Boardrooms, Blind Spots, and Coaching Courage: Naomi Connell on Building Truly Inclusive Boards

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.