Top Flight

I am an enthusiastic leadership consultant and executive coach with over 20 years’ experience at senior levels of corporations, and of not-for-profit and public sector organisations. I have worked with middle and top managers across many countries in Europe, Asia and Africa.  I specialise in helping executives to deal with significant transitions in their life or career, as well as in leadership, teamwork, interpersonal communication, and diversity. I have coached high potential executives within company programmes aimed at redressing gender or ethnicity imbalances at senior levels.

Since December 2022, I have been an associate of the Executive Pipeline, a consultancy that is focused on helping many of the world’s most successful companies and public sector organisations achieve more ethnically diverse and gender-balanced teams.  This includes helping their female managers to achieve their potential for promotion to top executive positions. I coach participants on their two major leadership development programmes: Top Flight and Women in Leadership.

I’m an independent executive coach, writer and facilitator with with over twenty years’ experience working with clients ranging from GSK to Comic Relief.

My coaching approach combines psychodynamic thinking with practical communication and coaching techniques. Since I started coaching (helping an FMCG take their top 300 leaders through a new leadership model in 2000) I have drawn extensively on psychodynamic training at Birkbeck, with Tavistock, Sandler and Bath Consulting, as well as twenty years’ experience as a communications consultant, to develop a distinctive coaching approach. One that helps people understand and address underlying patterns of thinking and behaving that are holding them back, while giving them tools and techniques to build their confidence and take action to change. Much of my coaching involves helping clients understand and improve their communication style and build their confidence, for example when positioning themselves for promotion, or post promotion. (A current project in a professional services firm involves helping the pre-Partner cadre step up to the leadership role of Partner). Increasingly I work on mid/late career transitions; helping people figure out what they want to do with their ‘one wild and precious life’ and then take the actions they need to change jobs or make their life and work more meaningful.

Margaret has worked within The Pipeline’s team for over five years, not only consulting with clients to accelerate their diversity agenda, but also working with participants on the Pipeline’s programmes to fast forward their careers.

Her prior experiences in both corporate HR functions, followed by consulting with large and small businesses about talent programmes and processes, and latterly as an Executive Search Consultant all provide powerful insights into how to navigate and drive careers within organisations.

She has worked across multiple sectors – retail, leisure and hospitality, financial services, fmcg, consumer electronics, property, publishing and was Non-Exec Director for a technology business in the public sector.

Karen is a proven business leader with a track record in creating vibrant cultures, energising teams, and consistently delivering business growth and success. She is UK President for WPP, the world’s largest marketing services group and responsible for driving growth in WPP’s second largest market of 12,000 people

Former GroupM UK CEO, Karen managed the business at a critical time during the COVID global pandemic and the subsequent impact of the killing of George Floyd.

In June 2014, Karen received an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday honours and topped the Power List, being the first businesswoman to come in at number 1.  In November 2022 Karen received
Power List’s Outstanding Contribution Award in recognition of her exceptional achievements. Karen has recently been appointed NED for Diageo (FTSE Top 100 company) and was a former NED of The Cabinet Office.

Karen is a single mum of a beautiful 12-year-old boy, Isaac.  The daughter of 2 Bajan parents, Karen regularly returns to her spiritual “home” Barbados and spends her weekends enjoying the outdoors and walking her two adorable dogs Bob Marley and Missy Elliot.

Born in London, Sanaa is proud of her Moroccan heritage. She partially spent her childhood in Morocco, and although once again London-based, she still feels strongly connected to her cultural roots.

Professionally, Sanaa worked in a range of Executive Assistant & program management roles before joining The Pipeline. Her career has taken her to posts in management consulting and global insurance, in both the UK and in Bahrain. Life in the Middle East allowed Sanaa to enjoy the benefits of a luxury lifestyle but first-class travel and an expensive apartment didn’t compensate for the culture shock. She cleverly found ways to adapt culturally, without having to compromise her own personality.

Sanaa feels she has learned an incredible amount about human behavior during her career, including how to best communicate with a variety of people. At The Pipeline, she applies her outstanding organization skills to program management and network coordination.

Dr Sophy Antrobus researches contemporary air power in the context of the institutional, cultural and organisational barriers to innovation in modern air forces, in particular the RAF. She joined the Freeman Air and Space Institute from Portsmouth Business School where she was a Teaching Fellow in Strategic Studies. Prior to that Sophy completed her PhD at the University of Exeter. Her thesis researched the early politics of air power and networks in Whitehall in the inter-war years. She delivered the 2020 Peter Nailor Defence Lecture at Gresham College on the subject ‘How are Drones Changing Warfare?’.

Previously, Sophy served in the Royal Air Force for twenty years including in Iraq and Afghanistan and a tour with the Royal Navy. She was awarded the MBE in 2003. Her final tour was commanding operations at RAF Valley. Prior to starting her PhD she ran a successful consultancy business working with military charities and veterans. She is a Fellow and elected member of the Council of the Royal Aeronautical Society; she also chairs its Learned Society Board.

Mary is a Senior Partner in McKinsey’s Paris Office. She is the Leader of McKinsey’s Organisation practice in Europe and the co-author of Leading Organizations: Ten Timeless Truths. Over the last 20+ years, she has served leading pharma, consumer products, energy, basic materials, telecommunications, and public sector organisations on their most important transformation, change management, top team alignment and performance improvement efforts.

Philip Collins is a columnist on The Times and chair of trustees of the think tank Demos. He is the author of the book “The Art of Speeches and Presentations” and was the chief speech writer to the Prime Minister Tony Blair. He has since written speeches for many corporate leaders.

Paula Leach is a Chief People Officer with over 25 years experience working in global multinational, large scale complex public sector and entrepreneurial growth organisations. Paula is passionate about the importance of leadership in building organisational cultures where people are included, can be creative and collectively productive.

Paula now runs her own Executive Coaching and Business Advisory business ‘Vantage Points Consulting Ltd’ enabling and inspiring leaders to explore and unlock their full potential and that of their teams and organisations. In 2021 she launched the ‘Vantage Points Foundation’ which provides coaching and mentoring support and inspiration to young women to lean into and achieve their dream careers. Paula is author of the book ‘Vantage Points’ published in February 2021.

June has enjoyed a 20-year career which has already seen her become one of the most recognisable faces of British television, as well as being one of the UK’s most intelligent and dynamic young hosts. June is a media phenomenon and is the only host of her generation that is equally comfortable interviewing politicians, celebrities and members of the public.

June has also taken on the world’s most challenging live audiences, hosting 2005’s major Make Poverty History event in London’s Trafalgar Square and presenting at the UK leg of Live Earth in 2007. In 2008 alongside Will Smith she also hosted Nelson Mandela’s 90th Birthday celebrations in front of 30,000 people in London’s Hyde Park.

June is the Co-Founder of the WIE Network (Women:Inspiration & Enterprise). WIE first launched in NYC in 2010 and in UK in 2012. This acclaimed conference has featured leading speakers from a gamut of industries, previous speakers include: Sarah Brown, Melinda Gates, Arianna Huffington, Donna Karan, Queen Rania, Nancy Pelosi, Iman and many more. WIE supports female excellence and has an alliance of over 200,000 women.

June’s latest endeavour is Ldny an ethical fashion social enterprise initiative which has a partnership with the United Nations. Ldny launched during UN week at the start of 69th General Assembly Meeting.

June is based in London in 2015 she joined the board of Stronger IN the official campaign to keep Britain in the EU. June is currently a panelist on ITV’s Loose Women and Sky News’s weekly political debate show The Pledge.

Sue joined Ridgeway Partners as a partner in 2015 to lead the Retail and HR practice and work with the Board practice team. Previously Chief Executive, and a board member of a listed search firm, she has over 17 years as a practitioner in board advisory services.

Her work within the search industry has focused on board and non-executive appointments in FTSE and AIM listed businesses. With an early career in retail, she was a managing director of a leisure business in the early nineties. She moved into executive search in 1998. In addition to her role at Ridgeway Partners, Sue is a board member of Walpole British Luxury, a founder member of The Women’s Business Council and a Trustee for KidsOut children’s charity. She was awarded an OBE for services to charity and for promoting equality in the workplace, has a role on the board of the Chartered Management Institute and she is also a member of the International Women’s Federation.

Prior to leading White Stuff, Jo had one of the most recognisable jobs in High St fashion responsible for womenswear, lingerie and beauty at Marks & Spencer to support and grow their £4 billion turnover. Jo has a reputation of combining creativity and commerciality to her decisions with a unique understanding of what women want. She was head hunted by M&S to transform their lingerie and beauty portfolio in 2012. Jo immediately grew lingerie sales by expanding their range of large cup sizes through understanding that most women could no longer fit the M&S range. She simultaneously patented and launched a new ‘bra fit’ online app. Her understanding of digital made M&S once again exciting with the overnight try & test experience for customers. Jo also transformed the quality of beauty products plus made M&S a destination experience with the introduction of nail & brow bars and branded gifts. Together these innovations grew beauty sales and increased footfall across all stores. Prior to M&S Jo spent 7 years with Next growing their womenswear product line.

Professor Chris Bones is Dean Emeritus at Henley Management School, Professor of Creativity and Leadership at Manchester Business School and Visiting Professor at the University of Aberdeen. He advises on the academic content of The Pipeline programmes.

Professor Bones is an organisation and change strategist who is consistently ranked by his peers as one of the most influential thinkers of his generation. He has written extensively for professional journals and major newspapers.

He published his first book, ‘The Self-Reliant Manager’ in 1994 and contributed to the republished works of Peter Drucker. His latest book ‘The Cult of Leadership’ addresses the reasons behind the malaise in leadership and what can be done to restore trust in business. It won the 2012 Management Book of the Year Prize – the first UK winner. Before entering the world of academia Professor Bones had a successful career in industry spanning 30 years. He has also advised the current and previous Governments on M&A and pay.

Jennifer brings over 15 years experience as a communication and change strategist, and as a Partner in a global management consultancy, to her Executive coaching. She has worked at executive levels with, and in, a number of FTSE 100 companies in many sectors – finance, oil and gas, law, services. She works effectively in an environment of turbulent or substantial change.

She firmly believes that if people are resourceful enough to articulate issues, they are resourceful enough to find solutions. Her role is to use questioning, challenge and feedback to help clients uncover helpful insights quicker. She often helps clients to shine in their personal diversity and to lead inclusively so that diversity is welcomed, encouraged and celebrated in organisational life.

In her role as coach, Jackie works alongside CEO’s and senior leaders of global organisations helping them to do the tough work of change. She equips leaders to direct with their head as well as their heart, always seeing the leadership and people dynamic in the context of their business and commercial imperatives.

Jackie is known for moving leaders and their teams to the next level of performance. Organisations want to work with her as she brings a mix of business acumen with creativity, challenge and support.

Jackie’s work is shaped by the belief that the answers to most questions and dilemmas lie within the minds of leaders and their teams within organisations. Her approach focuses on enabling and surfacing the crucial questions that lead to new opportunities and growth in the current dynamic economy.

Sue has 30 years corporate experience culminating in 15 years at board-level. Her career started in advertising working on leading accounts, then in media during the transition to digital and finally in retail with a global brief.

As a professional executive coach, Sue coaches across a breadth of industries at a senior level. Her wealth of corporate experience enables fast comprehension of client challenges and helps her to work with each client to develop realistic strategies for success.

Sue has both experienced herself and coached others around the following: working in a male-dominated environment, navigating conflicting priorities of daily growth vs. long-term strategy, the complexities of working in a global matrix structure, balancing demanding work and personal schedules and more.

Sue’s clients say her coaching is insightful, challenging, supportive and effective.

Jayne has a wealth of FTSE 300 board level and non-executive director experience. Her career started as a chartered surveyor and property consultant and then progressed to corporate life in the UK and North America where she was involved in several large-scale mergers and acquisitions. She is a subject matter expert but also an experienced all-round business woman.

As an executive coach and accredited mediator, Jayne combines this learning with the experience of working with complex issues and challenging environments. She is passionate about supporting individuals and organisations reach new horizons and achieve the results they want.

Jayne’s non-executive experience also allows her to see things from multi levels which Chief Executives and Senior Leadership Teams in particular find beneficial. Her personable approach never compromises her insightfulness and vision of how things can be better.

Geeta Nargund is the Medical Director of CREATE Fertility. She is also a Senior Consultant Gynaecologist and Lead Consultant for Reproductive Medicine services at St George’s Hospital, London. Geeta is also proud to be a Director of the Walking Egg Foundation, a Belgian Charity dedicated to making fertility treatments affordable and accessible globally.

She has published more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers including abstracts and also several book chapters in the field of reproductive medicine. She is a pioneer in the field of Natural and Mild IVF and Advanced Ultrasound Technology in Reproductive Medicine. She is an accredited trainer for Infertility and Gynaecological Ultrasound special skills modules by the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists (RCOG) London and British Fertility Society (BFS). She pioneered the use of follicular Doppler in assessing “Egg quality” in humans. She also published the first scientific paper on “Cumulative live birth rates with Natural cycle IVF”.

She is a Visiting Professor at Hasselt University, Medical Faculty (working at Genk University Hospital), Belgium; St Marco University Lima (oldest university in Latin America) and SDM Medical College, India. She is actively involved in research in making IVF more natural, accessible and safer for women and children. She is the Chief Executive of the UK National charity, Health Education Research (HER) Trust. This Charity funds and supports women’s health education in the UK and in Africa.

Pauline has held a number of senior leadership roles in the European and UK motor industry. In addition she has supported several charities in a non-executive role, drawing on her broad commercial experience as a Finance Director, Learning and Development specialist and International Human Resources Director.

Pauline is now engaged in providing consultancy support to organisations aiming to create positive commercial change while bringing out the potential excellence within their people.

Working with senior leaders to examine their strategic direction, company structure and culture, Pauline supports positive change through organisation design, leadership development and executive coaching. Recent clients include Jaguar Land Rover, Ultra Engineering, Children with Cancer UK and MacIntyre.

As an executive coach, Pauline is focused particularly on supporting senior female leaders to bring out their most authentic personal leadership in challenging environments. Feedback from those Pauline has worked with attributes her with enabling them to leverage their personal impact and influence more effectively and so drive the success of their organisations.

John Reid is the most experienced Cabinet minister of modern times, having held more ministerial posts at Cabinet level than any other politician in recent history. In range of portfolios, and in breadth and intensity of change management across departments, his experience is unparalleled.

In particular he has served in leadership across a range of security-related portfolios in the UK Government including Home Secretary, Defence Secretary, Northern Ireland Secretary, Minister for Transport and Armed Forces Minister. Following almost quarter of a century as a Member of Parliament, in 2010 he was elevated to membership of the House of Lords, the Upper Chamber of the UK Parliament.

He is a Hon. Professor and Chair of the Institute for Security and Resilience Studies at University College London; a Principal at the Chertoff Group; Vice-Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Homeland Security; Director of John Reid Advisory and a Senior Advisor to the Private sector on Security related matters.

His many awards include a Hon. Doctorate from Stirling University for his outstanding contribution to Public Affairs (2009): Politician of the Year (Spectator, 2006); Minister to Watch (2005); Peace Person of the Year, Northern Ireland (2002) and Best Scot at Westminster (2001).

William Devine is a Senior Executive Coach working with leaders and teams across all sectors of the UK and Internationally, and is the head of The Pipeline’s coaching practice.

William is also an expert in supporting organisations to recover, restore resilience and grow through traumatic events. He works with organisations nationally and internationally.

William runs his own boutique business providing psychological services to organisations in the UK and beyond to support the wellbeing and resilience of their people.

He has qualifications in Psychotraumatology and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy having practiced with individuals, groups and organisations for over 20 years. He is a member of various professional bodies in Coaching, Psychotherapy and Trauma e.g. AOC, BACP, BACP Coaching Division, FPC, UKPTS, ESTSS.

Lorna is a serial entrepreneur and accomplished businesswoman, and an acknowledged expert in the D&I space. She is a co-founder of The Pipeline, a leading gender and diversity consultancy that specialises in helping women of all ethnicities reach senior positions within the public and private sectors. Now in its tenth year, The Pipeline’s alumni include some of the most dynamic female leaders across all industry groups. Lorna is a trusted advisor to Big Cap companies and to Whitehall, and is also a member of the Women in Finance Advisory Board, chaired by Amanda Blanc, which seeks to implement HM Government’s Women in Finance Charter. A board member of the Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership and a trustee of the education charity SHINE, Lorna is also deeply committed to realising growth in the Northern Powerhouse. Lorna previously founded and was the Director of The Alliance Project, a £150m public-private partnership focused on reinvigorating the UK textile manufacturing industry, as well as sitting on the Board of the UK Fashion Textiles Association, UKFT. In her time as the CEO of the Britain-Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM), Lorna turned BICOM into an internationally renowned centre of excellence. She has served as a visiting Fellow at the UK Defence Academy’s Advanced Research and Assessment Group, and is a former Member of Parliament for Rochdale, as well as a previous President of the National Union of Students.

From May 2015 to September 2016, Jim was Commercial Secretary to HM Treasury and during this time chaired a formal Review into AMR (antimicrobial resistance) publishing their final recommendations in May 2015, helping drive HM Government’s strategy as well as providing key input to the United Nations in this field.

Until October 2014, Jim chaired the Cities Growth Commission in the UK, when it provided its final recommendations, which formed the basis for the government’s approach to devolution and the concept of the Northern Powerhouse. Jim is a Board member of The Northern Powerhouse Partnership.

He is Honorary Chair of Economics at Manchester University. Jim, creator of the acronym “BRIC”, worked for Goldman Sachs from 1995 until April 2013, spending most of his time there as Chief Economist.

He is a board member and a founding trustee of the UK educational charity, SHINE, and became lifetime President. Jim has served on the boards of a number of educational foundations.

Ann is the Chief Executive Officer for Freemans Gratting Holdings, a role she has been in since January 2020 after initially joining as their Chief Marketing Officer. Previously she was Chief Customer Officer at N Brown Group where she worked in Home Shopping & Online Retail for more than 20 years. She was part of the team to launch the first Littlewoods website in 1999 and has held various marketing and digital roles. Ann was promoted to the Operating Board in May 2014, and was responsible for N Brown’s marketing strategy and activities, including sponsorships of the Digital First agenda and International expansion.

Professor Joe Nellis is Professor of Global Economy specialising in global macroeconomics, business environmental analysis, strategic thinking and management development.

Joe contributes across the full range of the School’s portfolio including senior Executive Development programmes as well as the Full-time MBA, Executive MBA and doctoral degrees. He was formerly Director of Graduate Programmes (1999-2003) and Academic Dean of the Faculty of Management (2003-05). He held the post of Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Cranfield University (2005-08). He is the longest serving member of the School of Management’s Executive Board. From 1st January 2014 until 31st January 2015 he served as Director and Pro-Vice Chancellor of Cranfield School of Management and as Interim Dean/PVC in 2019.

Joe has held Visiting Professorial appointments at various universities in Germany, Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands, Hungary, the USA and Ghana. He has published 19 research and subject-based books and over 200 academic and practitioner journal articles. His research encompasses analysis of business developments in a changing world in terms of the macroeconomy, the role of government, the impact of technology, societal and demographic trends. He is a frequent contributor to a wide range of national and international conferences and is a consultant to a number of UK and international companies in the areas of strategy and business environmental analysis, strategy formulation and management development. He has also acted as a consultant to several central government departments and public sector organisations. He was jointly responsible for the development of the Halifax and Nationwide House Price Indexes and more recently for the DPS Rent Price Index. He was formerly Chairman of Wellingborough Homes Housing Association.

Gill is a change and technology leader who loves to guide people to deliver new innovative solutions that transform businesses. Gill has spent most of her career working across technology and data companies and Financial Services.

Gill grew up in Northern Ireland and studied Computer Science at Queens University, Belfast before setting up roots in London. In her early years Gill gained tremendous experience and was rewarded with an appointment to the Executive Committee of an SME. This is where she learned to balance the demands of clients, lead and develop people whilst ensuring the company was profitable. Gill explains that she has been fortunate to work in senior roles for companies that embrace both technology and business change and put their customers at the heart of everything they do. Prior to returning to Lloyds Banking Group, Gill ran the UK Systems Integration division of an IT Consultancy and Services company (Atos) where she was able to work closely with clients from a variety of sectors and bring innovation and services to help them transform their businesses, especially focusing on Digital transformation.

Gill recently returned to Lloyds Banking Group where she is part of an executive team leading the group through the biggest digital transformation she has ever been involved with. The size and scale is providing the opportunity for Gill to learn everyday whilst continuing to have fun along the way.

Gill likes to encourage team work whilst having fun along the way. Gill is a big sports fan having played for Arsenal Ladies football team (a long time ago). Nowadays she has to be content with watching her two sons, Josh and Alex, play sports.

Rees joined KPMG in 1989 and has over 25 years’ experience in the insurance industry. For six years he held a number of internal management roles including the Head of FS Audit. Rees leads various external audit accounts including FTSE 100 (Prudential Plc) and FTSE 250 (Hiscox Plc) clients and large private groups (Budget Holdings Ltd).

Rees has extensive experience in the insurance sector dealing with Life, Non Life (retail and London Market) and intermediary clients. He has significant experience of working with listed groups.

He has led a large number of advisory projects particularly transactions including IPO’s, rights issues, debt issues and financial due diligence. He has also led a number of projects advising on various aspects of Corporate Governance. Specifically he has acted as the reporting accountant on rights issues for Hiscox and Beazley during their relocation to Bermuda and Ireland respectively and for Prudential during their attempted takeover of AIA. Rees also provided advice to Old Mutual during their acquisition of Skandia and to Winterthur when they sold Churchill Insurance to Royal Bank of Scotland. Rees spent a year on secondment at the Labour party acting as their Finance Director during the 2001 General Election.

Rees has extensive experience of leading audit and advisory engagements for a wide range of clients including Prudential, Old Mutual, Allianz UK, Clerical Medical, Churchill Insurance, Hiscox, Beazley, Novae, Lancashire, Towergate and Budget Holdings Limited (ultimate parent company of Compare the Market).

Rees has considerable experience in IFRS, UK GAAP, European Embedded Values reporting and SOX reporting. He also has experience with various types of regulatory and client money reporting.

Charlotte worked in broadcasting for more years than she would care to admit starting out in the BBC. Over the years she had roles on both sides of the camera as producer and presenter. When Charlotte left ITV in 2008 she was Political Editor and Head of Current Affairs at ITV Yorkshire.

Charlotte now works as a public affairs consultant as well as running media training and presentation skills courses for senior executives in some of the UK’s most successful companies.

Matilda has worked in theatre, TV, film & live comedy. She played the mother of Rupert Grint’s character in the Sky Atlantic comedy, Sick Note; is also known for playing Mandy in TV’s long-running comedy, Desmond’s and has just finished filming ‘Back to Black’, the new Amy Winehouse movie. Matilda has worked with, among others, Robin Williams, and many UK cast members of ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway?’ in comedy improvisation. Other TV credits include: Eastenders, The Bill, Holby City, Casualty. Along with her sister Harriet, Matilda founded Dr Theatre– a coaching company that uses innovative presentation and training techniques to enhance business communication skills and to help women create a ‘Business Persona’.

Harriet is best known for playing Carole Parkinson in The Brittas Empire and Fleur in Absolutely Fabulous, a role she is reprised in the recent movie adaptation. She has also appeared on television in The Three Musketeers (BBC), The Secret (BBC), Victoria Wood’s Christmas Special+Midlife Crisis, French & Saunders, Girls On Top, Doctors, The Bill and Casualty.

Harriet has also appeared on film in Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, The Lady in the Van, Calendar Girls, Suzie Gold, The Calling, Maurice, Life Is Sweet and Greystoke.

West End theatre includes Wicked, Mamma Mia, Great Britain, Cabaret, Crazy For You and Les Miserables. Harriet has also appeared at the National Theatre in All My Sons, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Pravda and The Government Inspector; the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in Twelfth Night, Cymbeline, Richard III and A Midsummer Night’s Dream; in Gary Barlow + Tim Firth’s musical adaptation of Calendar Girls; and as Mrs. Lovett in John Doyle’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. Harriet is ambassador for breast cancer charity Walk The Walk.

Sue Campbell trained as a physical education teacher, taught in Manchester and lectured at Leicester and Loughborough Universities. During this time, Sue represented her country as a player, a coach and a team manager. She then went on to spend four years as a regional officer with the Sports Council (now Sport England) before moving to the National Coaching Foundation (NCF). Following 11 years as the Chief Executive of the NCF, she became Chief Executive of the Youth Sport Trust. In February 2005, Sue became Chair of that organisation. In March 2016, Sue was appointed as Head of Women’s football with the Football Association.

Among many honours, Sue has received 10 honorary doctorates and in June 2003, Sue was awarded a Commander of the British Empire for her services to sport.

In April 2005 she was appointed as Chair for UK Sport, following 18 months as the Reform Chair. Sue held this position for two terms, and following a very successful Olympics/Paralympics in 2012, she stood down as Chair in April 2013.In December 2008 Sue was appointed to the House of Lords as an independent Crossbench Peer.

Helen holds an MA, LLB (Law), is a qualified psychometric assessor and an alumnus of the INSEAD Challenge of Leadership Programme & the INSEAD International Directors Programme – Corporate Governance Certificate (IDP-C): she is the only UK Board Effectiveness Consultant with this qualification.

Helen has also attended the INSEAD Leading from the Chair Programme. She is an APECS-accredited coach and is also a Fellow of the IoD, CIPD, RSA and a Member of the European Corporate Governance Institute.

Helen is recognised as a leading Board Effectiveness practitioner and writes and presents regularly on the subject of the Chairman’s and NED’s role in creating a high-performance board culture and the behavioural aspects of board performance.

Helen is also a leading organisational performance coach and mentor, and works at the most senior level in FTSE 100 and international companies, and in the public sector. She has a worldwide network of alumni whom she has coached over the years.

Dido is the new Chairperson of NHS improvement after standing down as Chief Executive of TalkTalk Telecom Group PLC in May. She also serves as a non-executive director on the Court of The Bank of England.

Dido previously served as a senior executive director on the Management Boards of both Sainsbury’s and TESCO. Both were in P&L roles here in the UK and abroad. She has also held executive roles at Kingfisher plc and Thomas Cook Limited. Dido has served as a NED on the boards of The British Land Company PLC and Cheltenham Racecourse and is a former jockey. In August 2014 Dido was introduced as a Peer and sits in the House of Lords as a Conservative Peer.

Stuart Rose has spent all his career in retail joining Marks & Spencer plc in 1971. He left to join the Burton Group in 1989, becoming a director in 1993. Following the Group’s demerger in 1997, he became Chief Executive of Argos plc during the bid by GUS. In 1998, he became Chief Executive of Booker plc which was merged with the Iceland Group in 2000. He then became Chief Executive of Arcadia Group plc in November 2000 and left in December 2002 following its sale to Sir Philip Green. He was named Chief Executive of Marks & Spencer plc in May 2004 and became Chairman in 2008, standing down in January 2011. He was Chairman of The British Fashion Council from 2004 – 2008, Chairman of Business in the Community from 2008 – 2010 and a Non-Executive Director of Land Securities from 2003-2013. He was Chairman of Ocado until 2020, and is now Chairman of EG Group, Fat Face, Oasis Healthcare Group and a Non-Executive Director of Woolworths (South Africa). He is also Chairman of The Healing Foundation, a medical charity.

Stuart was knighted in 2008 for services to the retail industry and corporate social responsibility and made a life peer in September 2014.