Women’s voices matter. And they aren’t heard often enough. That is why my focus is championing women to speak in public with courage and conviction, while remaining true to themselves. With over 30 years’ experience in communications, I support professional women to raise the quality of their public speaking. It can include: defining the purpose of your talk; refining your key message; developing a persuasive argument, then delivering it with authority to your chosen audience(s).
In 2023, I graduated with a Master’s by Research (MRes) in Rhetoric and Oratory from Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL). My dissertation examined the rhetoric by certain stakeholders around the CSO (combined sewage overflow) pollution in southern England. Other academic papers included an analysis of Levi’s claim to be ‘radically redefining sustainability’ and a refugee speech (Plataicus) by the ancient Greek orator, Isocrates. Since 2011, I have contributed articles to the quarterly SpeakUp! journal, edited and published by GPB.
A licensed Business Practitioner of NLP™, I have been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Manufacture (RSA) since 2004. I also hold a CertTESOL, a project management qualification and a Certificate in Professional Coaching Skills from Coaching Development.
In the early ‘90s, while at Philips Interactive Media Europe (PIME), I joined the expert working group for the first pan-European ‘MA in Interactive Media’. I also became a visiting lecturer at the Royal College of Art (RCA). In 2000, I was one of two industry experts on the University of Westminster’s Validation Panel for its revised ‘MA in Hypermedia Studies’.
In ‘95, I moved from CD-ROM publishing for the European consumer market to the development side. As a client-facing project manager, for the rest of that decade I managed numerous B2B software projects, teams and budgets, with a brief stint as producer for early search engine Excite!
As the new millenium approached, my work evolved into consulting, partnering with clients to position themselves online in their chosen market. Clients included Channel 4, Chase Manhattan Bank, The Coca-Cola Company, Disfruta Havana, Eleco plc, EMAP, Finish, GSK, KPMG, Message Digital, Orange, Polygram, Waitrose, Wired Sussex and VisionMix.
A British national, I lived in Greece for three years where I learnt to speak, read and write the language with the help of a great tutor. My Spanish is intermediate, which I studied at a school while living in Caracas, Venezuela. My French is conversational, which I first started learning at primary school in London.