Life and Executive Coaches
Our personal development programme is led by a blend of reputable academic professionals, renowned authors, and inspirational storytellers with a wide array of unique experiences.
Nikolina Jovanovic BSc (Hons)
- Founder, Indigo Sails
- Public Speaker, Columnist, and Author
Nikolina completed her Bachelor of Science with Honors in Hospitality and Service Management with a Concentration in Small Business Development from the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York, and American College of Management and Technology, Croatia. In 2007, Nikolina was presented the opportunity to do a two year rotation internship with Vail Marriott Mountain Resort & Spa in Vail, Colorado. It was here that she gained the additional experience and skills needed to pursue her career in Hotel & Hospitality Project Development. Shortly after her graduation, she was selected to be involved with several privately owned 4 and 5 star hotel projects. Here, Nikolina applied her ‘hands-on approach’ and entrepreneurial mindset to lead their development and position them as reputable luxury boutique hotels in Southeastern Europe. Her roles included Head of Marketing and Sales, General Manager, and CEO.
A few years ago, Nikolina was introduced to the yacht accommodation and sailing industry by her great friends based in London. They helped her to get involved in yacht chartering and handling yacht supply across multiple destinations world-wide. She quickly got a grip around the yacht industry using her hotel management background and other experiences. She successfully handled the logistics for a 1000+ yacht supply in Croatia and many other worldwide destinations. A few years later, she scaled her knowledge and experience by becoming the Head Of Business Development EMEA for a business which connects mobile networks and global travel through Cloud Platforms. This career change was an exploration of her passion for the relationship between hospitality, travel, and technology. Despite all of her successes, accolades and the money, she felt a sense of missing self-fulfillment and that her achievements lacked personal value. This led her to embark on a journey of searching for her True Self. This journey is mapped out in the book she is currently writing titled “Ticket to Hell for Heaven on Earth“. Writing this book and following her authenticity led Nikolina to creating and developing Indigo Sails – Personal Development & Sailing Retreat. She is a firm believer that the world can be a better place if we dare to follow our inner guidance. She hopes that this retreat will lead more people on their journey of Self Discovery and living life authentically.
Roger Delves MA (Hons) Oxon, FRSA
- Professor of Practice in Leadership - Hult International Business School; Ashridge Executive Education (EQ, authenticity, purpose, values and integrity)
- Speaker, Author, Life and Executive Coach
- Advisory Board Chair, Indigo Sails
A Fellow of the RSA, and Oxford-educated, Roger is Associate Dean and Professor of Leadership Practice at a leading international business school. His special interests are helping others to understand the roles of authenticity and emotional intelligence in leadership and in team engagement. Roger has taught and coached extensively internationally and in the UK. Among many others, Roger has co-authored “The Top Fifty Management Dilemmas – Fast Solutions to Everyday Challenges”, contributed to and co-edited “Inspiring Leadership: Becoming a Dynamic and Engaging Leader” the same as a chapter to “Management Development that Works” . He co-facilitated a 2019 SIG for EFMD exploring innovations in leadership development and co-authored a chapter on the merger of Ashridge and Hult for a book entitled “Excellence in University Leadership”.
During his twelve-year career in international advertising, he was on the London board of global top ten agency DMB&B and was for six years Client Services Director of the DMB&B start-up in Dublin. On leaving adland he was for six years Principal Consultant in a management development consultancy, and later spent six years as Programme Director within the Centre for Customised Executive Development at Cranfield University School of Management. He has been teaching across tailored, open, and degree-awarding programmes since 1996 and has taught in more than twenty-five countries globally.
Rebecca Stephens MBE
- Adjunct Professor of Strategic Management, Leadership and Change - Hult International Business School; Ashridge Executive Education (self-motivation, teamwork, leadership, and communication skills )
- Journalist, Author, Motivational Speaker, Life and Executive Coach
- Mountaineer - first British woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest and climb all Seven Summits
- Television presenter - BBC
- Trustee for Sir Edmund Hillary's Himalayan Trust, a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a member of the Alpine Club
- Advisory Board, Indigo Sails
On 17th May 1993 Rebecca became the first British woman to climb Everest. The following year she went on to become the first British woman to scale the highest mountains on each of the seven continents, the ‘Seven Summits’. Drawing on her experiences in extreme and often hostile mountain environments, as well as her communication skills gained in her early career in journalism with the Financial Times, Rebecca delivers inspirational keynote addresses and master classes to audiences around the world, sharing insights into leadership, motivation, teamwork, communication, decision-making and risk. Rebecca also leads master classes in the mountains where candidates are invited to learn experientially while climbing Kilimanjaro. Three years in succession she has led a team of MBA students from Rotterdam School of Management on the RSM MBA Kilimanjaro Elective, the first of its kind in Europe. This leadership in the field has been shown to transform people’s professional lives.
While she wouldn’t consider herself a sailor, she did board a 60ft steel-hulled yacht and sail the Southern Seas to the South Magnetic Pole and Antarctica. She has also crossed the South Atlantic Island of South Georgia in the footsteps of Sir Ernest Shackleton and, with the polar explorers Ranulph Fiennes and Mike Stroud, competed in an eight-day Eco-Challenge, riding, cycling, and canoeing across the Canadian Rockies.
Her book titles include “On Top of the World”; “The Seven Summits of Success” co-written with business writer Robert Heller, “Everest Eyewitness Guide”, “Due South: Through Tropics and Polar Extremes” and her latest book written with Skarbek Associates “Making It Happen”.
She is director of Seven Summits Performance Limited, a professional and leadership development company, principal consultant of Skarbek Associates, consultants in executing strategy, and an adjunct at Hult Ashridge Executive Education.
She is a long-standing trustee of The Himalayan Trust UK which helps support mountain communities in Nepal, a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and member of the Alpine Club.
Alexander Mackenzie MA, FRSA
- Adjunct Professor in Experiential Leadership Programmes - Hult International Business School; Ashridge Executive Education (driving commercial ambition with personal integrity through story telling and arts)
- Director of Fearless Leadership Programme, Cranfield University
- Artist, Illustrator, Author, Motivational Speaker and Storyteller
- Life and Executive Coach
Alexander Mackenzie is a seanchai or storyteller by profession. He’s been a leading pioneer in working with the arts in business for over 25 years. He is particularly recognised for his work in the use of storytelling as a tool for learning and development. He is a dedicated and inspiring speaker and workshop leader. His core value of passionate integrity is reflected in his ambition to support globally aware leaders delivering on a more authentic heart-centred approach to leading in organisations. His unique combination of working dynamically with mind, body and spirit, holistically weaving artistic thinking with pragmatic goals, sets Alexander apart as a consultant and coach within the field of personal development. Alexander is an experienced coach and life coach, and is the developer of the Fearless Leadership programme (FLAME) which he has successfully delivered through the Praxis Centre at Cranfield University School of Management for many years and elsewhere in Singapore and other parts of Asia, to huge acclaim from hundreds of delighted attendees.
His coaching approach is to bring people to the edge, and ask themselves ‘What’s next?’
More than that he firmly believes that everyone is a great storyteller and he makes it his business to share the techniques of speaking from the heart using his iconic ‘three field of intelligence method, with mindfulness as the centre of learning afresh.
He also works with Ashridge Executive Education and is known for his informative manner, authentic learning and leading by example approach, in his coaching.
He brings Storytelling that was introduced to him by the Aboriginal People when he won his life fellowship with the Churchill trust for exploring the contemporary role of the storyteller in leadership.
Also, as a well established artist Alexander has recently completed a second MA, this time in Illustration where he has achieved a ‘Distinction’ for his research on the ‘invisible’ art of illustration.
Pamela Barry-Das, OCCUPATIONAL PSYCHOLOGIST
- Chartered Occupational Psychologist (CPsychol), an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (AFBPsS), member of the BPS Division of Coaching, an EMCC (European Mentoring Coaching Council) EQA accredited coach and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) practitioner
- Areas of expertise: Emotional Intelligence, Resilience, Derailment, Learning Agility, Managing Conflict, Cultural Diversity, Influencing Skills, Effective Communication, Identification of Leadership Potential
- Life and Executive Coach
Pamela Barry-Das is a registered Occupational Psychologist (CPsychol) with the British Psychological Society, an EMCC accredited coach and NLP Practitioner. She is also certified in a number of major psychometric instruments such as the Myers-Briggs Company and Korn Ferry/ Hay Group assessment suite. She is trilingual (Bengali, German and English) and delivers most of her work in German and English. She supports individuals as well as organisations to overcome challenges related to people, performance and transitions. For Pamela, it’s about identifying the right talent, and/or developing people to become the best they can be in the role they are in, whether that role is personal or professional. Understanding strengths and being mindful of weaker areas helps individuals to increase self-awareness and develop areas of interest and potential.
Dr. Kerrie Fleming,
Kerrie is Associate Dean and Academic Director of the Doctorate in Organisational Change (EDOC) at Ashridge Executive Education at Hult International Business School in the UK. She is managing partner of ELEOS ltd, which specialises in leadership development and transformative change in organisations while considering the wider ecosystem of clients, suppliers, society and the environment. She has worked for over a decade as a facilitator and consultant in leadership, emotional intelligence and organisational change all over the world. She began her career in strategic acquisition management, account management and customer
service with Kerry Group before completing a PhD in organisational behaviour which
examined the role of emotional intelligence and innovation in architectural practices in Ireland.
As a Client Director and facilitator at Ashridge, UK and IMI, Kerrie has designed and delivered customised, MBA, EDOC and Open Leadership and Management development programs to senior executives, incorporating sessions on emotional intelligence, organisational change, resilience, influencing, strategy and innovation to Fortune 500 companies as well as UK and international governments, indigenous and international organisations. Her books include The Leaders guide to Emotional Agility by Pearson FT and along with Roger Delves is editor of Inspiring leadership with Bloomsbury. Her work has been featured in Forbes, the BBC and her leadership research is presented at her Hult TEDx talk.
Dr. Amy Bradley
Amy Bradley researches, writes, consults and speaks on the topics of compassionate leadership, burnout and engagement at work. Her research (she has a PhD) has been published in academic and practitioner publications including Harvard Business Review, Forbes Magazine and Management Today and in the press, including BBC online and The Guardian. In 2020, Amy made it onto the prestigious Thinkers50 Radar of global management thinkers. Her most recent book, The Human Moment, was longlisted for CMI’s Management Book of the year. In it, Amy argues that organisations must find ways of becoming more compassionate in an age where our work is increasingly transactional and increasingly de-humanised. Her forthcoming book, Running on Empty explores the causes, symptoms, effects and potential antidotes to burnout, which has become particularly prevalent in the working population in the wake of the Covid 19 pandemic.
Amy and Roger co-wrote an article (on team engagement) that was read at the EURAM 2020 Conference in Dublin. Amy supports people and organisations to foster more compassionate environments. She also leads the research into barriers to engagement for Engage for Success, a UK social movement that is seeking to improve levels of engagement and well-being across industry.
Air Commodore Nicholas Bray, CBE
- Director Defence and Security - EMEA at Vantiq
- Advisory Board, Indigo Sails
- Public Speaker
Nick Bray is one of Indigo’s advisors. He came into this role largely by accident, as he had the unique opportunity to essentially redefine his life after a 30-year career in some of the military’s most demanding roles.
His stories are about having to maintain the willing support of his people when completely lost in the jungles of South America, physical exhaustion and humour in the face of adversity in the Arctic. Struggling to maintain credibility and overcome inner doubt when faced with failure and encouraging those around him to succeed and find their inner strength in the deserts of Iraq. Protecting peoples’ inner spirit when called upon to do some of life’s toughest tasks and coping with fear, in its many incarnations. But also unfashionable ideas like loyalty, determination, humanity, mercy, humour and compassion.
Today Nick is Director of Strategy and Business Development at a Cambridge-based high technology company and the head of innovation and international relations for a London-based consultancy. He has recently worked in the cyber security, defence and drone development sectors. Before that, Nick served for thirty-three years in the military, occupying a spectrum of senior international roles ranging from conflict prevention, to helping to save the planet. He is still involved with the RAF’s Reserves in a consultancy and innovation role. He was awarded the CBE by Her Majesty the Queen, has an MA from King’s College London and an MSc from the London School of Economics.
