ActionCOACH Ashley Thomson Received Accolades at the 2009 Asia Pacific Conference

Gold Coast, Australia, February 26, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Ashley Thomson was awarded the “Associate Coach of the Year” award at the recently held 2009 Asia Pacific Conference hosted by ActionCOACH in Australia.

The company honored the “best of best” in the world of business coaching at the Awards Dinner held on February 11th. This regional conference was held at the Gold Coast International Hotel in Queensland’s magnificent Gold Coast - Australia’s premier holiday destination.

ActionCOACH founder and CEO Brad Sugars presented this award to Thomson.

“Based on his performance, Ashley has been able to maintain a spot in the top 1% of Business Coaches around the world,” Sugars said. “He has been setting a great example for his counterparts – all over the world - for many years now.”

The finalists for this category included Ian Lane, Mark Blume, Wayne Gillan, Jeremy Hutchings, Ali Minbashian and Gendro Salim.

Thomson believes that it is in economic times like these that people who are truly focused on planning for the future - build their businesses and prosper, while others fall by the “way-side.”

“It was fantastic to receive the award at the regional conference,” Thomson said. “In every market, there are opportunities - if you're looking for them - and during tough economic times like these, it becomes even more crucial to proactively look for those opportunities.”

Thomson has been developing his business and marketing plans for 2009 based upon the current economic downturn – where he will be able to capitalize on the opportunities that are present.

“In 2009, I am looking to eclipse the business results I achieved in 2008,” he said. “Working with my clients, we have been preparing for the kind of business opportunities that are presenting themselves now. With unemployment rising, there are also some really talented people available.”

Six years ago, Thomson achieved Gold Level Master Coach status and is also a Platinum Level Mentor Coach as well as a member of the President's Club.

ActionCOACH is experiencing huge success- even in the middle of current recession - a fact validated by a 21% year-over-year increase in growth recorded this January.

The humble beginnings of ActionCOACH – the world’s leader in business and executive coaching, can be traced back to 1993, when founder and CEO Brad Sugars started developing a series of workshops and seminars from his room in a suburb of Brisbane, Australia to help the owners of small-to-medium sized businesses improve their bottom lines. At this time, business coaching was still in its infancy. Today, it is the second fastest growing industry, behind Information Technology and ActionCOACH enjoys the largest slice of this market.

ActionCOACH is the world’s number one business coaching and executive coaching franchise, with more than 1,000 offices in 26 countries. To learn more, go to actioncoach.com.

###