About Me
From Commodity trader to Chocolate and now Coaching and Community
I work as an Executive Coach and as a Life Coach and have spent a lot of the last 18 months Coaching on Zoom and supporting the local community during the pandemic.
To relax I enjoy walking and cycling with friends in the Worcestershire countryside. I’m also a football fan, supporting my local club and go to the home matches when I can.
Before coaching I had a long career in the corporate world. I worked as a wheat buyer, as a commodity trader and then joined Cadbury (now Mondelez) in the Procurement team, eventually becoming a global buyer of cocoa products and chocolate and travelling across the world to visit suppliers and factories. Balancing my career with my family was challenging at times but overall I enjoyed my various management and director roles, and learnt a lot as I managed a team, stepped up to leadership and worked alongside stakeholders from different cultures in various time zones.
After about 25 years in the commercial world, I knew I wanted to do something different which was more linked to people development. I was fortunate enough to be able to take a year-long sabbatical in which I used a ‘test and learn’ approach. I volunteered as a mentor with the Prince’s Trust and then attended a session with The Coaching Academy. Having realised that ‘Coaching was for me’ it took me a few years to re-invent myself and start my Coaching qualifications.
I returned to work at Cadbury in a Development & Capability role, thereby having the opportunity to support colleagues across Europe. This reinforced my passion for empowering others and so in October 2018 I left the corporate world and started training to be a Coach, undertaking two diplomas and qualifying as an ICF accredited Personal Performance Coach and a Professional Corporate & Executive Coaching early in 2021 after 100s of hours of coaching practice.
I have found my new purpose as I seek to empower and encourage others to achieve their goals, both through my coaching business itself and also via everyday interactions in my local community.
Continued learning and growth is important for me, so I have lots of plans to increase my coaching qualifications further, to challenge myself and just as importantly have lots of fun as I implement my ideal life/ work balance.