Heather Labanya

Heather Labanya is a leadership development coach and consultant with law and development expertise who works with individuals, teams and organisations across a variety of industries. Heather has facilitated and led leadership and group mentoring programmes reaching some 1500 people. Heather is faculty on the Executive Coach-Adviser course, training senior professionals in coaching and mentoring. She has coached, mentored and trained leaders across Europe and Africa in leadership and mentorship tools.

While working for the United Nations’ specialised agency, International Labour Organization (ILO), Heather spent several years working on innovative entrepreneurship development, employment and employability programmes, fostering inclusive and equitable solutions. With ILO being a tripartite plus organisation, Heather’s remit involved working with governments, as well as employers, workers, enterprise development specialists and other non-governmental organisations in a number of countries to implement gender and disability inclusive policies and practices.

Heather regularly contributes to panels, facilitates workshops and delivers keynotes. Drawing on her differing roles and experience as an advocate, as well as proven tools and techniques, she coaches and mentors on growing confidence in effective communication.

Heather is passionate about helping people lead effectively, personally and professionally, in every sphere – showing up authentically, connecting with values and purpose, building relationships and leading with mental and emotional agility, resilience and strength. She is committed to helping people grow inclusive and diverse, multi-disciplinary teams and approaches to practice, as well as designing and delivering projects and programmes where every story that should matter truly does matter. Heather has spent over 15 years working closely with people seeking change in a wide variety of settings including purpose-led entrepreneurs and innovation teams.

Heather is a qualified solicitor, has an LLM in Human Rights, Conflict and Justice from the University of London, was trained in Training and Facilitation Techniques with the Management Development Foundation (MDF) Training and Consultancy and is a qualified Executive Coach, Adviser and Mentor with CoachAdviser. Heather is accredited in Coaching and Mentoring with the European Mentoring and Coaching Council.