Meet The Team
Key Personnel
Rich Ambler
Founder and Managing Director of Cactus US
A born traveller and explorer of different countries and cultures, Rich is passionate about making a difference. He has visited over 50 countries including China, Tibet, Mexico, Colombia and Spain, and has extensive business and teaching experience.
While completing his degree in Business and Hospitality Management, Rich co-founded student travel company Victoria Real. The company went on to become a leading UK digital media specialist, devising campaigns such as Channel 4’s interactive Big Brother website.
After graduating, Rich studied for his TESOL qualification and taught English in Chile and Columbia for two years, learning Spanish along the way. While in Columbia he also opened a European-style cafe, offering travelers a weekly fix of the best British Sunday newspapers.
In 1998, Rich founded Cactus and has recently moved to New York to drive the company’s US operation. He oversees the running of all aspects of the company, and particularly the growth of corporate training and evening courses in the US.
Rich lists ‘making it happen’ among his hobbies and of course, travel. When not guiding Cactus, he loves all forms of sport and diving in the islands of the Bahamas.
Ernesto Forner
Head of Corporate Language Training
Ernesto graduated from Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona in Advertising and Public Relations and worked as a Corporate Account Executive for Telefónica in Barcelona between 1999 and 2003 before becoming a business skills and business English trainer in Germany. He worked as Training Manager for Marriott’s Worldwide Call Centre in London between 2004 and 2008 and started providing language training for Cactus as a Spanish teacher after gaining certification to teach Spanish to adults. He continued his academic education and graduated from Institute of Education, University of London, in Post-Graduate Certificate in Education in 2010.
Since joining Cactus headquarters in 2010, Ernesto has worked with teachers, the Cactus team, and a wide range of organisations and individuals to make sure the courses delivered by Cactus are of a consistently high quality. He looks closely at key course set-up factors such training needs, existing language levels, and previous language experience, and then works with clients and the relevant Cactus personnel (logistics, academic) to create appropriate training programmes. Ernesto is responsible for managing key corporate accounts and for the supervision of the management of other corporate and individual accounts.
Estelliane Kermagoret
Operations Manager
After her Khâgne, Estelliane graduated from ESCEM with a Sup de Co postgraduate degree and a MA in International Business Analysis from Northampton University. Over the years, she has acquired extensive experience in customer service working for big international companies such as Peavey Electronics, Dupont, Yankee Candle and as a sales executive for small and medium businesses helping them to develop their overseas markets by adopting a better cross-cultural literacy. In the last five years, Estelliane has offered web & marketing consultancy, project management and SEO copywriting.
Estelliane has joined the Cactus UK head office as Operations Manager. Her role is to make sure that the best teachers and trainers are allocated to meet the clients’ requirements. She works closely with the Cactus academic team to ensure that the highest quality of training is achieved at all time and that the course logistics operate efficiently.