About the Presenters

We at Leading English have extensive training and many years experience in speech work. We have taught people from every continent, of all ages and now offer our expertise to leaders, academics, entrepreneurs and business people. We offer the highest level of competence in every aspect of communication and specialise in voice, elocution and presentation as well as accent reduction, idiomatic use of English, confidence in public speaking and communicating.

Barbara Baldwin, director

World class executive speech and language coach and professional speaker.

Barbara specialises in oral communication. A qualified speech pathologist, Barbara studied speech and special education in Europe and in 1981 migrated to Australia with her young family. Fluent in several languages, Barbara has worked and lectured extensively across the globe including in Germany, Austria, Denmark, Czech Republic, Israel, UK, USA, Japan, Indonesia and Australia. Combining speech pathology with stage, voice and media, Barbara coaches leaders at all levels of language ability to reach their highest level of competence in communication and personal presentation. She is a member of Speech Pathology Australia.

Recently Barbara joined forces with Janet Bickle to put their combined skills and experience into the development of Leading English – offering a large range of services, from one-on-one tuition to intensive speech and language coaching at any specified location and including total immersion in English language courses at a beautiful coastal resort. The depth and range of services and skills offered by this team makes for a unique and highly effective approach to language and communication.

Janet Bickle

A fluent speaker of French, Janet taught French to adult learners for many years before studying English and Linguistics at University. In Spa, Belgium, she studied the Ceran method, which is well-known in Europe as a way of developing fluency quickly in languages, and worked for Ceran in Belgium and in England, coaching corporate executives from Europe, Russia, Asia and Africa. Janet has coached people at every level and is passionate about language teaching in general. She now specialises in language and communication, pronunciation and expression.

Daria Tikhonova

Daria has recently joined our team but it feels like she has been with Leading English for much longer. With her educational background in International Tourism and Languages she has brought exceptional people skills, and is here to answer your queries.

Daria has worked in education, community services, tourism and IT. Her particular knowledge of technology helps to keep the administration of the business streamlined and to give the practising members an opportunity to add that extra personal touch to their work that keeps the clients coming back!