Leaders aspiring to deliver systems-change
About the Eco-Leadership Institute
The Eco-Leadership Institute was founded in 2021 by Dr. Simon Western to cultivate a think tank and development hub and drive Eco-Leadership development and system change.
Now with over 500 members and course graduates, the Eco-Leadership Institute is a pioneer in its field. With partners and clients across industries and throughout the globe, cutting-edge courses, and a plethora of publications, the Eco-Leadership Institute is paving the way for leadership in our Precarious Interdependent Age.
What we do
- Bring together a diverse collection of professionals committed to the principles of Eco-Leadership
- Educate leaders and aspiring coaches through our innovative courses
- Provide coaching and consulting services to organisations looking to face the unique challenges we face today
- Support the continued research, learning, exploration, and dissemination of Eco-Leadership through our events, publications, and Eco-Leadership Community of Practice
Who we are:
Leadership Team
Dr. Simon Western, Founder and CEO
Simon Western is a leading academic and practitioner in coaching and leadership, and the author of several books, reports, and academic papers. He is the host of the Edgy Ideas Podcast and the author behind the Re-enchanting Our Worlds newsletter on Substack. Simon has also developed and led the organisation’s popular courses.
Simon brings an unusual depth of experience to the field of coaching and leadership. He has led Coaching and Organizational Consulting Masters courses at leading universities, including tenure as Director of Coaching at Lancaster University Management School, Masters in Organizational Consultancy (psychoanalytic approaches) at Tavistock Clinic, and past presidency of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations (ISPSO).
Currently, his portfolio of work includes coaching and consulting to CEO’s and international leaders, to deliver significant service and delivery improvements. He offers ‘thought leadership’ to support strategic change in today’s ‘network society’, specializing in distributed leadership to ensure ethical and dynamic leadership occurs at the edge as well as the centre of organizations. Simon works with C-Suite leaders, and is invited to work in teams that face big challenges; and in organisations that are working to transform cultures to distribute leadership and create matrix structures.
All of Simon’s work emerges from a critical and ethical perspective, where he claims our task is to work in ‘good faith’ to build the ‘good society’. His breadth of experience means that the work of The Eco-Leadership Institute is both grounded in the very latest theory, and tried and tested in practice across the globe.
Dr. Salome Joseph, Operations Director
Salome is an Operations and Research Lead at the Eco-Leadership Institute. She strives to promote personal and communal growth using psychological resources, coach training and her experience in academia.
Salome completed her Masters in Psychology and Ph.D in Educational Psychology from the Department of Psychology, University of Madras, India. Her doctoral work was on exploring identity through narratives in adolescents and its various implications. She has over 8 years of teaching and research experience in reputed institutes of higher education in India. She asserts evidence-based approaches in her consulting practice. With over 20 publications in reputed journals and books, she has won a few best paper/researcher awards. Her vision is to support the purpose of applying critical leadership theory to real-world contexts through her work at the Eco-Leadership Institute.
She is a recognized Analytic-Network Coach, mentored by Dr. Simon Western and is also certified in Transactional Analysis and Narrative Practices, among others. She uses her skills of assessment, coaching and training in Leadership Development across several higher education institutions, companies and NGOs in India.
While in academia, she was successful in incorporating progressive practices (such as Service Learning) in curricula of higher education programs since she believes in the value of service and human factors as a powerful pedagogy in education – a critical space for leadership formation. In her pursuit to deliver authentic and high-quality services as researcher and consultant, she prioritizes a community mindset, professional integrity and an empathic approach.
Eco-Leadership Institute Advisory Board
Dr. Susan Kahn
With over 25 years' psychology experience, Susan works as an executive coach, consultant, mediator and an observer of working life. She is a Chartered Psychologist and Coaching Psychologist with the British Psychological Society (BPS) and a Fellow of the Association of Business Psychologists (ABP). She has a particular interest in the behaviour of people at work and below the surface dynamics in organisations. As a coach she works together with individuals and their organisations to help clients to develop and enhance their authentic leadership style. As a mediator she is skilled in improving working relationships and developing common understanding between parties in toxic relationships. In addition to her private clients, she teaches Coaching Psychology at Birkbeck, University of London. She is a faculty member at the School of Life, working with businesses to help them learn, heal and grow. She also works as a group relations consultant, including equine coaching. Her research interests embrace leadership, change and vulnerability at work.
Leslie Brissett
Leslie has worked in organisational and community leadership for over 30 years. He is the former Group Relations Programme Director at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, and is currently serving as the Board Secretary for the International Psychoanalytical Association. Leslie has studied human dynamics in experiential settings in many countries and acts as an adviser and consultant to boards, nations, groups and individuals seeking to improve the quality of life and deepen what it means to be human and humane. Leslie holds multiple degrees including master's degrees in Health Education from Kings College and Organisational Psychology, Social Policy and Non-Profit Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, as well as a PhD in Unconscious Decision Making from Trinity College.
Faculty
Andres Bernal
Andres Bernal is a Public Policy and Leadership lecturer at the City University of New York as well as a Research Fellow at the Global Insitute for Sustainable Prosperity. His practitioner work consists of social impact and quality of life coaching and consulting in public, non-profit, cooperative, and CSR sectors. Andres has worked with and advised political leaders internationally including U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and former Senator now President Gustavo Petro of the Republic of Colombia. His research focuses on climate policy, leadership theory and practice, and heterodox economics.
Hetty Einzig
Hetty Einzig is a leadership coach, author, supervisor, speaker, consultant, and facilitator. Her work is rooted in a blend of transpersonal and psychodynamic for an ecosystemic approach. Hetty teaches at the Irish Management Institute (IMI), on the Analytic-Network Advanced Coach Training, and (in French) on the coaching diploma at BMH Coach in Casablanca, Morocco. She is the founding editor of Global Perspectives, the Association for Coaching global magazine and Publications Strategy Director for the AC.
With a career that has spanned the arts, journalism and TV, psychology, health, and organisational development, Hetty seeks to support leaders to establish values-driven organisations and to shape their contribution beyond the organisation and the bottom line to address the challenges of our time and ‘work for the good society’.
Pooja Sachdev, Faculty: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Pooja Sachdev, an accomplished business psychologist and founder of Rewire Consulting, has over two decades of experience spanning small startups to multinational corporations in finance, technology, and media. Specializing in unconscious bias, behavior change, and organizational culture, she co-authored 'Rewire: A Radical Approach to Tackling Diversity and Difference'. With a background including roles at Towers Watson and the Commission for Racial Equality, Pooja excels in fostering inclusive leadership and practices across diverse organizations, earning praise for her integrity and effectiveness. Passionate about maximizing potential and achieving holistic outcomes and as a seasoned Analytic-Network Coach, she utilizes her expertise in counseling, coaching, and group facilitation to empower individuals and teams across various sectors.
Support
Jonathan Boyle, Finance Manager
Jono is a skilled bookkeeper and finance manager with over 15 years of experience providing financial services to a diverse range of clients, the majority of whom operate in the arts and third sectors. In addition to his professional work, Jono is also a talented artist, specialising in collage. He also enjoys spending time in nature, particularly hiking and wild camping.
Aodhán Moran, Podcast Production + Tech Consultant
Aodhán Moran has one foot in psychology and the other in technology. A student of group relations since 2019, Aodhán has attended multiple group relations-style conferences in member, trainee consultant, and staff roles, including The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations' Leicester Conference. Aodhán draws on Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, Jonathan Pageau, René Girard, Simon Western, and others in his explorations of individual and group dynamics.
Aodhán is particularly interested in the intersection of psychology, mythology, and religion, and how these areas can inform our understanding of individual and group behaviour.
Martin Williamson, Design
Martin’s journey in design started from an early age, armed with a pencil and old roll of wallpaper, he would sit for hours dreaming up He-Man and Garbage Pail Kid characters.
Martin’s professional career highlights have seen him win major contracts and become the Creative Director of Distinctive Publishing. Now with his own studio in Darlington, Martin Williamson Design, he has over a decade of experience freelancing, offering design and print services to clients across the globe.
Megan Gibbons, Content Manager
Hailing from a non-profit background with a degree in Environmental Studies, Megan has followed a career path of her passions – through the development of a hands-on resource conservation programme for school children, as a recycling advocate for municipalities, and as an ardent supporter of local farmers and food producers by providing year-round business opportunities. She was a founding staff member at the Boston Public Market, the first all-locally sourced public food market in the United States.
Since moving to Ireland she has continued to work on community-oriented projects with small businesses and local producers through event management, communications support, and operational planning.
The Eco-Leadership Ecosystem
The wider Eco-Leadership community includes an international network of expert coaches, faculty members and partner organisations who all hold the principles of Eco-Leadership in the heart of their work.