Embracing and Enabling Change – Speakers

Aboodi Shabi

Aboodi Shabi is one of the UK’s most senior coaches, and a pioneer and leader in the UK and European Coaching community. He was a founding co-President of the UK ICF, and has served the profession at all levels internationally.
He has worked in the field of personal development for over twenty years, and in coaching since 1996. In that time, he has worked with thousands of coaches across the world.
Aboodi has led training for coaches across Europe, and in Asia, North America and South Africa, as well as working with leaders, and presenting on leadership issues and presence across Europe.
He is currently Head of Coaching and Training for Newfield Europe. He is also an invited facilitator on mastery in coaching for various European coaching schools, and a regular speaker on the coaching conference circuit across Europe.

Eunice Aquilina

Eunice Aquilina is a coach, facilitator and consultant who supports her clients to develop a strong authentic leadership presence, build skilful ways to cultivate trust, embody greater ease and connection and better manage their commitments and results. She draws on her 25 years’ experience to design and facilitate experiential learning solutions using large group methodology, action learning and coaching, often in combination. Working in partnership with her clients, she co-creates learning processes focused on learning from real issues in real time, practicing new skills and behaviors for sustainable outcomes. Core to her work is her belief that organisations are organic living systems and their conversations shape and determine the culture, which in turn informs the results which can be achieved. Eunice is a certified somatic coach with Strozzi Institute and has a Doctorate in coaching and OD. She is accredited with the European Mentoring and Coaching Council at Master Practitioner level and is an accredited coach supervisor with APECs. A faculty member with i-coach academy, Eunice teaches and supervises students who are working towards a professional qualification in coaching.

Dr Siobhain O’Riordan

Siobhain is a chartered psychologist, a chartered scientist and a fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce. She is an Honorary Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the Coaching Psychology Unit at City University. She is also an Accredited Member of the International Society for Coaching Psychology and a Principle Member of the Association of Business Psychologists. Siobhain is the Chair of the International Society for Coaching Psychology (SCP) and was Chair of the British Psychological Society’s Special Group in Coaching Psychology (BPS SGCP) in 2006-7. Currently she is also Editor of The Coaching Psychologist and Coaching Psychology International. In 2010 she received the BPS SGCP Achievement Award in Recognition of a Distinguished Contribution to Coaching Psychology.

Sheila Panchal

Sheila Panchal (C.Psychol) is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist who has experience working across private and public organisations, with both individuals in teams. Her primary role is that of maternity and leadership coach. She is co-editor of ‘Developmental Coaching: Life Transitions and Generational Perspectives’, and co-author of ‘Turning 30: How to get the life you really want’.

Ori Weiner

Ori Wiener is a business development consultant and executive coach to senior executives of professional services organisations. His work is focused on helping individuals and organisations develop strategies and implement actions to win new business and improve their profitability. One particular area of unique expertise he has developed in a career spanning close to 30 years is fee management including fee negotiations for professionals. Over the last two years Ori has supported over 500 partners and senior executives of professional services firms in this highly sensitive and complex area through training, consulting, coaching or a combination of all three.
Ori is a founding partner of the Møller PSF Group, a market leading consulting firm specialising in supporting professional services firms. Prior to this he was Interim Director of Marketing and Global Head of Business Development at Linklaters. Ori has a detailed understanding of clients’ decision making processes in connection with buying advisory or consulting services having worked for 16 years as an investment banker for S.G. Warburg/ UBS and Lehman Brothers in a number of international locations and roles.
Ori holds a BA in Biochemistry from Oxford University and an MBA from the London Business School. He is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, a graduate of the Meyler Campbell Executive Coach programme and is accredited with the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches (WABC). Ori is multilingual and coaches in English or German.

Liz Hall

Liz Hall has been the editor of Coaching at Work since its launch in 2005. She has been a journalist/writer/editor for 25 years, working for publications including the Financial Times, the Guardian, the Observer, the Daily Telegraph, People Management, Personnel Today, InBusiness, Campaign, Training, Doctor, Hospital Doctor, Occupational Health, MORE and Employers’ Law. Staff jobs have included deputy editor and features editor of Personnel Today and features editor on Hospital Doctor.
She has won a number of awards including Winner of the Association for Coaching Award for Impacting (Leadership/External Focus) Service to the Wider Community for 2010-11 and the Periodicals Publishing Association Reporter of the Year. She is the author of various publications including Personnel Today’s Guide to Employee Screening and her book, Mindful coaching, will be published by Kogan Page in April 2013. She also has a coaching practice, having trained with organisations including the i-coach academy, Performance Coach Training and the Centre for Coaching. She sits on the Industry Advisory Board of the International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring and was a judge on the judging panel of the Academy of Executive Coaching’s Burditt Lectures. She has trained in mindfulness and has a long-established mindfulness practice. She lives in Brighton in the United Kingdom with her husband, three children and two dogs.

Katherine Long

Katherine Long is a Master Practitioner accredited coach, supervisor, writer and speaker. As well as running her own practice she is also Director of Qualifications with The OCM, delivering coach and supervision qualification programmes. She is committed to supporting coaches in engaging with a larger sense of purpose to their work, and runs workshops for coaches and organisations to explore ways of creating climates for spiritual flourishing. www.katherinelong.co.uk

Katherine Ray

Katherine Ray is an experienced HR professional and professional coach who is passionate about developing talent within organisations. She graduated in 2001 with a BSc Hons in Psychology and Sociology, and in 2002 with a MA in Human Resource Management. Her career to date spans 10 years. She has held a number of HR and talent management positions, working in dynamic and fast paced organisations such as Diageo, Warner Bros, BskyB and currently Unilever.
Her current role involves supporting and driving the Unilever talent management strategy across all markets, categories and functions. Currently she is working on implementing a global onboarding process for senior leaders, creating the future talent strategy for Unilever to inform the design of a new integrated people development system and continuing her work around mentoring as the global mentoring lead for Unilever.
Katherine designed and is responsible for the Unilever global mentoring programme which has been featured in the Harvard Business Review in September 2010 and in Coaching at Work magazine in May 2012. Katherine is a trained coach and graduated through the Coaches Training Institute last June.

Carol WIlson

International speaker, writer and broadcaster Carol Wilson is managing director of Performance Coach Training and a member of the Global Advisory Panel to the Association for Coaching. Carol designs and delivers programmes coaching and leadership programmes for organisations such as IKEA, NCR, Philip Morris, CLM 2012 Olympic Construction Consortium, the BBC, the Arts Council and various public sector organisations including schools and county councils. Carol is a cross-cultural specialist, having worked with multi-cultural groups all over the world, and was nominated for both the AC ‘Influence in Coaching Award’ and the ‘Impact in Coaching Award’.  She is also author of Best Practice in Performance Coaching (Kogan Page 2007) featuring forewords by Sir John Whitmore and Sir Richard Branson, and contributing author to Excellence in Coaching: The Industry Guide, edited by Jonathan Passmore (Kogan Page 2006) and The Handbook of Knowledge Based Coaching, edited by Leni Wildflower and Dianne Brennan (Jossey-Bass 2011). Carol also wrote The Handbook of Coaching and Feedback as a commission from IKEA and a Foreword to Angela Dunbar’s Essential Life Coaching Skills.
She experienced the value of a coaching culture at first hand during a decade working at board level with Sir Richard Branson at Virgin. Initially MD of the music publishing company, which she raised to become one of the top three music publishing companies in the UK, she went on to form her own successful label with Virgin. Later she worked with Island Records and joined Warner Brothers and Polydor Records as a board director responsible for Artistes & Repertoire. During her career Carol signed numerous successful acts including Sting, The Human League, Martha & The Muffins, The Buzzcocks, Tom Petty, Pepsi & Shirley and Iggy Pop.
Carol has spoken at events run by organisations and institutions such as Procter & Gamble, Birmingham Midshires, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Payroll World, the Department for Education and Skills, Cranfield University School of Management, Brunel University Business School and Surrey University.  She has also presented at conferences and workshops worldwide including the HRD Conference, Catalyst Australia, the HR Forum, the Dubai Women in Business Conference, the Association for Coaching Conference, Training Journal Conference and the CIPD annual Coaching at Work Conference
She has been interviewed on both radio and TV and writes for a wide range of publications, including a monthly column for Training Journal.  She is currently working on a doctorate in psychology at Middlesex University.

Chris Rogers

Chris Rogers is Managing Consultant and Practice Leader for Coaching, ASK Europe plc, an OD and Leadership Behaviouralist consultancy. His initial professional grounding was in business, moving from mainstream positions in corporate banking to training and Organisation Development roles that focused on developing a strategic HR approach to industry changes.
His approach to coaching remains strongly business-led. For Chris, like his ASK colleagues, coaching is more than a development activity: it is fundamentally a business activity that delivers benefits to the coachee, the business sponsor, and the organisation. Coaching addresses not just individual skill or behavioural challenges, but organisational development and cultural change initiatives that enable both the individual and the organisation to make the transition from ‘good’ to ‘great’.
Specialising in coaching to support strategic alignment, leadership and organisational development, talent development, and team performance, Chris has coached both individuals and Boards. As Practice Leader, he also leads teams of coaches working on organisational change programmes for major global companies in sectors as diverse as construction, technology, energy, manufacturing, finance and pharmaceuticals, as well as national government departments and agencies.

Helen Hardy

Helen Hardy is the Human Resource Director for British Gypsum, a leading manufacturer and distributor of internal building products. British Gypsum is also part of the global Saint-Gobain Group.
During her career, Helen has held a number of commercial and HR professional job roles working across the hotel, retail, distribution and now manufacturing sectors.
Coaching within British Gypsum is a way of life, ‘it is how we do business.’ Over the last 5 years, the Company has encouraged and actively supported a network of individual and group coaching opportunities. On occasion these opportunities have been for personal development, for example on promotion to the Board, but in most cases they have been linked with wider business activities and have been designed to deliver company objectives more effectively. An important component of this approach has been to weave a ‘golden thread’ through the various levels of leadership to tie all parts of the business to a single strategic direction.

Neil Scotton and Alister Scott

Neil Scotton and Alister Scott are co-founders of the One Leadership Project. As conversation convenors, coaches, writers, facilitators and thought partners they are doing groundbreaking work in supporting and enabling catalysts; the people who are leading beyond self to address the big, social, economic and environmental challenges of our times.
Their work includes:
• Articles in Coaching at Work magazine that have triggered conversations in national and global coaching bodies that are evolving the profession
• Working with a City Council to connect catalysts in a way that helps the success of their existing projects and sparks ideas for new ones in the city and beyond
• Working with the leaders and boards of innovative and purposeful organisations, helping them as they think through complex challenges, forge partnerships, form the team, communicate clearly and build commercial momentum
• Bringing catalytic tools into organisations, and helping organisations support catalysts and convene catalytic conversations
• Providing support and training for catalysts and those working with catalysts.
Alister trained as a coach with Coaching Development. He was instrumental in achieving international agreement to protect Antarctica, and in persuading one of the UK’s largest pension funds to adopt a socially responsible investment policy. He has advised Commons Select Committees, managed big research programmes and written internationally about events such as
Fukushima. For his doctorate he investigated how experts are engaging with society’s biggest challenges – and what might be holding them back.
Neil was President of the ICF in the UK in 2007-8. He received the ICF President’s award for his ‘evolutionary leadership and contribution to the global profession’; that was very much a team effort with the great board and membership. He has served on the ICF global Ethics committee, regularly chaired the UK Coaching Bodies Round Table and has been invited onto numerous panels involved in identifying, promoting and celebrating best practice in coaching.

James Brook

James Brook is co-founder and director of Strengths Partnership Ltd (www.strengthspartnership.com), a leading niche consulting firm specialising in helping organisations achieve success through leveraging people’s strengths and managing performance risks. James has a strong track record of experience and thought leadership in strategic and strengths-based talent development and performance improvement; building inspirational leadership; executive and cross-cultural coaching; enabling change and designing innovative assessment solutions to identify, retain and develop talent. Prior to Strengths Partnership, James held a variety of leadership positions in Human Resources and Consulting in European and global corporations including Yahoo!, Right Management Consultants and Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals. He has worked on consulting and executive coaching assignments with a wide variety of organisations, including Facebook, Novartis, News International, Foster Wheeler, Shell, Career Builder, KBR, Tesco, Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. James has a Masters Degree in Industrial & Organisational Psychology and a MBA from the University of Maryland in the U.S.A. He also has an Advanced Diploma in Executive Coaching. James is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and is also a member of the Association of Business Psychologists, Institute of Directors and Association for Coaching.

Claire Watt

Claire Watt is a MCIPD qualified HR professional with 14 years’ HR experience, 11 years as head of the HR function. A psychology graduate, she has worked in HR across a variety of sectors including the professional services, retail, not-for-profit and charitable. Claire is currently Executive Director of People at Samaritans, which offers a confidential emotional support service for anyone in the UK and Ireland. The service is available 24 hours a day for people who are experiencing feelings of distress or despair, including those which may lead to suicide. Samaritans is a national charity and the co-coordinating body for the 201 Samaritans branches in the UK, ROI, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, each of which is an independent charitable organisation. The service is provided by 18,750 volunteers. Claire is a member of the senior management team and reports to the Chief Executive. Claire is responsible for providing strategic direction on all matters relating to HR, Facilities Management and Volunteering.

Serena Cunningham

Serena Cunningham has worked in both private and public sectors throughout her career. She currently works at Kent County Council as a learning account manager for special projects and partnerships and has a joint lead on the South East Coaching & Mentoring Network. Serena has achieved her Level 5 Certificate in Coaching & Mentoring and has experienced at first hand the challenges, difficulties and of course the magic of setting up a coaching & mentoring network.

Stephen Palmer

Professor Stephen Palmer is director of the Centre for Coaching, London and director of the Coaching Psychology Unit at City University. He is an APECS Accredited Executive Coach Supervisor, an International Society for Coaching Psychology Accredited Coaching Psychologist and UKCP Registered Psychotherapist.
He is president of the International Society for Coaching Psychology and was the first president of the Association for Coaching, and the first chair of the British Psychological Society (BPS) Special Group in Coaching Psychology. He was a specialist advisor to the House of Commons. In his BBC 1 television series he demonstrated cognitive coaching and therapy.
He is the UK coordinating co-editor of the International Coaching Psychology Review, and executive editor of Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice. He has authored or edited more than 35 books including the Handbook of Coaching Psychology (with Whybrow, 2007), The Coaching Relationship: Putting People First (with McDowall, 2010) and Developmental Coaching: Life Transitions and Generational Perspectives (with Panchal, 2011). He is the publisher of Coaching at Work magazine.
He received from the BPS, Division of Counselling Psychology, the Annual Counselling Psychology Award for ‘Outstanding professional and scientific contribution to Counselling Psychology in Britain for 2000’. In 2008 the BPS, Special Group in Coaching Psychology gave him the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award in Recognition of Distinguished contribution to coaching psychology’.

David Clutterbuck

David Clutterbuck is visiting professor in the coaching and mentoring departments of both Sheffield Hallam and Oxford Brookes Universities, and a co-founder of the European Mentoring & Coaching Council. A third of his 55 books have been in the field of coaching and mentoring. David brought the concept of supported mentoring to Europe in the early 1980s and, with colleagues at Sheffield, pioneered what is now widely known as developmental mentoring. He is an active and qualified coach supervisor and was Coaching at Work’s first Mentor of the Year.

Carole Pemberton

Carole Pemberton is an executive coach and author of books including Coaching to solutions. She is currently working on her Phd on resilience and has contributed on resilience to a toolkit for the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development.

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Christopher Samsa

Positive Psychologist, Speaker, Facilitator, Trainer and Coach. Chris is a Positive Psychologist and Director of the NeuroLeadership Group. He is a visiting lecturer on the Masters in Applied Positive Psychology programme at UEL and guest lecturer in NeuroLeadership at Witten Herdecke in Germany. He works with organisations in the area of behavioural change, combining a positive approach with the latest findings from neuroscience to help clients improve their quality of thinking and achieve sustainable results in record time. Chris has worked internationally for over ten years and has trained over 700 individuals in coaching skills both on public programmes and in the workplace using the Results Coaching Systems methodology.
Chris is a Professional Certified Coach with the International Coach Federation (ICF) and he has served on the board of Directors of the UK ICF.
Before his current career Chris worked in the Advertising and Communications sector holding leadership roles with Chime Communications, Lowe Group, Grey and DMB&B. Chris also worked as a consultant for The Idea Factory, specialising in the areas of experience design, creativity and innovation, producing customised solutions for clients, creating challenging and creative approaches leading to innovative answers.
Approach
As a Positive Psychologist, Chris combines a solution focused, positive approach with the NLG brain based methodology when working with clients, helping them to identify and define in inspirational terms what they want to achieve and focus on the best way to get there. He brings energy and enthusiasm to everything he does and is highly intuitive enabling him to work at a deep level with clients which is inevitably inspiring for them.
Client Profile
With over 1000 hours of coaching professionals and individuals looking to excel Chris has coached at CEO and senior management level for blue chip organisations in the UK and internationally, including clients in UK, France, Hungary, Ukraine, Dubai, India and Australia. The sectors include FMCG, Technology, IT, Media and Communications, and Advertising and Marketing. Chris works in both the private and public sectors and clients include; VISA, NHS Direct, Publicis, Dunhill and Ericsson.
Testimonials
“Christopher has a unique ability to identify and understand the roadblocks that workers face in trying to accomplish the life and work goals that they have. He is eminently able to work with his clients to develop and implement practical solutions to overcome these roadblocks so that people can accomplish their goals and so experience a vital and meaningful life.” Professor Frank Bond, Professor of Work Psychology, University of London.
“We are a small and busy media company. With the twin objectives of increasing people’s productivity and injecting some balance into lives Chris worked with each of member of staff over a six month period, helping each of us to bring some balance and focus to our working practices. Staff now feel more equipped to manage the pace of the office better, we have some clear structures in place which share information more efficiently and as long as we stick to these, we’ll be great!” Andrew Caesar Gordon – MD Electric Airwaves.
Chris has worked internationally as a coach, trainer and facilitator for over ten years. In addition, with an MSc in positive psychology, Chris combines a solution focused, positive approach with the NeuroLeadership Group brain based methodology when working with clients, helping them to identify and define in inspirational terms what they want to achieve and help them focus on the best way to get there. Using the latest findings from neuroscience, he helps clients think smarter and achieve sustainable results in record time. He brings energy and enthusiasm to everything he does and as a highly intuitive facilitator and coach is able to work at a deep level with clients helping them to experience richness from the coaching process which is inevitably inspiring for them.
Chris is a visiting lecturer in Positive Psychology, Neuroscience and Leadership at UEL in the UK and Witten Herdecke in Germany. He is also a Professional Certified Coach with the International Coach Federation (ICF) and he has served on the board of Directors of the UK ICF.
With extensive experience training in organisations and over 1000 hours of coaching professionals and individuals looking to excel, Chris has worked at CEO and senior management level for blue chip organisations in the UK and internationally, with experience in the following sectors; Professional Services, Financial, Health Care, Media, Retail, Public Sector, Education, Advertising, Technology and Communications.
Before his current career Chris worked in the Advertising and Communications sector holding leadership roles with Chime Communications, Lowe Group, Grey and DMB&B. Chris also worked as a consultant for The Idea Factory, specialising in the areas of experience design, creativity and innovation, producing customised solutions for clients, creating challenging and creative approaches leading to innovative answers.

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