David Birch

David is a qualified team and executive coach, supervisor, integrative psychotherapist and mediator with over 30 years’ international business experience helping individuals, groups and organisations make a difference to the world. His practice is founded on the understanding that change occurs within and through relationships. He combines expert facilitation skills, psychological insight and creative embodied methods to help his clients explore and address the most challenging issues, however tricky and awkward they may be.

He has extensive healthcare experience gained with Department of Health, NIHR, RCN, Health Foundation, numerous NHS trusts, SHAs, CCGs and a GP practice.

Since 2008, David has been a faculty member on the internationally renowned Ashridge Masters in Executive Coaching programme (both individual and team coaching pathways) and in 2015 was a member of a small team who won the EFMD gold award for their organisation and leadership development work with NIHR. He became an associate of the King’s Fund in 2018.

Tanya Chakravarti

Tanya is a qualified coach, facilitator and assessor who is passionate about leadership development. She has worked with a wide range of clients across all sectors who like to be stretched and challenged to best achieve their leadership goals. Her previous clients include BBC, British Airways, NHS, UCL, Santander via Penna, Cabinet Office, Research Now, CTVC, Home Office, Royal Mail, Camden Council, Matrix Chambers, Macmillan Cancer Support, Diabetes UK, Hardie Grant Publishing, KAYAK, PLSA and private clients in banking, investing, entrepreneurship, journalism and law.

In her former role as BBC HR Director, Tanya delivered strategic HR and business objectives on time and on budget including launching new digital broadcasting channels, devising ground breaking initiatives that increased racial, gender and disability diversity, and co-leading organisational change to introduce a new streamlined HR service for the BBC.

Tanya’s style is warm, empathetic, non-judgemental, insightful and challenging, leading to empowering and productive relationships. Her work gives clients the opportunity to reflect, learn, listen and engage with ideas and strategies, as well as invaluable time to really reflect on how they see themselves as potential, actual and past leaders. Tanya is an excellent coach and facilitator - personable, knowledgeable, non-directive and completely professional.

Tanya’s specialist fields are leading organisational change, group leadership – strategy and values , diversity and inclusion for success, dealing with conflict and hostility, feedback for performance , job transition and promotion, leading and empowering teams, network and stakeholder management, self-confidence and resilience, raising profile, impact and gravitas, work/life balance and care of self, and leadership development.

Vijaya Nath

Vijaya has over 31 years of experience in developing leaders in the private and not-for-profit sector. She is an EMCC accredited executive coach with over 10,000 coaching hours experience, and an experienced board level facilitator and coach.

For the past 21 years she has worked with leaders in health and care in the United Kingdom, Ireland and internationally. She has significant experience in the design and development of innovative leadership programmes and senior organisational development consultancy.

Vijaya was recently the director of leadership development at the Leadership Foundation, and led a team who worked on leadership development and related interventions and projects. She was also previously director of leadership development at The King's Fund, where she established a portfolio of interventions including networks, open programmes and thought leadership in medical/clinical leadership. She has led and continues to design and facilitate a number of international study tours, including Senior Leaders Retreat: Seattle which features learning from health and non-health organisations that are leading-edge in quality innovation and leadership.

Vijaya has published and written a number of papers on leadership development and has influenced thought leadership in the areas of medical engagement, quality improvement in health, equality and diversity, and the importance of advancing women in leadership. She is a visiting professor at Milan's SDA Bocconi School of Management and is a facilitator and chair for Windsor Leadership. Vijaya was appointed as a trustee of Windsor Leadership in 2017 and also served as chair on the Chairs and Facilitators Executive (CAFE).

Isobel Gowan

Isobel is an independent coach and facilitator. She has a very open style and is excellent at motivating people and organisations to excel in what they do. She is a highly skilled leadership coach with substantial experience of developing and changing organisations, as well as the people within them. She brings a range of skills based on extensive experience of the NHS, having worked in it for almost 20 years, latterly as chief executive of a large acute and community Trust, before running her own business for 18 years. Most recently she was director for leadership and governance at GE Healthcare and is now focussing on coaching and OD work. She is also a set adviser for the NHS Bevan Programme.

She continues to work with a variety of clients: clinicians, executives and managers. She has worked with a number of NHS boards and with top teams to develop their effectiveness. She is also coaching senior GPs, and NHS and third sector directors. Her work focuses on the leadership challenges faced by clients and how they operate in a complex political setting. She is used to working with clients in organisations where change is the norm and where they are often working under intense public and political scrutiny. Her vision of coaching is that it is a powerful enabler: supporting leaders to do their best, to be self-confident and self-aware and to be resilient in tough environments.

Isobel has an MSc in Organisational Behaviour where she focused on culture change in organisations and on the leadership styles of women. She is trained in 16PF, MBTI and Nancy Kline’s Thinking Environment. Isobel also brings substantial experience of the voluntary sector as a chair, a trustee and providing support - for example she has a long-standing relationship with War Child supporting the CEO and SMT.

Isobel is driven by a keen sense of fairness and is motivated particularly to work with clients who are grappling with organisational dynamics, organisational politics and their own self-confidence.

Dr. Nicholas Bradbury

Nicholas was head of system leadership at the NHS Leadership Academy and has specialised in whole systems working and leadership development for several decades. He was on the faculty of NHS Top Leaders since its inception in 2010, and was a Senior Fellow of the King’s Fund from 2002 – 2013 where he directed a range of programmes for doctors, managers, clinicians and community leaders including the Top Manager Programme and Leadership for Senior Managers. 

Nicholas has been commissioned for bespoke work with the South London and Maudsley NHS FT, Lancashire Care NHS FT, NHS Health Education Yorkshire and the Humber, Wincanton Health Centre, The Clapham & Larkhall Schools Collaborative, Exeter Leadership Consultancy, The Gibraltar Health Authority, Coastal West Sussex CCG, Willan Hospice and Salford Royal NHS FT. In 2013/4 he co-directed a major systems programme over the best part of a year, a leadership programme in its own right and to enable better care pathways for elderly people with frailty across Southampton and West Hampshire.

He has long and wide experience in the design and delivery of development interventions for hospitals such as The Royal Free, UCLH, Great Ormond Street, Oxford University Hospitals NHS FT, Salford Royal NHS FT, Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust and health care organisations such as the Irish HSE, South Central SHA, Macmillan, and the Naomi Children’s Hospice. He has MA degrees from Oxford and Birmingham and a Cardiff PhD. He is a trained executive coach and mentor and facilitates teams and conferences. He has studied in London, Paris, Geneva and New York and taught at Southampton and Bristol Universities.

Nicholas has made over 130 BBC broadcasts and written a book about the plight of Britain’s inner cities and, recently published, a book to bring an untranslated French philosopher to the attention of English speaking theologians. 

Nichola Jacob

Nichola is a highly experienced consultant who works alongside individuals to support them in their development as leaders in the context of their current and future work environments. She has over 30 years of experience working in a number of business contexts and cultures, bringing with her some different perspectives as well as experience of leading her own teams. She has a breadth and depth of experience, particularly in the areas of one-to-one coaching and senior team development, as well as the facilitation and design of many different interventions. With a business background in the IBA, Logica, Coopers & Lybrand and PwC, Nichola knows what organisations are like and appreciates their challenges, frustrations and opportunities.

She has worked across both the public and private sectors including PwC, EY, HSBC, Linklaters, Santander, Astellas, Merck, AT Kearney, Charles Taylor, Energy UK, and Arup. She is also a faculty member of the NHS Leadership Academy and has worked with a range of NHS organisations over the last 16 years, including both clinicians and non-clinicians across acute, community and primary care services.

Nichola works closely with her clients to build a real understanding of their needs and the context within which they operate, helping her clients to develop outcomes that really work. She is known for creating environments, which enable individuals to think both differently and creatively about the leadership choices they have.

Nichola holds a strong belief in the value of working with people’s strengths as well as understanding what might be getting in the way of working with them. Her style is characterised by a warm, relaxed manner and a collaborative, pragmatic and realistic approach to supporting her clients. She adds challenge and a different perspective to situations, enabling individuals to discover the different possibilities and choices they have to move forward, whilst also questioning their assumptions around how things currently work.

Vicki Abson

Vicki is an experienced leadership and organisation development specialist. She has a successful track record over 25 years of developing board leaders and clinical leaders in the NHS, senior executives and leadership teams in corporate organisations and facilitating system change and business transformation.

Vicki draws on her diverse background, varied experience working in large complex organisations, and breadth of professional training and education to create stimulating and innovative leadership development programmes. She challenges and motivates senior managers and teams to be high performing, and is passionate about helping clients achieve better personal and organisation success. She also has an interest coaching high potential leaders to achieve their goals and career ambitions.

Vicki’s previous roles include director of organisation development in Rolls-Royce, senior leadership roles in Siemens, the NHS, hospitality industry and local government, and her early career was as a psychologist in universities. She was also a non-executive board member for the Tyne & Wear Learning and Skills Council, giving her personal experience of board leadership and an understanding of the challenges of leading change in complex systems. Vicki is a chartered psychologist and associate fellow of the British Psychological Society, a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, and she holds an MBA degree. She is also an accredited coach supervisor with the Association for Professional Executive Coaching and Supervision (APECS), and is on the executive coaching register for the NHS North West Leadership Academy and for Civil Service Learning.

Vicki is passionate about developing leaders ‘to be the best they can be’. She believes their leadership sets the tone and climate of the organisation and how they engage with staff enables them in turn to give of their best

Mrs Kate Burnett

A medical doctor and coach, Kate combines her 25 years of diverse experience, expertise and commitment in working to release the potential of individuals and systems. A certified executive performance, leadership, organisational and relationship coach, Kate leads workforce redesign and organisational performance for stakeholders, including international charities, the National Health Service, family run businesses and many universities. She is well recognised in the UK’s National Health Service, where she has advanced care and compassion that is felt and expressed across healthcare systems, in turn driving the organisations efficiencies. She has been commended in the UK’s House of Commons as an ‘inspirational female leader in health and social care’.

She is a graduate of medicine from St Andrews/ Manchester University, has a master’s degree in medical education, and is a longstanding leader of healthcare improvement fellow with the NHS Advancing Quality Alliance (AQuA). Kate has been awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) for her achievements in cultural change and leading with humanity within the UK’s NHS.

Committed, courageous and reliable, Kate’s background in relationship coaching gives her the insights to explore group dynamics, diversity, and the complex social processes of collaboration. She demonstrates the love, care and compassion that she develops in others.

Dr. Ian Phillips

As an educator, coach and consultant, Ian has substantive senior strategic leadership and organisational learning and development expertise of more than 25 years. It is this diverse professional background that Ian brings to his successful and high impact consultancy and facilitation for staff at all levels in public, private and third sector organisations in the UK and internationally.

Ian has partnered learning and development teams to design and deliver innovative development interventions and offer ‘thought leadership’ in leadership development, culture change, executive coaching, mentoring, action learning and equality, diversity and inclusion as integral to contributing to business excellence. Ian’s current consultancies include work with Civil Service Learning, KPMG, House of Commons, NHS Leadership Academy, Skills for Care, King’s College (University of London) and Royal College of Holloway (University of London).

Ian has a PhD in Action Research and Management Studies (Bath University UK), is a certified management consultant (CMC) of the Institute of Consulting and a member of ODN (Europe). He has a high reputation and expertise for employing participatory approaches to development solutions, utilising living theory, appreciative inquiry, action learning and empowerment methodology.

Ian helps individuals, teams, organisations and communities to grow capacity to co-create environments that celebrate the human edge, the fullest community and the uniqueness of each and everyone. He is an inspiring and unique leader, who is creative, attentive, has a great sense of humour and positive outlook on life. He says his purpose is to do good, educate and be a catalyst for change.

James Butcher

James is an experienced coach and facilitator who has worked with leaders and leadership teams in organisations across the NHS, the Civil Service, Local Government, and the private sector. He is a faculty member of the NHS Leadership Academy, and part of the team providing an on-call resilience and wellbeing coaching service for NHS primary care staff. 

James runs development programmes on consulting skills, leadership, change management, personal impact, and resilience, and his work has taken him to Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. He is part of a team running an ILM-accredited coach training programme for GPs, teachers, and other professionals.

In his work with individuals and groups, James draws on positive psychology and appreciative inquiry, helping people learn from their strengths and successes, to do more of what they do well.

James has a Diploma in Management Studies, a Diploma in Counselling, and has completed the Advanced Training in Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy. He has trained in the use of Appreciative Inquiry, and has an MSc in Applied Positive Psychology. He is currently undertaking a Diploma in Coaching Supervision.

As part of his MSc, James researched positive organisational cultures, to identify the conditions that help individuals to perform at their best; he presented his findings at the 2012 Canadian Positive Psychology Conference. He has lectured on the business applications of Appreciative Inquiry at the MSc in Applied Positive Psychology at University of East London.

James has contributed case studies of his work to the leadership book “Positive Psychology at Work: How Positive Leadership and Appreciative Inquiry Create Inspiring Organizations”.  He wrote a chapter on resilience for the manual “How to be a Nurse or Midwife Leader”, and has presented on organisational cultures that support resilience for the Royal College of Emergency Medicine.

Sue Mortlock

Independent leadership development consultant and coach, Sue has extensive experience in the public and private sector in leadership and organisational development. Her last corporate role was Head of Board Development at the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement; achievements include building a cadre of internal accredited coaches and coach supervisors across the NHS and leading the development, consultation and launch of the NHS Leadership Framework.

Sue believes everyone has untapped potential and the capacity to develop further to improve their performance; and is a passionate advocate of delivering demonstrable and sustainable change. In her practice Sue seeks to facilitate individuals, senior teams and boards do this through effective support and challenge. 

Sue draws upon a range of psychological frameworks and theory in her work and believes all change starts with self. She works with clients to deepen their self-awareness; using this insight to identify the shift they need to make to foster better relationships and facilitate change. Her supportive style enables Sue to quickly build trust and rapport with her clients to create a psychologically safe space for learning.

Rita Symons

Rita is a credible coach, mentor and leadership development specialist, combining several years of practice in coaching and leadership development, with 22 years’ experience in the health service. She has extensive knowledge of a range of sectors, working with a variety of clients from the MoD to global companies. She believes strongly in taking an asset approach to coaching, mentoring and leadership development, empowering individuals to gain systemic insight and take control of their situations. She works with individuals at all levels, including several CEO and business owners. She has an excellent range of tools and is creative in her style. She is also an accredited coach supervisor.

David Jones

David is an organisation development consultant and a coach with a special interest in supporting and unlocking potential in people who care for others, in health and the wider care system. He is part of Kaleidoscope, social enterprise consultancy which brings people together to improve health and care. He is also part of the leadership group of the Perinatal Culture and Leadership Development team, part of NHS England Maternity and Neonatal Programme. Previously he led the delivery of Schwartz Rounds, a reflective practice for colleagues in health and care, across the UK and Ireland.

David has 25 years’ experience in the health voluntary sector, supporting staff and service users to improve care. At Diabetes UK, David led a range of health improvement work – working closely with senior clinicians (and people living with diabetes) in programmes to improve diabetes care, including inpatient and psychology services, across the UK.

The other major focus of David work has been developing people to lead change in complex systems. He co-led the award-winning Diabetes UK Clinical Champions programme, building the capacity of senior clinicians in diabetes to lead improvement and shift cultures of care. He also led the development a range of programmes to develop activist leaders at all levels of NHS care systems, from aspiring leaders to national system-level clinical leads.

David trained in people and organisation development at Roffey Park focussing on leadership development in healthcare. He is particularly interested in enabling people to navigate complexity, building compassion through human connection and encouraging self-care in those that care for others.

Dr. Eden Charles

Eden has an established track record as a consultant to a variety of organisations for over 35 years. He is recognised as somebody who has a passion for success and as an innovative, challenging thinker whose warm personal style enables him to work alongside, support, and challenge his clients through the difficult issues they face. He is highly regarded as a coach and consultant to senior leaders in local, national, and multi-national organisations.

His work takes him all around the world. His clients include leading organisations from nearly every sector of society including the NHS, the armed forces, NGO’s, local government, the police force, financial institutions, the oil industry, academic and educational institutions. His work in national and local government includes leading a culture change initiative at number 10 Downing Street at a critical moment in British political life.

Eden has delivered presentations and programmes for organisations throughout the world that have challenged many of the dominant assumptions of culture change initiatives. His work has had significant impact upon the lives, performance and attainment of the individuals and groups and organisations he has worked with. He is recognised as being somebody who is making a distinctive contribution in the whole area of strategies for success for people concerned with valuing and liberating the energies, talents, and productivity of the entire (actual and potential) workforce.

Eden is an alumnus of the University of Bath’s Centre for Action Research in Professional Practice from which he gained his PhD. He draws upon action research and associated methodologies in his professional practice. This academic footing is allied with years of practical management and leadership development experience. Eden’s research interest includes transformational change and its relationship with embodied notions of leadership. He is fascinated by the role of diversity and equality in international relations and the importance it has for the future direction of organisations, communities, societies, and international relationships between countries.

His work with the NHS includes designing and facilitating Leadership Development programmes, coaching leaders, and facilitating Board Development events including board coaching. He was a founding member of the design and delivery team for the NHS Top Leaders programme and has extensively facilitated and contributed to a variety of senior programmes at the NHS Leadership Academy. These have included the Aspiring Chief Executives Programme, the InterSect System Leaders Programme, the Directors, and the Nye Bevan Programmes. Eden has also led on the design and facilitation of the Academy’s positive action programmes. These include the Ready Now and the Stepping Up programmes.