We are a small, dedicated team of learning designers, producers, facilitators & coaches - supported by a community of specialist associates.

OUR COMPANY

Founded in 2004 by Rachel Whale - we started life as Vanilla Ventures. The company's roots can be found in Rachel's experiences as a young working class woman who experienced poverty and homelessness but also the joy of growth that came from the discovery of community, education and work as forces for good. Two decades later, we have grown into the company we are today, shaped further by the people, relationships and collaborations we have made along the way.

How we work

We hope to be a live case study for 21st Century ways of working - moving beyond the limitations of the 19th and 20th Century industrial and colonial pasts that too often still inform and lead organisational design and processes today.

As part of this, we seek to respond to the complexity of our times by reimagining the structures, ways and spaces in which we work - experimenting and learning together in the open in the hope we can take this further and also encourage others to experiment in similar ways.

We place our shared mission and purpose at the heart of everything we do.

Our work is driven by a theory of change which centres on the transformative power of radical learning to help build a just & regenerative world. We set our direction and focus using this frame and assess progress six months at a time.

We live by our values both individually and collectively.

We are Consciously Curious, Courageously Committed and Deeply Rooted. These are the values that we bring into the projects and programmes that we deliver in partnership with our clients, friends and colleagues and that inform our work on a day to day basis and across the company.

We draw on a rich tapestry of practice that is constantly evolving.

Our practice is how we do what we do when we create, design, hold, manage and evaluate learning experiences dedicated to imagining and building a better world. It is the root of our work, something we experience and build together and as our complex and uncertain world changes, our practice develops with it.

We design regular and purposeful moments for personal and collective connection, reflection and celebration.

Our weekly, monthly and annual cycle of check-ins, stand ups, pop-ups, company meetings, 1-2-1's, learning programme, away days and an annual retreat help us build and strengthen our work, relationships and take time to invest in and understand ourselves, each other and our wellbeing.

We work as one digital company but with physical spaces for collaboration.

We utilise both virtual and physical spaces in a flexible and hybrid way to work in the ways that best serve us and our collective community, with our Koreo House in London offering a home for connection, conversation and collaboration within, across and beyond the company.

Bringing together our approach, our Company Toolkit shares the ways we work together and is updated regularly with our latest experiments, innovations and ideas for a 21st Century world of work.

Our TEAM

Our team of core staff and associates have a wide range of specialist skills and experiences focused on organisational development, leadership, coaching, action learning, facilitating, management and analysis and project management and have worked across the social, public and private sectors in the UK, Europe and Australia.

Current members of team are:

Sheetal Mistry

Sheetal is a Learning Experience Manager at Koreo leading on the design and delivery of community-based programmes.

Sam Jenkins

Sam is Director of Finance at Koreo and leads on all financial planning as part of the company’s senior leadership team.

Ned Younger

Ned is a Director at Koreo specialising in leading Koreo’s emergent learning and community development work, having joined the company in 2010.

Nathan Ardaiz

Nathan founded ‘Almost Any How’, facilitating and coaching individuals and groups to reflect, learn and feedback more regularly, communicate more compassionately and design more collaboratively. Nathan uses systems thinking and principle to facilitate sustainable organisational change.

Mirei Kato

Mirei is a Projects Officer mainly working on coordinating and delivering the 2027 Programme, in collaboration with a range of partners across the grant-giving sector.

Mama D Ujuaje

Mama D is a community researcher, facilitator and systems transformer. She is founder of ‘Community Centred Knowledge’ and has worked across the UK, East and West Africa with women, rural and urban dwellers, facilitating journeys of learning and discovery for empowerment.

Kathy Brown

Kathy coordinates finance and people processes at Koreo working with the team and our partners across many of our programmes.

Julia Slay

Julia’s career spans social policy and community engagement at the New Economics Foundation (NEF), the Office for Civil Society and the Greater London Authority (GLA). Julia is a 2015 Clore Social Fellow, a 2019 Churchill Fellow and a non-exec member of the CCG.

Jordana Ramalho

Jordana’s practice focuses on building institutional capacities to work with marginalised groups and to embed an intersectional approach to their work, which she has applied across tenure insecurity, homelessness, disaster management, young offending, HIV/AIDS and food security.

Jordan Rolfe

Jordan is a Senior Consultant at Koreo working to design and deliver projects and programmes across Koreo’s portfolios.

Jane Garnham

Jane specialises in individual and organisational learning. She is a qualified coach and action learning facilitator. Jane assists organisations to examine their purpose, structures and processes that enables greater clarity of vision and purpose and the delivery of more effective services.

Hormoz Ahmadzadeh

Hormoz is a qualified coach and leadership development specialist, as well as co-director of Result CIC – an organisation that works with marginalised people to fulfil their potential and with senior staff and CEOs to support diversity and inclusion in their organisations.

Gunther Jancke

Gunther is an artist and leadership coach, mentor, and action learning facilitator focusing on trust and relationship building. Gunther has over 20 years of cross-sector experience of community organising, stakeholder engagement, campaigning, leadership training and group facilitation in the UK and Germany.

Girda Niles

Girda is an executive coach, action learning facilitator, trainer and an experienced non-exec director, with over 25 years of experience working with the NHS, as well as holding a variety of roles, including governance roles in the public, voluntary and community sectors, in the UK and Australia.

Freya Blundell Meyer

Freya is a practice designer at Koreo, managing a portfolio of cultural learning programmes with a range of partners across civil society.

Erin Lee

Erin is a Business Development Administrator at Koreo, working on the Charityworks programme supporting business and recruitment campaigns.

Elliekem Awoye

Elliekem oversees a range of projects at Koreo, ranging from community based projects to leadership based projects; as well as carrying out administrative duties.

Ella Rendall

Ella is the Campaigns Executive at Koreo, working on the business development and social media campaigns across Koreo’s portfolio.

Diana Galloway

Diana is a Learning Experience Manager at Koreo with a background in supporting young leaders with their learning and development.

Craig Pemblington

Craig works as Head of Projects at Koreo, responsible for the strategic development and delivery of national campaigns for our talent programmes.

Ben Dewhirst

Ben works across a varied portfolio of projects within our work specialising in entry routes into and through social change, focusing on coaching and leadership skills.

Ben Whittaker

Ben is an experienced organisational director holding positions at NUS, and University of West London Students’ Union. He leads a variety of change management and development processes and is a sector leader in diversifying staff teams.

Ashanya Griffiths

Ashanya works as a Learning Experience Manager at Koreo working primarily on Koreo’s flagship Charityworks talent programme.

Rachel Whale

As Koreo’s Founder and CEO, Rachel leads the company, its practice and work in partnership with the team and clients across the UK non-profit sector.

Almaas Osman

Almaas is a Learning Experience Manager at Koreo working on a range of projects and programmes focused on equity, inclusion and belonging.

Adrienne Sanders

Adrienne is a coach, action learning facilitator, and design thinking expert. Adrienne is a member of the British Psychological Society, holding an MSc in Psychology and an MSc in International Development, which both inform her specialism in organisational and leadership psychology.



Working with us

We often have a number of different roles available to work with us - as well as the opportunity to join our growing and diverse associate team.