"The success of an intervention depends on the interior condition of the intervener"

Bill O’Brien, quoted in Theory U

Commercial experience at Executive level – either having held senior leadership roles or regularly coaching CEOs and executives in global organizations

Highly experienced professional executive coaches – not simply accredited with the world’s leading coaching professional bodies (ICF, EMCC, APECS, AC) but typically demonstrating coaching mastery in their work. Likely to be systemic eclectic in their approach.

Black belts in psychological safety – each are qualified to use the Fearless Organization Scan (FOS) but more importantly, each embody psychological safety as a way of enabling collective intelligence, empowered action and transformational change

Vertical adult development – typically profiling at postconventional stages of adult development (Individualist, Strategist and Alchemist) hence their ability to facilitate transformational change

Compassionate leadership - as later-stage coaches, each have developed mastery in attuning deeply to others. As such they role model to leaders the heart of compassionate listening in the way that they attend to, understand, empathise and enable others

Commitment to inner/ego development – typically engaged in a regular meditation/ compassion practice as a means of growth, integration and wellbeing. Likely to see therapy and other inner development as a fertile process to explore and integrate one’s shadow.

In a complex world, it takes a collective sharing of power, creativity, and perspectives to become agile and nuanced enough to lead into the uncertain future…. The key lever in a complex system is learning; the key methods are conversation, discovery, and experimentation.” 
  - Jennifer Garvey Berger and Keith Johnston, Simple Habits for Complex Times: Powerful Practices for Leaders (Stanford Business Books)

Mark works with CEOs and leaders to build innovative, high functioning organisations that leave the world better than they found it. He coaches leaders in the practices of compassionate leadership and psychological safety in order to unlock collective intelligence, empowered action and transformational change.

Liz brings 15 years of leadership coaching experience, working with clients including in the NHS, Climate 2025, Tata and Green Alliance, enabling leadership transformation.

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, 10 of which were at Board level. 

Rachel Cashman is the founder and creator of Survive and Thrive, The Fearless Facilitator Method ®, an approach that is uniquely grounded in her experience as an executive and leadership facilitator.

Frances is an Ashridge and APECS Master Coach, Systemic Team Coach, Mediator and Supervisor with 35+ years' professional coaching, consultancy and facilitation experience.

Farah Govani is an executive coach and mindfulness trainer committed to empowering leaders through mindful growth for sustainable impact. She supports organisations to cultivate conscious leaders who create sustainable value, inspire innovation and shape a more compassionate world.

“The only change that will make a difference is the transformation of the human heart”. Otto Scharmer.

Carole is an executive coach, project troubleshooter and author who’s on a mission: to make the human dynamics which get in the way of delivery more visible - so we can do something about them!

Sarah Partridge is a seasoned leadership consultant and coach, dedicated to empowering individuals to navigate the complexities of modern leadership.

Mark McMordie

Founder & CCO

An executive coach, Lindsay offers developmental reflection for leaders, in relation to:

Leadership: Leading through complexity, uncertainty, unpredictability, paradox, change and ambiguity; working relationships; transition; exploring style of leadership; enquiring into immediate and broader systems.

Wellbeing: Facilitating clients to create healthy working lives, achieve balance, manage stress, anxiety, trauma, overwhelm and challenges to health, and build resilience in environments of pressure.

Career development and self-development: Re-energising and refocusing careers; finding meaning at work, and managing career transition points; integrating personal purpose with the business agenda.

Lindsay’s clients often report that they find personal peace, which is central to sustainable change in themselves, their teams and their organisations, particularly by stepping into their leadership authority. Lindsay’s coaching approach is characterised by the importance of the coach-client relationship, compassion, a focus on the here and now, a holistic and systemic perspective, awareness of what may be emerging, and a creative, reflective, experimental attitude. While she uses a wide variety of approaches, she is informed in particular by: Gestalt, vertical development, psychological safety, compassion, neuroscience and the Felt Sense.

Lindsay has been an executive coach since 2003, working with executives and senior managers across sectors including financial services, professional services, engineering, technology, sport, health, government and charities. She originated the Wittenberg Career Coaching Model, and is author of e-book ‘Become the Leader You Are: Self-Leadership through Executive Coaching’. She worked and lived in Luxembourg for 13 years, where she founded, led and developed a human rights pressure group. Her career began in HR, and she was a Director of an executive talent management company.

Liz Hall

Liz brings 15 years of leadership coaching experience, working with clients including in the NHS, Climate 2025, Tata and Green Alliance, enabling leadership transformation.

Liz’s practice is informed by Otto Sharmer’s Theory U, adult development theory, somatic coaching, relational mindfulness, and partnering with Mother Earth as a key stakeholder, amongst others.

A pioneer in applying mindfulness and compassion in coaching, she’s presented widely on mindfulness, compassion and coaching including at events hosted by the EMCC, AC, BACP, and Henley Business School. She’s the author/editor of three books- Mindful coaching (2013), Coaching in times of crisis and transformation (2015), Coach your Team (Penguin Business, 2019), which outlines a mindful compassionate coaching approach for leaders, and Relational Mindfulness for coaches: Enhancing presence, awareness, wisdom, compassion and courageous collaboration, with Dr Emma Donaldson-Feilder (forthcoming, Routledge).

An award-winning journalist, she’s edited Coaching at Work magazine since 2005, and is a key player in shaping the coaching profession, co-founding a multi-stakeholder coaching think tank (the Future of Coaching), Climate Coaching Action Day, and the first professional coaching body roundtable on race equity in coaching.

Liz lives in southern Spain with her family, which includes a menagerie of rescued animals. She loves walking by the seaside or in the mountains, hanging out with friends, dancing, and exploring the local countryside in the family’s campervan.

Certified coach with i-coach academy

(EMCC senior practitioner level)

 Leadership Development Profile

PSI

 Social Presencing Theatre (Theory U)

 Career coaching (Firework) 

Certified mindfulness teacher ( Bangor University & Solterreno) 

Helping people and systems heal and awaken to their true potential and purpose, harnessing learning opportunities, and joy even in challenging times

Frances White

After a successful career in Sales and Marketing leadership, Frances has been supporting people and their development for 35+ years. She has built a successful practice providing leading edge leadership development, culture shifts and business-focused coaching, to Boards, leaders and teams globally. Her training in Psychology, Neuroscience, Vertical Development, Gestalt, Mediation and Masters in Relational Coaching gives her insight into people and behaviours - crucially she applies this whilst focusing on key business issues - supporting change, organisational wellbeing, leadership depth and processes that support people in complex times.

Frances has also designed, delivered and managed hundreds of developmental and learning programmes. A good understanding of adult development principles in action in organisations is vital to unlocking the deeper patterns of how and why people do what they do and how to support sustainable changes. Her very broad training in so many useful models and principles has informed her strategies for designing programmes that are exceptionally flexible, so that diverse people, no matter their level of development or thinking patterns, can readily engage and move forwards.

Frances is a qualified mediator and has developed a particular mediative coaching approach to working with toxic culture and disruptive tensions within silos, teams and departments, which enable individuals and teams to move on to productive and engaged professional relationships. This is increasingly important in a world where tensions and anxieties are compounded by exhaustion, frustration and insecurity, where trust is often fractured. Her approach is designed carefully to restore a sense of balance and productivity.

Qualifications & Professional Development

Honours Degree in Linguistic Science & Psychology

MSc in Executive Coaching and Accredited Ashridge Coach

APECS Accredited Executive Master Coach

Masters in NLP and LDF Authorised

Accredited Supervisor, Systemic Team Coach, Developmental Inquiry Coach and MBTI Step II

Accredited Conflict Mediator in Transformational Mediation

EQi and Neuroscience, Narrative Coaching, Transactional Analysis, Cultural Orientations Framework, Systemic Constellations, Organisational Modelling

Graduate Member of Common Purpose International Leadership

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, 10 of which were at Board level. 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 insight and take control of their situations. She works with individuals at all levels, including several CEOs and business owners. She has an excellent range of tools and is creative in her style, applying a systemic, whole person lens. 

Rita is an accredited PSI Practitioner and has also studied Time to Think, Team Coaching, Coaching for Inclusion and Organisational research, as well as being a Master accredited Coach. She is also an accredited coach supervisor.

Rita has an individualised approach, building trust and psychological safety to allow effective challenge. She is compassionate and adaptive and is experienced in working with complex group dynamics, as well as holding safe space for individuals. She is driven by a deep desire to contribute to social justice and is a founding member of a global coaching group advancing the role of coaching in climate action. She loves walking, gardening and art based activities and has two grown up daughters who make her immensely proud. 

Farah Govani

Coaching Approach

Farah's personal values of spaciousness, freedom, courage, and reflection inform her unique coaching approach:

Spaciousness: Rather than relying on a toolbox packed with personality assessments and leadership matrices, Farah excels at creating space for you to do your best thinking, diving deep to draw out your wisdom and insights.

Freedom: Farah doesn't provide answers or tell you what to do. Her mindfulness practice has shown her that insights arise by turning inwards and exploring within, rather than looking "out there" for solutions.

Courage: Skilled at holding space for difficult emotions, Farah encourages you to bring your full self to coaching, including the parts you may feel are less than brilliant. Her process of deep listening without judgment is transformative.

Reflection: Farah encourages ongoing self-reflection between coaching sessions to strengthen self-awareness and deepen the impact of your work together.

Qualifications and Experience

• Accredited with the ICF and EMCC
• MA (with distinction) in Teaching Mindfulness
• Previous experience in HR and change management at PwC, Goldman Sachs and BlackRock

Client Testimonials

"She carries her sessions with incredible generosity and motivation that make you feel safe, regardless of the challenges. After our session, I was focused and felt an unleashed strength within me." – MA

"Farah has got the skills, empathy, structure and warmth to make me feel comfortable to talk about any issue and she knows how to shape a zone of trust. Thanks to my coaching sessions, I have started to prioritise more time for self-reflection and I have gained additional confidence in facing challenges that come my way." - NF

Jane is an executive and therapeutic coach, supervisor, psychological safety team facilitator, author and regular columnist for Coaching at Work. She has over 22 years of experience coaching individuals from board level leaders through to junior managers.

Jane supports individuals in their professional and personal contexts to understand, nurture, transform and mature their views, qualities and capacities in ways that can lead to inner and outer flourishing.

Her work is informed by adult development theory, relational mindfulness, attachment theory, Otto Scharmer’s Theory U and the self-compassion work of Kristen Neff. She uses an extensively researched and globally established model of vertical development which supports the expansion of her client’s thinking, feeling and sensing capabilities and strengthens their ability to process more complex information.

A growing element of her work is supporting individuals to cultivate whole-self intelligence where the capacities and qualities of the left hemisphere – the abstract, conceptual processes of strategizing, reasoning and rationality and the right hemisphere - the concrete, ambiguous sensory field of relationality, intuition and holistic perception are encouraged to work in concert. Her approach addresses the over-reliance on left hemisphere capacities through mindfulness-based practices and processes that foster present-moment somatic and relational awareness.

One of the frameworks informing Jane’s work is The Inner Development Goals (IDG’s). Aligned with the United Nations 17 sustainable development goals, the IDG’s is a set of inner skills and qualities that shape an individual’s interior condition to drive the change that is needed to create a sustainable world.

Trained / certifications

• MSc in mindfulness-based approaches
• Self-compassion and mindfulness teacher
• Certified Coach with The Coaching Academy
• Diploma in cognitive behavioural approaches to stress management
• Completed foundation years in integrative psychotherapy, psychodynamic counselling and mindfulness-based relational therapeutic practice.
• Harthill Leadership Development Profile
• Fearless Organisation Scan which measures psychological safety in teams
  

Carole Osterweil

Carole is an executive coach, project troubleshooter and author who’s on a mission: to make the human dynamics which get in the way of delivery more visible - so we can do something about them!

Known for bringing an understanding of how the human brain works to the world of business transformation and project management. Carole’s sense of purpose comes from an early career as an international project manager and being the adoptive parent of two youngsters who spent their formative years in the care system. The latter had a profound impact and led to three years training in Arts psychotherapy.

A sought-after speaker, her book, Neuroscience for Project Success: why people behave as they do (Association for Project Management, 2022) reflects her coaching practice and pragmatic, pioneering approach.

Grounded in the notion that we are all walking in fog when faced with the VUCAA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous and anxiety-provoking) environment of the 21st Century workplace, Carole integrates neuroscience, systems thinking, somatics and metaphor into her work. 

An executive coach since 2003, Carole honed her program design and team facilitation skills working as an educator and organisation consultant at Ashridge-Hult business school. She’s supported hundreds of senior executives and leaders from across the globe in changing their behaviour to foster psychological safety and meet the challenge of transforming their organisations. Her current assignments include building the UK Government’s senior change, project, and program management capability at Cranfield University.

Qualifications and Professional Development 

• Executive coach (Ashridge-Hult) and EMCC Senior Practitioner
• MBA (Cranfield)
• MAPM (Member of Association for Project Management)
• Advanced Diploma in Integrative Arts Psychotherapy
• The Neuroscience of Change
• Fearless Organisation Scan
  
  

Sarah Partridge

Sarah is a seasoned leadership consultant and coach, dedicated to empowering individuals to navigate the complexities of modern leadership. With a proven track record in strategic leadership and marketing, Sarah has held senior roles at respected global organisations such as BMW Group and Sony Music Entertainment.

Prior to her consulting career, Sarah served as Head of Strategy & Business Development at BMW Group financial services, where she played a pivotal role in shaping the company's strategic direction and overseeing critical functions like Internal Communications, Innovation, and Change Management. Her earlier career in the music industry at Universal Music, Sony Music, and EMI Records provided her with invaluable experience in marketing, communications, and executive leadership.

Sarah's passion for personal and professional growth is deeply rooted in her own experiences as a mother and woman in leadership. As an experienced Executive Coach and Practitioner of Psychological Safety, she is committed to helping individuals unlock their full potential. Her coaching philosophy emphasises stepping outside of comfort zones, challenging limiting beliefs, and fostering resilience and well-being. Sarah's approach is warm, supportive, and results-oriented, drawing on techniques from acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and strengths-based psychology.

With numerous accreditations, including an ICF Accredited Diploma in Transformational Coaching, Sarah is a trusted advisor and mentor. She is also a licensed practitioner of the Fearless Organization Scan, a Firework Career Coach, and a WRAW (Workplace Resilience & Awareness) facilitator.

When not immersed in her professional pursuits, Sarah enjoys spending quality time with her family, exploring the outdoors, and indulging in her love for music and football.