Biography

After graduating from high school in the United States, Piero travelled to the West Indies to work on charter yachts for a year before returning to London, where he studied Sound Design and Technical Theatre.

He then spent a number of years working in the music industry and backstage in theatres, before moving out of the wings and into the spotlight. Three further years were spent at drama school before beginning a glittering career playing drug couriers, insurance salesmen and transvestites, as well as working as a promising voiceover artist.

Despite being both employable and competent as a performer, his career as an actor was short-lived. In 1995, he had a life-changing moment at the hands of a neurologist who delivered a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis in less than two minutes.

Years of drifting, lack of direction and indolence were focused in an abrupt epiphany. Realising that he had learnt the skills of an actor but had neither the will nor the talent of one, Island 41 was founded with the objective of using actors' techniques in a variety of settings. He started helping doctors with their bedside manner, using the premise that instinct and intelligence are not always good bedfellows. Training salespeople in presentation skills was also a natural fit, and with this foundation in place, he began building his portfolio and defining his inimitable style over the ensuing years. He now works as a lecturer, trainer, facilitator, consultant and coach in the business, educational and voluntary sectors. He conceives, designs and delivers his work throughout Europe and beyond, and has NCDT certificates in theatrical stage management and acting, is a certified practitioner for MBTI®, Belbin®, SDI® and NLP, and successfully completed an internationally recognised course in Transactional Analysis.

Piero believes that personal effectiveness is linked to the ability and willingness to build, maintain and continually develop healthy and dynamic interpersonal relationships, and that communication should be clear, direct, simple and unambiguous. A dedicated champion of experiential learning, he is a natural teacher; invariably he finds the vocabulary of his audience, and his style is lively, engaging and involving.