Meet The Team

 A team built up of friends and experts, we travel the world running the PopUp Business School to help people start-up their own businesses, doing what they love.

​Most of the team have run their own business, made their own mistakes and learnt what to do and what not to do in real business. We have all come together to help you get going and make money doing what you love!

Come and meet the team!
Get to know the team better in our series of PopUp interviews

THE popup TEAM

Simon paine

CEO & Co-Founder
who is simon?
Simon is our Co-founder and CEO who started PopUp with Alan in 2011. He spent ten years as a police officer and the next ten experimenting with business, the music industry and occasionally a proper job. He set up a centre for entrepreneurship, ran a regional enterprise service for Business Link before heading up client services for a leadership consultancy.

He has coached, trained and facilitated senior leaders from the World’s most famous companies including Microsoft, British Airways, and Thomson Reuters.
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Outside of PopUp he is frontman of band, makes art, drinks coffee from the Yemen and cooks up new ideas – which includes being founder of forever27.co.uk. Also as a Dad of three boys he watches a lot of sport, operates an unlicensed parent taxi service and avoids DIY.

alan donegan

Co-Founder
who is alan?
Alan is the Co-Founder of PopUp Business School.
Alan founded PopUp in 2012 with Simon Paine after they thought there must be a better way to start a business, without debt and without formal business plans. Alan decided he wanted to start PopUp to make sure that no one else went through the pain he went through starting up his business! Since then, PopUp has gone on to help over 7000 entrepreneurs in 4 continents to do more of what they love.
Nothing is more rewarding for Alan than seeing other people flourish. Alan's past experience in business gives him the drive to enable anyone no matter their circumstances to live the life they want in personal and financial freedom.
Outside PopUp, Alan loves Marvel, making pizza and occasionally playing with Lego. He is also a regular speaker for the “Financial Independence, Retire Early” (FIRE) movement, which has given him the freedom to enact lifelong ambitions of writing movie scripts and travelling the world with his wife Katie as part of nomadic lifestyle.
Alan has recently launched his own personal blog (www.AlanDonegan.com) and now speaks around the world teaching the PopUp and FIRE methodologies and will combine the two when "The Rebel Entrepreneur" Podcast launches with ChooseFI in 2020. 

katie coombes

Event Facilitator
who is katie?
Katie is a lead trainer and deliverers the courses all over the UK.
She joined PopUp in the summer of 2018 before this she co-founded, scaled and sold and a successful events business over 15 years. The business was started with no money, but plenty of blood, sweat and tears were shed along the way. 
She loves the first day of the PopUp course. The moments when people realise that this is not another boring business course. The moments when people realise this course talks sense and real life.
When not running the courses for PopUp she is a speaker and mentor helping people grow their existing businesses.
As well as all this she is busy mum of two fantastic young people, she can be found doing the washing, sweeping the floor, eating crisps and watching Netflix (all at the same time).

liam sibley

Event Management & Facilitator
who is liam?
An event wizard, organising the ins and outs of workshops across the nation. Liam Joined the team in early 2018 as an Events & Operations manager to help keep the ship of each event sailing straight and true. Liam came straight out of 3 years in college studying business & economics to dive into the insurance industry. Finally, Liam nearly became an invisible pyramid builder, but just didn’t see the point…. Yes. Jokes are a strong suit.
Outside of work you’ll normally find Liam behind either a camera, airsoft gun or model paintbrush. 
Contrary to popular belief Liam is quite fond of his beard… after all he grew it himself! Some say you may even find it smelling of cherry cola. (disclaimer: cola smell not always present. Beard oil dependent, terms and conditions apply.) 

paul wakefield

Event Facilitator
who is paul?
Paul is a trainer for the PopUp Business School. He joined the team in 2019 after he was invited to share his story at the High Wycombe course.
Paul started out in business with only £2.87 in his bank, he then wrote an eBook all about the mistakes he had made in life and business. He’s now become a UK Business influencer, published author of 3 books and a professional inspirational speaker. To date Paul has helped over 15,000 people get closer to their dreams.
Paul absolutely loves seeing the transformation of the attendees throughout the events. By the end of the course they’re like different people and are ready to go and make money with their business and life skills. 
Paul is passionate about football, fashion and lifestyle. He’s a qualified FA Football coach and has setup his own luxury bespoke menswear clothing company. He is also a proud dad and fiancé (soon to be married) and lives his life by being grateful for everything and everyone in his life.
Paul is the founder of the FREEDOM Lifestyle Academy which offers Next Level Success & Growth for Coaches, Consultants, Trainers & Speakers. Paul helps his clients/members clear the mind, make more money, create more impact and open up more opportunities to live a life of Total FREEDOM.
You can find out more on Paul’s personal website:
​ www.PaulWakefieldLifestyle.com 

sean mchugh

Event Facilitator
who is sean?

henry nicholson

Chief Operating Officer
WHO IS HENRY?
Henry came on board in 2015 managing our events, marketing and communications. Henry's prime role is now to keep the company running smoothly in all areas, planning our events and ensuring all of our online shenanigans in order.

Henry is an expert on websites; both in building, developing and troubleshooting them to get them to where they need to be. Check out some of his work at NicholsonWebDesign.

A lover of music, shooting and side-hustle; Henry also owns a business in Ethical clothing too, One Planet Apparel. As well as freelancing work for Shield Sights.

jack
​aling

Chief Marketing  Officer
who is jack?
Jack heads PopUp’s brand and oversees the online content.
Jack joined PopUp in 2016 after completing a TV & Film Media degree with the role of creating content which quickly evolved into event management and increasing PopUp’s brand on and offline.
He loves to teach about the power of online with knowledge of website building, social media and marketing. He has helped hundreds of small businesses around the world create their online presence and has spoken about online marketing at Oxford University and Henley Business School.
A content creator and film fanatic, when Jack isn't at PopUp, you'll probably find him at the cinema, writing reviews or figuring out what film he's going to watch next.
Jack runs his freelance video production company ‘AlingMedia’ as his side hustle and has produced video work for Microsoft & Alzheimer's Society and has had his work featured on BBC, PBS and ABC all before the age of 21. 

james headspeath

Head of Commercial Partnerships
WHO IS JAMES?
James leads the sales process selling the PopUp course and methodology across the UK.
James is responsible for developing commercial partnerships for PopUp Business School with local governments, third sector organisations and private sponsors.
He has been following PopUp since its creation but since officially joining the PopUp team in 2017 James has raised over £1m worth of funding helping to deliver events in the communities that need it the most.
Outside of PopUp, James can either be found cheering on Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, or being out cycling in the countryside.  

jack
​marsh

Event Admin & Support
WHO IS JACK?
Although Marshy started as the Social Media Manager for PopUp, he found himself dipping his toes into whatever may occur, including Case Studies, Event Promotion & Day-to-day errands so then got put onto an Event Admin & Support Role.
Since joining PopUp in September 2019, Marshy has already attended over 10 events for PopUp and you can find him at his absolute happiest when he is working with the PopUp Team.
Marshy first found PopUp as an attendee in April 2019 and along with his Mum, Lisa, they started a business, Mummaloo Creations. They now produce the official PopUp Business School merchandise in the form of motivational mugs. Marshy will always name his position as “Tech”. So while Marshy makes technological magic happen, Lisa will always be found close to him making magic happen with a Paintbrush. 
One of Marshy’s biggest hobbies are presenting radio, and you will find him in the studio, on a Monday afternoon from 1-4 at Sheppey FM 92.2 with the music up loud, playing his favourite tracks and raring to go!
When not at events or working for PopUp, you will see Marshy at a gig, or working as The Tremeloes personal assistant, a worldwide hit sixties beat group who had international best-selling hits with “Here Comes My Baby” and “Silence Is Golden”.