Rachael Hanley-Browne: ‘The voice of our members is central to our development’

Rachael Hanley-Browne: ‘The voice of our members is central to our development’

Rachael Hanley-Brown

30 September 2020

We’ve welcomed two new members to the EMCC UK Board in the past few weeks. Rachael Hanley-Browne, our new Member Engagement Director, introduces herself here, and also see the introduction by Hannah Butler, our new Knowledge Exchange Director.

I was motivated to become a director of the EMCC as I am keen to give something back to the profession that has given me so much personal satisfaction and development. It is a real privilege to work at such an intimate level with people as a coach or mentor. Being a coach and mentor has also changed me for the better. I am keen to encourage others to join the EMCC community, to invest in themselves to become qualified, to achieve accreditation and the recognition they deserve.

I recently became a Senior Practitioner and hope to achieve my Master Practitioner in 2021. I have also really enjoyed attending EMCC conferences, and have especially fond memories of arriving at the Venice conference by water taxi!

To remain relevant, we all need to continuously improve, and the voice of our members is central to our development. I also have an interest in how we can democratise coaching and mentoring to make them more accessible and diverse. This can only be achieved with our membership’s engagement.

I am an executive and systemic team coach, board mentor and a joint owner of a think tank dedicated to team coaching. I am keen to continue to develop research and thought leadership in team coaching as this field continues to grow and establish itself. I have been coaching and mentoring for the last 15 years. This has included being both a mentor for in-house and external mentoring schemes, as well as engaging in charitable mentoring with the School of Hard Knocks, supporting young BAME women. I am currently a board mentor for Metalogue, a partnership dedicated to organisational transformation. I volunteer with the NHS and MacMillan Cancer Support.

With reference to this role, my career has largely encompassed commercial business leadership, including being a marketing director and sitting on the marketing executive at Ashridge Business School. I have previously been a Fellow of the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management and a Fellow of the Marketing Society.

In terms of membership organisations, I was previously a Regional Director for the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), a voluntary role to raise their external profile in the London region, representing them in the media and on live radio. Also, I was a voluntary board member of the London HR Connection, an affiliate of the CIPD.

When I was a Panel Chair at the Judicial Appointments Commission, I volunteered to do many outreach events to encourage applications from BAME and women solicitors, such as the Black Solicitors Network, and Women in Law. I have recently delivered consultancy projects with two large membership organisations, including completing benchmarked board reviews.

I am looking forward to working with you all at EMCC UK.  If you have any ideas, comments or feedback please email me here.