WE PROVIDE POWERFUL SOLUTIONS IN THE FACE OF CHANGE

Gather Coaching brings together the extensive business expertise and passion of Ian Playford and a strong team of associate coaches.

Ian has a depth of senior leadership skills that uniquely places him in a position of trust and respect with business leaders. You will feel understood and supported from the outset of your coaching relationship with him.

• Board and strategy advisor

• Experience working with International teams

• ORSC certified coach

• Cantle Leadership Alumni

• Expert in Positive Intelligence (PQ)

Ian Playford is an ORSC trained coach who has used system thinking to support Boards, teams and individuals over the last 20 years. Ian has invested time developing an understanding of human psychology and behaviours in business and groups and amongst others is an Alumni of Cantle leadership programmes, Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership and is an advanced Landmark graduate. Ian combines this strong grounding in coaching techniques with a vast experience of leadership at the highest level with companies and public sector bodies, and is a Board Advisor and Chair of four organisations where transformation has been required.

Ian's professional grounding was as a chartered surveyor (MRICS) working in fund management, consultancy and development before setting up businesses across Europe to regenerate cities and retail and distribution infrastructure. In 2009 he joined Kingfisher Group PLC sitting on the Retail Board, leading the Capital committee and Real Estate function across the 12 businesses in Europe and Asia. This enabled Ian to deepen his learnings on functioning teams and blockers to performance, working across international teams with different cultures and a wide array of business challenges.

In 2016 Ian was brought in by the Cabinet Office to set up the Government Property Agency, a 200-strong organisation created to strategically manage the £3bn Central Government estate in order to bring efficiencies and improvements to the cost, quality and functioning of Offices and Warehouses across all government departments.

Ian also specialises in helping individuals with their mental resilience and performance through the cognitive, behavioural and performance science tool, PQ. This is a great entry point for both seasoned self developers and those yet to experience coaching and the power of the mind.

GATHER BRILLIANCE

Whilst Ian established Gather in 2019, it has evolved into a community of exceptional Gathered coaches, whom Ian has had the experience of training with, working with or both.

Gather Brilliance supports our clients, with each coach bringing their own distinct talents, skills and senior-level industry experience. These attributes complement the Gathered capabilities and client needs, making them ideal for our larger and more complex assignments.

Let me introduce you to Gather Brilliance:

Liz is an MBA qualified Non-Executive Director and Accredited Executive Coach based in Kent. As a Non Executive Director, she sits on the Boards of a number of organisations focused on delivering social impact through a commercial approach. As an Executive Coach, Liz works with leaders enabling them to reconnect with themselves, their teams and key stakeholders to drive business value.

• Extensive experience leading and coaching global teams in complex and dynamic environments for over 20 years in FTSE 100 companies. Coaching clients include Travelodge, The National Army Museum, Cancer Research UK, Global Reach Technology & Barings. 

• Liz specialises in Coaching Walks, her coaching ethos and collaborative leadership style inspire people to deliver outstanding results whilst maintaining a culture based on honesty, trust and professional integrity. 

• Liz sits on the boards of the following organisations as a Non Executive Director: The Pension Protection Fund, Local Pensions Partnership Administration, Anglo Saxons Friendly Society.

• Key strengths include: negotiating complex stakeholder relationships and providing independent advice and constructive challenge to boards, with a reputation for bringing a collaborative, proactive and innovative perspective.

Ian and Liz together form a coaching alliance covering the Kent and London region under our CONCEPT Gather:LOCAL providing thought-provoking consistent coaching to their local area

James is an ICF Certified coach, NLP master practitioner, ORSC trained coach, systemic family therapist, constellations facilitator and systemic leadership coach.  

He specialises in systemic coaching for business organisations, leaders and professionals. He is dedicated to finding the root cause of his clients’ issues and the lasting resolution that meets their needs. Often his work involves resolving issues in the family and personal realm, and at the deeper levels of the business.

James is also a practising barrister and Queens Counsel, with years of leadership experience guiding multi-disciplinary teams to deliver complex projects in challenging circumstances. He is a regular speaker at conferences on professional performance in the UK and USA and has published well over 80 articles on business leadership, performance and wellbeing. He is a co-author of the book “Lawyer Health and Wellbeing: how the legal profession is tackling stress and creating resiliency” (Ark Group, 2020). James is a mental health champion for the charity LawCare and a featured senior leader on the InsideOut Leaderboard.

Sally Powell is an ICF Leadership & Executive Coach and ORSC trained systems coach. She specialises in coaching high-performance teams across multiple sectors, including Fin-tech, Recruitment, Health, and Architecture & Design.

Leadership teams seek her out because they recognise their team is falling short of its full potential and value investing in a different approach. Sally uses her calm, non-judgmental manner to help teams explore new perspectives, have meaningful conversations and explore their challenges to find renewed momentum.  

Prior to setting up her coaching practice, Sally had a successful career working for iconic brands and companies like Diageo, Microsoft, and Tesco, leading and coaching teams in the areas of economic and political risk, corporate and brand reputation and leadership. She lives with her husband and their two boys in Edinburgh.