Karen Hands

Karen brings breadth and depth to the coaching space. Starting out as an engineer and project manager, then training as a teamwork coach, gave her a solid foundation from which to develop her whole-person coaching style that is both pragmatic yet inspired. She’s a sense-builder, a map-maker; walking alongside you.

Karen is a leadership coach, facilitator, mentor and teacher with extensive experience of working with women leaders from around the world. She began her career in ICI as a process engineer responsible for environmental improvements, but nowadays her focus is on people and processes that build connection and meaning. She was one of the first accredited Coverdale teamwork coaches, providing consultancy services in Centrica British Gas, Bechtel and on Channel Tunnel Rail Link projects.

Alongside engineering and infrastructure, Karen has experience in the third sector with housing associations and welfare-to-work delivery. She has been a school and college governor and delivers women’s leadership development training online through Oxford University Saïd Business School. She’s a portfolio entrepreneur.

Whole-person coaching is a way of being that puts the client in the spotlight. Karen’s clients describe her as an effective and creative coach who absolutely believes in them.

Her typical client is someone in a leadership role, who is aware that they have more to give than their current position demands. Often, they can see opportunity but not the path by which they might reach it. Creating thinking time to notice what, if anything, is holding them back can be a turning point. Karen builds trust to enable questioning and challenge within a kind and supportive space. She knows that we all have the potential to transform, as individuals and as leaders.

Karen is a qualified coach, having achieved her Diploma in Coaching with Head, Heart & Soul from Oasis in 2025. She’s a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), Associate Fellow of Oxford University Saïd Business School, and holds a BEng (Hons) in chemical engineering from University College London.

She’s a keen gardener and enjoys time in nature, whether cycling or walking along the beautiful Northumberland coast and in countryside where she lives.