Guy Otty
Guy Otty co-founded Business Forums International in 1996 after identifying a gap in the market that others had missed: employers needed practical, expert-led training that kept pace with the real world. As Managing Director, he has been the driving force behind BFI’s concepts, marketing, and the instinct for what HR leaders need to know, often before they know they need it. His background is in international financial HR recruitment, with experience across London, the UAE, India, Sri Lanka and the Far East. That global perspective, combined with a genuine obsession with current affairs, gives him an edge in spotting HR trends early and building training that is always a step ahead of the curve. The proof of that instinct is hard to argue with: in 2006, Guy designed and delivered the only employer-focused pandemic planning training in existence. It is still running today. When COVID-19 arrived fourteen years later, BFI’s clients were better prepared than most. Today Guy leads on BFI’s union relations and subscriptions work, building a specialist resource for HR and ER professionals navigating collective bargaining and the Employment Rights Act 2025. When he’s not tracking the next HR trend, he’s walking his Vizsla for miles across the downs or watching every sport ever invented. Simultaneously, if possible.
Elizabeth Smith
Elizabeth’s first word was ‘why’ - and it shows. As Co-founder & Director of Business Forums International, she has spent nearly 30 years obsessively tracking what HR leaders actually need to know, and finding the most effective ways to teach it. She co-founded BFI in 1996 with a conviction that employment law training didn’t have to be dry or generic, it could be creative, interactive, and taught by genuine experts. That conviction still drives everything BFI produces. Her research background is genuinely international: Elizabeth has written and delivered training programmes in Asia, America, the Middle East and Europe, and speaks several languages, a rarity in the UK HR training world that gives BFI’s content a breadth most providers can’t match. She produced the first-ever money laundering compliance conference in the Middle East, and has guided UK employers through IR35, Brexit, COVID-19 furlough legislation, and the Employment Rights Act 2025. Today she writes BFI’s training and conference content, presents its regular HR webinars, and is building BFI’s e-learning suite, a practical, expert-led resource for HR professionals navigating an unusually turbulent legislative moment. When she’s not asking why, she’s painting the faded grandeur of Bonchurch or enjoying the gloriously weird Ventnor Fringe Festival. Based on the Isle of Wight. Working with HR leaders across the UK.
Cath Ouston
Cath Ouston has led in-house training at Business Forums International for eight years, building a reputation for creating bespoke, measurable training solutions that work in the real world, across any budget, any sector, and any brief, however complex or unusual. Her specialism is industrial relations and immigration compliance training for large UK and international organisations, the kind of training that has to land with a boardroom and a shop floor alike. Cath designs programmes that are quantifiably effective: from top-down C-suite training to internal webinars, adaptations of public courses, and fully bespoke e-learning. She sources and briefs the top trainers in each field, bringing together practitioners with extraordinary experience and the credibility to match. What makes her distinctive is a fearless approach to difficult briefs and a consultative instinct that gets to the heart of what a client actually needs. Cath has a profound understanding of both the practical and legal landscapes of immigration and union relations, knowledge built across years of working with multinationals, public sector bodies, and organisations of every size and complexity. Before BFI, Cath spent 15 years in events, working with organisations including Nestlé, Liz Earle, Ventnor Botanic Garden, The Isle of Wight Festival and Bestival. That eclectic background is exactly what makes her good at what she does now: a can-do approach to complexity, and the creativity to find solutions that others don’t think of. She is team beach. She has a campervan, a Vizsla, a small child, and a talent for exhausting all three. Based on the Isle of Wight.
Kate Hitchman
Kate Hitchman is the driving force behind BFI’s marketing, brand, and partnerships, and the person who makes sure the company never loses sight of why it was founded or why it remains the leading name in UK employment law and HR compliance training. As Head of Marketing & Partnerships, Kate leads on sponsorship, collaborative campaigns, and the strategic relationships that give BFI’s training and conferences their reach and reputation. She has a particular talent for putting the right people together, connecting sponsors, speakers, and delegates in ways that consistently exceed expectations and deliver results that go well beyond a transaction. One of Kate’s most significant contributions to BFI has been her embrace of evolving technology, transforming how the team works, how training is delivered, and how BFI presents itself to the world. She ensures branding and values align consistently across every division and every touchpoint, bringing a fresh, modern vision to conferences and programmes that have been running for decades. Her background spans not-for-profit, life sciences, media, and education, a breadth that shows in the range and creativity of her campaigns. Kate is a powerhouse of energy and ideas, and she channels all of it into making BFI better: more efficient, more professional, and more visible to the HR leaders who need what BFI offers. She also makes the team go running, which is either inspiring or unforgivable depending on the weather. Based on the Isle of Wight, where she can be found at Shanklin Arcade or enjoying ice cream on Sandown Pier with her family.
Sam Travis
Ask anyone who has attended, spoken at, or trained with BFI, and Sam Travis’s name will come up. Not because she seeks the spotlight, she doesn’t, but because her presence is felt in every seamlessly run session, every perfectly briefed speaker, and every delegate who leaves wondering how it all looked so effortless. As Head of Customer Experience & Admin, Sam owns the end-to-end delivery of every BFI event and training programme, from a live conference for 150 delegates to an in-house online C-suite session, and everything in between. Her attention to detail is forensic, her ability to anticipate what is needed before it is asked is uncanny, and her professional standards are, simply, world-class. One of Sam’s most valued contributions is her mastery of the technology that underpins modern training delivery. She stays across every platform and tool, even when they drive her mad, so that she can coach BFI’s speakers and trainers to deliver with confidence, polish, and the appearance of complete composure, however complex the setup behind the scenes. The result is a customer experience that trainers, speakers, delegates, and in-house clients return to again and again, not just because of the quality of the content, but because working with BFI simply feels different. That feeling has Sam’s fingerprints all over it. Away from BFI, Sam is a talented rower and her favourite place on the Isle of Wight is exactly where you’d expect: in a boat, on the water.
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