Meet the Team

The Coaching Direct Team

Back in 2008 our founder, Kirsty, had a vision to create a coaching consultancy that wouldn't simply see us 'parachute' in a coach to deliver coaching services to work with our clients, but would meaningfully support businesses to develop their people and get tangible business results. In order to achieve this vision, we embarked upon a radical redesign of our service offering, supported by our team of experienced associates, all of whom come from a wide-ranging corporate background. Coupled with industry leading technology, we've built a system for the accurate measurement of coaching impact allowing us to provide our clients with a fully managed service model, thus overseeing the whole process from coach/client matching, scheduling, real-time client reporting and themes emerging. We have the ability to scale-up to meet your needs, whether you're an organisation with 5 employees or 500 and our tiered fee structure means that we can support the growth of executives, middle managers and aspiring managers.

Kirsty McWilliam is the founder of Coaching Direct, one of Scotland’s longest established coaching consultancies. Coaching Direct has a mission to support their clients to build positive workplaces using executive coaching, coach training, strengths, and emotional intelligence. With over 25 years of experience in the professional services sector Kirsty has worked with clients across many sectors including solicitors’ firms, management consultancies, accountancy firms, educational establishments, and financial services.
After qualifying as a chartered accountant, Kirsty spent a decade as a senior consultant in the business restructuring arena with KPMG and latterly PwC. After experiencing the power of coaching at PwC, Kirsty founded Coaching Direct in 2008 with a vision to support the people behind the businesses.

Kirsty advises on and provides training in the strategic use of coaching in workplaces and uses her knowledge and experience in the areas of strengths and emotional intelligence to work with organisations to optimise business performance through the development of their people.

Kirsty is a regular contributor to discussions around women in leadership and is a member of the lecturing team at the University of Edinburgh on Emotional Intelligence.

In 2021 Coaching Direct established the ‘Coaching Direct Foundation’ which provides pro bono coaching to selected organisations in the voluntary sector – a partnership with the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations to bring coaching into as many workplaces as possible.

Kirsty lives in Edinburgh with her husband, two teenage boys (!) and their dog, Lochie.

Kirsty is supported by an experience and committed coaching and business support team:

Christina is an experienced senior leader, coach, coach supervisor, facilitator, trainer and OD consultant. She brings 25+ years’ experience of successfully working with individuals, teams, organisations and communities to bring about transformational and sustainable change. She is passionate about enabling others to gain new insight and develop and grow.

Cathy joined Coaching Direct as an associate in 2019, bringing with her over 17 years experience in managing large and complex change programmes, working with senior executives to develop their leadership skills and embed a culture of coaching within a large corporate environment. Cathy is passionate about supporting leaders successfully navigate change and build resilience in this ever changing and increasingly high pressured world.

Jenni is an experienced HR and recruitment specialist with a 17-year track record in both private and public sector organisations. Jenni has two kids who keep her busy! She is CIPD qualified, trained in delivering the emotional intelligence tool EQ-i2.0 and EQ-i360 and has undertaken an Accredited Award in Coach Training. Jenni has an open communication style and is enthusiastic about supporting clients with their coaching journeys.

Lesley is an experienced business professional and coach with over 20 years experience of leading and managing operational health and social care staff to be the best they can be. Lesley is comfortable and experienced in the art of negotiation and facilitation and regularly utilises and shares her skills as a coach and agent for change to empower and enable people to be the best they can be within the health and social care sector. Lesley joins Coaching Direct as one of our coaching bank associates, delivering coaching to the University of Edinburgh Medical School.

A qualified project manager, Sarah studied with Coaching Direct, achieving the Accredited Award in Coach Training in 2012. Organised to the core, Sarah joined Coaching Direct in 2017 and currently manages our client relationships and reporting activity as well as coordinating the work of our associates and project managing our coaching banks.

An experienced former retail HR leader, Louise joined Coaching Direct in 2018, bringing with her a wealth of experience in leading people in organisations, developing training and development strategy and in business partnering. Louise has a keen interest in personal development and career coaching.

Lorna brings over 20 years working as a Talent and Development Professional, with extensive experience of working with leaders across the globe, in a large, complex, corporate organisation. Lorna's background lies in recruitment, organisational development and talent management and she specialises the design and delivery of talent management programs for senior leaders.

Prior to joining Coaching Direct in 2020, Jen spent 14 years at a leading department store with key roles including Sales and People Management, Office Management and Recruitment. Jen manages the day to day administration within the Coaching Direct office and is the first point of contact for individual coach training enquiries.

Fiona joined Coaching Direct as an associate in 2019, having trained with us back in 2018. Fiona brings with her 20 years of experience in people management across financial, retail and outsourcing sectors. Fiona has always had a passion for the development of people by using coaching approaches and developing leaders. Fiona has long held a deep seated interest in human beings, what makes us who we are and what influences our development. From there, she developed a passion for understanding how we can be the best version of ourselves we possibly can, and a desire to help others achieve this.

Susan is a facilitator, trainer and coach specialising in coaching, change management, assertiveness, management and team building. With a background in Learning and Development and with 25 years at a UK retail brand, Susan works with Coaching Direct periodically as an associate trainer to deliver the accredited coach training programme.

Professional Coach - completed accredited training with Coaching Direct and is working towards personal accreditation
Accredited Coach - completed accredited training and holds own personal coach accreditation
Executive Coach - completed accredited training, holds own personal accreditation and has been working with senior leaders for 10+ years