Meet Hilary
My Background
I didn't plan to become a coach. I planned to be a scientist.
I have a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Sheffield, a post-doctoral research post at Nottingham, and the kind of early career that was supposed to lead somewhere very specific. It didn't. Life had other ideas—and looking back, that non-linearity is probably the most useful thing I bring to the work I do now.
I spent fifteen years at Rolls-Royce, navigating one of the most complex engineering organisations in the world. I learned what it means to operate inside systems that are simultaneously impressive and maddening, to hold senior roles in environments where the pressure is constant and the space to think is rare. I understood, from the inside, how capable people become hollowed out—not through weakness, but through the accumulated weight of delivering without ever quite being seen clearly.
That understanding is what eventually led me here.
My coaching philosophy
I work with mid-to-senior leaders who are still performing but running on empty. People at transition points. People who've lost their own voice inside their organisation. People who are high-functioning and quietly falling apart.
What I offer isn't a framework or a programme. It's a quality of attention—the kind that creates the conditions in which people can think clearly and hear their own answers. I've found that most people already know what they need. They just need someone who won't flinch from the questions they need to ask.
I formally trained as a transformational coach with Animas, completing my diploma in December 2025. I hold ICF credentials and a Neurodivergent Coaching Diploma (pending). I work in full alignment with the ICF Code of Ethics and core competencies—not as a box-tick, but because the ethics of this work matter to me.
My values are accountability, integrity, trust, and joy. They show up in how I work, not just what I say about how I work
The thinking
I write about leadership, systems, gender, and the human cost of operating inside organisations that weren't designed with people in mind. You can find that work at The Lightbulb Lounge on Substack—it's where I think out loud, challenge norms, and weave together ideas that don't usually sit next to each other.
The writing and the coaching are connected. Both are about helping people locate themselves accurately in complex terrain. Both start from the belief that the right question is more useful than the ready answer.
About Hilary
I was born in Wales, raised in England, and have spent a lot of time in the in-between places—geographically, professionally, personally. I'm comfortable with complexity and suspicious of easy answers. I find joy in running off-road, in craft, in watching my children do things I couldn't do at their age, and in the particular satisfaction of a well-constructed sentence.
I'm a parent of a child with an anxiety diagnosis. That experience has taught me more about advocacy, resilience, and the quiet strength that grows through sustained difficulty than almost anything else. It's also taught me what it means to fight for someone who can't yet fight for themselves—and how that shapes the way you show up for people in every other context.
I understand darker seasons. I don't shy away from them in conversation.
A note on neurodivergent coaching
I have a specific interest in working with neurodivergent leaders—people whose brains work differently, whose strengths have often been underestimated, and whose experience of organisational life doesn't always match the one described in the leadership textbooks.
This is specialist work, and I've trained accordingly. If this is relevant to you, it's worth mentioning when we speak.
Before you go
If any of this resonates—not just the credentials, but the way of thinking—I'd like to hear from you.
The first step is a conversation. Free, thirty minutes, no obligation.
If you'd like to understand what working together looks like first, start with the Work With Me page.
Book a call. Let's have a meaningful conversation.