MEET THE FOUNDERS
We're small but mighty. We work with like-minded individuals and organisations with a focus on growth and positive change.
Kath and Rachel established Big Sky People driven by shared passion for empowering people and fostering leadership growth. They bring complementary sets and extensive experience, each specialising in different aspects of leadership development, from senior transitions to empowering tech-focused start-ups."
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Kath’s background sits firmly as a corporate people leader and development expert. She is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and Institute of Leadership with extensive experience as a senior leader driving high performing people strategies and transformational change across diverse sectors, including technology, manufacturing, logistics, and retail.
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With over 25 years’ experience, she has led HR functions within global businesses and SME’s as well as having previously led an interactive learning organisation to achieve numerous National Training Awards. Working with boards and executive teams to align people and performance with business objectives has been the golden thread throughout Kath’s career. With expertise in leadership & talent development, change management, employee engagement, and creating high-performing teams, Kath has delivered impactful, thought-provoking solutions to support rapid business growth and transformational organisational change.
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Her strategic interventions have included designing high growth – high engagement projects, multi-level leadership development programs often utilising Insights Discovery or 5 Dysfunctions of a Team frameworks for Teams and implementing companywide performance management frameworks. Kath has a range of qualifications in development and psychometric tools to complement any leadership development programme.
Kath’s passion is supporting leaders and managers to feel more fulfilled in their work - unlocking (often unknown) potential and enabling individuals, teams and organisations to thrive. Enabling managers and leaders to be authentic and engaging, ultimately leading to more motivated teams.
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Click here for Kath's work outside of organisational coaching approach.​
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Training and Qualifications
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25 years’ experience in people leadership and development - from PLC to SME
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Accreditation at Fellowship level by the CIPD and Institute of Leadership
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Qualifications in Insights Discovery and psychometric assessment tools
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Formalising experience as a coach via ILM 7 in Executive and Senior Leader Coaching and Mentoring
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Rachel's background lies in clean-tech development and growth. Following her Engineering Doctorate she became a founding scientist at ITM Power, a UK-based electrolyser development and manufacturing company. Over her 25+ year career, she advanced through various C-Suite roles, ultimately serving as Executive Director from 2015 to 2023. Rachel played a pivotal role in the company's success, developing expertise in R&D, intellectual property, collaboration development, partnership funding management, project development, and managing over £100 million in R&D and deployment projects.
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Working with the board, executive team and senior managers Rachel developed an expertise in managing cross function teams, strategy development and implementation.
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She developed and grew teams across a range of different functions from R&D and Project Management to Health and Safety and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance), developing strategies and teams to deliver in a high growth, high tech environment. Rachel's passion extends beyond clean-tech to people.
She believes in empowering individuals to achieve their potential, encouraging resilience and courage and challenging the status quo to drive innovation in technology and business growth.
Rachel is the Chair of the Advisory Board for the Hydrogen Challenge, and mentors with the EPSCR Centre for Doctoral Training in Sustainable Hydrogen and the Northern Mentoring Network.
Rachel is a fellow of the Institute of Engineering and technology, and the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining.
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Click here for Rachel's individual coaching approach.
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Training and Qualifications
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25+ years commercial experience, SME to LSE Listed
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Worked with individual contributors and various management levels up to executives/C-suite
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BSc, MSc and Engineering Doctorate
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Fellow of the IET and IOM3
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Qualifying as a coach via ILM 7 in Executive and Senior Leader Coaching and Mentoring​​