Presentation topic: Inner Critic, interactive session

Helen is a Soul Alignment Coach and founder of Soulful Woman Rising®. She supports women world-wide to be their own authority in leading an empowered, self-created life. Through the conscious connection, reclamation and embodiment of their true self and innate wisdom, women confidently master authentic expression, learn to trust themselves fully and build resilience for navigating the ebb and flow of daily life and business.

Rise Up! Overcoming self-criticism and choosing to thrive.

We all experience self-criticism from time to time and guaranteed it will present itself when we least expect or want it. Our thoughts reveal our deepest insecurities, which we prefer to keep hidden from ourselves and others. Self-criticism is an unwelcome catalyst to self-doubt, uncomfortable feelings, and self-sabotage.

Every now and then, you may experience thoughts that undermine your confidence by telling you that you’re not good enough, clever enough or courageous enough. You may feel worthless due to the comparison that you make between your efforts and the achievements of others. Perhaps you stop yourself from trying something new as you fear failing, so instead choose to remain in the safety of your comfort zone.

These thoughts, feelings and beliefs are not your own but originate from your inner critic archetype, who is the dis-empowering part of your psyche. You no longer have to listen to the negative internal commentary of your Inner Critic that judges your efforts, criticises your actions, and undermines your achievements.

During this interactive talk, Helen will share practices that enable you discover how your critic archetype thinks, feels and behaves and uncover how your inner critic impacts the decisions you make and actions you take. Helen will also share easy to apply tools for you to connect to your innate wisdom, so that you can rise self-empowered and confident.

Presentation topic: Benefits of having a mentor, and the Plan B scheme

After an award-winning international career in hospitality and FM Jackie ‘officially’ retired in 2020 only to immediately begin consulting work with Kentish & Co Ltd and other consulting organisations. Projects to date have brought over 40 years of both tactical and strategic experience in the world of work to clients in the UK and US where performance through people, be they employees or third parties, matters. That experience has been on the global stage leading multicultural teams in the world of IFM both service provider and client side

Nominated as FTSE 100 Top 100 Women to Watch by Cranfield University in 2015 and recognised in the sector for passionately promoting the progression of women to senior leadership roles, Liz and Jackie created Plan B for FM to continue that vision into the future for the sector.

The Plan B session at the Women in FM Annual Conference

Plan B was founded in 2018 to support women in the Hospitality Sector to advance to board level, given the universally acknowledged truth that diversity on board’s improves organisational performance and creates shareholder value, whilst enhancing the skill set of an under represented group at board level. Its success was recognised within the industry and three women have secured board roles via the programme.

Fast forward to December 2019, and an introduction to the Plan B founders for Liz Kentish by Jackie Cupper, and the initial vision of Plan B for FM was founded and became a reality in October 2020, despite the arrival of a global pandemic in the meantime!

The virtual platform has supported Women in FM all over the globe to access world class mentoring from leaders in our industry, including a few brave and enlightened men who serve as mentors. Our success has led to two additional sessions in the month of March in support of International Women’s Day, and a steady stream of applicants wanting to grow their skills or ‘Lift as they climb’ as mentors. We look forward to sharing the Plan B for FM story and ethos with you all.

Presentation topic: Benefits of having a mentor, and the Plan B scheme

Liz strives to make a difference to the lives of her clients and trusted friends. Highly motivational, Liz’s energetic and inspiring nature is infectious, helping to boost business performance and achieve results quickly.

Co-founder of Kentish & Co Ltd, Liz leads a team of experts changing behaviours and building partnerships in the industry, calling it Corporate Marriage Guidance!

Liz is highly regarded within both the FM and L&D industries, and was formerly deputy chair of IWFM and chair of Women in FM. Liz has been a judge of the fmME (facilities management Middle East) Awards, IWFM UK and IWFM’s Ireland Region Awards and is a guest lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University.

Liz is co-host of Plan B for FM Mentoring, a free of charge programme to help women progress to board level.

The Plan B session at the Women in FM Annual Conference

Plan B was founded in 2018 to support women in the Hospitality Sector to advance to board level, given the universally acknowledged truth that diversity on board’s improves organisational performance and creates shareholder value, whilst enhancing the skill set of an under represented group at board level. Its success was recognised within the industry and three women have secured board roles via the programme.

Fast forward to December 2019, and an introduction to the Plan B founders for Liz Kentish by Jackie Cupper, and the initial vision of Plan B for FM was founded and became a reality in October 2020, despite the arrival of a global pandemic in the meantime!

The virtual platform has supported Women in FM all over the globe to access world class mentoring from leaders in our industry, including a few brave and enlightened men who serve as mentors. Our success has led to two additional sessions in the month of March in support of International Women’s Day, and a steady stream of applicants wanting to grow their skills or ‘Lift as they climb’ as mentors. We look forward to sharing the Plan B for FM story and ethos with you all.

With fifteen years’ experience in the facilities management sector, Nicola is keen to explore with our panel how we stay connected with our teams in a disconnected world. You can connect with Nicola on LinkedIn at via email.

Presentation topic: Diversity and Inclusion in Leadership

IJ Samuel is a Director at Turner & Townsend, with over 15 years’ industry experience, working on multi-billion-pound programmes and projects for clients like Heathrow Airport, High Speed Two (HS2), Kuwait Oil Company, and lots of other clients, across Oil & Gas, Energy and Transport Sectors. 

Having started her career as a Control Systems Engineer over a decade ago, IJ swiftly transitioned into leading multi-disciplinary Project Controls/PMO teams. As a respected industry leader and role model, IJ is driven by innovation. She continuously transforms how projects and programmes are set-up and delivered, with a focus on building diverse and inclusive high performing teams.

With such a successful career across various major projects and programmes, IJ indeed has a first-hand experience of being a black female leader in construction and built environment sector. This fuels her passion to diversify thought leadership, challenge unconscious bias, and champion tough uncomfortable conversations, in order to normalise Diversity and Inclusion in male dominated industries.  

She is an inspirational leader, and a keen advocate for diversifying the talent pipeline at the highest level of decision making in leadership. IJ is on a mission to change the ‘face’ of leadership, with a focus on supporting women and ethnic-minority professionals to pursue leadership roles.