Meet Chris Jackson

Chris is based near Lincoln in the UK. His introduction to team coaching followed many years of running his own enterprises and coincided with a collision with academia when he became involved in the delivery of the ‘Team Academy’ model of learning.

‘Training’ for Chris was immersion in the Finnish ‘Tiimiakatemia’ model and involved travel to Scandinavia and Europe to experience how this has evolved and its impact in practice. Team coaching in this context is different in that it specifically focuses on learning programmes for young adults. However, Chris has been able to use this experience to synthesise the application of team coaching practice across different platforms, with a distinct focus on individual, team, and organisational learning. The ubiquitous ‘hybrid learning’ imposed by COVID lockdown became an opportunity to extend his network globally.

Chris is experienced in the delivery and active use of Belbin Team Roles in different contexts, including using Belbin GetSet with teenagers, and has a special interest in its impact in Third Sector organisations and communities of practice.

Chris has a background as MD of businesses in the service and marine tourism sectors and has latterly worked in Higher Education developing and delivering graduate and executive education programmes, supporting learners in the UK, The Netherlands and Romania. He holds a Masters Degree in Entrepreneurship and runs his own company, Jarra CIC, which supports organisations as they transition and grow.

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Plant / Resource Investigator / Shaper 

Meet Dr Elena Hinova-McNamee

Based half of the year in the ancient city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria, and the other half in the world’s sports capital, Melbourne, Australia, Elena’s passion for team coaching was first awakened five years ago. Elena realised that although one-to-one coaching is powerful for intrapersonal transformation, by itself it cannot achieve sustainable team and organisational transformation.

Having held a CEO position in the healthcare industry in Bulgaria, Elena embarked on a coaching journey and now has over nine years of experience coaching senior leaders. She began working with groups and teams in 2018 using a traditional coaching approach, but the necessity to dive deeper and understand the complexity of how groups and teams operate and evolve, drew her to attain team coaching certification with TCS, UK. Elena is also a certified Belbin practitioner and wholeheartedly committed to her own philosophy, that a team is a beautiful synergistic force, and that a team coach ignites this force through a loving and trusting presence.

Elena runs her own company, ‘Thriving Leadership’, with a purpose is to inspire leaders, teams and organisations to thrive. She is wholeheartedly committed to inspire and guide SMEs to embark on and walk a transformational journey accelerated through coaching, where they discover how to thrive with purpose! Elena also co-created the Good South Community in Sofia,  as an IDG hub in Bulgaria. In 2023 she launched Petko Hinov Foundation, a charity that inspires young people in Bulgaria to develop ‘eco-centric’ mindsets by engaging in self-determined projects.

Elena completed a PhD in Organizational Leadership and Coaching with the New Bulgarian University Bulgaria, and also has a part time academic career delivering leadership programmes.

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Teamworker, Co-ordinator, Resource Investigator

Elena’s two leading Belbin roles describe her as a Supporter: "I like encouraging people and helping them to work together effectively." 

Meet Dr Georgiana Els

Georgiana is an Associate Professor at Lincoln International Business School. She is also a passionate traveller and reader, a mother, and a team coach. Georgiana was introduced to the Finnish ‘Tiimiakatemia’ model while trekking in the Himalayas and ever since she has been involved in new ways of learning and development by applying the model in various settings and environments.

Before embarking on an academic career, Georgiana acquired several years of management experience in the travel and tourism industry. Her business experience enabled opportunities to work in various countries and being immersed in different cultures. 

Georgiana is an advocate of team learning and has been facilitating it for a range of learners from different disciplines at University of Lincoln. As lead researcher for a QAA funded Collaborative Enhancement Project investigating the process of the Team Academy learning model, she supported a group of students to deliver a project that engaged with and explored the visitor economy in Lincolnshire, UK.

Georgiana uses Belbin Team Roles with groups of learners and engages them in international “birth giving” challenge competitions. The model developed at University of Lincoln by Georgiana and Chris Jackson is mapped to the Inner Development Goals (IDGs) as an active contribution to the IDG (UK) Capacity Building Network.

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Teamworker/ Implementer/ Resource Investigator 

Meet Dr Sophia Koustas

Sophia is based in Manchester, NH in the USA and spends the summertime in her home country, Greece. Sophia was introduced to team coaching when tasked to co-create an Entrepreneurship Bachelor of Science Programme based on the Finnish ‘team academy’, or Tiimiakatemia, model of learning. Several components were already in place and while completing Team Coaching Mastery with UK-based Akatemia, Sophia and colleague Susan Losapio designed the programme as a team-based experiential academic model (TEAM.).

Sophia gained a Ph.D. in Business Administration with a specialization in Industrial Organizational Psychology from Northcentral University. Currently an Assistant Professor at Southern New Hampshire University, she teaches in the undergraduate and MBA programmes. Sofia is the owner/founder of SK Consulting and a member of the Social Enterprise “Noon Egno”. She is also co-founder of the arts non-profit SMouTh (Synergy of Music Theatre).

Sophia’s professional experience includes over 20 years as a leader, innovator, and connector in various sectors (government, private, and non-profit organizations) in the U.S. and abroad. She has experience in various sectors (local government, arts, culture, youth, construction, event management, hospitality, education, management consulting, etc.) and is actively involved in team and individual coaching in academic and corporate/organizational environments.

Sofia is actively involved in team learning, coaching, consulting, and entrepreneurial ecosystems and currently curiously researching “the impact of AI in SMEs”.

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Specialist / Resource Investigator / Teamworker 

Meet Dr Pauline Miller Judd

Pauline encountered team coaching through the Finnish Tiimiakatemia model and exploration as to how to use this in education. Since then, Pauline has grown her experience and knowledge of coaching and team coaching through working with a variety of organisations and managers to help them think differently and be more innovative. Pauline has also undertaken further development in the 3 Principles with Michael Neill (author of The Inside Out Revolution and SuperCoach) and David Key (author of Joyride).

Previously a senior leader in Higher Education and the Creative Industries, Pauline now splits her time between teaching at Edinburgh Napier University, team coaching, and facilitating leadership programmes for a range of organisations.

Pauline is a co-director of Jarra CIC, supporting organisations as they transition and grow, and is an associate tutor for Team Academy Amsterdam and the Entrepreneurship Academy, Romania.

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Teamworker / Implementer / Coordinator

Meet Hanna Saraketo

Hanna is a team coach from Finland, where team-based pedagogy was introduced in the 1990s. For over 30 years, she has worked mainly in business education, always trying to keep a clear work-life connection. She is a fan of learning by doing, and putting theory into practice. In recent years, she has also worked as a pedagogical expert, inspiring many universities around the world to change the way in which they enable students to learn.

Hannah currently works on the delivery of team learning programmes at Proakatemia, established at Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK) in 1999, where she is currently responsible for its Entrepreneurship and Team Leadership degree programme. There are no teachers and no exams - but there are team enterprises, team coaches and team learning. Students obtain a Bachelor of Business Administration degree by working in teams as entrepreneurs on live projects of their choosing for 3.5 years.

Belbin came to Hanna's attention when students had to be divided into effective working teams and she is now able to offer Belbin Accreditation in Finland through TAMK who are Belbin's distributor in Finland. Together with her colleagues, Hanna runs various Belbin training workshops for companies and inspires other universities and educational institutions to use Belbin's potential in guiding their students towards teamwork skills.

Hanna has always been interested in communication. She believes that by improving the way people communicate, it is possible to change the world. 

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Teamworker - Resource Investigator - Implementer