Sarah MacDonald

Founder and CEO

Sarah MacDonald is the founder and CEO of The Leadership High (TLH), with over 25 years of experience driving transformation for some of the world’s most recognized brands. With a background in sport, Sarah played a pivotal role in the growth of Nike’s women’s retail business across the UK and Europe. She later held senior leadership roles at GSK and the global investment bank Goldman Sachs.

As a certified Neuroleadership Coach, Sarah has worked with leaders, teams, and organizations across diverse industries and geographies, helping them unlock potential, build confidence, and lead with purpose. She is a passionate advocate for experiential learning and believes in the power of movement and mindset to drive leadership excellence.

She founded TLH in 2020 and has developed an international business that is passionate about developing leaders and teams.

sarah@theleadershiphigh.com

Sally Storey

Transformation Partner

Sally has over 20 years’ leadership experience across all aspects of commercial pharmaceuticals – she previously spent 5 years in FMCG and, more recently, was COO in one of the UK’s leading marine conservation charities. Sally is passionate about leader and team development and lives by the mantra that “you are only as good as your team”. She has led multiple territories across the world and has managed people from over 50 nationalities. She was the first female General Manager of any pharmaceutical company across the GCC (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar).  She has a track record of delivering transformational change programmes across different functions and geographies and has 17 years experience operating at board level – she is currently an Advisory Board member for a leading strategy consultancy.

Sally lives in Cornwall, UK, where she likes to challenge herself by taking on ambitious renovation and house build projects. She exercises her brain and body with daily dog walking as well as strength training, reformer Pilates and hot yoga.

sally@theleadershiphigh.com

Simon Ash MBE

Transformation Partner

Simon started his career as Bomb Disposal Officer in the British Army. His experience on various operational tours gave Simon a personal insight into leadership in adversity and managing risk where the stakes are highest.

After leaving the Regular Army Simon went on to be a project manager for Mace Ltd, working on large construction projects such as The Shard in London. He also worked as a senior manager and trustee within the charity sector before turning to consulting and becoming a qualified executive coach. He now specialises in facilitating leadership development programmes to support high-performance teams across various sectors.

Simon is also a serial adventurer, having led operations and expeditions around the world. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and was awarded an MBE in 2019.

simon@theleadershiphigh.com

Sue Middleton MBE

Transformation Partner

Sue has over 20 years of leadership experience operating at management committee level in the pharmaceutical industry. She has worked across different functions, including Communications, Government Relations and Commercial and across geographies, in global and local roles. Her most recent role was at GSK as a member of the global vaccines management committee, leading the Communications and Government Relations team for GSK’s vaccines business.

She has held leadership positions in a number of Trade Associations, including being President of Vaccines Europe throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. She was awarded an MBE for services to the pharmaceutical industry in 2014.

Sue is passionate about working with leaders and teams, supporting their development and growth and is a qualified executive coach. Sue also enjoys skiing and other physical activities and challenge.

sue@theleadershiphigh.com

Peter Newhouse

Transformation Partner

Peter Newhouse is a well-known expert on the future of reward and recognition. He served as Unilever’s Global Head of Reward from 2010 to 2022 and was a member of the company’s Global HR Leadership Team. Prior to this, he held senior leadership roles, including as a senior executive at Ford in North America and as Group Head of Remuneration at Standard Chartered Bank.

Peter holds a law degree and began his career in the field of reward when he joined the American consulting firm Organisation Resources Counselors (ORC).

He is passionate about helping organisations and leaders think differently, structure themselves effectively, and leverage reward and recognition as powerful drivers of performance and culture. Peter works closely with teams and leaders as both a consultant and coach.

We are delighted to have Peter bring his energy and creativity to TLH as a Transformation Partner.

Professor John Neal

Transformation Partner

John is a performance psychologist who has worked with leaders and their teams to achieve remarkable results under intense pressure. An exercise physiologist, performance psychologist and leading academic in coaching and business, John has worked in sport, business and the military. John crafted a successful career as a global performance coach preparing leaders, coaches and their teams in multiple World Cups, Olympics, The European Rugby Championship,  The Premier League and F1.  John has consulted with large global corporates, UK and international military and police services. John has now brought all this experience with him in his role as a TLH Transformation Partner.

Professor Ian Robertson

Academic Partner

Ian Robertson is Professor Emeritus in Psychology at Trinity College and was the founding director of Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience. He is Co-Director of the Global Brain Health Institute, a Member of the Royal Irish Academy and a Member of Acadamia Europea. He is a highly-cited researcher on the brain’s attention systems and his most recent of a series of widely-translated popular science books is How Confidence Works: the new science of self-belief, published by Penguin in  2021.

Övül Sezer

Academic Partner

Övül Sezer is an Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations at Cornell University, where she teaches Leadership and Organizational Behaviour in the MBA program. Her research explores topics such as impression management, conflict resolution, negotiations, and leadership.

Before joining Cornell, Övül earned a bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics and a Ph.D. in Organizational Behaviour from Harvard University.

Outside academia, Övül is passionate about comedy. In her limited spare time, you can often find her performing as a stand-up comedian at the Gotham Comedy Club in New York City.

We are thrilled to have Övül as an Academic Partner at TLH and look forward to her collaboration with both the TLH team and our clients.

Professor David Fletcher

Academic Partner

Professor David Fletcher PhD CPsychol is the Director of Performance Psychology and Management at Loughborough University. He is the senior advisor on a PhD co-funded with The Leadership High to research the impact of physical challenge on workplace performance.

His experience of consulting with high-level performers spans the past 20 years and includes working closely with Olympic and world champions from a variety of sports, special forces and emergency services, and senior leaders and their teams in FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 companies. David has published widely in performance psychology and consulting, including ground-breaking research studies in scientific journals and practical articles that demystify complex human phenomena.

He is currently an Associate Editor (Social and Behavioural Sciences section) of the Journal of Sports Sciences, a Consulting Editor for Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology, and sits on the editorial board of five other international peer-reviewed journals. David has won multiple awards for his professional practice and research from organisations such as the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences, the American Psychological Association, the Association for Applied Sport Psychology, and most recently FindAUniversity’s inaugural British Postgrad PhD Supervisor of the Year Award. He is regularly interviewed about performance psychology-related topics on British national television (e.g., BBC Breakfast, BBC News, Sky News, ITV News, Sky Sports), radio (e.g., BBC World Service, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 5 Live), and newspapers (e.g., The Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph).

Dr. Will Tyne

Academic Partner

Dr Will Tyne is currently a Teaching Associate in Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at Nottingham University. Will is also an Associate Researcher. Will completed his PhD at Loughborough University graduating with his doctorate in 2024. As a Post Graduate Researcher supported by The Leadership High, Will focused his research on how physically challenging experiences can help us thrive in the workplace and more broadly in our lives. The Leadership High and Loughborough University have been exploring the impact of recreational challenge workplace performance. The exciting results from the research are now being published (see our page on the website for more information). Will continues to broaden his knowledge as an Associate Researcher in the field of sport and exercise science and we are excited to continue the journey with him at The Leadership High.

We are delighted that Will is an Academic Partner at TLH and is able to share his work and how it can apply to the workplace setting.

Mel Marshall MBE

Belief Partner

Head of High Performance for Australian Swimming.

Mel took up her exciting new challenge and role in January 2025 and is based at the Australian Aquatic Centre on the Gold Coast. Mel is working with the Australian team as they now prepare for the next Olympic Games in LA 2028.

Mel Marshall MBE is a double Olympian, five-time Olympic finalist, and the second most decorated female at the Commonwealth Games – taking home no less than six medals at the 2006 Melbourne Games alone. In 2004, she was ranked number one in the world when she broke the British 200m freestyle record, which cemented her place in the Olympic Games in Athens.

Mel announced her retirement from swimming following the 2008 Beijing Olympics and started her world-leading career as an elite coach. She joined City of Derby Swimming Club as Head Coach, before joining Loughborough University in 2017 as the National Centre Lead Coach for British Swimming.

Mel’s extraordinary career as Lead Coach has resulted in over 20 international medals across the World, European and Commonwealth Games. Mel is coach to Adam Peaty MBE, who under her coaching has won 3 Olympic gold medal titles.

As a coach Mel has been recognised for her coaching excellence winning British Swimming Coach of the year three times in a row and in 2014 Mel was named UK Sports Coach of the year. Mel was shortlisted for the 2021 BBC Coach of the Year award.

Mel has a BSc in Sports Science and an honorary Doctorate from Loughborough University.

Mel is passionate about helping people go in pursuit of better so this was a match made in heaven and TLH are absolutely delighted that Mel has joined the TLH Advisory Team as a Belief Partner to help guide us and our clients.

Anna Hopkin MBE

Belief Partner

Anna Hopkin MBE is a British swimmer and became an Olympic Champion winning gold in the 4×100 mixed medley relay at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics when the team broke the world record. Anna is a multiple world and commonwealth medallist as well as a multiple British and European Champion. Anna was an Olympic finalist in the 100m freestyle in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and is the current British record holder. Anna is coached by the elite coach, Mel Marshall.

Anna studied for a BSc in sport and exercise science at Bath University before continuing her education in Arkansas, USA gaining a masters in kinesiology. Anna was also competing as a student athlete within the USA college system finishing top 5 in the nation in both the 50 and 100 freestyle. In 2020 after graduating from college, Anna returned to the UK to train with coach Mel Marshall at the Loughborough High Performance Centre. Anna was awarded an MBE for her services to swimming, following on from her gold medal success in Tokyo with the British Relay Team. Anna is now on the road to the Paris 2024 Olympic games to represent Great Britain.

We are delighted that Anna is a Belief Partner at The Leadership High and is able to share her experiences and work with our client leaders and teams.

Greg Searle MBE

Belief Partner

Greg won rowing gold at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, aged 20, in a race which some have described as the greatest rowing race of all time.  He sailed with the GBR Challenge for the America’s Cup and came out of retirement to compete in the London 2012 Olympics, aged 40, where he won a bronze medal with the men’s eights. 

Greg has worked with individuals, teams, and organisations for the last 27 years. He has an ability to inspire peak performance by drawing parallels between elite sport and business transformation. He is passionate about sharing the behaviours required to harness the energy he had at 20 to the wisdom he had at 40.

The Leadership High are delighted that Greg is now a TLH Belief Partner, working with our leaders and teams to build belief and confidence. Greg was awarded an MBE for his services to rowing.

Susie Hudson

Executive Assistant to Sarah MacDonald and Client Programmes Manager

Susie has worked alongside several C-Suite Executives and brings with her over 20 years’ experience across a variety of sectors; Mining, Retail, Finance and Charity, the House of Commons, Events Management and Public Relations. Susie’s many skills ensures that the team at TLH are always prepared and organised, working effectively and efficiently with all our clients.

If Susie’s not juggling work and being a mum of two, you’ll find her on the beach with her crazy, but lovable cockapoo, Honey.

susie@theleadershiphigh.com

Sally McMurray

Client Experience Director

Sally has over 20 years experience developing complex  and effective communication projects designed to increase employee engagement, motivation and help to change behaviours. 

With a strong focus on client experience, she brings energy and confidence in delivering projects, delivering intuitive and personalised solutions.

Sally heads up client experience at TLH. She focuses on optimising the client journey with the leaders and teams we work with, ensuring TLH are always in pursuit of better. 

Sally has a passion for volunteering, her latest role working to help mentor and rehabilitate ex offenders.  A city girl but with a love of the sea she’s never happier than walking the dog along a coastal path.

sally.mcmurray@theleadershiphigh.com

Kirsty Pank

Marketing Manager

Kirsty is a Project Director with over 20 years of strategic and operational experience in experiential marketing. As a creative problem solver, Kirsty always aspires to find the best ways to do things. With a degree in Sports Science and marketing Kirsty has worked for some outstanding organisations and teams. A career highlight was her role in the Rugby World Cup 2015 team.
Kirsty is our TLH Project Director and directs and manages our day to day operations.

Lizzie Davies

Team Support Specialist

Lizzie joins the TLH team with extensive client-focused operational experience in the Hospitality, Retail, and Charity sectors and, most recently, as a Marketing Manager in the Education sector. Lizzie provides wide-ranging administrative support to the team with a ready adaptability typical of a military spouse.

Lizzie enjoys regularly cooking for the masses at her local church and otherwise can be found on court mastering padel or driving the M6 in support of her far-flung family.

Clive Rawlings

Clive is a barrister at the U.K Bar where he has practised in public and administrative law for over 20 years. He is a member of Doughty Street Chambers in London.

Clive is nationally recognised as a leading expert in education law, having been a teacher and education manager prior to his career at the Bar. He has regularly advised and represented private individuals, companies, local and national government, voluntary sector organisations and charities. He has developed a particular expertise supporting young people with disabilities or special educational needs.

Clive has held organisational leadership positions for over 35 years, including roles on the senior leadership team of schools, local authorities, chambers management teams, private companies, and voluntary organisations.

Clive is presently engaged in the sport industry as Director of 4 Corners Sports Management, in the strategic oversight of culture, arts, sport and leisure as a Trustee of the Cheltenham Trust, and arranging sporting opportunities for young boys and girls as the Chairman of a large local youth football club in Hertfordshire.

Clive has a long-standing passion and commitment to promote equal opportunities for all and recognises fully the role that confidence and physical challenge plays in developing human skill, expertise and achievement. He is excited by the innovation, energy, enthusiasm and engagement TLH will bring to organisational and personal development and wishes in due course to help TLH develop the confidence muscle™ of young people from a variety of backgrounds through a TLH charitable venture.

Annabel Saunders

Annabel has achieved sustained global leadership impact during her career with a track record of outstanding sales and marketing achievements. She has wide experience as a high performing senior commercial leader within blue chip organisations, across multiple regions including the Emerging Markets, Asia Pacific, USA and UK and was latterly Vice President, Commercial Excellence Emerging Markets and Asia Pacific at GlaxoSmithKline. After 25 years in the corporate world, Annabel established her own Consultancy, Skylark, to help businesses achieve competitive advantage by developing bespoke partnerships with clients to achieve even greater commercial excellence within their teams. Annabel is known as an inspirational leader and coach and is passionate about developing teams. She has also been involved with The Prince’s Trust for over seven years working as a mentor to support young people as they develop and launch their own businesses.

Kate Holden

An engaging, influential global leader and Board Member, Kate has extensive experience in strategy formulation and execution, digital transformation and complex stakeholder engagement having worked in high performing environments in the Education, Information Services and Media industries.

Kate’s leadership skills and experience in managing P&L of up to £223m and staff of 1,000 has been gained through a successful career with some of the most respected global brands: RELX PLC, Pearson PLC, Financial Times and McGraw-Hill Education and through her own consulting business, providing Strategic Planning and Digital Transformation Services.

Born in Cyprus and educated at an Italian school, Kate completed her undergraduate studies at Southampton University followed by several executive courses at Harvard Business School, Chicago Management School and Cranfield Management School.

Kate enjoys working with Boards, CEOs and their teams facing strategic choices and responding to the challenges of today’s digital disruptions to achieve scale, grow market share and deliver profitable results. She is a Board Member on the Learning Change Programme at The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and a Member of the Finance and General Purposes Committee at the University of Warwick. Kate is also a freeman of the City of London, a Liveryman and a Mentor at the Worshipful Company of Marketors – a City Livery Co. which promotes Marketing as a force for economic and social good.

She speaks English, French, Italian and Greek, loves working with different cultures and channels her passion for coaching executives, entrepreneurs and their teams by focusing on helping them gain strategic clarity and create a culture of belief and excellence for themselves and their teams.

Peter Redhead

Peter’s career path started with the Home Office looking at crime patterns. But he soon joined Northumbria Police where he ended up as a detective covering all major crimes.

An MBA with distinction led him to Hong Kong to become an equity analyst. Peter was Head of Asian Research for JPMorgan and Head of European Research for them in The City, and has managed staff from tens of countries and worked with clients and regulators world-wide. He was Global Head of Equity research and co-head of Asian equities at Macquarie.

Peter is a non-executive board director, a Leadership Coach and is active in a number of charities. We’re excited to have Peter as a member of the TLH team.

Peter Newhouse

Peter Newhouse is a well-known expert on how to reward and recognise people. Peter was Unilever’s Global Head of Reward from 2010 to 2022. He was previously a senior executive at Ford in North America and Group Head of Remuneration at Standard Chartered Bank in London. After graduating with a Law degree, Peter started his career in Reward in 1980 when he joined the American consulting company Organization Resources Counselors Inc (ORC).

Peter is currently focused on the future of reward and recognising people. He is now a Global Reward Counselor advising companies, he is a frequent speaker at international conferences, has had articles published in newspapers and specialist publications and has featured on television and radio. Peter is committed to understanding what motivates leaders and teams and working with people to develop better ways to do this. The Leadership High are absolutely delighted that Peter has joined their Advisory Team so we can benefit from his ideas, creativity and energy.

Mollie Pearse

Mollie is a seasoned marketing leader and high-performance leadership coach with 18 years of experience driving growth within global brands, including IMG, HSBC, LinkedIn, and Meta, where she currently oversees consumer and creator marketing in EMEA.

With a lifelong passion for exploration and personal growth through physical and mental challenges, Mollie believes that embracing these experiences is essential to building high-performing individuals and teams.

As an endurance athlete, Mollie has represented Team GB as an age-group triathlete and now enjoys pushing her limits by running ultra-trail marathons in diverse landscapes around the world.

TLH are delighted to  benefit from Mollie’s incredible breadth and depth of experience and most importantly, her passion for developing people.

Duncan Adamson

Duncan is the Director of the International Snowsport School. He is also a trainer and examiner of ski instructors and has decades of experience in coaching human performance on the slopes.

Duncan believes the very essence of leadership and decision-making is at the core of every skier, no matter their level. Understanding and using these processes empowers the learner to lead their own path on the mountain, to make their own choices and conquer the challenges ahead.

As instructors and coaches, we move towards understanding psychological and neurological responses to better understand how we guide a developing skier. A change of emotion and understanding by the skier at any moment gives them highs and lows. The emotional lows can never be ignored; they are an essential prerequisite for experiencing the highs. Although we present skiing content to overcome and embrace challenge on the slopes; there is a clear application of this experience to everyday leadership in life.

We use skiing to represent examples of the challenges we face; the ultimate goal being to define a process everyone can follow to lead us through life’s challenges.