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Advisories
Actor, Writer, and Director
O-T Fagbenle
O-T Fagbenle is an internationally renowned actor, writer, and director whose career sits at the highest level of the global film, television, and theatre industries. His work spans award-winning theatre, major Hollywood productions, and critically acclaimed television, reflecting both exceptional creative range and sustained commercial success.
Trained at RADA, he established himself early through prestigious theatre productions that went on to win Olivier Awards. His screen career has reached a worldwide audience through prominent roles in landmark series such as The Handmaid’s Tale, earning him an Emmy nomination, alongside appearances in major studio films and high-profile portrayals of global figures.
Beyond acting, he is recognised as a rare creative leader with proven authorship and control. By writing, directing, composing, starring in, and executive producing a major US network television series, he achieved a first in the industry, demonstrating an extraordinary level of creative authority and versatility.
As Ella’s mentor for over ten years, he brings insight shaped by success at the very top of the industry. His mentorship is grounded in real-world achievement, offering guidance on creative ownership, ambition, and long-term thinking. His influence extends beyond the arts, helping shape confidence, discipline, and clarity of vision in those he mentors.
Mentor
Chris Underhill MBE
Chris Underhill MBE is a highly respected mentor and social entrepreneur whose influence spans decades of work in wellbeing, disability, and mental health across the UK, Europe, and low- and middle-income countries.
Chris’s mentorship is shaped by extraordinary breadth. His mentees work across organisational and financial management, estate agency, education, mental health, and social enterprise, while his own experience reaches into some of the most complex human challenges of our time. These include childhood deprivation, the protection of deaf children, human trafficking, the psychology of gangs, prisons and rehabilitation, Fair Trade, leadership development, medical transport, and executive search. This range gives his guidance rare depth and perspective, grounded in lived reality rather than abstraction.
Since 1978, Chris has founded and led pioneering organisations including Thrive, Action on Disability and Development, and BasicNeeds, transforming how community mental health and disability are addressed worldwide. He is an early and active member of Catalyst Now, where he serves on the Governing Council and chairs its Mental Health Collaboration, a network of 150 organisations. He also co-founded the Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurs and currently serves on the board of the Peter Harrison Foundation.
As Ella’s mentor and advisory, Chris brings a lifetime of ethical leadership, systems thinking, and humane decision-making. His mentorship offers more than advice; it provides a moral compass shaped by global experience. He helps those he mentors think clearly about impact, responsibility, and long-term change, grounding ambition in compassion, realism, and a deep understanding of how people and systems truly behave.
Mentor
MICHEAL NORTON OBE
Michael Norton OBE is a trailblazing leader in the social and voluntary sectors whose work has shaped thousands of organisations and communities across the UK and beyond.
In 1975, he founded the Directory of Social Change, creating what became a revolutionary resource for charities and social enterprises. Over the following two decades, he built DSC into the UK’s leading provider of training, publications, and practical support for the non-profit sector, fundamentally professionalising how social impact work is delivered.
Michael has also pioneered numerous influential social ventures. He co-founded UnLtd, helped establish youth-led funding initiatives, and launched platforms designed to scale social innovation nationally and globally. His outstanding contribution to the voluntary sector has been recognised with The Charity Awards’ Outstanding Achievement Award, cementing his reputation as one of the most influential figures in UK social enterprise.
As Ella’s advisory, Michael brings decades of strategic vision, proven impact, and an unwavering commitment to innovation and purpose-driven work. His mentorship encourages systems-level thinking rather than isolated projects, helping those he mentors understand change mechanisms, sustainability, and long-term impact. That perspective carries across every sector he engages with, shaping how ambition is translated into meaningful and lasting change.
Lawyer
TASHA GODSIFF
Natasha Godsiff is a qualified lawyer working at the intersection of human rights, justice, and equality. She currently practises in the Human Rights team at Leigh Day, specialising in judicial review and migrants’ rights, where her work combines strategic litigation with community-led change.
Her career spans leading international law firms. She trained at Clifford Chance and later qualified as an Associate at Baker Botts, working on international arbitration, commercial litigation, and business and human rights. Alongside her practice, she has delivered extensive pro bono work and founded multiple initiatives supporting non-profit organisations.
Beyond legal practice, Natasha is a founder and leader in the NGO sector. She established Jabalie, a UK-based charity supporting survivors and individuals at high risk of gender-based violence through education and empowerment programmes in the UK and Kenya. Her work has been recognised with the Princess Diana Award and inclusion in Themis20 Inspirational Women in Law.
She has interned with global institutions including the United Nations and continues to contribute internationally as a UN Women CSW Delegate, a One Young World Ambassador, and the England Chair for the G100 UK Anti-Gender-Based Violence wing.
Holistic Creative Therapist
Jo Cash
Jo Cash is a Holistic Creative Therapist whose work directly informs and strengthens Ella’s approach to one-to-one clients and coaching. With a background in education and extensive experience supporting emotional regulation and wellbeing, Jo models a way of working that is both deeply compassionate and practically grounded.
Through her use of HICAT (Holistic Integrated Creative Arts Therapy), Jo demonstrates how reflective conversation and creative expression can be combined to support self-awareness, emotional processing, and confident decision-making. This approach helps Ella develop coaching practices that are attuned to the whole person, not just goals or outcomes, enabling clients to feel safe, understood, and empowered.
Working alongside Ella, Jo provides supervision and reflective space that sharpens Ella’s ability to hold complexity, listen deeply, and respond with clarity. This influence shows in Ella’s one-to-one work through a calm, relational coaching style that supports clients to process challenges, build resilience, and move forward with agency and intention.
Speaker, Mental Health Advocate, Founder of LightsOnXP
Oly Newton
Oly Newton is a speaker, mental health advocate, and founder of LightsOnXP, a human-centred learning platform built from lived experience and designed to bring honesty, empathy, and connection into public spaces and workplaces. His work focuses on opening up conversations around OCD, ADHD, autism, anxiety, depression, and neurodiversity in ways that feel real rather than performative.
Through talks, training, and storytelling, Oly has supported organisations, schools, and communities across the UK and internationally. He is also a certified Mental Health First Aid Instructor and the founder of Run4YourMind, using movement, mentoring, and narrative to inspire positive change. His work consistently centres lived experience as a source of strength, insight, and credibility.
Olys support is particularly meaningful given her shared lived experience of OCD and ADHD. He helps her shape talks that are honest without being exposing, structured without being restrictive, and powerful without losing nuance. His guidance supports her to speak with confidence while respecting her own neurodivergent needs, turning lived experience into clarity, connection, and impact on stage.
Leader at Bentley motors
Louis Warburton
Louis Warburton is the Plant Quality Technical Leader at Bentley Motors, and his skills make him an exceptional mentor well beyond the world of engineering.
Louis has a rare ability to translate complex technical thinking into clear, practical ideas that make sense to non-engineers. His strong interpersonal skills and leadership approach create a space where learning feels accessible rather than intimidating. Instead of focusing purely on systems and processes, he focuses on people—how they think, collaborate, and improve.
By championing a Quality Mindset and Built-In Customer Quality, Louis mentors through principles that apply to any profession: ownership, clarity, continuous improvement, and pride in outcomes. His guidance helps you develop confidence, structured thinking, and a sharper eye for quality in your own work, regardless of technical background.
He is real and a great , clear voice of reason around all things leadership.