THE IGNITE TEAM

Kathleen Cronin, Director

The idea for Ignite came to Kathleen as a result of her own career journey. She is passionate about access to affordable career development opportunties for girsl and young women. Throughout her career she has had experience of mentoring and coaching a wide range of aspiring leaders. While developing the ideas and programmes behind Ignite, she identified coaching as the ideal tool for sustainable learning, and is a practicing coach trained with the Coaches Training Institute and a member of the International Coaching Federation.

Kathleen grew up in Canada and cut her leadership teeth in outdoor education in the Rocky Mountains . Throughout university, she worked on community projects from establishing a youth club and running summer community education projects to working with a refuge to developing educational materials on how to identify signs of domestic violence.

She moved to the UK in 1998 and worked in various leadership positions, beginning at Edinburgh City Council implementing the Child Care Strategy. From Edinburgh she moved to London to the Children's Society and led the Children in Neighborhoods programme involving children and young people in the regeneration of their neighborhoods. She then moved on to the National Children's Bureau to lead their youth participation work and established the Participation Unit.

After NCB she became the Chief Executive of British Youth Council a national, youth umbrella organisation which provides support for youth led organisations and campaigns for young people. She then moved to Camrbidge and was the Chief Operating Officer of Speaking Up before securing support from the Young Foundation to launch Ignite full time in Febuary 2010.

Kathleen is a member of the Operations Committee of the Scout Association in the UK and an alumna of the Windsor Leadership Trust.

Clare Oliver, Associate

Clare's motivation in joining Ignite stems from her own personal experience of leadership and social justice, and a desire to empower other women to realize their leadership potential. Clare is currently training to be a coach with the Coaches Training Institute.

Clare enjoyed leadership roles from an early age: she started as a guide leader, was head girl of her school where she chaired the young enterprise group, and captained a range of sports teams at county and university level.

After gaining her degree in Behavioural Science, she moved into student politics and was elected as the Student Union Education and Welfare Officer. As part of this role Clare led and developed the Student Community Action group, training and recruiting volunteers.

In 1998 she was elected as the Women's Officer for NUS Wales and also as a National Executive Committee member for NUS UK. During this time she led the women's and welfare campaign in Wales, represented students to external organisations at all levels and campaigned on women's and student health issues across the UK.

She then moved into healthcare public relations and worked for two leading public relations agencies including Cohn & Wolfe where she managed a number of award winning public health campaigns, working with healthcare professionals, journalists and public sector organisations on smoking cessation, mental health and breast cancer awareness.

Clare joined the British Youth Council, BYC - a national youth umbrella organisation which provides support for youth led organisations and campaigns for young people in 2002. In 2005 Clare established the BYC's new Policy and Communications department and became Deputy CEO. During her time at BYC, Clare led the Royal Society of Arts Young Leaders Award programme for two years and the delivery of the Whitbread Young Achievers Awards mentoring programme.

Clare is married with two children and is a member of Queen Elizabeth Hospital Maternity Services Liaison Committee.

What is Ignite's intended social impact on individual women, in communities and organisations, for society ... find out more.