About Us
Dan Long Associates has a core team and a wide network of Associates who are our professional role-players
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Dan Long MA DLA DirectorRole Play, Skills Practice and Coaching Specialist
Dan is the founding Director of DLA. Over 28 years he has built up an exceptional track record of working with world class organizations to deliver development programmes for national and international clients. Dan has real passion and enthusiasm for this work and uses that energy in the training room to enable participants to truly engage with their learning outcomes.
At the outset of any programme Dan takes the lead in focusing on the client’s needs, their culture and their objectives. He then briefs the DLA team to ensure that they are immersed in the client requirement. Dan regularly receives high satisfaction ratings in feedback from clients and participants who comment that he brings a highly knowledgeable external perspective with an informal style of delivery.
In Real life: Apart from enjoying the fortunate position of living near mountains and beautiful beaches in Ireland, Dan takes pleasure in checking the progress of numerous trees he has grown from seed or cuttings.
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Dave Rowan DLA AssociateCreative Director
Dave provides the creative energy to deliver as our Forum Theatre and Event Specialist. He also takes the lead as designer, writer and Director on video projects for our clients.
Having trained as an actor Dave was soon combining acting roles with work as a Theatre Director and professional Playwright. In 1998 he took these skills into the Corporate Training arena and since then he has designed, scripted and delivered events all over the world. Whether creating an event or a video Dave works with the client to capture their key objectives and learning outcomes and then translates them into dynamic, engaging experiential events.In real life: Dave loves swimming and is a keen Ceroc (Modern Jive) dancer. He is an Associate Director to the annual Cambridge Shakespeare Festival where he has directed over 50 productions. He also finds time (from somewhere) to act as Chairman to the Riverhouse Arts Centre and Gallery.
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Jenny Long MA PGCE DLA AssociatePersonal Impact and Communication Specialist
Communication is at the heart of everything we do at DLA and Jenny brings together all the key elements of effective communication for the benefit of our clients.
Jenny has extensive experience in teaching, actor training, directing and workshop facilitation. She is a firm believer that techniques used by actors are transferrable to the business world and she takes delight in encouraging individuals to realise their full potential as communicators: bringing together the elements of words, voice and body language to maximum effect.
In Real Life: Jenny enjoys hiking in local mountains and forest parks, especially if there is coffee and cake at the end! She is currently rediscovering a love of yoga: To flow or not to flow; that is the question!
Professional Role-Players
DLA currently have a network of 65 professional role-players located across the UK, Ireland and France. Within this number there is a mix of age, ethnicity and skill-sets. They are drawn from the acting profession and from other professional backgrounds. What they all have in common is the ability to be in command of their own behaviours and recognise how to use and portray emotions in the business context of the Course/Event whilst staying focused on the participant’s needs.
- They bring a sense of authenticity and reality to the interaction which enhances the experiential learning experience.
- They have a focus on delivering high quality and immediate feedback.
- All our professional role-players are experienced at facilitating groups to undertake bespoke skills practice work (sometimes called ‘real-play’)
- We use a highly skilled coaching style which both supports and challenges the participants to make the learning experience as personalised as possible.
- Many have additional specific professional and managerial experience and skills from different careers: Accountant; Lawyer; Teacher; Doctor; research Scientist.
- Several of the DLA team have language skills which enables them to deliver bespoke interactions directly with participants in French; German; Norwegian, Irish.
When engaging a new actor DLA looks for a combination and balance of the following:
- actor training and performance experience
- other work/career experience and qualifications
- an interest in others
- flexibility and easy to work with in intense environments