ELLA FORUMS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Board Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
Abbi has been running her own coaching business for the last 6 years, and prior to that she spent 15 years at Cadbury and Diageo in commercial and then leadership roles. Like a labrador, she loves people, so sometimes it's a bit weird she works for herself. Coaching has been a revelation - to finally have a word for the thing she loves doing - making space and partnering with others to learn. She now works with individuals, teams and organisations of all shapes and sizes, although the scrappy challenger ones who want to change the world are her favourite. Hopefully all that corporate experience paid off - she now knows how to avoid the bs traps while still navigating the system. She brings curiosity, energy and a sense of playfulness to her work, but she's not afraid to go wherever is needed. Outside of work she has a husband with an annoyingly keen commitment to cycling (which he considers a partner activity), a wise and motivated 18 year old stepdaughter and a bonkers 5 year old who loves art, rainbows and princesses. Abbi is also in the final throes of an MSc in Coaching & Behavioural Change, so she knows what it's like to feel intimidated by learning. Her research will be finished in summer 2024 and she plans to celebrate by lying down.
Andrew built his family Food Import business to revenues of $100 mln p.a. and is one of the global industry leaders on a United Nations project for more nutritious and sustainable foods. Andrew now spends most of his time as a Social Action activist with Citizens UK and coach/mentor to charities and social enterprises through his extended network & Ella Forums.
Danny was CEO of Ella Forums from 2019 to October 2023 when he became Chair of the Board. Prior to taking on the role of CEO, he was on Ella's leadership team and co-chair of one of Ella's forums. In his corporate life, his career was mostly in HR and for a short time in Marketing. His last role was at Panasonic where he worked for 21 years where he had a number of positions including becoming HR Director for Panasonic Europe and for 7 years Global Head of Talent.
Since leaving Panasonic in 2013 Danny has co-authored two books on Talent Management, became an accredited executive coach and a part-time senior lecturer on leadership at Middlesex Business School.
Job Titles:
- Chairman - West Midlands Forum
David has spent over 25 years as a leader within the global software industry, leading large cross-national, cross-cultural teams, with a focus on creating the right culture and psychological safety needed for the team to flourish. Always an active mentor, David began his journey as a coach some five years ago, and recently left full-time employment to focus on his coaching practice, working with individuals to create that self-awareness, unlock those insights and identify the concrete steps that will truly lead to transformative behavioural change whether in a leadership, professional or personal capacity. He is ACC accredited and working towards completing a Masters in Coaching for Behavioural Change later in 2024.
Job Titles:
- Board Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Chairman - North East Forum
David has worked in leadership roles in the voluntary sector for over 20 years, with his last two roles being CEO of local charities. He has recently set up a new recruitment business, Jobs with Purpose, supporting non-profit organisations to source people who connect with their values. His background cuts across the charity, public and private sectors and he brings with him senior management experience in the fields of youth, learning disability, mental health, employment support, corporate social responsibility and local regeneration. He has also held posts in private sector recruitment and sports retail buying. David takes a real interest in the community and voluntary sector, especially in the North East and has held trusteeships with regional voluntary sector infrastructure organisation Voluntary Organisations Network North East (VONNE) and Healthwatch North Tyneside. He is a Clore Social Leadership fellow, completed the Common Purpose North East Meridian leadership programme and has been involved with Pilotlight, both as a leader of a charity benefitting from the programme and as part of a team supporting a charity. David has chaired the Ella Forums North East forum since January 2021 and from October 2022 he will join ella Forums as a Director. He has a degree in Management and Masters in Psychology.
Job Titles:
- Board Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Member of the Board of Directors
Julie is passionate about helping individuals and organisations to thrive, and has spent over 25 years working in Leadership Development. She joined Ella Forums as chair of the Southern Forum in March 2020 and was appointed to the position of Chief Membership and Development Officer in August 2021. Julie became CEO of Ella Forums in October 2023.
Julie has extensive experience of Leadership Development and Executive Coaching and uses a strengths-based approach in her work, underpinned with the latest research in neuroscience. She has worked with a diverse range of private and public sector organisations including Pharmaceutical, retail, engineering and construction businesses as well as the NHS, housing associations and large charities. Julie is a Chartered Member of the CIPD, holds post-graduate diplomas in HR and in Executive Coaching and Leadership Mentoring, and is a Master Practitioner in NLP as well as a qualified user of a wide range of counselling techniques.
Prior to setting up her own business in 1995 Julie was an HR Director in a blue-chip global business and spent 11 years working as an HR professional in the public transport, engineering and FMCG sectors.
Job Titles:
- Board Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
Matt has scars and stripes from many years of corporate life and from being an MD and CEO. Matt started out as an Electronics graduate, as he is intensely curious and designed the first TV surround sounded speakers in his first role after graduating.
Matt's experience stretches across many markets and industries including including Automotive, Aerospace, Industrial, Lighting then moving into Leadership Coaching and Development. His career started in Engineering, quickly moving into international sales and finally business leadership, studying for a Warwick MBA along the way.
More recently Matt's curiosity moved to how the mind works, as he puts it "now one gave us a user guide, for the post powerful piece of kit we have - our minds" Matt is an author of "Nuclear Powered Resilience" and now coaches, teaches and runs workshops on very practical resilience techniques and every now and again goes back to his innovation and problems solving routes.
Matt also enjoys helping businesses understand their company culture better and how to change it and keep it aligned. Matt is also a certified Emergenetics associate, able to help others understand themselves more.
Matt enjoys running, walking along the South Coast and spending time with his family.
Job Titles:
- Chairman - Central / North West Forum
This session will be facilitated by the Chair of the forum - Niamh Thorpe, who is an experienced executive coach and has many years of management and leadership experience.
Job Titles:
- Chairman - Southern Forum
This forum is chaired and facilitated by Sarah Law. Sarah has an extensive and proven experience of organisational and leadership development plus expertise in coaching and team development. Feel free to contact Sarah on 07831 202730 for further details of the Southern Forum.
You can be assured of a warm welcome from Sarah and the members of the Southern Forum. They have lively debates on a genuinely diverse range of topics, and they take the time to get to know each other as they find that this makes the forum stronger. Sarah facilitates and also participates in the discussions which focus on issues and challenges faced by the members. This can cover a wide range of issues and they also share the learning from the monthly speaker sessions.