Chair: Angela Puri
Angela has worked in the area of EDI for 20 years. Specialising the area of local government. Currently working for Brent Council as the EDI Strategic Lead. She is an Executive Coach specialising in the area of Stress Management.
Felicia Lauw
TALK TITLE: D&I Advocacy with connectedness
Felicia is passionate about thriving human connectivity. She works in partnership with people she serves to co-create sustainable growth for our society through healthy, energising and honest dialogue. Born and bred in Singapore, of Chinese race mostly, mixed with a dash of Malay heritage. She grew up in a multi-lingual and multi-cultural society and spent her working life travelling and living in many parts of Asia, and for a short while in Paris and Utah. She is a Global Voice for Diversity and Inclusion for the Association of Coaching Supervisors, a member of the EMCC Supervision for Centre for Excellence and a winner of the 2020 EMCC Global Supervision award. Since 2009, she has been bridging Western thinking structures and Eastern philosophy in her work as a practising executive coach/mentor and supervisor as well as coach/mentor/supervisor educator. She is fluent in English and Chinese and a watercolour artist.
Rita Symons
TALK TITLE: Forgiving the Unforgivable: Generative Conversations
Rita is a credible coach, mentor and leadership development specialist. She was an internal coach in the NHS and held numerous posts, including in commissioning, community and mental health services, ten years of which were at Board level. She has lived experience of being a BAME Chief Officer. In 2016, she left her role as a CCG Chief Officer and established a Coaching and Leadership Development practice.
She is on the NHS Faculty and is a practitioner with significant interest in research. She has undertaken research commissioned to inform the national strategy, a focus of which was looking at how coaching can be more inclusive, in terms of the diversity of coaches and individuals who are accessing coaching. Rita also provided expert input co-leading the development of the Reciprocal Mentoring for Inclusion programme and she works on other inclusion programmes as well as senior leadership programmes.
Until 2021, Rita was the UK President of EMCC UK. She is passionate about supporting coaches and mentors at all stages of their development, being an accredited supervisor as well as a Senior Practitioner Coach.
Sandra Wilson
TALK TITLE: Personal experience of using coaching and mentoring services
This is my second leadership role within this subject area. Prior to BTP I led the cross governmental Cabinet Office coaching cadre of 150 Civil Servants. I have extensive experience as a programme/ project leader having worked on a diversity of social projects ranging from the development of a positive action programme for 600 civil servants, setting up a mentoring programme for 60 school children from lower socially economic households to supporting senior leaders on change. I have a Master’s Degree in Social Policy and Criminology, Post Grad in in Coaching and Mentoring. More recently I have received my accreditation from the European Mentoring and Coaching Council as a Coach/ Mentor Supervisor, Senior Practitioner and Team Coach for Senior Leaders.
As well as leading I coach individuals through change and /or those who want to decide their own way forward. Team Coaching is a new and fascinating area of work for me which keeps me on my toes. Supervision of our coaching community is something that I continue to enjoy and evolve.
My underpinning driven for this work is to help people to help themselves. I would like to see a world were coaching and mentoring is offered to all that need it and that the coaching and mentoring community is fully representative of the various communities it serves.
Will James
TALK TITLE: The Key Moment for Unlocking Belonging
Will James is a leadership and team coach with over 10 years of executive coaching experience across all sectors, but in recent years has focused on partnering with for profit businesses committed to becoming driven by purpose and creating a more positive social and / or environmental impact. He brings a systems lens to both individual and team coaching, with the awareness that at some level everything is connected, everything belongs, and everything has its purpose. He enjoys being inspired by vision, and bringing the energy, creativity, courage and optimism required to push-through to new ways of seeing, thinking and behaving that make better outcomes possible. As well as leading ‘W th’ Coaching Consultancy, he is also Director of EDI, Sustainability and the Environment at APECS.