Leadership Forums

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.

A Chartered Accountant by background with an extensive knowledge of finance and general management through international roles in the Mars Group and senior executive roles with Barclays Bank. He is currently a Non-Executive Director and Audit Committee Chair for the Bucks Healthcare NHS Trust and a Trustee and Audit Committee Chair at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability.

He coaches in Career Transition at Penna Plc bringing his broad finance and management experience as well as knowledge of Interim Management.

He joined ella in 2014 and runs Group 1.

Lindsey is an experienced chief executive and non - executive director with a passion for social impact and diversity. She has worked in housing, development, education and training for more than 30 years.
Lindsey is a direct and dynamic leader who likes to get things done. She thrives on tough challenges, fresh ideas and breaking down barriers - and having fun whilst doing it!

``Leading an organisation that is continually learning and developing both myself and others is vital to success``

Lindsey believes in the power of professionals to change lives and build, safe communities where people want to live, learn, work and stay.

Coach, Founder and MD of Grow Your Own Organic Learning, a coaching and experiential learning business with a social enterprise heart, Abbi is passionate about making an impact. An experienced commercial leader with 14 years’ experience in FTSE 100 consumer products businesses, she has held Director-level roles in GB and Europe and offers a wide breadth of expertise across Business Transformation and Change, Customer Management, Customer Marketing, Organisational Design and Learning & Development.

Julie is passionate about developing individuals, teams and organisations to reach their full potential and to achieve great outcomes. She has extensive experience of Leadership Development and Executive Coaching and uses a strengths-based approach in her work, underpinned with the latest research in neuroscience.
She has worked with a diverse range of private and public sector organisations including retail, engineering and construction businesses as well as the NHS, housing associations and large charities. Julie has coached senior leaders, managing directors and CEOs as well as a broad range of individuals at all levels in organisations. Julie is a British Psychological Society qualified user of an extensive range of psychometric tools and an ILM qualified Coach. She is a Chartered Member of the CIPD, holds post-graduate diplomas in HR and in Executive Coaching and Leadership Mentoring, and is a Master Practitioner in NLP as well as a qualified user of a wide range of counselling techniques.
Prior to setting up her own business in 1995 Julie was an HR Director in a blue chip global business and spent 11 years working as an HR professional in the public transport, engineering and FMCG sectors.

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.

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.

Gill is an Organisational Development consultant, executive coach, and facilitator with over twenty-five years’ experience helping people, teams and organisations to perform at their best. She is passionate about developing resourceful and resilient leaders who can deliver individual performance at the highest level while creating a culture where everyone can find their place and purpose in order to thrive. Gill has worked with leaders in the UK and Europe, and from a range of market sectors that includes organisations such as Roche, J Sainsbury, IMG, Innocent, Imperial College London, PRS for Music and Macmillan Cancer Support. Gill enjoys working in partnership with her clients, her approach is always pragmatic, and action orientated. Gill is passionate about her own development and her qualifications include, Level 7 ILM Executive Coaching qualification, Systemic Team Coaching Master Practitioner (Academy of Executive Coaching), Organisational Development Practitioner (Roffey Park); NLP Practitioner.