Executive performance for Black founder-CEOs and senior leaders. Built by an executive and a psychologist who understand the rooms you are in.
“Was that feedback about my strategy, or about how they see me?”
The board note you re-read at 1am, unsure whether to act on it or challenge it. The investor meeting where the questions felt harder than the ones your peers get. The energy spent decoding rooms that others get to spend running the business.
That decoding work is real work. It is invisible, unpaid, and exhausting. We built a practice around it.
Operating as “the only one in the room” carries a measurable biological burden. Researchers call it allostatic load: chronic vigilance that taxes sleep, recovery and decision quality.
Black leaders must constantly separate substantive feedback from pattern-matching, from boards, investors and buyers, with a higher bar and less benefit of the doubt.
Mentors exist. Sponsors, clinically informed coaching, and peers who genuinely understand this specific load are far rarer. Generic coaching does not touch it.
Being brilliant was never the problem. Carrying it alone is.
We treat the leader as a complete performance system and work on the whole of it.
Every engagement opens with a structured diagnostic across seven inputs to performance, from sleep, energy and stress physiology to decision quality, influence, identity, and how you spend your time. No guessing about what to work on.
Deep one-to-one work with two practitioners: a senior executive who has sat in your seat, and a consultant psychologist who understands what pressure does to judgement. Strategy and psychology in one room.
We track what changes: your energy, your decisions, your key relationships, your results. The work compounds, engagement over engagement, instead of resetting with every new coach.
A portion of our annual profit funds !GNITE, our programme for underrepresented young people aged 14 to 25 (Stars) and the adults who mentor them (Catalysts). When you work with Spark Initiatives, you are directly funding the next generation of leaders coming up behind you. Our goal: one million future and emerging leaders reached by 2036.
See the !GNITE ProgrammeA pairing you will not find elsewhere.
C-suite professional with almost 30 years' experience across financial services, communications, energy, technology and the public sector in Africa and Europe, including transformation programmes for federal and state governments and UK public-sector delivery. David has spent his career in the room with founder-CEOs, not coaching from the outside.
HCPC-registered psychologist and BABCP-accredited CBT psychotherapist with almost 30 years of clinical experience in the NHS and with corporate executives and founder-CEOs, trained at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (King's College London) and the Oxford Mindfulness Centre.
For founder-CEOs and senior executives carrying real scale. Deep one-to-one work with both practitioners, opening with the full diagnostic. A small number of clients, by conversation and mutual fit only.
Apply for a diagnostic conversationFor leaders who want the method and the peers. Group cohorts, the tools, and a vetted community of leaders who share the load you carry. Launching after our founding client group.
Register interestAn AI tool built for the decisions you make alone. Founding users get early access, help shape the product, and lock in founding-member terms.
Join the early-access listWe are deliberately small at the top tier. Fit matters more to us than volume.
Thirty minutes, no charge, no pitch. We will tell you honestly whether we can help.
Get startedFunds, accelerators and corporates: talk to us about sponsored places for your leaders.
See howA senior executive and a consultant psychologist, working together for founder-CEOs and senior executives carrying real scale.
David is a C-suite business growth, commercial and transformation expert with almost 30 years of global experience across the financial, communications, energy, technology and public sectors in Africa and Europe. He has led and delivered critical transformation programmes for federal and state governments across Africa, alongside senior delivery roles on UK public-sector projects. David has sat in the room for the boardroom pressure, the capital conversations, and the leadership isolation that define founder-CEO life, because he has spent his career working directly alongside founder-CEOs, not observing them from a coaching sideline.
Ade is an HCPC-registered psychologist and a BABCP-accredited Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist with almost 30 years of clinical experience across the NHS and with corporate executives and founder-CEOs. He trained at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London and at the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, and is currently completing doctoral research on inclusion and diversity. Ade brings the clinical depth, statutory governance and duty of care that the coaching industry almost entirely lacks: a registered, accredited clinician, not a certified coach.
Because the load is specific and the support gap is real. Depth for one community beats shallow help for everyone. This is a performance practice; the focus is what makes it work.
No. We are a measured, clinically governed performance practice run by a senior executive and a consultant psychologist. Ask any coach you meet today what their diagnostic is and who their clinician is.
We are early, and we will not invent results. What we offer instead is our track record as practitioners, a rigorous method, and founding-client terms that reflect exactly that. Our first clients get our best work and our best pricing.
Because the load is specific and the support gap is real. Depth for one community beats shallow help for everyone. This is a performance practice; the focus is what makes it work.
Most coaching touches two or three of these. Performance lives in the integration of all seven.
| Input | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Cognitive substrate | Sleep, energy, focus, stress physiology |
| Decision quality | Frameworks, calibration, judgement |
| Emotional regulation | Pressure, conflict, criticism, ego |
| Interpersonal leverage | Influence, sponsorship, team dynamics |
| Strategic clarity | What game you are playing, and why |
| Identity and meaning | Purpose, representation load, burnout |
| Time and attention | Calendar, deep work, delegation |
Integration is the difference. One accountable team, one plan, the whole person.
Structured assessment across the seven inputs, a review of how you actually spend your time and energy, and a clear picture of where performance is leaking.
Regular sessions with both practitioners, targeted at what the diagnostic found. Real situations, live decisions, prepared and debriefed.
Progress tracked against your own baseline. The plan evolves as the business does. You always know what we are working on and why.
Everything is confidential, clinically governed, and owned by you. Your data never trains anything without your explicit consent.
For founder-CEOs and senior executives carrying real scale. Deep one-to-one work with both practitioners. Opens with the full diagnostic. A small number of clients, by conversation and mutual fit only.
Apply for a diagnostic conversationFor leaders who want the method and the peers. Group cohorts, the tools, and a vetted community of leaders who share the load you carry. Launching after our founding client group.
Register interestFor Practice clients whose leadership challenges extend beyond the individual to the team around them, we extend the same method to executive team performance. This is available only as an extension of an existing engagement.
A tool for the 1am question. Built with founders like you, not for you.
A board note, an investor email, a performance review, a post-meeting debrief.
What is substantive and worth acting on; what fits documented bias patterns; what is ambiguous.
Suggested actions, reframes, and the exact clarifying question to ask, with the reasoning shown.
Substantive
“Unit economics unclear in Q3.” Action: rebuild the cohort table before the next board pack.
Pattern flag
“We need to see more confidence.” Fits a documented pattern; consider evidence-first framing.
Ambiguous
“Is the team senior enough?” Ask: “Which capability specifically concerns you?”
Join the list today; help shape it, get it first.
Join the early-access listMost support programmes do not touch it.
Offer the Membership or the Bias Decoder to your portfolio CEOs and rising leaders as a funded benefit, the way leading investors already fund coaching.
Structured group programmes for an accelerator intake, a portfolio, or a leadership population, delivered with clinical governance most providers cannot offer.
A senior executive and a consultant psychologist, professional indemnity in place, explicit referral pathways, and data your people own. Diligence-ready.
We are an organisation with one job: giving young people from underrepresented backgrounds the same shot at a career that others get without thinking about it.
“To inspire young people aged 14 to 25 by giving them access to role models, practical insight, and the skills to succeed in their careers.”
The opportunity gap in UK corporate life is real and well documented. Plenty of young people are bright and driven, but they do not have the networks, the language, or the inside knowledge that others pick up simply by being close to it.
We set up !GNITE to tackle that head on, with a properly run programme that teaches real skills, opens real doors, and builds a community that lasts.
Most mentoring schemes pair a student with a senior executive and hope something sticks. We do it differently, and the outcomes back us up.
Our speakers are young professionals, close enough to the journey that what they say lands as honest rather than distant.
We ask speakers to talk about the setbacks and the wrong turns, not the tidy LinkedIn version. That is what builds resilience.
Starting at 14 means we reach young people before the choices that are hardest to undo: subjects, university, and the quiet assumptions about what is possible.
The programme runs as a community where everyone has a clear role, and every role counts.
Senior figures who steer the strategy, open doors to corporate partners, and hold the programme to a high standard.
Young professionals who run the events and mentor participants, and who pick up real leadership experience in return.
Young people aged 14 to 25 from underrepresented backgrounds, chosen for their drive and potential, who join us for four workshops a year.
The companies and institutions who back us with funding, venues, and expertise, and who see measurable social impact for doing so.
!GNITE exists because Spark Initiatives commits a portion of its annual profit to fund it. Every founder-CEO and senior executive who works with our performance practice is, by extension, funding a Star's place on this programme. It is the same sustainable leadership model, working in both directions: !GNITE develops the Stars and Catalysts of tomorrow; Spark Initiatives supports the established leaders of today.
See the Spark Initiatives practiceFour in-person workshops a year, each built around a specific skill, and each shaped by the real barriers young people hit on their journey to building successful careers.
We work right across the 14 to 25 range, because the decisions that shape a career do not all happen at once. They stack up.
Early career exploration and sensible subject planning, so that decisions are not made by accident.
Support with the big calls around university, apprenticeships, and vocational routes, at the point where they matter most.
Help bridging the gap between a qualification and a career, so young adults can take on a competitive job, trade or business with confidence.
Each quarterly workshop tackles one skill we know holds underrepresented talent back from a successful career.
How to weigh evidence, work through a problem, and make decisions when the answer is not obvious.
How to hold your own in rooms that matter, in writing, out loud, and in the way you carry yourself.
Self-awareness, resilience, and reading a room. These are the things that decide who gets on beyond the graduate intake.
How to build a network and a reputation when you did not start with the contacts others take for granted.
Each workshop runs from 11am to 4.45pm in London, run to a professional standard from the first hello to the last handshake.
Introductions, a warm-up, and a clear sense of what the day is for.
A guest speaker walks through their real journey: the obstacles, the turns, and what they learned.
A hands-on session on the day's core skill.
A corporate partner shares a look at real careers and the openings they have.
A relaxed close, where participants get to talk to speakers, partners, and Catalysts.
The discipline behind this curriculum, structured, evidenced, reviewed every quarter, is the same discipline Spark Initiatives brings to executive performance work. Different audience, same standard.
See how we work with senior executivesWhether you are a corporate partner, a young professional with something to offer, or a young person ready to take your career seriously, there is a way in.
We offer corporate partners a credible, well-run way to back social mobility, one that goes well past a cheque and a logo.
Headline Partners co-brand the workshop, get a named slot on the day, and receive a detailed report afterwards. Supporting Partners get visibility and networking access.
We tailor every partnership to your goals and your budget. Get in touch for a full proposal.
Catalysts, our volunteers, do a lot more than help on the day. They shape strategy, run operations, support participants, and gain genuine experience doing so.
Most of our Catalysts are young professionals who have walked the path our participants are just starting, and who want to help the next group do the same.
You do not need a background in youth work or education. You need energy, reliability, and something real to share.
Get in touch
ignite@sparkinitiativesglobal.com
!GNITE is for young people aged 14 to 25 who want more and are ready to put the work in. It is free to take part, because our partners cover the cost.
We work with young people aged 14 to 25 from underrepresented backgrounds who want a corporate career. We look for drive and commitment, not grades, contacts, or background.
Workshops are held in London, and we expect you to come to all four in the year.
Register your interest
ignite@sparkinitiativesglobal.com
Every place on !GNITE, and every Catalyst's development, is made possible in part by Spark Initiatives' performance practice clients. If you lead a business and want your success to fund the next generation of talent as a matter of course, not just a one-off donation, this is what that looks like in practice.
See the Spark Initiatives practiceWhether you are a prospective Practice client, asking about the Bias Decoder, a fund or corporate partner, or getting in touch about the !GNITE Programme, we would like to hear from you.
We aim to reply within three working days. Thanks for getting in touch.
For anything to do with the executive performance practice, the Bias Decoder early-access list, or sponsor and fund partnerships.
Email performance@sparkinitiativesglobal.com LocationLondon, United Kingdom
For volunteering, corporate partnership on !GNITE, or questions from young people and parents or guardians.
Email ignite@sparkinitiativesglobal.comWe aim to reply to everyone within three working days. If a matter is urgent, just say so in your message.
This notice covers both the !GNITE Programme and the Spark Initiatives executive performance practice.
Spark Initiatives Ltd is the data controller for personal data collected in connection with both the !GNITE Programme and the Spark Initiatives performance practice. You can contact us at ignite@sparkinitiativesglobal.com (!GNITE matters) or performance@sparkinitiativesglobal.com (Spark Initiatives practice matters).
For participants (aged 14 to 25) and parents or guardians, we collect:
| Why we use your data | Our legal basis |
|---|---|
| To manage your participation in the programme | Performance of our agreement with you |
| To contact you about upcoming events and workshops | Your consent |
| To measure the impact of the programme | Our legitimate interests |
| To contact your parent/guardian (if under 18) | Legal obligation (safeguarding) |
| To share photos/videos for promotional purposes | Your explicit consent |
We keep !GNITE participation data for as long as you are an active participant, and for up to three years after your participation ends, for impact measurement purposes. Safeguarding-related records are retained for a minimum of 10 years.
Depending on which service you use, this may include: contact and enquiry details; diagnostic and coaching session data; and, where you consent to the full diagnostic, health-adjacent data such as sleep, recovery, and stress physiology metrics. This last category is special category data under UK GDPR Article 9 and is only collected with your explicit, separate consent, never as a condition of using our other services.
| Why we use your data | Our legal basis |
|---|---|
| Contact and enquiry data | Legitimate interest in responding to you |
| Coaching and diagnostic data | Performance of our contract with you |
| Special category health-adjacent data | Your explicit consent, withdrawable at any time without affecting other services |
We retain practice engagement records, including diagnostic and coaching data, for 8 years after the formal engagement relationship ends.
We do not sell your personal data. We may share it with our volunteers (Catalysts) and Torchbearers for !GNITE delivery purposes, our practitioners for Spark Initiatives practice delivery, our technology providers under strict data processing agreements, and statutory agencies where required by law or safeguarding duties.
You have the right to: see the data we hold about you (a Subject Access Request); ask us to correct inaccurate data; ask us to delete your data (in some circumstances); object to how we use your data; and withdraw your consent at any time where we are relying on consent.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at the relevant email address above.
If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at www.ico.org.uk.
We may update this notice from time to time. The current version is always available on our website.