Rachel Ellison

My Professional Profile

Former BBC news correspondent and international development aid director. Rachel broadcast to radio and television audiences of 185m people a week in 120 different countries. She created and led award-winning multicultural teams in competitive, changing global markets. She trained women journalists in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the former Soviet Union and the UK.

Awarded an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) for 'the promotion of human rights and the self-empowerment of women in Afghanistan', her team won BBC Team of the Year, acknowledging Rachel's coaching-style of leadership.

As a coach and as a professional leader, Rachel offers breadth and depth of skill across different industry sectors e.g. banking, electronics, retail FMCG, logistics, health, government, elite high-performance sport and the NGO sector. 

Clients: HSBC, Samsung, Diageo, Marks & Spencer, Barrat Homes, Boots Walgreen Alliance, Asda, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), the Department for International Trade (Brexit), HM Treasury, the NHS, UK Sport, UNICEF, Teach First.

Specialist knowledge: Inter-cultural leadership - Rachel has worked and coached leaders across more than 40 different cultures, tribes, nations and organisational contexts. She understands changing, emerging or unstable economies, e.g. Afghanistan, Myanmar, Kenya, former Soviet Union. International and inter-cultural leadership, Equality and climate injustice. Resilience & burnout. Self-coaching in crisis. Executive Presence & impact.

Rachel is considered a thought leader and contributor to best practice in the coaching industry. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate following the publication of her book ‘Global Leadership & Coaching – Flourishing under intense pressure at work' [Routledge].

Rachel has an MA in Professional Executive Coaching, BSc (Hons) Psychology/Italian, University of Birmingham, UK.

Trained in Solution Focus BRIEF Therapy, Psychoanalytic Systems Coaching, Existential Coaching, Multiple Perspectives Thinking.

'Rachel Ellison creates a standard for other coaches to aspire to.'
BBC/Ashridge Business School