USCMA Connect

Dr Louise Kovacs is an executive coach, coaching supervisor, practitioner-researcher and now published author with more than 20 years of coaching practice. Originally from the UK, she completed a Master of Organisational Coaching and HRM at the University of Sydney in 2004 and a Doctor of Professional Studies in Executive Coaching at Middlesex University, London in 2016. Her doctoral research was awarded the British Psychological Society Special Group for Coaching Psychology Research Award in the same year.

Louise's scholarly work spans complexity in coaching, formulation, antifragility, coach self-care and reflective practice, all produced in long-standing collaboration with Professor Sarah Corrie of Middlesex University. Their work culminated in the 2025 Routledge publication A Guide to Formulation in Coaching, co-authored with Professor David A. Lane, which introduces a four-part framework — Positionality, Purpose, Perspectives and Process — as a practical guide for coaches navigating complex client situations.

She has built and led coaching businesses in both Sydney and Singapore, and currently works as an executive coach and coaching supervisor in individual and group settings, based in Sydney.

Today's guest is Dr Ana Paula Nacif — researcher, practitioner, and one of the UK's leading voices in group coaching and coaching for wellbeing. Ana is a senior lecturer at the University of East London, where she leads the MSc in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology. She holds a Professional Doctorate in Coaching and Mentoring from Oxford Brookes University and is both an EMCC Master Practitioner and an ICF Professional Certified Coach.

Her research has tackled one of the most underexplored areas in the coaching world: group coaching. She developed the BeWell Group Coaching for Wellbeing Model, published work on the ethics of coaching with vulnerable populations, co-authored studies on online group coaching with postgraduate students, and in 2023 published her book Coaching for Wellbeing: An Evidence-Based Guide for Practitioners with McGraw-Hill. She has also argued compellingly that group coaching remains the 'Wild West' of the coaching profession — vast, promising, and still largely unmapped. In this episode, we explore what that means for practitioners, researchers, and the clients we serve.

Dr. Sebastian Fox is an executive and team coach, researcher, and director of brownfox consultancy, based in the UK. He holds a Doctorate in Coaching and Mentoring from Oxford Brookes University and serves as Head of Research at the Team Coaching Studio. His recent research challenges some of the field's most entrenched assumptions — including the idea that productive team coaching sessions are the ones where the original goals get met. He is currently writing a book on working emergently with teams, due to be published later this year. As a practitioner who works with leadership teams across sectors, Sebastian brings both rigorous academic thinking and on-the-ground coaching experience to the conversation. He is ICF accredited and holds a Diploma in Team Coaching Mastery. 

In this episode we explore what it actually means for a team coaching session to go well, why the goals that teams arrive with may not be the goals that matter most, and what coaches can do to cultivate the conditions in which something genuinely useful can emerge.

Many coaches work really hard at learning their craft, understanding all aspects of psychology and human behaviour, learn to decipher what is evidence based versus personal opinions – and then struggle to get clients who are willing to pay for their services. Our guest, Ellie Scarf, understands this dilemma perfectly. She joins us to discuss all things commercialisation of coaching and services.

Naomi Connell spent over two decades as a Finance Director and CFO on major corporate and public-sector boards before making a deliberate move into executive coaching and coaching research. She now holds an MSc in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology with Distinction, is a doctoral researcher at Oxford Brookes University, and has recently published original research exploring how coaches can help directors develop more inclusive board behaviours. Her work bridges the corporate world and the coaching profession in a way that is genuinely rare, and her perspective on what actually happens in the boardroom, and what coaching can and cannot do about it, makes for a conversation that is both grounded and thought-provoking.

Dr Louise Kovacs is an executive coach, coaching supervisor, practitioner-researcher and now published author with more than 20 years of coaching practice. Originally from the UK, she completed a Master of Organisational Coaching and HRM at the University of Sydney in 2004 and a Doctor of Professional Studies in Executive Coaching at Middlesex University, London in 2016. Her doctoral research was awarded the British Psychological Society Special Group for Coaching Psychology Research Award in the same year.

Louise's scholarly work spans complexity in coaching, formulation, antifragility, coach self-care and reflective practice, all produced in long-standing collaboration with Professor Sarah Corrie of Middlesex University. Their work culminated in the 2025 Routledge publication A Guide to Formulation in Coaching, co-authored with Professor David A. Lane, which introduces a four-part framework — Positionality, Purpose, Perspectives and Process — as a practical guide for coaches navigating complex client situations.

She has built and led coaching businesses in both Sydney and Singapore, and currently works as an executive coach and coaching supervisor in individual and group settings, based in Sydney.

Dr Ruth Simpson is an executive coach, researcher, and founder of Animi, with over 20 years of experience coaching senior, executive, and board-level leaders. Before moving into coaching, Ruth spent her corporate career as a management consultant at PwC, and in sales, marketing, and distribution roles at Mobil Oil and Esso Petroleum. 

She holds a PhD and an MSc in Coaching and Development and is accredited by the EMCC to Master Practitioner level under the Global EIA framework. Ruth's PhD — undertaken at Oxford Brookes University and presented at its 2026 Research Conference — breaks new ground by examining how group coaching supports leaders making the transition into senior positions. 

She developed the first empirically grounded theory of how group coaching works for leaders in a workplace context and produced a practical group coaching framework applicable to organisations grappling with leadership development, succession, and collective intelligence. Her upcoming book will be called Developing Collective Leaders: The Group Coaching Advantage.

Alongside her practice, Ruth is Vice Chair of Bourne Education, a large Multi Academy Trust in the Southeast of England, and she hosts her own podcast, The Evolution of Leadership. Her clients describe her as pragmatic, direct, skilled, flexible, and empathetic.

Zeena Hicks is a positive psychologist, executive coach, and doctoral researcher whose work explores how people build inner psychological capacity when pressure doesn’t let up. Known by many of her clients as The Positivity Doctor, Zeena bridges rigorous science with lived experience, translating positive psychology, neuroscience, and coaching psychology into grounded, self-directed practices. Her current doctoral research  at Oxford Brookes, UK, examines how positive self-coaching, particularly when supported by peer connection, can create powerful ripple effects across families, workplaces, and wider systems. 

This conversation explores what psychological sustainability really means for coaches, leaders, educators, and parents operating under chronic demand. We also explore the realities for parents of neurodivergent children and how positive psychology, according to Zeena helped her  ‘survive some dark moments as a parent’

Oscar Trimboli is an executive coach, author, speaker, and creator of the Deep Listening podcast and framework. With a career spanning senior leadership roles at global tech companies such as Microsoft and Vodafone, Oscar has dedicated his later career to helping people become deeply attentive and impactful listeners. He is the author of several books including How to Listen: Discover the Hidden Key to Better Communication.

His work centers around the transformative power of listening—not just hearing the words, but decoding the unsaid, sensing meaning, and guiding conversations toward deeper insight. His research includes extensive analysis of over 35, 000  of workplace conversations, to understand how people listen.

Tracy is a renowned Master Certified Coach, International Speaker, Mentor, Facilitator and Author, and has been at the forefront of the coaching field since 2001. She has worked with leaders in for-profit and non-profit organisations in fields from healthcare, finance, aged care, government, academia, technology, construction, retail, travel and hospitality. 

She has also worked in Parenting based coaching and specialises in Gold Mind play having written and spoken in this specialised topic.

Tracy also supports the development of individual coaches through mentoring and supervision, to develop competence, capability and capacity.Tracy provides leadership to the coaching community through her contribution to the International Coaching Federation Australasia (ICFA) and ICF Global Communities, and previously to the Asia Pacific Alliance of Coaches.