be sure to research widely and choose wisely.

Joan
Scott

Joan is a Beauty and Spa expert, a skills consultant, published author and an award-winning educationalist, specialising in Further Education and Apprenticeships. She promotes the achievement of Government regulated qualifications for those entering the sector. Joan is involved with the World Skills UK Centre of Excellence and Innovation Network projects As CEO and Chair of HABIA, Joan leads the team to develop national standards, endorse high quality training and promote education, excellence and professionalism.

Diane
hey

Founder and Chief Executive, employer, practitioner and educator, with 35 years experience in the beauty, aesthetics and wellbeing sector. Tutor, Assessor and IQA, with a keen eye for detail, passionate about maintaining and raising standards, promoting regulated qualification development and access for those embarking or furthering their careers. Experienced Apprenticeship employer and provider, championing the benefits of employment ready training, the value to both employer and employee, specialising in curriculum design to meet business needs.

Stefania
Rossi

Stefania is the multi-award winning salon owner of Utopia Beauty & Advanced Skincare. She combines her background in specialist recruitment with her extensive business management skills to create Stefania Rossi Recruitment, an international recruitment agency, for the hair and beauty industry. Stefania has become a sought-after international speaker, awards judge, industry advisor, mentor, and regular expert contributor to articles on recruitment, training and careers in health and beauty.

Susan
Aldridge

Sue has worked at a number of global financial institutions, developing a keen understanding of the business needs of both individuals and organisations. A proactive member of the business community, Sue is CEO of Altrincham & Sale Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Trafford Leisure Board, the Trafford Economic Growth Committee, Sale Regeneration and the Altrincham BID Executive Team. Sue Aldridge – a former student at Loreto and South Trafford colleges – has spent most of her working life in banking & finance. She is married with two daughters, is a Lady Knight of the Round Table. As CEO of the Chamber, Sue will continue to bring more businesses together – from local sole traders to large global conglomerates.

Beverley
Higham

Beverley has been a teacher of beauty and Holistic therapy for more than 35 years. During which time she received a medal of excellence from City and Guilds for her teaching and won the Heinemann books inspirational challenge for inspiring learning. Her passion for Aromatherapy has lead her to study clinical aromatherapy in Provence , France and develop formulations for natural products for health and beauty. She is part of an international team of teachers from across the world, known as the Alliance of holistic aromatherapy members (AHAM) delivering education worldwide throughout the year. She has published research on woman’s health, and continues to support the industry in any way she can.

Judith
Hughes

Judith is a highly experienced Lecturer/ Internal Verifier/ Hair Consultant. Through the many years in the industry she has acquired the knowledge skills and understanding of a diverse range of teaching, learning, assessment and classroom management strategies that have made a positive impact on the progress of her learners. She is passionate about the hair and beauty industry and committed to developing good practice She has been teaching for many years in education, training within the FE sector and working in the community. Previously owner of Award winning Hairdressing, Barbering and Beauty Salon Business owner for over 13 years Judith works with Habia as vice chair of expert working group on new hair standards to include all hair textures.

Our Team

Meet our brilliant Partners

Meet our Ambassadors

Tina Robinson

With over 30 years’ experience working for and with some of the most prestigious hair & beauty brands including Urban Retreat, Estee Lauder, Aveda, Regis International, Vidal Sassoon within freestanding and department stores such as Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Selfridges, House of Fraser, Debenhams and Boots. I bring an unrivalled knowledge of how to turnaround and grow profitable businesses and brands in this sector. I am an Ambassador of Habia, which is recognised by the government as setting national standards that form the basis for UK qualifications for the hair, beauty, nails, spa and aesthetics sectors during my career I’ve been an employee and held roles including; Regional Manager, National Sales Manager & Brand Manager. For the past ten years, I have been working as a self-employed Business Consultant with hair, health & beauty businesses and brands and owned my own highly profitable spa. One of the reasons I have been successful in my roles is that I am passionate about people – I love helping, teaching and serving them, sharing and learning from them. For me, there is no greater satisfaction than to help people grow themselves and their businesses.

Tom Chapman

The multi award winning Tom Chapman is an author, barber, educator, ambassador, spokesperson, and founder of The Lions Barber Collective, an international network of barbers who have come together to help raise awareness for the prevention of suicide. He is also the author of a children's book called 'The Mighty Lions' and in 2022 published his life-saving lessons from BarberTalk training titled 'How to Listen so Men Will Talk'. After opening his own hair salon in 2011, Tom quickly realised that from inside the safe environment of his barbershop there was an opportunity to not only look after what’s on his customers heads, but also what’s inside their heads too. In 2015 he founded The Lions Barber Collective, with a vision of a world free from suicide, to educate and raise awareness about mental health and suicide prevention. Tom created a life-saving education programme, that trains hair & beauty professionals, an now anybody in BarberTalk, Hair&BeautyTalk and HereToTalk training, giving others the skills to recognise, ask, listen and help those around them with their mental health and suicide prevention.

Beverley Braisdell

Bev has worked in excess of 30 Years in a variety of fields within the Beauty, Nail & Make-Up industries. She is an Author of renowned book; 'The Hair & Make Up Artists Handbook' Published by (Hodder). She is the Co-owner of the Make Up Company 'I'm Made Up', completing make up services on many events, festivals, films & celebrity clients. A lecturer in Media Make Up in an FE college and also taught at university level where she wrote the BA Honours Degree in Make Up. In addition, Bev works as an External Quality Assurer for an awarding body. A HABIA Forum Member, Industry Advisory Board Member for City & Guilds, Feature Writer ("The Voice of FE" Scratch Magazine and Warpaint Magazine), International Trainer working in Athens & Dubai (Production & Media City). Judge for the National Nail Competition in Athens Greece and Guest Speaker at Excel & Olympia Trade Shows. Make Up Artist & Designer for Houston Jones Entertainment for short Films & music videos, TV (Britain's Got Talent) and Theatre shows to include (Sweeney Todd, Our House & Sister Act). Beverley is a passionate advocate for high standards in the industry.

Keri Blue

Keri Blue is a queer, non-binary barber from West London, currently based in Manchester. Since coming out, Keri spent their life experiencing discrimination. After waiting in a barbershop in Brighton to get a short haircut, they were told they couldn’t have it done because they weren’t insured to do Keri’s hair. Leaving the barbershop angry and humiliated, Keri decided at that moment to do something about it. The saying goes, “if you want something done right, then do it yourself,” and Keri did just that. They enrolled at London School of Barbering and began to master their craft, putting in the graft at various barbershops throughout. It wasn’t until becoming a barber that Keri noticed the sheer level of discrimination surrounding gender identity within the hair and beauty industry. They began Hair Has No Gender during the throes of the pandemic in an attempt to eradicate this and the stigma that still comes with being trans

Dawn Knight

Dawn is a patient safety advocate and campaigner as a result of her own lived experience since 2014. A lay trustee to the board of The Joint Council for Cosmetic Practitioners since 2017, Dawn has been instrumental in lobbying government to implement the Aesthetics Licencing Scheme and bring about better patient safety and public protection across both the Aesthetics and Cosmetic Sectors in the UK. Sitting on committees within the JCCP , ensuring the patient / client voice and impact is considered at every step. Dawn has given evidence to the All Party Parliamentary Group for Beauty Aesthetics and Wellbeing Inquiry, and to the Health and Care Select Committee Inquiry into the impact of body image on mental and physical health. Resulting in a recommendation for a risk logo on Aesthetic and Cosmetic Surgery adverts being included in the report's recommendations. Dawn was the patient representative in a briefing in 2022 to Maria Caufield MP The Minister For Health and continues to work cross party alongside her MP Kevan Jones to push for meaningful change to regulation. Working with The Mental Health Foundation on their recent online toolkits #mindovermirror.

Tanya Heslip

Tanya has worked in the Hair and Beauty industry for over 35 years managing salons across Northern Ireland and as a lecturer within FE. She initially trained as a Hairdresser and in later years Beauty Therapy and Reflexology and holds a PGCE in Further and Higher Education alongside assessor and internal verifier qualifications. Tanya has spent the last 30 years working within the FE sector in Northern Ireland delivering across FE, HE, Training and Apprenticeship programmes and has been actively engaged across the sector developing new qualification frameworks within FE for the Hair and Beauty sector in Northern Ireland. Her current Role is as Curriculum Manager for Hair and Beauty services within the largest FE college in Northern Ireland managing curriculum delivery across Hairdressing, Barbering, Beauty Therapy, Nail Technology and Media Makeup. Tanya leads the Northern Ireland FE Hair and Beauty curriculum managers group and is an AHT member and WorldSkills UK local hero.

Holly-Mae

Holly a motivated and determined person in all aspects of life,. She has a loving partner and family who have supported her massively throughout her journey. The highlight of her career so far is winning the title of 'Best Beauty Therapist' in Europe, in the Euroskills competition 2018. Achieving such a prestigious award, alongside two other national awards, gave her the confidence to fulfil her ultimate goal of owning her own space. Holly-Mae is passionate about helping others progress in the beauty industry, to achieve their goals and inspire them into the world of beauty. She's all about perfecting every aspect of beauty, down to the finest detail. Holly-Mae is a firm believer that mindset is the key to achieve long-term success.

Kim Ford

Kim. C.A. Ford is a Global industry expert and founder of Beauty Enterprise Solutions, Consultancy and Training, specialising in business start-ups, business turn around by training developing and motivating individuals and lead multi-skilled teams to achieve their full potential, IQA quality assurance checks and expert witness services. Kim has worked in the beauty industry for over 30 years, in the areas of beauty, spa, sports, nails, holistic therapy and medical aesthetics. She is a highly qualified and accomplished consultant, senior beauty and holistic therapist, trainer, lecturer, expert witness, international examiner and Non-Executive Director and advisor to industry boards in education and business and holds a BA Business and Enterprise (distinction).

Clare Porter

Clare Porter is a successful beauty therapist and salon owner with over 30 years experience in the industry. Her salon, The Fountain Beauty Therapy, was established in 2007 where she still works in treatments most days. With her passion for beauty and wellness, she has built a thriving business that provides a high-quality service to clients. “Every treatment should be a fantastic experience and I go into my treatment room with the aim of giving the best possible treatment I can for my client” Clare is excited about promoting the importance of investing in education and training for aspiring beauty professionals. With her expertise, dedication, and commitment to the field, she strives to become a valuable voice for the beauty industry and a source of inspiration for many aspiring therapists .