Fiona Gilkes (née Quarrie), CIPD, ACC Executive Coach Director, Oak Tree Coaching, London fiona@oaktreecoaching.com +44 (0)20 8810 1495 + 44 (0)771 332 2894

Fiona is an executive coach, facilitator and Director of Oak Tree Coaching. She has been helping individuals, teams and organisations to grow and change since 1999. Fiona’s background is in large private and public sector organisations, where she has led learning and development teams and provided HR and organisational change consultancy. In her most recent corporate role she led the strategy and implementation of employee engagement in a global insurance company.

Since moving into consultancy, she has worked in the UK and Europe, in Telecommunications, Government, Healthcare, Research, Insurance, Banking and Legal Services.

Fiona is experienced in the design and facilitation of learning experiences in a broad range of behavioural development subjects. Some of her areas of specialism include:

• Clear Head Coaching. In today’s workplace, one of the most important talents is that of managing a workload that at first glance looks impossible. An expert in personal effectiveness, Fiona helps overwhelmed leaders to focus on what’s most important and find the confidence to cut out the rest. She’s committed to helping people become more decisive, strategic and creative while at the same time reduce feelings of overwhelm and burn out.

• People Management. Passionate about excellent leadership, Fiona uses her own experience as a leader and a consultant to support leaders to get the best possible performance from their people.

• I Love Mondays Coaching. Fiona helps both private and corporate clients create clarity about what is important to them and what they want from their lives and career. Through coaching, she helps people develop confidence about what they have to offer and ultimately start to love going to work on Mondays!

Fiona is both passionate and pragmatic. She has a natural ability to quickly uncover insights from interwoven issues and enable individuals and organisations to move forward and reach their goals. Structured and supportive, Fiona’s subtle style guides clients seamlessly from diagnosis to delivery with the minimum of fuss.

Fiona has extensive knowledge of a range of people development and change management tools and resources, which she adapts to meet client’s specific needs. Fiona’s clients describe her as firm, thought-provoking and insightful.

Fiona is a qualified professional Coach, trained by the world leading Coaches Training Institute and independently accredited by the International Coaches Federation (ICF). She holds a post-graduate qualification in human resources, specialising in learning and development (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.) She is also a fully qualified Myers Briggs and FIRO-B Practitioner and has a first class honours degree in Sociology from the University of Liverpool.

Prior to joining Oak Tree Coaching, Fiona has undertaken corporate and consulting roles for Pricewaterhouse Coopers, PA Consulting, Royal and SunAlliance, Nestle UK and Yorkshire and Humberside Health Authority.

Client Testimonials

"Fiona’s coaching provided me with a great deal of support and structure, helping me to define and address a series of interwoven issues that I had been grappling with for some time. I found the sessions to be a great pleasure – Fiona has a natural ability to lead and extract real insights, which enabled me to move forward in a way that felt supportive and positive. Fiona teased out a series of thoughts and emotions that I’d previously found difficult to verbalise, putting me in a stronger position to enhance lots of aspects in my life. I would recommend Fiona wholeheartedly and have no hesitation in recommending Oak Tree Coaching to anyone looking to explore their well being and effectiveness."
Will Knight, Deputy Director, London Design Festival

“Fiona and Kate designed and facilitated a one day team event for my team in January 2010. You never know quite how these days are going to work and I have to say the day exceeded my expectations. It made all the difference getting the professionals in…they made astute observations about the team, created an approach that was exactly right for the situation and their expert facilitation meant that there were no elephants left in the room. We ended the day with a clear action plan that’s been easy to implement.”
Finlay Smith, Property Underwriting Manager, Europe. QBE Insurance Group.

“Coaching with Fiona has been such a valuable and liberating experience. One of the most powerful exercises we did was to develop a kind of ‘life purpose statement’ that helped me understand and articulate the values by which I want to work and live by. I’m continuing to refine this statement and I tend to use it as a sort of anchor to guide me through changing circumstances when I’m not sure which direction to go in.”
Sarah Whitely, Comic Relief

"Fiona coached me for six months in the period leading up to and during my return to work after maternity leave. With her help, I discovered many things about myself and found the tools to enable me to improve areas of my life which had previously caused anxiety and concern. Fiona understood the difficulties associated with returning to work after having a baby and I felt at ease with her from the beginning. Fiona was warm and approachable and although she challenged me and made me accountable when necessary, she allowed me to work within my own framework. I felt very positive and hopeful after each session and by employing the tools and exercises Fiona introduced me to, I gained a lot more confidence in my return to work. I highly recommend Fiona as a coach, particularly for post-maternity coaching."
Anna Baptiste