Meet the Team

Charlotte Sweeney

OBE

Charlotte Sweeney, OBE has specialised in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) for over 25 years.  Inspired by her global corporate career in the Financial Services sector, she launched Charlotte Sweeney Associates in 2012.  

As a Chartered Management Consultant, she is a trail blazer in her field and thrives on empowering business leaders and organisations to create inclusive workplaces.  She works, and influences at the C-Suite level in the private sector as well as advised Senior Leaders and Ministers within Governments. In 2014, she authored an independent review for the UK Government Secretary of State Sir Vince Cable on Women on Boards and Executive Search Firms, which shaped the ongoing expectations and requirements of Search Firms. 

She also created the ‘first of its kind’ City of London’s Diversity Programme, The Power of Diversity on behalf of the then Lord Mayor of London Dame Fiona Woolf and was previously the Vice-Chair of the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Panel.  

She has held several Non-Executive Director roles, including 4 years as a Deputy Chair of an NHS Acute Trust with responsibility of over £500m annual spend. 

She has won multiple sector awards and received recognition for her work from academic institutes such as Harvard and Cambridge University, as well as being one of the first to gain Chartered Management Consultant status by the MCA. She is also a Fellow of the CIPD, RSA, CMI and College of St George’s Society of Leadership Fellows based at Windsor Castle. 

She is named as one of HR's Most Influential Thinkers as well as being a member of the Forbes HR Council.  In the 2017 New Year’s Honours, she was awarded an OBE for services to Women and Equalities. 

Charlotte has authored numerous industry reports and is co-author of the best-selling book Inclusive Leadership – the definitive guide to developing and executing an impactful Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, locally and globally’, published by Pearson/The Financial Times, which was shortlisted for the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) Management Book of the Year in 2018.  

She writes regularly for professional publications such as Forbes HR Council.  As well as delivering keynote speeches and chairing conferences internationally, she is regularly invited as an expert contributor for BBC Radio, TV and the national press. 

Kay Allen

OBE

Kay currently works as a Special Advisor to several companies working with them to design and implement responsible business, diversity and inclusion strategies. She is an Associate of CSA, working with Charlotte Sweeney to research issues impacting on inclusion and diversity. She also is a qualified performance coach to C Suite executives focusing on supporting leaders to succeed.

Kay’s previous roles include Director of Business Commitment for the UK Prime Minister’s Office, where she examined the impact of responsible business. Her commercial career includes Head of Social Action and Inclusion for Royal Mail Group, Public Affairs for BSkyB and Head of Inclusion for B&Q.

Kay has also held several Non-Executive roles including, Commissioner on both the Disability Rights Commission and the Equality and Human Rights Commission. She also served as a Non-Executive Director on the Department for Work and Pensions and currently sits on the Ofcom Consumer Panel in the UK.

Kay is a Fellow of St Georges House Windsor, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. As a qualified performance coach, Kay’s personal vision is to always help others to succeed and facilitating individuals to thrive in their chosen careers.

Mark Fenton

Mark supports organisations across all sectors in UK and Europe in designing and delivering sustainable diversity and inclusion strategies to future-proof their success. He is an Associate of CSA, working with Charlotte Sweeney to help clients create a D&I strategy that is right for them as well as support delivery of elements of the strategy.

Mark has over 20 years’ experience in global financial organisations, with a proven track record in finance, audit and business strategy garnered from his time with PwC, Schroders plc, Rothschild & Co, UBS & the AXA Group. Mark is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland and a Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment.

Mark has lived and worked in several cities globally. He holds a 1st Class Honours in Executive Coaching from the Irish Management Institute and is an active member of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council. He sits on the board of Screen Ireland (formerly the Irish Film Board), driving the gender equality and diversity committee and chairing the audit and risk committee.

Howell DiCocco

Howell has over 25 years’ human resources experience within global financial services, specialising in D&I, talent management, and cross-border HR. She is an Associate of CSA, working with Charlotte Sweeney to help clients create and deliver a sustainable D&I strategy.

Howell’s commitment to creating safe, inclusive cultures began as the Senior HR Business Partner to a line of business operating in 30 countries. She is passionate about this work and brings an abundance of practical experience in facilitating organisational assessment and action planning, council development, employee resource group facilitation, and development and delivery of education and awareness solutions.

Howell is based in the US. She has lived, worked and immersed herself in the local cultures of Hong Kong, Toronto and Zurich. She is a member of the Society for Human Resources Management and was previously a member of the Diversity and Inclusion Network (DIAN) of Community Business Hong Kong.

Liz Pawson-Poon

Liz has over 10 years’ experience in the financial and professional services industries, having trained and qualified as a lawyer at a Magic Circle firm and specialised in the financings of high-value mergers and acquisitions. Her previous clients ranged from global financial institutions, private equity funds and cross-border companies. Her legal studies and practice paved way for her pursuit of a career in DE&I, underpinned by the principles of equality, equity and fairness.

Since joining CSA, Liz has partnered with a range of companies as a DE&I Consultant. Projects include audits on policies and practices from a DE&I perspective, inclusion data collation and analysis, DE&I research focus groups, DE&I strategy and toolkit creation, DE&I training and workshops.

Liz has extensive experience managing projects by virtue of her previous transactional roles. She is also Programme Manager for CSA’s DE&I Professional Leadership Programme.

Having lived in Sydney and Hong Kong and worked in Singapore and London, Liz thrives on meeting and collaborating with people from different cultures and backgrounds.

Michelle Mendelsson

Michelle is a highly experienced Equity, Diversity and Inclusion expert and Executive Coach. She has spent the last 20 years of her career in the Financial Services sector as a senior leader in the Credit Suisse, Global Diversity and Inclusion practice, focussing on researching, developing, and implementing their EMEA DE&I strategy. Her remit covered all aspects of DE&I including Gender and Gender Identity, Race, Disability, LGBTQ+, Neurodiversity, Social Mobility and Flexible Working.

Prior to working in the Financial Services Sector Michelle spent 15 years in a variety of commercial management and HR positions at Marks and Spencer.

In addition to her strategic DE&I work Michelle also enjoys supporting and developing clients through 1:1 coaching. This includes helping individuals to overcome challenges, build confidence, improve overall performance, and ultimately to thrive in demanding and complex organisations. Areas of focus include identifying values and purpose, developing diverse networks and sponsorship relationships, leading more effectively, managing upwards, enhancing communication, navigating change and organisational politics. Her approach is naturally warm and empathic but also strategic and goal orientated.

Michelle has served on the Conference Board - Diversity and Inclusion in Business Council (Europe) and was a Trustee of the Credit Suisse Foundation for over 10 years. She is currently a Trustee of the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice in North London.

Sung Hee Han

Sung Hee is a career, leadership, and business coach, with a passion for developing Female and Asian leaders. She has extensive global executive leadership experience with Fortune 500 corporations, across 6 countries in 3 continents, Asia Pacific, the US and Europe. With 25+ years of front-line business experience, in High-Tech and FMCG, including Samsung Electronics, The Coca-Cola Company, Mars Inc., and British American Tobacco, she has been helping corporates and individuals to be at their best.

Since she set up her own coaching practice in 2019, she has had 500+ workshops and coaching sessions for clients from 7 countries, across 9 industry sectors. 70% of her clients are female, and 65% are senior managers and above level.

Her specialties include:

• Asian leadership
• Female leadership
• Cross-cultural effectiveness
• Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
• Self-confidence and Self-advocacy
• Creating impact and influence
• Business communication skills, esp. operating in English as a second language
• Career transition planning

Coen Tan

Growing up Coen has his own share of challenges, agonising pains, and tribulations in life. He was able to turn his adversaries into strength and took it as an opportunity to inspire people with his own stories.

Coen has over 12 years’ experience of being:

• A keynote speaker
• Trainer
• Coach, and
• Strategic Communications Consultant

Coen has spoken to and trained over 42,000 individuals and professionals in Singapore, China, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, USA, Canada, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, and Indonesia to name a few. His clients come from various sectors with notable names such as PayPal American Express Citibank. Siemens, Nestle, Prudential, AXA, Roche, Merck, AstraZeneca and Coca-Cola, among others. Coen desires to help professionals, business leaders, trainers, and educators to discover their true potentials as they face their major challenges in their professional and personal lives.

Rodrigo Lolato

Rodrigo is a business leader with more than 15 years of international experience as business executive, executive coach, and facilitator. As an Industrial Engineer, with MBA in Leadership & Specialisation in Psychology (Psychosynthesis), he is motivated to support leaders to grow and achieve their most important goals.

Rodrigo is known for his wide and deep knowledge, combining a practical approach with a profound understanding of human behaviour and motivations. Clients experience Rodrigo as a warm and challenging coach that truly believes in their potential and does everything he can in order to support them.

Topics he teachers (both workshops as well as MBA classes):

• Conflict Resolution
• Effective Leadership
• Productivity and Personal Effectiveness
• People Management
• Change Management
• Influencing others
• Strategic Agility
• Coaching
• Non-Violent Communication

He is also a Master Trainer (trainer of trainers) on many internationally known workshops such as ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’, ‘Crucial Conversations’ and many others.

Partner of WYSE International (NGO from UK, affiliated to the UN) on international leadership programs aiming to empower young leaders for global change (working as coordinator, trainer and coach for those programmes).

Pia Kähärä

A Finn with more than 25 years’ broad experience in domestic and international business in managerial positions. After graduation Pia led Finnish company’s Russian and CIS business, also establishing, and managing its representative office in Moscow. She later was responsible for export and international business development, managing and developing sales and marketing functions, consulting, and training.

Core strengths: broad business experience in international setting, ability to see the bigger picture and convert theory into practice, easily connects with different people, team player who is used to working internationally. Speaks several languages including Finnish (native), English & Russian (fluent) and Swedish, German and French (basic).

Since 2008, she has also worked as intercultural management (ICM) as a trainer for various international companies, specialising mainly in training their Western managers to improve their soft skills in operating in the Russian culture (leadership, negotiations, sales, partnership building etc), but also Russian managers to work in some European cultures.

She has a MBA in European Management, London South Bank University and a MA in Russian Translation and Interpretation, University of Eastern Finland.

Joanna Smit

Jo supports clients across 4 continents on delivering on their diversity and inclusion objectives. Her focus areas include designing and delivering inclusive cultures that translate cohesively across multiple geographical locations. She is an Associate of CSA, working with Charlotte Sweeney helping clients deliver on their international D&I strategy.

Jo brings over 10 years’ experience in the financial and banking industries, having worked for a bulge bracket investment bank in a number of countries. Her previous clients ranged from financial institutions, pension funds, hedge funds, government institutions and supranational bodies.

Jo is passionate about equality, diversity and inclusion and guest lecturers on the topic at several universities and business schools. She is a mentor with HERA (Her Equality Rights & Autonomy), supporting women survivors of human trafficking pursue a better life through entrepreneurship. Jo has lived and worked in several cities globally and is fluent in English, German & French.

Sara Crawford

Sara’s career has been within organisational and management roles across multiple sectors and industries and predominantly within early-stage businesses or those scaling up. She has over 30 years’ experience, managing projects and teams and covering all aspects of strategic change - business growth, business improvement, processes and procedures, communication, and sales and marketing.

She has a track record of building effective relationships with stakeholders and peers and strives to ensure the right culture within businesses is successfully delivered against this objective. Sara has ILM Certificate Levels 3 & 5 in Leadership and Management, C&G Award in Education & Training and is a certified PRINCE2 Practitioner.

She is also an experienced mentor, and has mentored individuals on both a professional and personal level.

Elizabeth Pollitt

Lizzie is a CSA Consultant and is passionate about exploring the links between DE&I, society, and our workplaces. Having graduated university with a First-Class honours degree in Sociology, she’s expanding on her existing research into the impact Covid-19 has had on working mothers, identifying ways organisations can mitigate further disparities to benefit DE&I and our clients.

Prior to starting university, she spent three years working in a HR People Team within Financial Services, participating in their Diversity and Inclusion agenda alongside her role in their People Programme Team.

Lizzie supports CSA with research and data-driven insights for our clients throughout the delivery processes, from supporting with listening exercises to help uncover lived experiences, to analysing post-delivery data to help our clients with their next steps. Lizzie also takes a lead on CSA’s bespoke eLearning solution to help clients deliver against their DE&I learning ambitions at an organisational level, covering key theories and concepts to help advance understanding.

Zoe McIntosh

Zoe is a Graphic Designer with a specialism in branding design and supports CSA with all things design and marketing. As a creative, she has always appreciated how every seemingly minute detail tells a bigger story, this fuels her desires as a designer to pinpoint and encapsulate branding essences via bespoke visuals. Through her extensive marketing, branding and design knowledge, she facilitates the elevation of brands that best resonates to consumers.

Having studied Fashion Communication and Promotion at Nottingham Trent University, Zoe found herself engaging in conversation and interest around the lack of diversity in the creative industry which lead her into the world of DE&I.

Zoe is also-founder of Arise Creatives, a platform and podcast that exists to host pragmatic dialogue championing the unheard truths within the creative industry from black female perspectives.

Ali Boyes

Ali specialises in designing and delivering global sourcing strategies; adding value with best practice processes, clear policies, improved product and service offerings. She influences C-suite executives to introduce and accelerate supplier diversity initiatives, and build team capability, inclusivity and credibility. She is an Associate of CSA, focussed on driving forward change in the area of Inclusive Procurement.

Ali has over 20 years experience working in leading global retailers. Having worked up from an in-store manager to a senior Procurement leader, ensures Ali truly understands the challenges clients face to stay customer-centric. Ali's empathetic nature, and strong interpersonal skills bring practical, meaningful and tangible solutions.

Ali's key achievements include:

• Influencing main boards to adopt and launch Group wide policies and processes, including Procurement and Travel & Expense policies, delivering inclusive and equal experiences for colleagues and suppliers
• Overhaul in ways of working in Asian based sourcing teams within global organisations, embedding robust, sustainable and ethical processes along with inclusive cultures between Asian and European colleagues
• Speaker at Procurement conferences, such as Procurecon, bringing together Procurement leaders from across the globe for sharing of and benchmarking of best practices
• Extensive stakeholder mapping and engagement, including design and delivery of communication frameworks, leading to step change of Procurement within organisations and ensuring a seat at the table

Ali has lived and worked in several cities globally, including various European cities, Tokyo and Hong Kong and has a real passion for international travel and experiences. Ali truly understands the benefits and successes from bringing together people from different backgrounds and strives to partner with and foster relationships across all cultures.

Brigitte Opel

Brigitte Opel was born and raised in Germany. She studied and worked in the US, Japan, Russia, Australia and various countries in Europe before settling in the Netherlands. In all these places, she experienced cultures and cultural differences first hand.

She studied the impact of cultural patterns on doing business in the global marketplace during her Masters study at Thunderbird School of International Management in USA and Japan. During her career at IBM in Germany and the Netherlands, she worked in international project teams for 17 years and managed teams across Europe. For more than 8 years, Brigitte has been using her international experience, in combination with professional models to help global organisations to work with the differences in cultures and perspectives and to generate synergies from these differences.

Besides consulting on cultural awareness in general, she has helped clients prepare for negotiations with international partners, improve the communication in a virtual team, develop sales presentations to foreign customers and gain sensitivity on different communication styles. In individual coaching sessions, she also helped expats to learn about the country culture of their next assignment. She has lectured at many Dutch universities on various aspects of National Culture (Communication, advertising, teamwork, sports, Brexit etc).

Anusha G Parshotam​

Anusha is a commercial, pragmatic and highly focussed executive coach and leadership and development facilitator. She draws on psychological theories, her working experience and balances this with using practical interventions that are fit for purpose for organisations and individual clients. She continues to receive positive feedback for her ability to understand a client, being relevant, her style and knowledge.

She has worked across industries such as aviation, construction, finance, hospitality and consulting, to name a few. Her passion for D&I stems from her lived experiences and shares powerful authentic stories. Through her various roles in HR, she has been a lead on D&I strategy and execution.​

Anusha has over 15 years of experience working in Senior Human Resources roles, working across different sectors and geographies (Global remit, Southern Africa and UK). She has extensive experience working strategically with organisations, leaders and managers in nurturing talent and building high performance teams in various sectors (FMCG, Professional Services, Financial Services, Legal, Education, Aviation, Public Services, Charities and Start Ups).

Dr. Barbara Covarrubias Venegas​

Barbara is an Expert for New Ways of Working & Digital Leadership and Culture. She defines herself as a Virtual Enthusiast, researcher by education, speaker by passion and author by results. She is passionate about New Ways of Working & Learning, Positive Leadership & CULTURE overall. For the past 10 years, she has been very involved with the intercultural community across the globe, not only as a researcher or professional, but also as a virtual team leader and team member.​

Barbara has specialised in DE&I topics since 2010 when she started to work as a research team lead at a university in Austria. Her PhD was about Gender and Age Diversity and the influence of stereotypes and unconscious bias on our careers. ​

As an educator, Barbara has been designing virtual learning journeys for the past years: her signature #virtualexchange project is the Global Case Study Challenge, an award-winning global teaching project with more than 600 students from 22 countries across the globe.​

She works and teaches in English, Spanish, Italian and German. Besides, she is a passionate dancer (13+ dancing styles) and developed a training concept with the title “Dance your way into leadership”.​

Chaka Bachmann​​

Chaka (she/her) is an experienced equity and inclusion consultant and social justice researcher, who has led large scale state-of-the-nation mixed method research projects and provided full cycle DE&I programmes to a diverse mix of clients.​​​

As an intersectional activist, Chaka has been passionate about social justice and community creation from a young age. Identifying as a queer Femme, that grew up in Germany in a dual heritage , has shaped Chaka's approach to DE&I activism which is built on empathy and accountability. Through this, Chaka facilitates spaces that encourage participants to reflect and engage in the change they want to see, focusing on unpacking dynamics of privilege and power and creating new places of belonging. ​​​

Chaka is the founder and director of Impact Culture, a company that achieves sustainable cultural change through an evidence-led approach, providing clients with nuanced insights into their current DE&I challenges and opportunities, which inform the development of contextualised and effective solutions.​​

Valeria Rodriguez Brondo​

Global multilingual facilitator and trainer with a lifelong passion for exploring other countries, continents, and cultures, I always knew my career would be international in scope. I'm based in Paris but have lived in Africa, Latam, and Europe, and worked on five continents.​

I'm a multilingual (Spanish, Portuguese, English, French and Italian) facilitator and trainer, specializing in organizational culture, intercultural management and leadership with a DEI view.​

I have +15 years of experience in the management of diverse teams, supporting leaders across borders in both the public and private sectors. My expertise in international facilitation and intercultural integration helped me in facilitating international negotiations; I also held positions in project management and international sales.​

Some organizations I facilitate include Safran, Saputo, BNP Paribas, Ikea, Glencore, Cartier, UN, OAS, Lyreco, American Tower, Axa and Haines McGregor among others​.

Emma Palmer

Emma has worked with several businesses promoting inclusive workplace cultures through speaking, workshops, training, and consultancy. As an accomplished, compassionate, and purposeful leader with 10+ years’ experience serving systemically excluded communities during her work in equity, diversity and inclusion, and policing, Emma applies an intersectional lens to her work and has an excellent track-record of achievement, guiding strategic partnership development initiatives within organisations such as the NHS, where she supported the embedment of their new strategy across all areas of Cancer Services, and as Diversity and Inclusion Manager within a sports development charity where she began developing their first ever EDI strategy.​

Emma’s unique background within the emergency services dovetailing with her EDI specialisms, experience, and insight, means she is well placed to support clients shape consciously inclusive cultures within their organisational structures. Emma uses her own lived experience and strategic insight to drive social change and support people to understand equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging at all levels.​

She is also on the board of Trustees at LGBTQ+ Young Persons’ Trust, Mosaic, where she helps to advise on the strategic aims of the organisation, so that the most effective services can be delivered to LGBTQ+ young people across London.​

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Hans W. Jablonski​

Hans W. Jablonski is senior consultant, trainer and owner of his company Jbd. He has gained more than 20 years’ practical experience in people and organisational development in different sectors. His expertise is Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and Change Management.​​

With his experience in organisational change as both internal and external consultant, Hans is committed to work systemically to enable sustainable success. In the course of his career Hans Jablonski has worked with companies from a variety of sectors such as Ford, Motor Company, bp plc, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, Commerzbank.​​

About ten years ago Hans Jablonski founded his company Jbd. Since then he has provided consulting to companies worldwide about introducing and conducting Change and Diversity Management. About a third of Germany’s DAX30 companies work with him and also many well-known small and medium size companies.​​

Hans worked successfully with leaders in various countries around the globe such as China, India, Brazil, USA, Japan and countries across Europe.​​

He was one of the first Diversity Managers in Germany and is co-author of the Diversity Charter in Germany and other European countries. Additionally, Hans is an expert panellist for the GDIB (Global D&I Benchmark tool) and member of the ISO Committee for defining a global D&I ISO/DIN guideline ISO 30415.​​

Irene Afful​

Irene Afful MSc. has had a hugely successful career to date including becoming the first ever black female Inspector in the history of Merseyside Police. Her career incorporated critical incident management, professional standards, child protection, community engagement and serious crime investigations as a Detective Inspector with the Force.

In addition to her core role, she was instrumental in re-establishing, relaunching and chairing the Black Police Association, a support network for BME staff and served as Female Vice President of the National Black Police Association, advancing equality on the national stage.

Irene was also actively involved in the Women’s Network and Part Time & Flexible Workers Network. She is skilled at developing Positive Action initiatives to support the recruitment, retention and progression of minority groups. During this time Irene received many accolades and commendations and was featured in a local history book, ‘Liverpool Black Pioneers’.​

Irene holds a Master’s degree in Police Leadership and is a published author​ of academic research concerning equality, diversity & inclusion, a subject she has had a lifelong passion for and lived experience. She is a trained coach and mentor.​

Her expertise incorporates developing and writing ED&I strategies, policy review and development, cultural audits, data analysis, support networks, EDI training, coaching, mentoring and consultancy.​

Irene has worked with clients come from a vast variety of businesses in the public, private and social enterprise sectors.​

Irene is a highly sought-after keynote speaker, performing at an array of business and educational events and is a TEDx speaker. She is a Non-Executive Director on the Board at The Walton Centre NHS Trust and sits on the Board of Professional Liverpool.​

Joanna Menezes​

Joanna has worked in HR for over 20 years and more specifically in ​the fields of recruitment, career and skills development, outplacement and diversity & inclusion. In 2013, she undertook a master’s programme in International HRM and International Mobility during which she authored a research paper entitled “La diversité : un véritable levier de performance pour l’entreprise » (Diversity: a key performance driver for organizations”).

Since 2014, she has worked as a DE&I trainer with the aim of supporting organizations in creating and promoting an inclusive workplace. As such, she regularly delivers in-company training sessions and workshops on diversity & inclusion, intercultural and intergenerational management, gender diversity and inclusive leadership.

In addition to her work in DE&I, Joanna also enjoys helping individuals successfully manage their careers in a complex and ever-changing work environment through 1:1 coaching.

Her specialties include:​

• Preparing for a new role or promotion ​
• Navigating professional transitions ​
• 4Developing specific skills: communication, interpersonal, organisational using the DiSC personality profiling tool ​
• Improving performance as a leader or manager ​
• Career management for women ​
• Ensuring a smooth expatriation, impatriation or repatriation ​
• Joanna is a certified coach from the Institute of Leadership & Management in London and is a member of the European
• Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) France​

In 2020, she founded the Cala Learning Hub, an international learning community which offers monthly webinars in English and French during which professionals from different walks of life can meet to discuss various personal and professional development themes.

Mathilde Kalkas

After a first part of her career within international industrial groups, as supply chain manager and commercial director, she redirected her professional activity towards supporting human potential.​

Trained in executive and manager coaching, accredited by the Société Française de Coaching, consultant, trainer, she supports companies and individuals in unleashing their talents. Committed to making the company a place of fulfilment for all, she has designed and leads workshops on Diversity and Inclusion for her clients.​

Convinced that true performance goes hand in hand with sustainability, she also trains companies and HR professionals in burnout prevention and stress management.​

Specialized in the accompaniment of so-called atypical talents, or high potentials, she leads tailor-made leadership development programs. She has a particular appetite for supporting female talents, eager to enable women to free themselves from limiting conditioning and to unleash their full potential.​

Francisca Beloso​

Francisca Beloso is a MBA and Fellow CIPD qualified global HR Professional with more than 20 years Human Resources and Diversity, Equality and Inclusion experience.​

Francisca has built a successful global HR career in the financial services (GE), Technology (Vodafone, Siemens, 3 and CBRE Data Centres) and Life Sciences (PRA Health Sciences/ICON). ​

Francisca is a SHL qualified user of ability tests Level A and Level B Verbal and Occupational Personality Tests) and she speaks Spanish, English and Italian.​

Her MBA dissertation (Distinction) with Henley Business School focused in Equality and Diversity : ‘The impact that the lack of diversity of Clinical Trials had within an organisation’s Attraction and Retention strategies , September 2021’.​

Suzi Read

Suzi is an Executive Coach, Leadership Development and DE&I expert. For the last 20 years of her career she has held Senior Leadership roles within Human Resources across the: Financial Services; Food & Beverage; Travel; Marketing; Technology & Gaming sectors. While establishing new verticals, capabilities and leading global teams her remit included: DE&I, Talent, Learning & Development, Culture & Values, Employee Experience and Organisation Design & Development. She has developed and delivered highly successful People, Leadership, Talent and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion strategies and frameworks. She has designed and facilitated programmes and workshops to C-suite and Senior Leadership level. She has also delivered large scale global transformation in the Organisation Design & Development space.

She works with organisations to design and develop thriving, inclusive and equitable cultures through building leadership capability and embedding best practice and ways of working across the employee lifecycle. She is passionate about motivating leaders to drive meaningful change from the top. Prior to this she spent her early career in commercial sales in the Financial Services sector. She has led change through periods of recession, downsizing and high growth.

Suzi is certified with the International Coaching Federation as a Professional Certified Coach. She is also a certified NLP Coach with the ANLP and holds accreditations in various psychometric and vertical development tools to assist in building awareness with her clients. Her natural and informal coaching style integrates psychology, NLP, neuroscience and vertical development methodology. Her seasoned facilitation style and commercial acumen brings a strategic edge to Executive and Senior Leadership development. She also volunteers her time to coach disadvantaged 11-16 year olds to grow their self-awareness, confidence, resilience and communication skills.

Anna Stando

Anna Stando is a DEI trainer and consultant, specializing in Inclusive Leadership, Unconscious Bias, Allyship At Work, Gender Equality And Intersectionality.

Anna is also a Co-Leader of Lean In Network Switzerland, where she organizes and moderates multiple events a year with focus on closing the gender gap.

She worked previously as Relations Manager for Advance – an association of 140+ companies – helping members to reach gender equality in their business. This role has given have a unique opportunity to gain insights into best practices across various sectors and industries, and to collaborate with multiple Employee Resource Groups. She also served as a Board Member at Capacity, an organisation dedicated to supporting refugees and migrants in Switzerland with finding an employment or starting their own business.

Her corporate career includes working for ECCO, where she first held the responsibility for sales in Europe (12 countries), and then Asia and the US (16 markets).

Born and raised in Poland, over the years she has lived in the Netherlands, Guatemala, Mexico, Denmark and Thailand, learning the practical way about inclusion, intercultural communication, unconscious bias, and more. She is now based in Switzerland, a melting pot of cultures and languages.

Anna has a master’s degree in Intercultural Communication from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, and she can effectively communicate in five languages.

Caroline Lake

A dedicated Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Wellbeing professional with a deep understanding of delivering cultural and demographic change within an organisation. 

Caroline worked within financial services for 19 years, with 10 years at senior leadership level. She held a variety of roles including client facing, learning and DEI and wellbeing. In her most recent role, she created and embedded new DEI and wellbeing strategies resulting in cultural change and increased employee engagement. 

Taking a strategic, commercial, and empathetic approach to embedding cultural change, she believes that creating an inclusive culture happens when accountability is shared, and colleagues work collaboratively. Caroline has designed and led initiatives including workshops, focus groups and mentoring programmes for leaders and employees at all levels. 

Caroline was a member of the Women in Finance Charter Industry Board for two and a half years, supporting financial services organisations to achieve their gender diversity targets, through best practice sharing and benchmarking. 

In 2020 she won the City of London Wealth Management Award for Best Initiatives In Diversity. 

Caroline is passionate about equality and inclusion in society. She is a trustee for a local charity that helps people facing inequality and has also delivered DEI workshops to their team to support the development of inclusion and belonging within their community.  

Ilyll Sne-Or

Ilyll Sne-Or has specialized in DE&I and impactful Cross-Cultural training over the past 15 years. Driven by the desire to lead people across cultures and differences to shine, achieve mutual understanding and trust, she has researched, designed and delivered thousands of global programs and trainings for individuals and teams alike. Working in five languages, Ilyll thrives on empowering global leaders to create inclusive and harmonious workplaces. Past clients: Google, Facebook, INSAD, London Business School, Cornell University, Tel-Aviv University & many more.

Having grown up across cultures and languages, Ilyll has experienced the harm and harmony cultural differences may create. Ever since she has dedicated her entrepreneurial career to assisting others to courageously flourish globally. With a MA in Mediation & Conflict Resolution, Ilyll brings innovative culture-based approaches and hands-on practices for transforming challenges into sustainable inclusive solutions.

Tapping on to her own entrepreneurial experience, Ilyll utilizes innovative and interdisciplinary approaches: blending indoor and outdoor exercises, online and offline sessions, interpersonal encounters and mixing academic research with informal interviews and data. Ilyll presents her trainees with delightful tailored sessions that challenge biases, offer safe exploratory space to develop, lead highly inclusive discussions and dialogues and offer hands-on skills and human-centric tools for communicating effectively, fostering trust and consciously creating the desired work narrative and culture.

Ilyll is also a keynote speaker at conferences and a university lecturer. Across her work Ilyll drives to unleash curiosity, enhance connectivity and to create a place for all humans just the way they are.

Isabelle De Hennin

The purpose of Isabelle’s coaching is to help individuals, teams and organisations maximise their potential through self-awareness, awareness of others and clear communication. She has developed a strong cross-cultural sensitivity through living and working in different countries in Europe and Asia.

Over the course of her professional career, Isabelle has built up experience of working in and with teams, and of leading teams. She has worked in investment banking in London and Paris, and management consultancy. Notably,  a spell in the cultural sector in Asia has increased her awareness of cultural differences within international teams and how best to bridge these.

Isabelle places significant emphasis on supporting women in leadership, gender equality, and aiding women returners in her coaching practice.

Based in Brussels presently, she is fluent in English, French, Dutch, and Italian, enabling her to connect effectively with a diverse range of clients.

Jeff Turner

Jeff brings over 20 years of business and learning experience to his clients.  He works with senior teams, executives and L&D professionals to improve their impact. Through creating a space where the many ‘truths’ can be surfaced, Jeff has brought individuals and teams to performance levels that they haven’t achieved before.

Jeff spent the first 13 years of his career in a UK bank, eventually opening the first online banking function in the UK. He then moved to Ireland and found his passion for learning and development.  Jeff worked with the Bank of Ireland, AOL, O2 and most recently he worked with Facebook for almost nine years, where he was the International Learning and Development Director.  Jeff conducted research into high performing teams and how this process is changing in line with the changes we are seeing in working practices and technology.

• MSC in Performance Management from Leictester University
• Former Board member of the ICF Ireland and qualified coach
• Certified in: Situational leadership, Eqi2.0, Crucial Conversations, 6 hats thinking, Standout assessment, The Energy project, Strength finder 2.0

Jeff brings his experience of working with people at all levels, always focusing on how they improve their impact.  Jeff is able to get teams to have conversations that are unable to have without him, which invariably moves them towards higher performance.

Philip Sjögren

Philip Sjögren is a Hofstede Insights, DISC, Firo-B, and The Wave Certified Consultant.

Having studied at the Stockholm School of Economics, he embarked on a career in the Swedish Foreign Service, serving as a diplomat for five years.

Phillip has then been in management consulting since 1995. Notably, he spent five years as a Strategy Consultant at McKinsey & Company.

Throughout his career, Philip has worked with clients from diverse sectors such as forestry, pulp and paper, telecom, heavy industry, financial services, consulting, FMCG, pharmaceuticals, government, energy, and aeronautics. Over a span of more than 20 years, he dedicated himself to training, coaching, and facilitating individuals and teams in these industries.

His extensive consulting experience enabled him to engage professionally in 40 countries.

He is a native French and Swedish speaker, but is also fluent in English, German, and Spanish. His linguistic versatility further enhances his expertise and effectiveness in the global business landscape.

Sudhanshu Palsule

Sudhanshu Palsule is regarded as one of the leading thinkers in the fields of Complexity and Transformative Leadership.

His work on 21st century leadership brings together the latest research emerging from neurology and cognitive psychology, and his own exploration of human thinking and behavior over the past thirty years. 

• Educator at a number of global Business Schools
• Trained as a physicist, draws upon principles of quantum mechanics and ecology in his work on building effective and sustainable 21st Century organizations
• He has lived and worked in four continents and considers himself to be a global citizen

Vadym Kovalchuk

A Ukrainian living in Kyiv, Ukraine. For more than 25 years, I have been working in international business and cross-cultural issues with a focus on Ukraine. I started as an employee of the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade of Ukraine. Later, I became involved in many projects in the private sector, holding various managerial positions. I have been specializing in consulting for the last 10 years. My main expertise lies in developing soft skills for managers and teams working cross-culturally and DEI facilitation. According to my personal vision, my mission is to increase the effectiveness of teams involved in international business, making them inclusive and effective in cross-cultural environments.

I have conducted tens of workshops for managers from different countries who were interested in development of their business with Ukraine or other CIS countries focusing on their leadership and management skills and sales, as well as team performance across cultures.

In addition to vast experience in international issues, I hold M.Sc. in International Business from the Ukrainian Academy of Foreign Trade. I can run workshops in English, Russian and Ukrainian.

Zoé Kennedy

Zoé Kennedy brings over twenty-five years of experience in the practical application of staff-led inclusion and passionately believes in the power of lived experience leading cultural change.

She is a proud and active member of the LGBTQIA+ community and sees the immediate benefits of sharing their lived experience of this and other intersections of their identity.

Zoé is a born connector and has built an enviable expertise in enhancing business productivity through empowering staff-led networks. Their unique ability to harness the power of workplace networks to lead to cultural change is a game-changer in the world of workplace diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. And their ability to build trust and rapport quickly has delivered exceptional outcomes across many workplaces.

Dr. Hasse Leonard-Pagel

Dr. Hasse Leonard-Pagel has over 20 years of experience in consulting and leadership. She is a clinical psychologist, global DEI strategist, trainer, author, executive coach, and the founder and CEO of Pagel Solutions, Inc. Her domestic U.S. and international work include working with global companies across multiple industries including biotech, aerospace, fintech, and the nonprofit sector. As an organizational consultant, Dr. Leonard-Pagel understands that although every engagement and organizational environment is different, there is one similarity – the human factor.

Through the culmination of her years of experience as a practitioner, manager, and execuitve, Dr. Leonard-Pagel has been able to leverage her talents to successfully guide her passion for working in the areas of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Before staritng her own business, Dr. Leonard-Pagel worked for a consulitng firm in the San Francisco area as a Principal Consultant and was the Pracitce Lead of the DEI specialty area. Additionally, she completed a ceritficate in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University.

Dr. Leonard-Pagel brings a unique set of skills to her role as an execuitve coach, facilitator, and strategist. These skills include data analyitcs, strategic planning, leadership development, and curriculum development. She has worked with teams across a company’s enterprise from the Board of Directors and C-suite to individual contributors. In all her engagements, Dr. Leonard- Pagel’s primary goal is to funciton as a strategic partner, providing guidance and insight on how to foster an inclusive work environment for all employees.

Kristiana Stoyanova

Kristiana Stoyanova is a facilitator, trainer, and consultant, specializing in women empowerment, diversity and inclusion, leadership development, and strategic sustainability.

She is driven by a vision to enhance collaborative and participatory principles worldwide, fostering greater resilience and alignment in organisations and society at large. Drawing upon her experience in the diverse public spheres, including roles at esteemed institutions such as the United Nations and the European Commission, Kristiana designs and delivers dynamic women's empowerment workshops and training sessions.

Over the past two years, she has successfully engaged and empowered over 100 women. Her approach is informed by a rich tapestry of frameworks and methods, including Non-violent communication by Marshall Rosenberg, Moving questions by Siets Bakker, Theory U by Otto Scharmer, Systems view of life by Fritjof Capra, Wheel of Consent by Betty Martin, Flow Game, and Art of Hosting.

Victoria Dale

Victoria is a highly accomplished Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) Consultant and Trainer with over 20 years’ experience supporting employers in the public, private and voluntary sector. She is also an Associate member for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

A strong advocate of an evidence-based approach, Victoria works closely with each client building DE&I into their ways of working that fits with their vision, supports and enhances their best asset- their employees and their products/services. She has worked with a diverse range of businesses supporting clients within retail, professional services, technology, media, advertising, housing, prison services, defence, manufacturing, finance, transport, health, third sector and local government, higher education and regional government. 

Over the years Victoria has supported clients on strategic and operational programmes and projects including conducting DE&I Audits of people policies and practices, policy reviews, coaching HR Directors, conducting Equality Impact Assessments and facilitating action planning sessions with senior management teams. In 2017, Victoria co-produced the Equalities Evidence Base for the Mayor of London’s Diversity and Inclusion Strategy which helped to shape priorities for addressing inequalities for Londoners accessing the labour market, housing, built environment and other areas of society. 

With extensive experience in facilitation and training, Victoria has designed and delivered a wide range of training including topics on inclusive cultures, micro aggressions, inclusive recruitment and selection, inclusive leadership, diversity data, Equality Impact Assessment and DE&I for HR. 

As a facilitator and learning development specialist, she uses her enthusiasm, passion and detailed knowledge of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion issues to inspire, engage and encourage everyone’s participation and help deliver real positive results. 

She has supported a range of employers including Babcock Marine, With Intelligence, Advantage Travel Partnership, Thirteen Group, Network Rail, Mayor of London, Transport for London, St. Christopher’s Hospice, Morgan Law, University of Brighton, Greater London Authority, Planet Mermaid, Advance HE and South Westminster Business Improvement Districts. 

Ruttanun Klewpatinond

Ruttanun has a great business acumen and professional expertise in the fields of sales and industrial marketing.  Her previous management experience included a position as Senior Department Manager, where she oversaw the department's strategic planning, development, and commercial vision.

She is a specialist in cross-regional commercial business and cooperation, having worked for over 14 years with MNCs that were in the Fortune 200. Her experience spans Asia, Europe, and North America.

Ruttanun specialises in training and coaching for collaboration and leadership by integrating  positive psychology and neuroleadership.

Ruttanun’s area of expertise / Her Expertise in Training:

• Interpersonal and Communication Skill
• Team Collaboration
• Resilience
• Manager as a coach
• Inclusive Leadership

Olha Popadynets

I am a dedicated and experienced DEI consultant, gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) advisor, trainer, and researcher, originally from Ukraine, but now based in England due to the war. Over the years, I have combined my deep academic knowledge with extensive practical experience, both domestically and internationally. My work with international partners has not only broadened my perspective but has also sharpened my ability to adapt solutions to diverse environments.

Currently, I am pursuing a PhD in Social Work at Kharkiv Humanitarian-Pedagogical Academy, focusing on the professional resocialization of women after extended career breaks. This academic pursuit, coupled with years of on-the-ground engagements, has equipped me with an unparalleled understanding of European and Ukrainian GESI challenges and opportunities.

Since 2018, as a self-employed consultant, trainer, and researcher, I have designed and delivered engaging and practical training programs on gender equality, social inclusion, diversity, and unconscious bias. I facilitate workshops to equip teams with the knowledge and skills to implement gender-sensitive strategies in their work. Additionally, I provide strategic advice and guidance to organizations aiming to foster behavioral change and cultural transformation towards greater diversity, inclusion and gender parity. I have been privileged to work on several impactful projects, with such organisations as UNFPA, Ministry of Education of Ukraine and WHO.

I actively contribute to academic and professional discussions through publications and presentations at various conferences. Notable among these are presentations on the empowerment of mothers as an innovative approach in social work and supporting gender balance in STEM education.

Geraldine Moodley

Geraldine Moodley is an international human rights lawyer, project leader and changemaker. She is a data driven or evidence lead specialist working on organisational culture through team culture and self leadership. After years of DEI consulting her focus lays mainly with the power of anchoring this in team behaviour, reviewing systems and in key processes for equity such as complaints, employee engagement and evaluations and ensuring social safety is a core requisite for inclusion. She is in the process of moving forward on issues pertaining to international labour law,  writing about her research work and translating her findings to technological solutions. She is developing the last leg of her inclusion work on; trauma and healing.

Gerri focuses much on our experiences, behaviour, interpersonal and intercultural exchange, she does that through various techniques and taking teams to more interesting offsite experiences.

The more transparency and accountability the safer, productive, innovative and happier the team. A safe workplace requires a thorough understanding of organisational systems and how to ensure equity and inclusion.

She has worked in the past in various contexts and sectors such as retail, customer service, CSR, human rights, humanitarian, marketing / brand, campaign, justice and the arts as well have having served Nelson Mandela as part of the Johannesburg team. She is herself a team leader and project manager, leading in remote and hybrid contexts and with international organisations and multicultural teams as well as an array of humans

Herley Abdul Hamid

Herley Abdul Hamid is a seasoned Enterprise Lean-Agile Transformation Coach in leading organizations to embody value-mindset through disruptive Agile ways of working and living. He coaches global leaders and teams within context-sensitive approach focusing on agnostic Business Agility instead framework prison. This approach has empowered him to strategically lead organizations through guided continuous improvement regardless of industries.

An advocate of Agile Living philosophy, Herley inspires global audience with meaning-led business and life transformation.

As a certified Meta-coach, he leverages his 25 years’ global experience in multiple supermajor energy companies especially in bp, Shell and ExxonMobil to help uncover organisational business purposes.

Since 2015, Herley has been appointed as the Ambassador and Board Member for Spastic Children’s Association of Selangor & Federal Territory, the largest independent centre for children with cerebral palsy in Malaysia.

In 2016, Herley published a book, Living with Meaning where he narrated his life journey with his son especially during the years he was in Shell followed up with a second book Leaving with Meaning in 2019 when he served BP. The books have become the cornerstones to his organizational and personal transformation approach and have reached readers in multiple continents around the world. Herley has dedicated his work on advocating DE&I for disabled communities and have been invited to speak on disability in forums in various national mainstream medias.