Our associate team  

We have carefully selected expert associates whom we know and trust

Our associate team includes:

Sarah Hildyard

Sarah has extensive experience of leadership development, facilitation and executive coaching, working with managers and leaders across a wide range of industries. She started her career as a Health Psychologist, has worked in a number of small consultancies and spent over 10 years at Mars Inc, most latterly as Global Director of Talent for Mars Drinks. Sarah holds a BA (Hons) in Psychology, an MSc in Health Psychology and has a postgraduate qualification in executive coaching and mentoring. She is certified in various coaching and training techniques and speaks English and French.

Verena Kugi-Costescu

Verena Kugi-Costescu helps organisations improve their leadership effectiveness. She has substantive experience in designing and delivering leadership programmes, improving the effectiveness of leadership teams and supporting organisational change. She has worked with clients in the private, intergovernmental and non-profit sectors whilst as a leadership consultant and previously when at McKinsey. She has a Masters in International Business Administration from the University of Vienna, an MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, a PhD in Business Economics from Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration and is a qualified executive coach. She speaks fluent German, English and Italian and basic French, Spanish and Romanian.

Hannah Mathews

Hannah Mathews is an assistant facilitator for Cognitas, with a focus on educational leadership programmes. She has experience at the chalk face in one of London’s most challenging secondary schools where she was acting head of department for two years as part of the Teach First programme. She continues to support Teach First in assessing candidates, coaching teachers and advising on their career development offerings. She also writes educational policy recommendations. Previously, Hannah was an advertising account manager. She holds a BA in Philosophy from Durham University and is currently working towards her masters in positive psychology - the psychology of high performance, with an aim to apply her studies to the education sector.

Joanna Pyres

Joanna Pyres is a trainer and facilitator who helps organisations develop leadership and management skills, particularly those related to collaboration. She works with non-profits, the public sector, the private sector and intergovernmental organisations to develop organisational processes that better support cross-sector partnering, particularly working with The Partnering Initiative, part of the International Business Leaders Forum. She has expertise in cross-sector collaboration and has previously worked at Business in the Community, the leading corporate social responsibility membership organisation in the UK. She has a BA in Modern Languages and is trained in consensus building, negotiation and developing partnering skills. She speaks fluent English and French, advanced Italian and basic Spanish and Hindi.

Eric Siegrist

Eric Siegrist is a highly-experienced leadership development trainer, facilitator and coach. He works with senior management in public and private sector organisations. He is part of the Development Relationship Management group based in Paris and has previously worked as a change management specialist. He has a commercial engineering degree from Solvay Business School in Brussels and has completed extensive training across coaching, therapy and facilitation. He speaks fluent French and English, advanced Dutch and intermediate Spanish and German.

Lisa Thomas

Lisa Thomas is an experienced business consultant, trainer and executive coach. She has direct experience managing businesses at Board Level, as well as working with organisations as a consultant, in private, government and non-profit sectors. Lisa started life as a zoologist, with an MA and PhD from the University of Cambridge.  She spent a number of years at McKinsey & Co. as a strategy consultant. She is also a qualified Master Practitioner in NLP.