Our Collaborators - International Swimming Academy

" If it can be done, we can do it"

We are a couple of dreamers and doers who see the world through different lens. We are known in the swimming industry for challenging the norms, always respecting our students as individuals and never abandoning the principles of safety.

Using our experience and a hands-on approach, we have developed our own swimming programme and swimming awards system. Our passion to teach children to be safe in the water has led us to teaching others the “ISA way”. This is where our ISA Qualified instructor swimming programmes originated. Parallel to our work in the water, work behind the scenes is needed.

Since the foundation of our swimming academy in 2014, we have researched and pushed to develop our customer service, administration and booking systems.

Our vision

Fun

Authenticity

Alignment

Who we are out of the water

Miguel

Miguel loves pushing boundaries to strive for better. He pays great attention to detail. He is creative, a daydreamer, a passionate rock singer and guitar student with a very special sensitivity. He’s an incredible storyteller which he has combined with a good eye for video footage, music and brilliant editing skills to make the videos that you have seen throughout this website. He has polished the entire website to make it look nice. He is also in charge of making the numbers right for the business!

Silvia

Silvia is the thoughtful, but artistic heart. She strives to bring a sense of authenticity in everything she does. She likes connecting with people on a more personal level. Her critical and academic eye helps to understand areas for improvement. Her creativity has helped her to design the website, handpick the right images and choose the other artwork, such as the swimmer’s awards. She looks after the social media and the marketing.

Making meaningful connections

Yes! We have done all of these things based on our own experience, but it is true that we couldn’t make it without a few more generous people’s support in London and in our home town, Villarrobledo, Albacete, Spain (where we run our Spain Summer Intensive course).

We would like to give special attention to Xavi Saporta, Elena Bigini, Raquel Collado, Ines Pineda, Suhaila Tucker, Denise Jones, Laura Smith, Keith Smith, Yaiza Bolea, Julio Gallego, Adria Blanco, Zuheir Alghafiir, Irma Severa, Weronika Orzelek, Jessica Nash, Eric Ho, … thank you to all of you to help us to grow and learn from this experience. And to all the swimming pool operators who have given, and continue to give us the opportunity to use their facilities.

A huge thank you to our families and the families in London and Spain who have trusted us from the beginning.

A few professionals we recommend

Ilaria Vallone

Author and Illustrator

She was Silvia’s flatmate at university in Italy back in 2003. She is a children’s illustrator and writer. She designed the illustrations for our swimming levels and stages used on this website and on our swimming awards. Ilaria has two degrees; one in jurisprudence and one in fashion and costume design. She has written five books and illustrated others. She loves writing enchanted adventures. She claims the wealth of humanity lies in the power of their imagination, which is fundamental in order to create an ever better world. You can contact Ilaria here:

Alex Calinov

Web Designer

He is the founder and owner of Brilliant Digital. With his background in Digital Marketing, Alex is passionate about helping local business owners get more out of their websites. His talent will help you achieve a stunning end product; a highly-optimised, bespoke website that engages visitors and effortlessly communicates your story. Alex is super professional and extremely knowledgeable. He has always supported our technological issues behind the scenes with outstanding professionalism. You can contact Brilliant Digital here:

Heather Orihuela

Administrative and Customer Service Consultant/ Business Support

Heather met Miguel at his first job in London; he was working as a lifeguard in the well-known gym, Virgin Active. Heather is intuitive, empathetic and loves to connect with people. She is a mother of two children who loves gymnastics and reading. Her vast range of skills have helped us in various areas across our business. She loves organising and understanding the processes of everything. This is why she has managed different projects for us, from developing our health and safety plans to developing customer service training. She has co-written the copy for this website alongside Jessica Nash and her critical eye helped us to polish the finishing touches. She has the ability to put our thoughts and ideas into the right words. You can contact Heather here:

Byliana Georgieva

Business Consultant, Keynote Speaker and Coach

Bilyana has a great critical eye useful for spotting unnecessary expenses and time consuming activities for any business. With a just a little bit of time learning about your business model, she will present you with the latest and best technology options and business model innovations to improve your business. She has helped us to understand our management tactics and improved our workflow processes to enhance our business performance. You can contact Bilyana on:

Yasmine Hassan

Our first contact with Yasmine was as a mother of one of our swimmers, Isa. She is a mother of three children and a fan of having colourful hair. Her love and enthusiasm for our programme led us to ask her to join our team as a bookings advisor. She is generous, a great communicator and has an amazing passion for all that she decides to do. She has a degree in fashion design and is one of the most caring people you could come across. You can contact Yasmine here:

Sharif Akbik

Management

Sharif has mainly been in charge of the accounting of our company, alongside Zuheir Alghafiir. He loves getting everything organised and get great results, showing the maximum level of professionalism. Sharif has over 10 years sales, catering and conference services experience at managerial level for exclusive hotels in the Middle East and the Caribbean. That was enough reason for us to ask him to help us out and have him manage our small office team in more challenging times! Upon every business strategy, his human side helps him to connect with people in a meaningful way.