Our passion for high performance and particular specialisation in Human Factors has been driven by our founders living, working and teaching within the harsh crucible of aviation for the last 35 years. We are proud of our growing team whose approach focuses on resourcefulness and practical solutions within a psychological safe environment. These drive dramatic and positive changes throughout organisations.
Our Beliefs
Our World changes around us - we are here to help you forge ahead and stay ahead driving powerful transformation through simple incremental gains.
Instead of merely functioning, what if your workforce became a team of totally motivated individuals, each doing what they love, and all collaborating towards a fully understood plan?
Success is limitless when you harness human enthusiasm and let optimism grow to provide the motive force driving you towards your exciting and most successful possible future.
Our Golden Rules - Our Mantra...
Take ownership - never assume Use concise universal language Collaborate! Your colleagues are not the enemy Think when you have time to deploy solutions when you don’t Everyone empowered to make the best decisions
Our Team - meet the people whose purpose is seeing your success
Joshua de Maid
Joshua’s career as a pilot flying for two large airlines sparked his early interest in how we perform and behave as human beings. This has been crystallised by a degree that focused on how we use Human Factors for enhancing professional development. As part of this process, Joshua trained as a performance coach and Human Factors Trainer where time spent working with individuals and businesses across various sectors triggered the realisation that Human Factors is the golden key to unlocking success and high performance.
Joshua is passionate about establishing powerful and thought-provoking environments that encourage a commitment in workforces to perform to their greatest strengths.
Steven Britton
At the heart of Ad Astra lies a number of formative experiences that drive powerful beliefs, shaped by Steven’s extensive aviation background and enhanced by his passion for high performance coaching within business and sport. His focus on strengths, solutions and future success, coupled with the belief in the curiosity, resourcefulness and potential of the individual were pivotal to the formation of Ad Astra’s programmes.
The last 25 years as an airline pilot has seen a revolution in how Steven works; airlines had to change to improve safety. They found the answer, with the help of NASA, within their people - dramatic safety and performance improvements have occurred.
Henry Walker
Henry was one of the earliest members of the Ad Astra Human Performance Team and used his experiences to play a key role in the development of Ad Astra’s operating philosophy and product. Henry also flies for one of the UK and Europe’s largest airlines.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, he consulted on a Human Factors training programme for junior doctors within the NHS. This illustrated how useful these processes can be within every human environment and how aviation's hard-earned lessons can easily be utilised in other professions.
Peter Bruce
Human Factors has been the most transformative element in Peter’s 35 year flying career, which has taken him to all corners of the globe. He played an integral part in the implementation of Just Culture processes and psychological safety within the airlines, where the impact on safety and efficiency was almost immediate.
Peter recognises that the techniques are universal and should be applied wherever humans operate or interact with equipment, processes or other people and has applied his knowledge and experiences to the development of Ad Astra’s programmes.
