I’m curious about people, organisations, and how we might learn from the natural world.

I’m Ruth: I’m a coach, facilitator, strategic advisor, and fractional leader. If you want to think more clearly, act more boldly, or build something that helps our human and more-than-human world flourish, we might have a lot to talk about.

Get in touch
Get in touch

A few things about me…

I’m a little bit adventurous

I once read about an expedition called Tour d’Afrique, and just knew I wanted to do it. So I spent four months cycling 12,000km down the length of Africa, from Cairo to Cape Town. I moved to China in 2001, and made the journey via the Trans-Mongolian Railway, because I wanted to arrive knowing how far I’d come. At 18, I travelled solo around South Africa, fell in love with the country, and began to understand for the first time how glorious and challenging our world is. I’ve been to Patagonia and I’ve climbed a few mountains. I try not to fly too much these days, but I still love adventuring on our beautiful planet.

I like to be active

A friend and I once ran, hiked, cycled and kayaked coast to coast across Scotland in two days. It was fantastic fun and totally exhausting. Running across the Sahara - six days, 156 miles, self-supported - taught me a lot about what becomes possible when you just keep on going. I swim year-round in the River Thames, and in lakes or the sea when I can. I like to lift weights at an outdoor gym, I practise yin yoga and I love boxing. Moving changes how I think and how I feel. And getting active is often a brilliant way to get out of my own way to figure something out.

I constantly find joy in the natural world, and I go outdoors for peace and inspiration

I love walking with Bella, my rescue dog, in the woods near my home. It’s especially wonderful when bluebells are out in spring or when the autumn leaves are glowing. I’m slowly learning to identify birdsong, and I like counting butterflies. I’m quite good at growing tomatoes, and am gradually making my garden more wildlife-friendly. The natural world is where I go to think, to recover, and to remember what matters. It also increasingly shapes how I work, as I deepen my learning about nature’s principles and how they can apply to the way we design and lead organisations.

I love learning

As an undergraduate, I studied Social History because I wanted to understand how and why societies change. I trained as a Chartered Accountant because I wanted to understand how organisations work. I wanted to understand more about the realities of sustainable development, so I got an MSc in Poverty Reduction. I trained as a coach at Henley Business School, I’m a Clore Social Leadership Fellow and I’m part of the Bio-Leadership Fellowship, a global community of people learning and practising how to lead with nature. I always have my head in some book, and I hope I never stop learning.

I’ve got a wide range of experience to draw on

I spent 16 years with PwC, nine of those living in China, where I made Partner, worked in cross-border M&A and founded the firm’s first Sustainability and Climate Change practice in Asia. I’ve spent the past fourteen years as a strategic advisor, fractional executive, coach and facilitator, working with purpose-led organisations. I’ve led restructurings and change programmes, worked through a few moments of acute organisational crisis, and overseen exciting phases of growth. I’ve worked with organisations full of ambition, with founders building a new idea and with leaders navigating difficult decisions. My work spans climate and nature, social enterprise, and a whole variety of brilliant purpose-led organisations.

I try to be intentional in how I work

I love working with leaders, in the heart of teams and with mission-driven organisations. I’m excited by ideas and tools that open up new ways of thinking. I aim to create the conditions for people to think more clearly and speak more honestly. People say I am warm and direct. I seek to say what I think with kindness, and ask the questions that feel most important. I love to see the way something can shift in a well-held room, whether that’s a boardroom or a hut in the woods. I draw on brilliant tools and practices, from Three Horizons to Cards for Life. I work in person, online, and outdoors, because changing the environment often changes the conversation.

I think a lot about things like…

What good leadership looks like and how to get there. How to help organisations close the gap between ambition and reality. How to listen more deeply and be present for people. What can I make for dinner, and when can I next go for a swim. Whether we can really flourish within planetary boundaries. How seeing organisations as living systems — interconnected, adaptive, and deeply human — might be a useful lens for change. How I might tread a bit more lightly on the planet. And where all the time in my day goes.

I’m curious

I’m curious about people: what interests them and why, what they are imagining into, what they’d like to change, where they are heading. I’m curious about organisations: how to align mission, strategy and delivery, how to improve the way things work, how to help teams work well together, how to navigate change well. And I’m curious about what we can learn from the natural world about how to live better on this planet and how to rise to the challenges of the polycrisis we’ve managed to create.

My Professional Experience

During my career, I have built strategy, developed people and organisational cultures, led change and created new ventures. I had a 16-year career with PwC, where I made Partner and spent nine years based in China. For the past 14 years, I have worked with founders, CEOs and leaders of purpose-led organisations, co-leading, advising and coaching through times of growth, change and moments of transition.

This is a snapshot of the range of work I have done:

Purpose, impact, sustainability and climate

  • Led sustainability strategy and climate action with organisations in multiple sectors, helping them understand what it means to operate and thrive within planetary boundaries

  • Founded and led PwC’s first Sustainability and Climate Change practice in Asia

  • Implemented monitoring, evaluation and learning frameworks and impact reporting systems for mission-led organisations, their funders, and the communities they serve

  • Designed and delivered training programmes on climate and sustainability for senior leadership teams in multinational organisations

Strategy and organisational change

  • Led significant organisational change, transformation and restructuring programmes in ambitious environments where mission and impact matter, including legal, operational and physical restructuring and cross-border relocations

  • Shaped and implemented strategy, new operating models, governance structures and programmes that deliver on vision, and advised leadership teams navigating complexity, uncertainty, emergence and growth

  • Managed complex multi-stakeholder environments, leading external engagement with funders, boards and senior leadership and internal communications through periods of significant change and transition

  • Designed and implemented digital operating models and collaboration platforms to support organisational change

  • Served as Chair, Trustee and Treasurer across a range of mission-led organisations, including overseeing a £130m government endowment

Growth and new ventures

  • Taken new ventures, products, and services from first idea to something that yields real impact and commercial success, including in the climate and sustainability sector

  • Scaled organisations at different stages of growth, from early stage start-ups through to large, complex institutions

  • Built strategic partnerships and coalitions rooted in shared purpose, across sectors and geographies, including in climate, nature, and international development

  • Advised on cross-border M&A transactions and led organisational growth into new territories across Asia, Africa, and Europe

People and leadership development

  • Created and led high-performing multinational teams in fast-moving, ambitious environments, including designing performance frameworks and development programmes that help people and teams thrive

  • Led and developed distributed and remote teams across multiple geographies and time zones

  • Coached leaders and teams, in person, online, and outdoors, weaving in nature-based and living systems thinking approaches

  • Curated and facilitated leadership, strategy and team events and designed large multi-stakeholder convenings, including nature-based programmes, Worked with intimate groups to hundreds of people

Qualifications, accreditations, memberships and trainings

Formal qualifications

  • Professional Certificate in Executive Coaching, Henley Business School

  • MSc Poverty Reduction: Policy and Practice, SOAS (with Merit)

  • Chartered Accountant (ACA), ICAEW

  • BA (Hons) Social History, University of Sheffield

Fellowships and accreditations

Memberships and other training
“All flourishing is mutual”
— Robin Wall Kimmerer