Karen Smart Head of Consultancy

Karen is an ICF accredited and experienced executive coach, coach trainer, mentor coach, supervisor and faculty member for the AoEC. She is pivotal in building, connecting, and maintaining effective authentic relationships both internally and externally.

As AoEC Head of Consultancy, Karen is responsible for meeting all executive coaching needs for our organisation-based clients. She works with leaders and senior decision makers across all sectors including financial services, professional services, entertainment, not-for-profit, and the public sector.

Karen sits on the Senior Leadership Team feeding into the AoEC strategy and business objectives. In addition to this, she manages an internal team to seek out opportunities and serve clients effectively. Karen is accountable for the budget for the organisations part of the business.
Prior to joining the AoEC, Karen enjoyed a successful commercial career in the pharmaceutical industry, latterly holding a global responsibility for strategy implementation and launch preparedness for a billion-a-year dollar brand across forty-four different countries. Karen has a broad-based sales and marketing experience in a variety of settings, including a two-year stint as Strategic Planning and Market Research Manager in Mexico City.

In her spare time, Karen likes spending time with her family and three rescue dogs, staying fit and learning music

Kim Wrighton - Client Relationship Manager

Kim works with the organisations team managing processes, governance, projects, contract issuing and coach matching. She has come from the banking sector with the majority of her career in HR working for a FTSE 100 company. She has built on her coaching skills having qualified as an executive coach on the AoEC Practitioner Diploma, prior to joining the AoEC in 2019. She is known for her practical, logical and structured approach along with the ability to listen to what is needed to find a way of getting the best possible solution for all involved.