Our people
Emma Avignon
CEO of Mentore Consulting
Emma is the CEO of Mentore Consulting which helps businesses to identify, develop and accelerate their most talented professionals by designing bespoke development programmes, delivered through professional mentoring. Emma leads a team that provides best in class consulting, mentoring and access to appropriate networks and connections, which enable mentees to more effectively deliver on their business objectives.
Emma also speaks on the value of mentoring, networking and sponsorship and offers practical advice as to how women can progress their own careers, how men can play an active role and how organisations can change to foster gender diversity in senior leadership teams.
Emma is passionate about working with companies to create environments where both women and men can flourish. Through her consultancy work, Emma advises companies on how to embed diversity and inclusion goals into the heart of their business strategy – to achieve change and engagement from both men and women across the organisation.
Emma has more than 15 years of experience working for large professional services firms including PWC and EY, where she provided restructuring and transaction advice to multi-national corporations. Emma consulted with both boards and executive leadership teams to drive the development and delivery of strategic initiatives.
Emma works with the Royal Academy of Arts and mentors upcoming future business leaders across corporate and social enterprises.
Susan Barry
Susan has over 20 years experience in operations management within large multinational companies. She brings a wealth of experience in streamlining processes whilst maximizing efficiency.
Susan is experienced in leading and facilitating change initiatives, such as organizational restructuring, digital transformation, and culture change and can communicate effectively with different stakeholders, manage resistance, and ensure buy-in and adoption.
Previous employers include Secureworks, SAP, McAfee and Sun Microsystems.
Ian Clarkson
Ian Clarkson founded and built Celerant Consulting into a global top 10 operational consultancy specialising in change programmes. After selling Celerant to Hitachi Ian has been Chairman of Bright Field consulting, which specialises in education.
He currently serves on the board of 2 multi-academy trusts. He is also on the Board of the European Council on Foreign Relations alongside a number of former senior European politicians where he is also Chairman of the Executive committee. Ian is also on the board of the Institute for Statelessness and Inclusion, a human rights charity.
Lynn Little
Team Executive Assistant for Mentore Consulting
Lynn Little is Team Executive Assistant at Mentore Consulting. Lynn has extensive experience of working with professional people across a range of sectors within the ever-growing HR network and has established her reputation for acute attention to detail and seamless end-to-end support. Prior to joining Mentore, Lynn worked, for thirteen years at Strategic Dimensions as an EA and Events Manager at Corporate Research Forum, responsible for membership coordination and running their main events.
Lynn will be providing key administrative support to the CEO and to the Mentore Business.
Rhonda Martin
Rhonda brings a unique combination of strong relationship development and client management skills, alongside a deep experience of mentoring and leadership development. Rhonda is an experienced leader in consultancy and in-house roles in global professional services organisations, working across all levels and particularly with senior and C-suite populations.
Rhonda has a robust track record in business development and client relationship management having worked in commercial client facing and people development in organisations including KPMG, Turner & Townsend, Allen & Overy, Institute for Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, and the Center for Creative Leadership.
Rhonda has built strong relationships over the years resulting in a rich personal and professional network of contacts ranging across HR, Finance, C-Suite, Talent and General Management. Roles have included client relationship management positions working with clients such as Unilever, Arm Technologies and Aviva.
Rhonda has set up and managed several award-winning talent programmes to support the advancement of women, having been recognised by Opportunity Now and The Women of the Future awards schemes. Whilst at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, Rhonda led and co-designed the ‘Women in Leadership’, ‘Returners to Work – Narrowing the Gap’ and ‘Women on Boards’ initiatives to provide support and development opportunities for women one to three career stages away from senior leadership or board roles. The programmes were developed through partnering with employers within public and private sector, key stakeholders, government groups and leadership experts.
This work also included launching an inaugural South East Asian Women in Leadership mentoring and development programme in partnership with a major South East Asian Government. It was whilst working on these programmes that Rhonda experienced first-hand and witnessed the impact of mentoring to achieve personal change and growth.
Rhonda is currently board member and Mentoring Chair for a not-for-profit women’s network, WICT UK (Women in Cable Telecommunications). She has designed, set up and is now managing a mentoring programme for members of the network. Rhonda is also a former Board member of the City Women’s Network where she was Co-Chair of the Personal Development & Events Committee.
She brings expertise from the field of executive education and leadership development having worked for the Center for Creative Leadership, a global executive education provider, as Regional Director for UK, Ireland & Nordics.
More recently Rhonda has been working with a technology start-up to drive revenues, where the business focus was on virtual mentoring and coaching programmes, with data analytics being a key differentiator to provide quantitative ROI for clients.
In her spare time, Rhonda likes wild countryside, live comedy, yoga, attempting to improve her DIY skills, travelling (pre-Covid) and spending time with family and friends. Rhonda grew up in France and Belgium so considers herself a Francophile with a very international outlook to life.