Leadership with guts. Culture with heart.
Workplaces people don’t want to run away from.
When culture is built with intention, and people have what they need to do their best work—everything ignites.
Meet the founders
Two former solicitors. One mission: to build organisations that people don’t want to run away from.
Gemma Ellison
Founder
A former lawyer turned leadership and culture consultant, Gemma is driven by one question: What if workplaces were designed to truly bring out the best in people?
Gemma brings sharp thinking, emotional intelligence, and a deep understanding of systems to everything she does. She’ll shift how your people lead, connect, and build, and brings energy and fun to the process.
Hetal Hathiwala
Founder
Hetal’s career started in the legal world, but it was her curiosity about people, power dynamics, and what makes us thrive that led her to leadership development.
With sharp insight and a calm, intentional presence, Hetal helps leaders cut through the noise, find their voice, and build inclusive, energising cultures where everyone can show up fully, without burning out.
Lois Bates-Stubbs
Culture Executive
Lois brings heart, grit, and grounded wisdom to everything she does. As the founder of Mavenly, she’s built a business rooted in clarity, care, and making the complex feel simple.
At Heart Leadership, Lois pairs sharp operational thinking with deep empathy, creating space for ideas to flow and people to flourish – helping the team and our clients find that sweet spot between ambition and ease.
Why Heart?
Because culture is the heartbeat of your organisation.
Without a healthy heart, nothing else works.
Culture fuels performance, not the other way around. It powers creativity, momentum, and brilliance. Without it, a business is just a shell running on empty.
But culture is only part of the story. Leadership drives culture.
And when managers aren’t given the tools to lead well, everything falters. We’ve seen it time and again across organisations of all shapes and sizes.
We’re here to change that.
What we know
- Culture drives performance.
- Leadership is a behaviour, not a job title.
- People don’t burn out because they’re weak—they burn out because the system is broken.
- The future of work is community-driven, psychologically safe, and unapologetically human.
- Work should feel alive.