Gill Thackray began her career working in United Nations refugee camps — an experience that shaped everything that followed. What she witnessed there, in the resilience of people who had lost almost everything, became the foundation of her life’s work.
Since then, she has worked internationally as a performance psychologist, lecturer and founder of Koru Development. Her clients span the cultural, higher education, public and commercial sectors: the BBC, Google, Spotify, NHS England, the V&A, Cabinet Office, UK Sport, the Football Association, PwC, Ernst & Young, Deloitte, Great Ormond Street Hospital, WaterAid, the British Red Cross, Cambridge University and the LSE, among many others. Her specialisms include resilience, high-performing teams, imposter syndrome and burnout.
Gill is the author of eight books translated into twelve languages, including The Mindfulness Coach and The Positivity Coach (Michael O’Mara Books). Her work has been featured in The Guardian, BBC, Glamour, Woman & Home and Success Magazine, and she is a regular conference speaker and international broadcaster.
She holds memberships with the Association of Business Psychologists, the British Psychological Society, the British Neuroscience Association and the International Mindfulness Teachers Association (CMT-P). She has lived, worked and studied in China, Tibet, India and Thailand, and has practised mindfulness for over twenty years.
Viv Dutton is a positive psychologist and one of the first practitioners and lecturers of positive psychology in the UK. She specialises in growth mindset and resilience, and is one of the leading experts in the field in the UK.
Over more than a decade, she has designed and facilitated programmes for some of the world’s most respected organisations — bringing a precision and warmth that makes complex psychology genuinely accessible. Her client list includes Spotify, Lancaster University, Northwestern University, the College of New Humanities, the Wellcome Trust, Blair’s Global Institute, the Financial Times, YKK, the V&A and Southbank Centre.
As co-facilitator at Koru Development, Viv leads on growth mindset and positive psychology, and co-designs every programme with Gill. She brings an evidence-based, practical approach that translates psychological research into tangible, lasting change for teams and leaders.
Every programme is co-designed and co-facilitated — you get both of us.