ALISON SMITH

Executive Coach & Consultant

Prior to joining Aesara, Alison was a Corporate M&A Partner at Freshfields in London. Alison led global teams working on complex, cross-border transactions, including advising AB InBev on its £78bn acquisition of SABMiller, and Comcast on its £30bn takeover of Sky. Through her management role at the firm, Alison became increasingly interested in the psychological factors associated with successfully leading teams in demanding business environments, enabling sustainable high performance and executive wellbeing. It was Alison’s interest in these challenges that led her to step out of the legal industry to undertake a Master's degree in Psychology and to train as an executive coach. 

Alison works with a range of clients including C-suite, senior executives, Financial Services professionals and senior lawyers across a broad range of coaching objectives (both 1:1 and in team settings). Alison uses a coaching psychology approach – working with clients to enable desired cognitive, emotional and behavioural change through increasing their self-awareness and using psychologically-informed coaching techniques and tools to challenge self-limiting beliefs and behaviours. Alison’s coaching style is proactive and results-focused, underpinned by a balance of support and challenge.

Common themes that Alison works with include successful career progression and role transition, confidence/imposter syndrome, executive presence and communication, team effectiveness, building relationships and networking for introverts and professional anxiety. Alison regularly works with senior executives moving into new roles or stages of their career when behaviours that previously brought them great success can become derailers, e.g. perfectionism, people pleasing and over-working. Alison is an accredited mediator, giving her added expertise in helping clients navigate challenging workplace relationships and communication and allowing her to offer a coaching-mediation approach to resolve workplace conflict. ​

Alison has a Master’s in Law from the University of Cambridge, a Master’s in Psychology from the University of Exeter, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Business and Personal Coaching. She is a Certified Team Coach, an ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC), a CEDR Accredited Mediator and is Hogan and Strengths Profile accredited. Outside of work, Alison enjoys spending time outdoors with her family at their home in the South West. Her ultimate ambition is to one day combine the family's passion for sailing with team coaching.​