Leadership Forums

The Forums are located around the United Kingdom providing leaders and individuals with support and input that enables them to achieve what matters to them. If you would like to engage in a conversation that creates more powerful results in your organisation, please contact us by emailing: enquiries@ella-forums.org.

London Forum
Andrew Jacobs

Andrew Jacobs

Chair - London Forum

Andrew built his family Food Import business to revenues of $100 mln p.a. and is one of the global industry leaders on a United Nations project for more nutritious and sustainable foods. Andrew now spends most of his time as a Social Action activist with Citizens UK and coach/mentor to charities and social enterprises through his extended network & Ella Forums.
North East Forum

David Robinson

Chair - North East Forum

David has worked in leadership roles in the voluntary sector for over 20 years, with his last two roles being CEO of local charities. He has recently set up a new recruitment business, Jobs with Purpose, supporting non-profit organisations to source people who connect with their values. His background cuts across the charity, public and private sectors and he brings with him senior management experience in the fields of youth, learning disability, mental health, employment support, corporate social responsibility and local regeneration. He has also held posts in private sector recruitment and sports retail buying. David takes a real interest in the community and voluntary sector, especially in the North East and has held trusteeships with regional voluntary sector infrastructure organisation Voluntary Organisations Network North East (VONNE) and Healthwatch North Tyneside. He is a Clore Social Leadership fellow, completed the Common Purpose North East Meridian leadership programme and has been involved with Pilotlight, both as a leader of a charity benefitting from the programme and as part of a team supporting a charity. David has chaired the North East forum since January 2021 and from October 2022 he will join Ella Forums as a Director. He has a degree in Management and Masters in Psychology.
West Midlands Forum

David Hellier

Chair - West Midlands Forum

David has spent over 25 years as a leader within the global software industry, leading large cross-national, cross-cultural teams, with a focus on creating the right culture and psychological safety needed for the team to flourish. Always an active mentor, David began his journey as a coach some five years ago, and recently left full-time employment to focus on his coaching practice, working with individuals to create that self-awareness, unlock those insights and identify the concrete steps that will truly lead to transformative behavioural change whether in a leadership, professional or personal capacity. He is ACC accredited and working towards completing a Masters in Coaching for Behavioural Change later in 2024.
Southern Forum

Sarah Law

Chair - Southern Forum

This forum is chaired and facilitated by Sarah Law. Sarah has an extensive and proven experience of organisational and leadership development plus expertise in coaching and team development. Feel free to contact Sarah on 07831 202730 for further details of the Southern Forum.
You can be assured of a warm welcome from Sarah and the members of the Southern Forum. They have lively debates on a genuinely diverse range of topics, and they take the time to get to know each other as they find that this makes the forum stronger. Sarah facilitates and also participates in the discussions which focus on issues and challenges faced by the members. This can cover a wide range of issues and they also share the learning from the monthly speaker sessions.
The charities represented by the members of this forum include a hospice, an online payment provider, adult learning, a community farm, literacy support to underprivileged young children, a large hospital charity, a virtual medical advice provider and a charity for the blind. And they do have some spaces for new members.
North West Forum

Daniel Solomons

Chair - North West Forum

Daniel leads transformational education programmes that help organisations thrive in a digital age. He has over 20 years’ experience in advertising and marketing, half of which were spent immersed in the world of digital media. More recently, Daniel headed up the Google Digital Academy, leading a team that designed and delivered ground-breaking education programmes and workshops for advertisers, agencies and Googlers across EMEA, including the award-winning Squared programme. Whilst working at Google, Daniel developed a passion for the cultural, behavioural and organisational aspects of digital transformation, and left to set up Byte Behaviour. He now works with C-suite and senior executives to help them recognise the digital transformation opportunity, and to design and deliver the programmes that help them propel their teams and business forward in a disruptive and ever-changing digital world.
Central Forum

Niamh Thorpe

Chair - Central Forum