Our mission is to build a world where anyone, regardless of their background, can learn to lead. We believe the way to get there is through real world coaching experience alongside the next generation of diverse leaders.
The Circl story
Circl co-founder Charlie started his career working with young adults from underrepresented groups. He quickly learnt that there were many aspects blocking their access to professional careers, including a lack of communication, leadership and people skills. This was mainly owing to the fact that time in education is entirely focused on exams - teachers recognise the importance of people skills, but have little time to teach them.
Meanwhile Adrian Blair, Circl’s other co-founder, was leading teams at Just Eat, Spotify and Google. During 20 years of leadership at high growth tech businesses he constantly found that professionals need leadership development and meaning in their work. He also found that traditional leadership training was theory-based and offered practice only in artificial situations (e.g. trying out skills on colleagues).
When they met in late 2018 , the idea for Circl was born.
Meet the team
Our team includes talent development specialists, leadership coaches and learning & development experts. We have come from different backgrounds with different professional experience but we all believe strongly that business can be a force for good and can make a positive contribution to society.
Charlie Stainforth
Co-Founder & CEO
Charlie started his career at a Pupil Referral Unit, working with young adults from underrepresented groups. Following his work as a founding member of Elevate Education UK, he worked as Head of Partnerships at career coaching organisation, Future Frontiers, where he started exploring the mutual benefits in connecting professionals with young people.

Adrian Blair
Co-Founder & Chair
Over 7 years as Just Eat Global COO Adrian managed a team of 2,000 across 4 continents and played an instrumental role in propelling the company from a startup to the FTSE 100. Before this he led teams at Spotify and Google in California and London. As Global CEO of FinTech company Receipt Bank , Adrian oversees Circl’s development as Chair of the Board.

Aiko Sato
Programme Lead

Ashley Fontaine
Programme Manager
Joana Miranda
Delivery Manager

Muslima Miah
Delivery Officer

Natty Siripha
Delivery Officer

Arini Rajes
Delivery Officer
Eve Sharka
Projects Officer

Rupinder Sembhi
Marketing Manager

Kajol Desai
Youth Partnerships and Community Manager
Tessa Furnival
Customer Success Manager

Natalie Tucker
Impact Consultant

Richard Swindells
Chief Finance Officer

Caroline Evanson
Coach and Facilitator

Lucy Dennis
Coach and Facilitator

Melanie Lansbury
Coach and Facilitator

Lau Viggo Ploug Albjerg
Coach and Facilitator

Claire Brown
Coach and Facilitator

Keshav Bhatt
Coach and Facilitator

Sarah Weiler
Coach and Facilitator

Emma Burkitt Belfon
Coach and Facilitator