Executive Board

Nadia Harrington

Nadia Harrington is a consultant, trainer and HR professional with experience of strategic, business partnering, leadership and delivery roles in private and public sector organisations. 
Her experience has been gained within large and medium sized organisations in a variety of sectors; nationally and globally.  Her career has focused mainly on organisational development and people performance which has resulted in extensive expertise within the area of learning and development. She has held roles as a Strategic HR Manager with responsibility for People Development for a large public sector organisation as well as L&OD Head of Service, OD Consultant and L&D Management roles.  
Nadia has led and implemented cultural and engagement strategies, and managed behavioural change programmes. She has worked in the public sector in political environments as well as the commercial environ of private sectors. 
Currently she is Managing Director of Harrington Associates and Operations Director (designate) for EMCC UK. Nadia is passionate about Mentoring and Coaching and is proud to be part of the EMCC team. She holds a post graduate qualification in Executive and Business Coaching with PBCoaching through Leeds Metropolitan University and is the founder of the Suffolk Coaching and Mentoring Partnership. She is qualified in HR, Training, Employment Law, and is an NLP Practitioner. 

Peter Duffell

Peter is the Governance Director for EMCCUK. He is an experienced, board level, executive and personal coach with 30 years business experience before becoming a full time coach. He has worked in senior roles with a number of global Financial Services organisations such as HSBC and UBS. He has many years practical experience of coaching and mentoring individuals in a leadership capacity and has led a number of organisational transformations.
 
Peter has an MA in Coaching and Mentoring Practice from Oxford Brookes University and is a qualified Coach Supervisor.
 
Peter has coached at senior levels in a range of different organisations, from Financial Services to Education and Health. He is currently a retained coach for a number of Health related organisations and has a number of large organisational clients. In addition, Peter also works with a number of personal clients.

Mark Robson

Mark Robson is President of the EMCC UK. Up to his retirement at the end of 2017 he spent more than thirty years in the brewing, food and detergent manufacturing industries, holding a number of international leadership positions in operations, R&D and purchasing. In 2010 he became an internal coach in addition to his day-job, and in 2014 became a supervisor to a number of the coaches in his organisation’s coaching scheme. Mark continues to work with both coachees and coaches at his old organisation. 

Mark has an MSc in Coaching and Mentoring from Sheffield Hallam University. His Masters dissertation project followed the introduction of internal supervisors to his coaching scheme. He is currently working on his PhD, His research is seeking to understand how employees who take on the role experience being an internal coach and what impact the role has upon them.

Rita Symons

Rita is the Membership Development Director. She has over 25 years senior leadership experience in the health service and local government and, having acted as an internal coach for many years, she left a CEO role in the NHS in 2016 to pursue coaching full time.

She is Managing Director of her own consultancy and as well as 1:1 coaching, she supports formal leadership programmes in the NHS. She also works specifically with third sector organisations, particularly focusing on social impact.  She has carried out research in the area of individual motivation in system leadership, and is keen to apply this research in the area of coaching.

She is gaining experience in the design and delivery of coaching programmes and is excited about contributing to the development of coaching and mentoring practice. She joined the Board as she is convinced of the value of professional organisations and wants to do her part to encourage new and established coaches to join EMCC UK.

Alan Potts

Alan is EMCC UK’s marketing director. His background includes a spell in Nuclear Design Engineering, over 25 years as a business leader in the travel industry and a constant, intimate relationship with all things ‘digital’ dating back to the very birth of the web. He has successfully initiated and grown several businesses, developing pioneering eCommerce solutions, innovative promotional campaigns and disruptive business models along the way.

He has held numerous executive and non-executive roles and acted as a coach/mentor to a diverse portfolio of business people and entrepreneurs.

His passion for executive coaching is equally matched by an energy and enthusiasm for building successful businesses with intelligence and real entrepreneurial flair.

Alan is CEO of the UK-based executive coaching talent agency CoachDirectors; an AoEC-trained Executive Coach; and a Network Director and Moderator for the Executives' Global Network UK.

Jim Rees

For the past 18 years, Jim has been working across various sectors in the corporate world, his main focus has been developing emotional intelligence, creating clarity and alignment with leaders and their teams across organisations. Jim is interested in what is possible. Drawing from his experience personally (parent to 6 kids), sporting (Ironman triathlons and The Race Across America) and his professional career (16 years in the pharmaceutical industry), Jim has seen and experienced perceived impossibilities turn into reality on all levels. He is keen supporter of various charities, including Cancer Research UK  and The Cycle Against Suicide and does speeches in schools across the UK.

He has a passionate belief that everyone has greatness inside themselves and is committed to creating the awareness so that people can access more of their potential via his 1:1 coaching practice and his conference speaking engagements.  Jim has recently joined the EMCC with a focus on developing professional excellence across the coaching community and is looking forward to building & broaden the great work already carried out. Jim is co-founder of The Long and the short of it, a business that is focused on developing exceptional leaders.