About
Articles by Ashle
-
Maintaining a Positive Mindset Towards AI Adoption
Maintaining a Positive Mindset Towards AI Adoption
Are you approaching the integration of AI into your business operations with an open and receptive mindset, or are you…
1 Comment -
Managing Multiple Inboxes and Calendars Efficiently
Managing Multiple Inboxes and Calendars Efficiently
Adapting to life Freeman Clarke came with a few changes in the daily routine that I thought I would share in case you…
22 Comments -
Help Campaign Against Dividend Tax - sign here
Help Campaign Against Dividend Tax - sign here
Government are always wanting to give help out small business to help the economy recover, then they want to slap a tax…
1 Comment
Activity
5K followers
-
Ashle Whittle shared thisThis week was one of those “everything, everywhere, all at once” weeks. Team calls back-to-back. On-site reviews. Overseas catch-ups at silly o’clock. An early morning sync that definitely needed a second coffee. Then a wedding in the middle of it all… and to round it off, a face-to-face intro at the back end of Friday. Somewhere in there I also had a mini mission: working out who sent me a book that landed on my desk. Mystery solved. Big thanks to Freeman Clarke for the book — genuinely appreciated, and perfect timing. Now it’s time to properly switch off, wind down, and reset. Because no matter how busy you are (or how important the work feels in the moment), you still need to slow down and take some time out. The work will be there. Your energy needs topping up too. #Reset #Leadership #WorkLifeBalance #ConsultingLife
-
Ashle Whittle shared thisI’ve had a few conversations recently, some with new contacts and some with long term friends and work colleagues, and it’s made me reflect on something simple but pretty powerful. At some point, you’ll have a conversation with someone and you won’t know it’s the last one you’ll ever have with them. They might drift out of your life. You might forget the details. But here’s the part that’s stuck with me. They might not forget you. Sometimes a single sentence lands. Something you said in passing. A comment you made on a call. A story you told on stage. Even a short video you posted that appeared in their feed at just the right moment. And that one thing can stay with someone for years, for better or worse. It might be the spark that gives them confidence. Or the nudge that helps them take a step they’ve been avoiding. Or the permission they needed to think bigger. We all have people whose words have stuck with us. And it’s worth remembering that you’re probably that person for someone else, and you may never even know it. So today’s reminder, to myself as much as anyone, is to choose your words with care. You never know the impact they’ll have. Have you ever had a moment where something someone said stayed with you for years?
-
Ashle Whittle shared thisGreat opportunity for come and join the wilderness teamAshle Whittle shared thisWe’re hiring: https://lnkd.in/ezjh7SBE Applications for our new Web Platforms & BAU Engineer role are closing early next week. The role is key to keeping our web platforms secure, reliable and running smoothly, supporting a diverse range of needs across the Wilderness Group. Ready to join us? Head to the Careers page on our website for full details on the position and to apply before March 2nd.
-
Ashle Whittle reposted thisAshle Whittle reposted thisLast week, we hosted our 6th Silicon Lancashire roundtable event. Focusing on the role of a Fractional CTO, with Ashle Whittle It was in equal parts entertaining, honest and genuinely insightful. We heard the story of a CTO leader who described himself as a disruptive child at school, constantly challenging the status quo. That mindset hasn’t evaporated… It's evolved into always challenging thought processes and improving technical decisions Fast forward 20+ years, converting into technical leadership, delivering strategy and technology solutions at the board level. Here’s what really stood out What a Fractional CTO does It's definitely not “part-time tech leadership”, role It is... Strategic direction, enabling scaling tech teams, aligning technology to commercial goals, de-risking growth, and accelerating delivery without the cost of a full-time C-suite hire. The WHY It wasn’t about job titles. It was about impact. Helping businesses make smarter tech decisions. Helping teams avoid expensive mistakes. Helping founders sleep better at night. The HOW & The Benefits Fractional consultancy gives organisations access to experience they otherwise couldn’t justify. And for the Fractional CTO? Flexibility, variety, autonomy and influence across multiple businesses. We learned - How to become a Fractional Consultant By focusing on: Reputation. Credibility. Results. Often, technical experts don’t start out by deciding on being a Fractional CTO; they subconsciously build towards it. Have you taken the jump into Fractional Delivery? How have you found it? #cto #siliconlancashire #fractional #lancashirenews #techleadership
-
Ashle Whittle shared thisReally enjoyed hosting this internal session for the Freeman Clarke team, thanks Graeme for the platform. Leadership teams often need to see something to make good decisions, and “vibe coding” is a game-changer for that: turning ideas into demos and prototypes in minutes (not days). It’s also a great test of understanding, if you can explain it clearly, you’ve properly got it. Brilliant interactions and questions from the team. If you could run one low-cost AI POC to prove out a business case, what would it be?Ashle Whittle shared thisAn excellent internal session today for 40 of our team on using AI to create software ("vibe coding") hosted by our brilliant Ashle Whittle. Leadership teams often need to see demos and prototypes in order to have effective conversations and to reach decisions. This tech allows us to accelerate prototyping from days to minutes. Freeman Clarke
-
Ashle Whittle shared thisFriday mornings don’t always start with coffee… sometimes they start with Microsoft. This morning I'm taking one for the team and I’m jumping on a call as part of the UK Copilot community, getting the updates direct from the source so I can translate what’s changing (and what actually matters) into clear, practical guidance for customers. No hype, no mixed messages, no “I heard it on LinkedIn so it must be true” confusion. If you’re exploring Copilot (or already rolling it out) and you want a straight answer on what’s new, what it means for your licences, security, governance, and day-to-day use, drop me a message. I’m happy to share the key takeaways in plain English and help you make sensible next steps. #MicrosoftCopilot #AIforBusiness #M365 #DigitalTransformation #TechLeadership #ChangeManagement
-
Ashle Whittle shared thisNothing beats Teams for speed, but today was a good reminder that some conversations are still best done in the room. Quick flying visit down to London to sit with the C‑Suite and get properly aligned on the year ahead, not just “big goals”, but what we actually want to achieve that’s measurable. When you’re face to face you build trust faster, you catch the hesitations, you read the body language, and you can go deeper without the usual lag, distractions, or talking over each other. Unsurprisingly, the questions came thick and fast: AI (what’s real vs hype), strategy (what we say no to), security (what ‘good’ looks like), and process (how we execute without slowing down). We finished with a clear plan and a set of actions each of us is taking away — the kind of outcome you can point to in 30/60/90 days and say, “Yes, we moved the needle.” Bonus: a bit of culture along the way and a few solid hours on the train each way to get work done. This is the life of a fractional CTO, part strategist, part translator, part momentum-builder. What do you find works best for the big conversations: in-person, Teams… or a mix of both? Bonus points for knowing where the art work is
-
Ashle Whittle reposted thisAshle Whittle reposted this𝗛𝗼𝗺𝗲-𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱: 𝗔𝘇𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗢𝗽𝘀 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿, 𝗨𝗞. (must have full right to work & live in the UK) We're seeking: Azure, Kubernetes, OS patching, and networking. up to £55k - Immediate start, See full role details: https://lnkd.in/enzFewGe
-
Ashle Whittle shared thisGreat to be one of the founding members at the Boxing Business Network (BBN) launch yesterday representing Keekco. Brilliant to be in the room with some of GB's major players in boxing, Jack Catterall is a genuine nice and humble guy- both in and out of the ring - and to see the calibre of businesses getting behind the sport. Huge thanks to Lee W. for putting on a cracking launch event. I met some genuinely great people and had a few quality conversations - and I'm looking forward to meeting even more of the network next time. If you're interested in sponsorship, partnerships, or simply building strong connections with people who get things done, BBN is one to watch. #BBN #BoxingBusinessNetwork #Boxing #Sponsorship #Networking #Partnerships #Keekco
-
Ashle Whittle liked thisOur CEO will be at the IPC conference in Birmingham next week. Please come and say hello if you are there.Ashle Whittle liked this▶️ 'Infection Prevention & Control: Are Human Beings the Problem or the Solution?' Ross Priday, CEO of GMR Human Performance, previews his upcoming-presentation, on this topic, with delegates, at INFECTION PREVENTION & CONTROL 2026. ⏺️ IPC 2026 is at NCC Birmingham on April 28th & 29th. See more details at https://lnkd.in/d6U9yAG3 #infectionprevention #infectioncontrol #IPC26
-
Ashle Whittle liked thisAshle Whittle liked thisBREAKING: Apple's next CEO will be John Ternus. Be John: > He did not come up through finance > He did not come up through consulting > He came up through product design and hardware engineering Here's the career path: > 2001: joined Apple's product design team > 2013: became Vice President of Hardware Engineering > 2021: joined Apple's executive team as Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering > September 1, 2026: becomes Apple CEO and joins the board What he helped oversee: > iPhone > iPad > Mac > Apple Watch > AirPods > 25 years inside Apple before reaching the top job > He helped lead the Mac's resurgence and broader hardware engineering across Apple's biggest products > His most recent big public product moment was the iPhone Air launch > Apple is making a very clear bet: > the next chapter will be led by a longtime builder from inside the product organization Will John Ternus be the person who gives Apple its next iconic product era?
-
Ashle Whittle liked thisAshle Whittle liked thisI’m blessed to be my own boss. It is hard work and about 80% failure due to all sorts of circumstances beyond your control when your in the Talent/Recruitment Industry. But, when family needs me overseas, all I need is a phone & laptop and off I go. What’s the best part of your job? How free are you to be able to manage life & your job?
-
Ashle Whittle liked thisAshle Whittle liked thisThumbs up 👍 Presenting or communicating on conference calls, especially those with a large audience is difficult as there are no visual clues that those listening are actually engaged. Recently a colleague of mine presented on an all hands and they did an amazing job. During the presentation I added a few 👍 and ❤️ to give visual prompts that the content was good and they were doing a great job of getting the message over. A few days later I spoke to them and they mentioned they'd seen the emoji's from myself and others and were greatful as they were anxious as to whether it was landing. The signs from us provided re-assurance which I completely understand. So when listening don't be shy - engage and show that visible appreciation and support with a 👍❤️🤘👏
-
Ashle Whittle reacted on thisAshle Whittle reacted on this"We Need to Do That" There are few phrases more common in team settings, and few that achieve less. "We need to do x" is a statement that sounds like progress. It has direction, urgency, even a hint of collective purpose. But look closer and you will find it contains no target, no owner, and no real commitment. It is a thought dressed up as an action. In most teams, this matters more than people realise. If you are in a group of five people and someone says "we need to handle that," there is statistically a one-in-five chance that person means you. Which means there is an 80% probability the statement is aimed somewhere else. Everyone in the room can hear it and reasonably conclude it is probably not theirs to carry. The result is predictable: nothing happens, or the wrong person picks it up. That second outcome is often more damaging than the first. In most teams there are people who hear "we" and quietly assume it means them. They take on the task. Then the next one. Then the one after that. Over time they are overloaded, under-acknowledged, and burning out, while the rest of the team remains oblivious because nothing ever looked uneven from the outside. For people who are neurodiverse, vague collective language is not just inefficient, it is genuinely difficult to process. "We should look into that" sets no boundary, no named owner, no concrete outcome, and no definition of done. It asks someone to infer meaning from a statement that does not actually contain it. Direct language is not bluntness. It is respect. 📈 High-performing teams and the exception that proves the rule There is an argument that tight, high-trust teams can operate on shared ownership without naming individuals. This is sometimes true, but it is rarer than people think. Genuine high-performing teams, not teams that aspire to that label or have been told they are one, tend not to rely on "we" because they have already developed habits of explicit commitment. Someone says "I'll take that," or "can you own this by Thursday?" The collective ownership is expressed through individual reliability, not through vague collective framing. Most teams that lean on "we" are not doing this. They are avoiding the mild discomfort of directing a task at a specific person. I use "we" too often. I have noticed it in myself, particularly in group settings where I feel uncertain about singling someone out. It feels softer. More collaborative. Less like I am telling someone what to do. But I think that instinct, however well-meaning, is actually unhelpful. It leaves people without the clarity they need to do good work. Giving someone a direct action is not a imposition, it is an investment in their ability to succeed. So I am going to work on it. Less "we should probably look at this," more "could you take this on?" or simply, "I'll handle that." It is a small change in language. The difference in outcome is not small at all 👍
Experience & Education
-
Freeman Clarke
View Ashle’s full experience
See their title, tenure and more.
By clicking Continue to join or sign in, you agree to LinkedIn’s User Agreement, Privacy Policy, and Cookie Policy.
Licenses & Certifications
Volunteer Experience
-
Non Executive Board Member
ARSACS Awareness UK
- Present 1 year 4 months
Health
Community Lead | ARSACS Awareness UK
Supporting and driving awareness initiatives for ARSACS (Autosomal Recessive Spastic Ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay), a rare neurodegenerative condition. Leveraging my technology and AI expertise to:
• Lead digital awareness campaigns and community engagement
• Coordinate fundraising initiatives supporting ARSACS Canada research
• Provide strategic guidance for social media presence and outreach
• Facilitate connections between affected…Community Lead | ARSACS Awareness UK
Supporting and driving awareness initiatives for ARSACS (Autosomal Recessive Spastic Ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay), a rare neurodegenerative condition. Leveraging my technology and AI expertise to:
• Lead digital awareness campaigns and community engagement
• Coordinate fundraising initiatives supporting ARSACS Canada research
• Provide strategic guidance for social media presence and outreach
• Facilitate connections between affected families and research organizations
Working closely with the ARSACS community to increase visibility of this rare condition in the UK while supporting vital research efforts through fundraising and awareness programs. -
Board Member
Music and Arts for Creative Youth (MACY)
- 1 year 10 months
Arts and Culture
Music and Arts for Creative Youth (MACY) is a not for profit community group which specializes in providing a wide range of cultural activities for young people and adults with a learning or physical disability.
We work with individuals, small groups and other community organisations to provide professionally run, affordable activities including music, art, dance, drama, IT and graphics workshops.
MACY also provides volunteering and work experience opportunities for those who…Music and Arts for Creative Youth (MACY) is a not for profit community group which specializes in providing a wide range of cultural activities for young people and adults with a learning or physical disability.
We work with individuals, small groups and other community organisations to provide professionally run, affordable activities including music, art, dance, drama, IT and graphics workshops.
MACY also provides volunteering and work experience opportunities for those who would like to explore a career in the arts and which is accredited by the Young Peoples Arts Awards to Gold Level. -
Non Executive Director
White Bear Records
- 10 months
Arts and Culture
White Bear Records was formed to assist new up and coming artists to get a break in the music sector, we assisted on-boarding unsigned talented artists and getting music published to all the major platforms, getting into new venues UK wide, distributing to larger record labels and getting radio air play
-
Business Development Executive
White Bear Recording Studios
- 1 year 11 months
Arts and Culture
White Bear Studios is a multi purpose studio situated in Chorley, Lancashire.
The studio combines development for professionals, along side supporting community projects to help children get into music. All carried out using the latest in industry standard
technology, superb acoustics for recording, monitoring and rehearsing and
a bespoke setting to help capture your creativity. White Bear first opened it's doors
in 2011 from a small studio in Adlington and have since moved on to a…White Bear Studios is a multi purpose studio situated in Chorley, Lancashire.
The studio combines development for professionals, along side supporting community projects to help children get into music. All carried out using the latest in industry standard
technology, superb acoustics for recording, monitoring and rehearsing and
a bespoke setting to help capture your creativity. White Bear first opened it's doors
in 2011 from a small studio in Adlington and have since moved on to a brand
new purpose built studio in the centre of Chorley. Over this time they have built
up a solid reputation of quality, variety and fair pricing leading them to achieving a
strong reoccurring client base and community following.
Projects
-
AI-Driven Translation Platform Implementation
-
Led the research, evaluation, and implementation of an enterprise AI translation platform for IPAF, a global membership and training organisation requiring multilingual content delivery at scale.
Challenge: IPAF needed to translate extensive training materials and content into 7 core languages, with select materials requiring translation into 23 languages total—a complex, costly, and time-intensive process that was hindering their international growth.
Solution: Conducted…Led the research, evaluation, and implementation of an enterprise AI translation platform for IPAF, a global membership and training organisation requiring multilingual content delivery at scale.
Challenge: IPAF needed to translate extensive training materials and content into 7 core languages, with select materials requiring translation into 23 languages total—a complex, costly, and time-intensive process that was hindering their international growth.
Solution: Conducted comprehensive platform research and selection process to identify an AI-driven translation solution that could meet IPAF's quality standards, language requirements, and scalability needs.
Impact:
• Successfully deployed platform across the entire organisation
• Achieved significant cost reduction in translation expenses
• Dramatically accelerated turnaround times for multilingual content delivery
• Enhanced IPAF's ability to serve international members and deliver training materials faster
• Enabled business-wide adoption, creating a scalable foundation for future global expansion
This strategic technology implementation transformed IPAF's multilingual content operations, directly supporting their mission to serve a global membership base with speed and efficiency. -
VOIP transition Horizon Gamma to 8x8 -UCass / XCaaS
-
Multi site migration and implementation of a contact centre
-
8x8 VOIP Telephone System Upgrade into GM Group
-
Seamless upgrade of the legacy telephone systems to a single integrated cloud VOIP solution for 300 staff across the GM Group of companies. The full solution included: IP based desk phone, soft phone and app based phone system with individual video conferencing facility for every user. This was pivotal in the disaster recovery plan that was executed under Covid-19.
-
HR System Implementation
-
Implemented a fully cloud based HR system to deal with a rapidly growing workforce, this replaced a manual set of HR process's and reporting, this increased efficiencies in the department, automated reporting. A full dashboard suite was developed to utilise data in the business and converted tasks that previously took 3 day into live reports.
-
Information Governance : GDPR Compliance with ISO27001 alignment
-
University Information Governance Programme, developing the programme plan with senior stakeholders and setting out the strategy and objectives to steer the University towards compliance through a series of policies, procedures, legal frameworks and technology solutions.
-
EOrigen’s INPIN Platform Investment
-
Technical and Operational Lead on eOrigen’s INPIN platform development
-
Launched an E-Commerce business from scratch to international success
-
As an investor in the motor sector, I used my IT skills to launch a high street retail store into an international e-commerce success from scratch.
This included negotiating with key suppliers and working with a number of technology partners to rapidly grow an e-commerce channel from zero to 300,000 products into an international, multi language, multi currency online sales business with a variety of shipping solutions from multiple marketplaces.
This was achieved by adopting a…As an investor in the motor sector, I used my IT skills to launch a high street retail store into an international e-commerce success from scratch.
This included negotiating with key suppliers and working with a number of technology partners to rapidly grow an e-commerce channel from zero to 300,000 products into an international, multi language, multi currency online sales business with a variety of shipping solutions from multiple marketplaces.
This was achieved by adopting a bulk upload strategy and working with suppliers to obtain raw data and script the automated build of the data structure.
The depth and breath of range enabled us to negotiate privileged key supplier status for motorcycle parts and accessories on the Halfords.com marketplace. -
Browsium Jumpstart
-
To remediate older IE applications to work with modern browsers using the Browsium ION product
Languages
-
English
Native or bilingual proficiency
Organizations
-
Virtual Non Exec Directors
Member
- Present -
AIM (Association of Independent Music)
Member
- Present
Recommendations received
30 people have recommended Ashle
Join now to viewExplore more posts
Explore collaborative articles
We’re unlocking community knowledge in a new way. Experts add insights directly into each article, started with the help of AI.
Explore More