Meet Barrie

For over 25 years Barrie Smale has been involved in the design & delivery of a wide variety of accredited and non-accredited development programmes to a diverse range of clients across different sectors, both in the UK and overseas.

Barrie originally trained as a PE teacher and worked in secondary schools in Somerset and Cambridgeshire. In 1990 his career took a new direction into managing a sports and community centre in Wiltshire and at the same time undertaking a master’s degree in management and leadership. Going self-employed in 1996 was the first step into training and consultancy, including delivering a national project for GP exercise referral, managing the Healthy Leisure Award across the UK and the beginning of a long and successful relationship with the Chartered Management Institute and their qualification programmes.

In 2002 Clare Smale also left her teaching career and they have been running their business together successfully for over 20 years!

Still a Director of inspired2learn, Barrie is now semi-retired. Having taken a step back from day-to-day operational duties, he still supports Clare and the team with business development and the strategic direction of inspiredl2earn. When he’s not immersed in his favourite spreadsheets, you’ll find him tending his allotment or out in the glorious Wiltshire countryside with Nellie.

Clare and Barrie spend their time walking with Nell and both are keen cyclists. Barrie’s love of rugby and cricket takes him to various sporting events at home and abroad, where he wistfully re-lives his playing days in the company of good friends. Clare and Barrie have two grown-up daughters (both nurses) who are happily settled nearby in Bristol and Cardiff. 

We hope you enjoy the photos below, showing some of Barrie’s career highlights and hobbies, including a spot on the breakfast TV sofa in Armenia in 2019!