Meet Our Team

Prof. Geeta Nargund is the chair of the board and programme lead at The Pipeline.

Previously, Geeta had founded UK-headquartered CREATE Fertility, one of the most innovative companies in the fertility space. In 2021, the business was sold to IVIRMA Global, the world’s largest reproductive medicine provider.

Geeta has long championed reproductive empowerment and has published more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers on reproductive medicine that have shaped innovative approaches in the field of human reproduction.

She serves on several national and international scientific and advisory committees, including as a board member and the vice chair of the British Red Cross and as a member of the WHO (World Health Organisation) expert sub-group on infertility guidelines.

Geeta has won international recognition not only for her leadership in the medical field but also for her philanthropic efforts. Over the years, she has received numerous awards, including the “Red woman of the year award for charity and community work”, “RBS chairman’s award” and “Inspirational woman award 2015”.

She also co-founded Social Impact Enterprises to support innovators who are passionate about making a positive societal impact.

Joining a House of Commons which was 97 per cent male, she has been politics’ most prominent champion for women’s rights, in a parliamentary career which spanned more than four decades. She had three children while an MP. Harriet was the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 2007-2015 and was the Shadow Deputy Prime Minister in 2010-2015. She has twice served as Interim Leader of the Labour Party in 2010 and 2015. She was the first woman Labour politician to answer Prime Minister’s Questions.

In 2017, Harriet became the Mother of the House of Commons, the UK’s longest serving woman MP. Harriet chaired the House of Commons Privileges Committee inquiry which found in 2023 that the former Prime Minister Boris Johnson misled Parliament over “partgate”.

In 2024 she was appointed to the House of Lords as a life Peer. She is Chair of The Fawcett Society, the UK's leading charity campaigning for women's rights. On behalf of the Bar Council she is leading an independent review of bullying, harassment and sexual harassment in the barristers’ profession.

Tamara Dzgoeva is our seasoned Programme Director, dedicated to fostering environments where all individuals thrive and excel. With a fervent commitment to cultivating high-performing teams and empowering leaders, Tamara brings a wealth of expertise in talent development, executive coaching, and leadership enhancement.

Having honed her skills across diverse cultural landscapes, Tamara's inclusive approach is shaped by her extensive experience managing international teams and working in UK, India, Malaysia, and Russia. Her multicultural perspective enriches her strategies for building cohesive and dynamic work environments.

Prior to her role at The Pipeline, Tamara held pivotal positions at Mercer & Korn Ferry, where she developed her craft in talent development and organisational dynamics. Additionally, she serves as a board trustee for Emmaus Greenwich, a commendable homelessness charity dedicated to providing support, employment, and housing to those formerly homeless.

Tamara’s passion for empowering individuals and organisations is evident in her tireless efforts to drive meaningful change and foster growth at every level.

Lisa de Jong (she / her) is a leadership and behaviour change consultant who has spent the last three decades leading the successful delivery of a wide range of complex change and transformation initiatives across multiple industries and geographies. Her experience includes pharma, telecoms, technology, retail and travel.

Known for her relationship-oriented, outcome-focused approach, Lisa has a deep understanding of culture change, inclusive leadership development, and employee engagement. A qualified and experienced executive coach, C-suite facilitator, and conflict resolution mediator, Lisa has supported senior leaders across the world to achieve sustainable personal, team and business performance uplifts.

Lisa holds a BA (Hons) degree in Communications Studies and a post-graduate Diploma in Marketing. In 2022 she was awarded an ‘Exceptional’ grade for “Inclusive Leadership through Behavioural Science” by the London School of Economics and Political Science. She regularly writes and speaks on a wide range of leadership development topics. Her most recent keynote in Switzerland was titled: “Shaping a Culture of Inclusion - the power of habits to uplift performance”.

Passionate about encouraging young people to achieve their potential Lisa loves the performing arts. She volunteers at her local theatre and recently stage-managed the premiere of a new play by a British award-winning playwright.

Born in London, Sanaa is proud of her Moroccan heritage. She partially spent her childhood in Morocco, and although once again London-based, she still feels strongly connected to her cultural roots.

Professionally, Sanaa worked in a range of Executive Assistant & program management roles before joining The Pipeline. Her career has taken her to posts in management consulting and global insurance, in both the UK and in Bahrain. Life in the Middle East allowed Sanaa to enjoy the benefits of a luxury lifestyle but first-class travel and an expensive apartment didn’t compensate for the culture shock. She cleverly found ways to adapt culturally, without having to compromise her own personality.

Sanaa feels she has learned an incredible amount about human behavior during her career, including how to best communicate with a variety of people. At The Pipeline, she applies her outstanding organization skills to program management and network coordination.

Alice is the Senior Programme Coordinator for Leadership Summit at The Pipeline. With almost 10 years experience in the world of event management, across a range of sectors, Alice brings a passion for attention to detail and customer experience to make sure all attendees have the best experience possible. Having been a part of a family run business since childhood, determination and a go-getting attitude have pushed her to excel in the industry.

A keen volunteer, Alice has worked across a number of events including the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and Birmingham, showcasing abilities to lead and act as part of a team.

Alice's other passions include travel, cooking and spending time with family and friends to live life to the full.

Jennifer brings over 15 years experience as a communication and change strategist, and as a Partner in a global management consultancy, to her Executive coaching. She has worked at executive levels with, and in, a number of FTSE 100 companies in many sectors – finance, oil and gas, law, services. She works effectively in an environment of turbulent or substantial change.

She firmly believes that if people are resourceful enough to articulate issues, they are resourceful enough to find solutions. Her role is to use questioning, challenge and feedback to help clients uncover helpful insights quicker. She often helps clients to shine in their personal diversity and to lead inclusively so that diversity is welcomed, encouraged and celebrated in organisational life.

After a successful career as a Director in local government, Michele followed her heart and started a second career as a Leadership coach. She now has over 10 years of experience of coaching female executives and aspiring female leaders and delivering leadership programmes.

Michele supports women who are planning their next step in their leadership career. Women generally work very hard for their success and she believes that many women underestimate the role that their incredible strengths play in their progression. Michele helps her clients to connect with what really drives them and enables them to wholeheartedly step into their strengths. She has specific skills in developing personal resilience and changing the responses to stress having had personal experience of withstanding the pressures of a leadership position. She enables her clients to be more authentic and comfortable being who they were meant to be – a credible, well respected leader.

Michele’s coaching clients often comment on her calming presence and her ability to find strengths they didn’t know they had!

Karen is a Leadership Development Expert and Executive Coach with a track record of working with senior leaders from all sectors in the UK and globally. She brings significant knowledge of designing and facilitating complex leadership development programmes which results in behaviour change and transformation at all levels.

Karen has a robust and practical approach and believes that coaching and personal development should be based on the realities, challenges and opportunities that exist in the challenging and wonderful world in which we live.  She works with a diverse range of leaders delivering 121 coaching for Executive Boards, middle managers, small business owners and sole traders.

Alongside her business, Karen is also Chair of a Multi Academy Trust and is committed to advancing educational aspirations across young people.

Paula Leach is a Chief People Officer with over 25 years experience working in global multinational, large scale complex public sector and entrepreneurial growth organisations. Paula is passionate about the importance of leadership in building organisational cultures where people are included, can be creative and collectively productive.

Paula now runs her own Executive Coaching and Business Advisory business ‘Vantage Points Consulting Ltd’ enabling and inspiring leaders to explore and unlock their full potential and that of their teams and organisations. In 2021 she launched the ‘Vantage Points Foundation’ which provides coaching and mentoring support and inspiration to young women to lean into and achieve their dream careers. Paula is author of the book ‘Vantage Points’ published in February 2021.

Dr Sophy Antrobus researches contemporary air power in the context of the institutional, cultural and organisational barriers to innovation in modern air forces, in particular the RAF. She joined the Freeman Air and Space Institute from Portsmouth Business School where she was a Teaching Fellow in Strategic Studies. Prior to that Sophy completed her PhD at the University of Exeter. Her thesis researched the early politics of air power and networks in Whitehall in the inter-war years. She delivered the 2020 Peter Nailor Defence Lecture at Gresham College on the subject ‘How are Drones Changing Warfare?’.

Previously, Sophy served in the Royal Air Force for twenty years including in Iraq and Afghanistan and a tour with the Royal Navy. She was awarded the MBE in 2003. Her final tour was commanding operations at RAF Valley. Prior to starting her PhD she ran a successful consultancy business working with military charities and veterans. She is a Fellow and elected member of the Council of the Royal Aeronautical Society; she also chairs its Learned Society Board.

Jennifer brings over 15 years experience as a communication and change strategist, and as a Partner in a global management consultancy, to her Executive coaching. She has worked at executive levels with, and in, a number of FTSE 100 companies in many sectors – finance, oil and gas, law, services. She works effectively in an environment of turbulent or substantial change.

She firmly believes that if people are resourceful enough to articulate issues, they are resourceful enough to find solutions. Her role is to use questioning, challenge and feedback to help clients uncover helpful insights quicker. She often helps clients to shine in their personal diversity and to lead inclusively so that diversity is welcomed, encouraged and celebrated in organisational life.

After a successful career as a Director in local government, Michele followed her heart and started a second career as a Leadership coach. She now has over 10 years of experience of coaching female executives and aspiring female leaders and delivering leadership programmes.

Michele supports women who are planning their next step in their leadership career. Women generally work very hard for their success and she believes that many women underestimate the role that their incredible strengths play in their progression. Michele helps her clients to connect with what really drives them and enables them to wholeheartedly step into their strengths. She has specific skills in developing personal resilience and changing the responses to stress having had personal experience of withstanding the pressures of a leadership position. She enables her clients to be more authentic and comfortable being who they were meant to be – a credible, well respected leader.

Michele’s coaching clients often comment on her calming presence and her ability to find strengths they didn’t know they had!

I am an enthusiastic leadership consultant and executive coach with over 20 years’ experience at senior levels of corporations, and of not-for-profit and public sector organisations. I have worked with middle and top managers across many countries in Europe, Asia and Africa.  I specialise in helping executives to deal with significant transitions in their life or career, as well as in leadership, teamwork, interpersonal communication, and diversity. I have coached high potential executives within company programmes aimed at redressing gender or ethnicity imbalances at senior levels.

Since December 2022, I have been an associate of the Executive Pipeline, a consultancy that is focused on helping many of the world’s most successful companies and public sector organisations achieve more ethnically diverse and gender-balanced teams.  This includes helping their female managers to achieve their potential for promotion to top executive positions. I coach participants on their two major leadership development programmes: Top Flight and Women in Leadership.

I’m an independent executive coach, writer and facilitator with with over twenty years’ experience working with clients ranging from GSK to Comic Relief.

My coaching approach combines psychodynamic thinking with practical communication and coaching techniques. Since I started coaching (helping an FMCG take their top 300 leaders through a new leadership model in 2000) I have drawn extensively on psychodynamic training at Birkbeck, with Tavistock, Sandler and Bath Consulting, as well as twenty years’ experience as a communications consultant, to develop a distinctive coaching approach. One that helps people understand and address underlying patterns of thinking and behaving that are holding them back, while giving them tools and techniques to build their confidence and take action to change. Much of my coaching involves helping clients understand and improve their communication style and build their confidence, for example when positioning themselves for promotion, or post promotion. (A current project in a professional services firm involves helping the pre-Partner cadre step up to the leadership role of Partner). Increasingly I work on mid/late career transitions; helping people figure out what they want to do with their ‘one wild and precious life’ and then take the actions they need to change jobs or make their life and work more meaningful.

Jayne has a wealth of FTSE 300 board level and non-executive director experience. Her career started as a chartered surveyor and property consultant and then progressed to corporate life in the UK and North America where she was involved in several large-scale mergers and acquisitions. She is a subject matter expert but also an experienced all-round business woman.

As an executive coach and accredited mediator, Jayne combines this learning with the experience of working with complex issues and challenging environments. She is passionate about supporting individuals and organisations reach new horizons and achieve the results they want.

Jayne’s non-executive experience also allows her to see things from multi levels which Chief Executives and Senior Leadership Teams in particular find beneficial. Her personable approach never compromises her insightfulness and vision of how things can be better.

Pauline has held a number of senior leadership roles in the European and UK motor industry. In addition she has supported several charities in a non-executive role, drawing on her broad commercial experience as a Finance Director, Learning and Development specialist and International Human Resources Director.

Pauline is now engaged in providing consultancy support to organisations aiming to create positive commercial change while bringing out the potential excellence within their people.

Working with senior leaders to examine their strategic direction, company structure and culture, Pauline supports positive change through organisation design, leadership development and executive coaching. Recent clients include Jaguar Land Rover, Ultra Engineering, Children with Cancer UK and MacIntyre.

As an executive coach, Pauline is focused particularly on supporting senior female leaders to bring out their most authentic personal leadership in challenging environments. Feedback from those Pauline has worked with attributes her with enabling them to leverage their personal impact and influence more effectively and so drive the success of their organisations.

Work as an Executive Coach enables clients to achieve more than they imagined, understand themselves deeply – to continually learn and thrive. My authentic, supportive, challenging and pragmatic style empowers clients to develop their confidence and hone their skill.

I’m a proud wife and mum to two fabulous children and a lovely dog. I have a passion for executive and leadership development, cultural change, talent, engagement, and inclusion and diversity. I am also an inclusion and mental health advocate and a parent/guardian mentor.

I have an extensive commercial kitbag of experiences, successes, and lessons learned/hard knocks which I bring to my coaching and consultancy which clients value.

I have successfully coached leaders from a rich range of backgrounds such as Financial Services, Healthcare, Banking. My clients have been CEO’s, board members, entrepreneurs. I’ve led teams within Financial Services (Lloyds, Halifax, TD Bank and Bupa Insurance) and Healthcare (Bupa) over the last 25 years most recently as Director of Talent & Learning & running my own business across people disciplines.

Prof. Geeta Nargund is the chair of the board at The Pipeline.

Previously, Geeta had founded UK-headquartered CREATE Fertility, one of the most innovative companies in the fertility space. In 2021, the business was sold to IVIRMA Global, the world’s largest reproductive medicine provider.

Geeta has long championed reproductive empowerment and has published more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers on reproductive medicine that have shaped innovative approaches in the field of human reproduction.

She serves on several national and international scientific and advisory committees, including as a board member and the vice chair of the British Red Cross and as a member of the WHO (World Health Organisation) expert sub-group on infertility guidelines.

Geeta has won international recognition not only for her leadership in the medical field but also for her philanthropic efforts. Over the years, she has received numerous awards, including the “Red woman of the year award for charity and community work”, “RBS chairman’s award” and “Inspirational woman award 2015”.

She also co-founded Social Impact Enterprises to support innovators who are passionate about making a positive societal impact.

Anurag Agarwal brings over 20 years of professional experience, specialising in investments, mergers & acquisitions and advisory roles. He has been actively partnering with founder managers and management teams of SMEs as these businesses pursue key strategic initiatives.

Anurag heads Social Impact Enterprises, an investment firm, which backs dynamic entrepreneurs scaling up high-growth businesses fundamentally built on delivering positive social impact. He is also a board member of Origin Coffee and Bloobloom. Previously, Anurag spent 17 years with EY across offices in London and New Delhi.

Anurag is a Chartered Accountant and earned his MBA from the Indian School of Business. Anurag enjoys traveling, sports, and staying active.

Nell is an experienced Operations Manager across the private and public sectors. She anticipates the needs of participants before they themselves realise them.

Her talent for delivering great customer service comes from working in the retail industry when she helped her dad on his flower stall at a very young age.

Dipali Patel is an Executive Assistant at The Pipeline with over 10 years of experience and knowledge in both the Public and private sector. Dipali is an excellent problem solver who is calm and friendly with meticulous attention to detail. She is welcoming and engaging with everyone she comes across and brings together the team with her warm and approachable manner.

Grace Barnett-Cox is a Strategic Assistant at The Pipeline. A recent graduate from the University of Oxford, she brings a friendly and approachable attitude, strong research skills, and a passion for learning and contributing to her role.