About Me
Alex Mackrell
Hi there, I’m Alex Mackrell, an accredited leadership trainer and coach based in Aberdeen. Since an early age I have been fascinated by psychology, cultural differences and the many weird and wonderful things our brains do. Born in London, I grew up in Pakistan, Barbados and the exotic UK town of Haywards Heath, before spending 14 years living and working in China. While in China, I worked various marketing and communications roles in the pharmaceutical, F&B, logistics, consulting, manufacturing and higher education industries and started a few businesses here and there. While this diverse experience was extremely rewarding, I always found myself drawn back to teaching and ended up specialising in soft skills and cross-cultural communications training.
As a trainer, many of my values (e.g. Creativity, Community, Fun and Kindness) are reflected in the active learning experiences I create, the energy I bring to my workshops, and the sense of calm and caring I encourage in my 1-1 sessions. We learn by sharing with others, connecting new knowledge to past experiences, building things, moving around and having fun. I am passionate about ensuring that training has a long-term impact on a client and their organisation and that my workshops serve as more than just a few hours of edutainment. This passion led me to Resilient Leaders Elements in 2025, a framework and system that provides demonstrable positive impact on both leadership behaviours and stress management.
As much of my current work relates to stress - My current interests/hobbies include reading sci-fi and fantasy, experiments in the kitchen (though I am no longer allowed to cook or ferment anything that could potentially explode… again) and everything Japanese. Exercise would have to be my favourite way to destress, though I have had to battle the occasional seagull during long walks on the beach in Aberdeen!