Julie is passionate about helping individuals and organisations to thrive, and has spent over 25 years working in Leadership Development. She joined Ella Forums as chair of the Southern Forum in March 2020 and was appointed to the position of Chief Membership and Development Officer in August 2021. Julie became CEO of Ella Forums in October 2023.

Julie 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 Pharmaceutical, retail, engineering and construction businesses as well as the NHS, housing associations and large charities. Julie 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.

Danny was CEO of Ella Forums from 2019 to October 2023 when he became Chair of the Board. Prior to taking on the role of CEO, he was on Ella’s leadership team and co-chair of one of Ella’s forums. In his corporate life, his career was mostly in HR and for a short time in Marketing. His last role was at Panasonic where he worked for 21 years where he had a number of positions including becoming HR Director for Panasonic Europe and for 7 years Global Head of Talent.
Since leaving Panasonic in 2013 Danny has co-authored two books on Talent Management, became an accredited executive coach and a part-time senior lecturer on leadership at Middlesex Business School.
‘ I enjoy my role at Ella as I feel that I can share my experiences of promoting good and effective leadership in the charity sector and in particular both speaking at and attending our groups’

Matt has scars and stripes from many years of corporate life and from being an MD and CEO. Matt started out as an Electronics graduate, as he is intensely curious and designed the first TV surround sounded speakers in his first role after graduating.

Matt’s experience stretches across many markets and industries including including Automotive, Aerospace, Industrial, Lighting then moving into Leadership Coaching and Development. His career started in Engineering, quickly moving into international sales and finally business leadership, studying for a Warwick MBA along the way.

More recently Matt’s curiosity moved to how the mind works, as he puts it “now one gave us a user guide, for the post powerful piece of kit we have – our minds” Matt is an author of “Nuclear Powered Resilience” and now coaches, teaches and runs workshops on very practical resilience techniques and every now and again goes back to his innovation and problems solving routes.

Matt also enjoys helping businesses understand their company culture better and how to change it and keep it aligned. Matt is also a certified Emergenetics associate, able to help others understand themselves more.

Matt enjoys running, walking along the South Coast and spending time with his family.

Link to my LinkedIn profile and my website
https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-sturgess/
https://mindlocksmith.com/

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 Ella Forums 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.

Abbi has been running her own coaching business for the last 6 years, and prior to that she spent 15 years at Cadbury and Diageo in commercial and then leadership roles. Like a labrador, she loves people, so sometimes it’s a bit weird she works for herself. Coaching has been a revelation – to finally have a word for the thing she loves doing – making space and partnering with others to learn. She now works with individuals, teams and organisations of all shapes and sizes, although the scrappy challenger ones who want to change the world are her favourite. Hopefully all that corporate experience paid off – she now knows how to avoid the bs traps while still navigating the system. She brings curiosity, energy and a sense of playfulness to her work, but she’s not afraid to go wherever is needed. Outside of work she has a husband with an annoyingly keen commitment to cycling (which he considers a partner activity), a wise and motivated 18 year old stepdaughter and a bonkers 5 year old who loves art, rainbows and princesses. Abbi is also in the final throes of an MSc in Coaching & Behavioural Change, so she knows what it’s like to feel intimidated by learning. Her research will be finished in summer 2024 and she plans to celebrate by lying down.