Core Team

Insight, Innovation & Capabilities

Amber D'Albert

Founder & managing director

Amber D’Albert has 15 years experience in creative development and works with broadcast and FMCG companies to run strategic insight and innovation projects across multiple categories. Alongside delivering live innovation projects, Amber creates capabilities programmes for clients including Diageo, HP, and UN Women.

Amber is also the founder of The Global Reset - a not-for-profit project using innovation to drive gender equality, she is a non-exec Board member of Kit Theatre, a founding member of EWA, the European Women's Audiovisual Network and an Associate Practitioner of Thinking Space, promoting dialogue and enquiry through philosophy.

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Emma Ballantine

Content Producer

Emma Ballantine has been working with Blue Door for four years developing content for TV and online, creating engaging materials for innovation workshops and capabilities clients, and project managing content creation.

Shona Crooks

Senior Consultant

Shona Crooks has 11 years experience in diversity, equity and inclusion, delivering training and helping implement strategies for organisations both in person and virtually. She believes in enabling individuals to develop their own authentic leadership style, and has worked across the UK & Ireland, Europe, USA, Middle East, Asia and Africa with a wide range of sectors including financial services, public sector, charities and tech firms.

Catherine Gill

General Manager

Catherine Gill is responsible for the day-to-day management of Blue Door's projects and budgets. Catherine has extensive production management experience in the media industry, having worked for high-profile independent production companies including Tiger Aspect, Wingspan and Wall to Wall.

Starting out as a broadcast designer at the BBC, Catherine transferred into production working her way up to Production Manager, specialising in factual programming and filming in the UK and overseas, with TV credits spanning across popular science, current affairs, travel and factual entertainment programming.

Rosalie Lamming

Content producer

Rosalie Lamming is a Facilitator and Content Producer, with experience designing and facilitating workshops across a variety of sectors, including eight years designing and delivery adult learning courses at Southampton University.

With a background in radio production and the maritime industry, she brings a creative approach to developing engaging content and learning experiences.

Gaby Schmidt

Researcher

Gabriella Schmidt is experienced at supporting teams in both a project management and research capacity. Her work over the past 12 years spans multiple industries, from performing arts and creative development to social investment. She manages client relationships, scheduling, and logistics, as well as researching inspiring stimulus for workshops.

Karen Waterworth

Head of Research & Insight

Karen Waterworth is a highly skilled Insight and Brand Innovation Consultant with experience in both consumer insight and planning roles, agency and client side, in European and Global brand innovation.  Over the past 25 years, Karen has worked for clients including Unilever, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Philips and Vodafone.  She has a Masters Degree specialising in Human and Social Geography from Oxford University.

Claudia Wong

Creative Executive

Claudia Wong has two decades of experience working for prominent media brands such as ITV, Time Inc and News UK. She has a background in successful creative and commercial roles with multi-disciplined expertise across many business areas. Her experience includes multi-media content development, creative strategy and ideation workshops, including a secondment to the innovation and creative unit ITV Imagine. 

DE&I Specialists

Natalie Boudou

DE&I Consultant

Natalie Boudou is an executive coach, consultant and facilitator working with executives, senior management and leadership teams from a wide range of corporates and international organizations. She is a specialist in the field of organizational resilience. Her consulting and training cover such areas as agile and inclusive cultures, leadership and emotional intelligence at work. More recently she has become involved in designing conferences on Generational Diversity and workshops on how Diversity and Inclusion drives organizational resilience. 
Natalie has over 25 years of international business experience in demanding and challenging roles. She started her career as a commercial lawyer specializing in mergers and acquisitions.

Sarah Cartwright

Senior Consultant

Sarah Cartwright works with individuals and organisations as an Executive Coach, Trainer and expert on Diversity and Inclusion. Sarah has designed and delivered programmes globally for Microsoft, Barclays, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, Farfetch and Selfridges.
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Sarah has a strong track record of coaching senior leaders and is also a co-founder of an organisation that is passionate about helping women achieve their career goals and realise their full potential. 

Jide Fado

DE&I Senior Consultant

Jide Fado is a trained actor, coach and trainer specialising in diversity & inclusion. He blends his background in DEI and the creative industries to share clear, effective tools and techniques that help people work better together.  With over ten years of global experience working with Allen & Ovary, Nestle and TATA Consultancy, Jide has developed his focus on helping people build relationships which lead to high performing teams.

Christina Oberli

Senior CSR & DE&I Advisor-Coach-Trainer

Christina Oberli has extensively addressed gender and diversity issues over the past 20 years in humanitarian and developmental programs, including working for 4 years as the Senior D&I and CSR Advisor for the International Committee of the Red Cross. She is a senior CSR & DE&I advisor, coach and trainer.Her area of expertise includes: gender, unconscious biases mitigation, organizational culture, codes of conducts and systemic change. Her style is human centric, innovative and action oriented. 

Toby Sawyer

Senior Consultant

Toby Sawyer has been working in corporate training since 1999. He has substantial experience of virtual and live facilitation, leading & running feedback sessions,  courageous conversations, written and bespoke skills practice, and works regularly alongside Learning & Diversity teams to design and deliver DE&I programmes, with a particular focus on Inclusive Leadership. Toby has facilitated high level coaching and inclusion conversations for global leaders around the  world.

Associates

Tom Bowtell

Artistic Director

Tom Bowtell is a writer, director and actor who specialises in creating immersive theatre and making work for, by and with young people. Tom was a co-director of Coney between 2008 and 2015. Tom is the founder and lead artist of the award-winning Adventures in Learning, which combine theatre, digital story-telling and game mechanics to deliver formal and informal education. In 2015 Tom founded KIT Theatre, making work for young people with Adventures in Learning at its heart.

Zach Ellams

video Designer

Zach Ellams has been working as an editor and motion designer since graduating from Kingston University in 2011. He has worked with numerous companies and clients ranging from bespoke music videos to high-end interactive websites and marketing campaigns.

Zach most recently worked for TBWA’s production company, as an in-house editor and designer, working on branding, pitching, trends and mood films for the likes of Nissan, HP and AirBnB.

Nat Edwards & Sian Pearce

Semioticians

Nat and Sian are co-directors of semiotics consultancy Canopy. Nat holds a PhD in gender, media and cultural theory from the University of Nottingham – developing through her doctoral research an enduring interest in narrative and the construction and evolution of meaning in culture. Post-doctorate, Nat moved into commercial semiotics and cultural insight at global semiotics consultancy Sign Salad, working on brands spanning categories from food, toiletries and healthcare to TV and media, telecommunications and financial services.

Sian brings over ten years of experience in corporate communications, having worked in sustainability and CSR communication roles across the energy and aviation sectors. She has conducted global semiotic analyses across a broad range of sectors and specialises in semiotics led brand positioning for emerging global markets.

BOARD

Adam Gee

Non-executive Director

Adam Gee is a Commissioning Editor, Executive Producer and Consultant in Digital Media & Creativity - at Channel 4 he pioneered TV-centric multiplatform,
at Little Dot Studios he was the first Commissioning Editor of originals, at Red Bull Media House he won Red Bull’s first BAFTA, he is currently at CAA.
Adam has won 95 international awards for his productions, including 6 BAFTAs, an Emmy, 2 Royal Television Society Innovation Awards and the Grand Award at the New York International Film & Television Festival. He was recently made an Honorary Fellow of NUA (Norwich University of the Arts).

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Clare Thompson

Non-Executive director

Clare Thompson is an experienced Creative Director, responsible for driving the development, pitching and production of non-scripted programming for big international production businesses.

Clare was previously joint MD of Ignite, the consultancy she co-founded in 2008 to run content development, pitching, commissioning and strategy sessions for the TV industry. Prior to that she had a long career in production and development, including 8 years at ITV as Head of Entertainment Development, and then Head of Content Development in ITV's R&D innovation unit Imagine.

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