International Language Coaching Association

Board Members

Board Members Mission Statement

Board members are a vital part of the ILCA philosophy celebrating varied backgrounds and approaches to language coaching. We came together to provide a wider perspective on this emerging niche and support with the practical and theoretical, research-based knowledge and skills we each have acquired over the years. All board members share the passion to provide scientifically sound information and clarity on language coaching and specialist fields relating to it.

It is this richness and diversity that enables ILCA to be an association where collaborative efforts are made to ensure professional standards and norms are in place, so that when you learn about language coaching, when you decide to apply language coaching, you will be learning from the best in the field.

How Do We Collaborate?

The Association meets online regularly to ensure responsible decisions and communication about these are made. We respect and trust each others’ ideas and plan the way forward for ILCA in a collaborative format. 2021 sees the Association planning ahead and focusing on key target areas with even greater enthusiasm and an even wider circle of internationally renowned professional supporters.

We hope our contributions provide clarity and support your work – and would appreciate any feedback you may have.

International language coaching association

Meet Our Board Members

If you have a specific question you would like to ask a founding member on their specialization, feel free to ask via e-mail at: internationallangcoach@gmail.com, addressing the member you would like to get in touch with.

Martin Richards CPCC

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Judy Thompson

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Boelo Van Der Pool

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Gabriella Ferenczi

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Ruth Hughes

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Ian King

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Julie Yoder

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David Guerrero

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Kathy Ellis

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Marc Anderson

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Vicki Plant

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Anesh Daya

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Liz England

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André Hedlund

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Duncan Foord

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International language coaching association

Previous Board Members

Analia Duarte

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Mark Powell

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We advocate for language coaching by developing an active network of practicing language coaches, professionals, and practitioners. We share ideas and provide insights to enable further growth and development in a non-competitive environment where all members support and value the contributions of others to encourage and enhance thought leadership in language coaching.

The service we offer is specifically designed to meet your needs.

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We bring solutions to manage your finance the way works best.

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Who Are We?

We are a digital and branding company that believes in the power of creative strategy and along with great design.

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Our Vision

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Our Mission

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Our Values

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2023

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Martin Richards CPCC

Martin Richards is an author and inspirational speaker in secondary schools. He is an experienced educator and facilitator who began teaching Mathematics over 30 years ago where he applied a ‘coach approach’ to teaching. He is currently a coach and mentor for teachers, course leaders and coaches in Scandinavia and is passionate about connecting teacher’s purpose with the greater Educational Aims.

Martin received his Teacher training at Sussex University and is PGCE Course Certified as ACC coach since 2008, by ICF, International Coach Federation. He also trained as a Co-Active® Coach through CTI, Coaches Training Institute, and ORSC®, Organization Systems and Relationships Coach through CRR Global., pulvinar dapibus leo.

Judy Thompson

Canadian Judy Thompson is a university graduate (B.A. in English), TESL Certified, Language Assessor (CLBA) and author of numerous ESL/EFL manuals including ‘English is Stupid, Students are Not’. Early in her teaching career she noticed Listening and Speaking skills were under-served in the industry and she set about reinventing the content and approach to Pronunciation and Conversation instruction.

In 2019 Judy shared ‘Three Secrets You Need to Know About Spoken English’ in a TEDx video. Word of the success of her simple, inclusive approach spread via social media and her international reputation grew. Judy’s books have sold in more than 50 countries. The corporate world discovered Judy’s expedient program significantly impacted their bottom line. She became a business coach specialising in effective oral communication. When Judy was introduced to Gabriella Kovacs and Carrie McKinnon their common goals were apparent. The certification ILCA offers gives shape, formality and credibility to the coaching process Judy had stumbled upon organically. ILCA is defining the future of language teaching and Judy is thrilled to be a part of it. If a learner can’t speak English confidently and competently after 30 hours of training, they didn’t fail you did.”

Boelo Van Der Pool

Boelo Van Der Pool is a life-long learner. He was born Dutch and learned English, German and French during school years. Later in life he learned basic Indonesian and also speaks fluent Spanish as he has been living in Spain since 1994. Back in 1999 Boelo and his Spanish wife started an international language centre in Málaga which currently caters for approximately 1.100 students per year. In 2017 he finished a Masters Degree in Coaching and Emotional Intelligence and has been coaching language students and teachers ever since. In 2018 this local language coaching experience transformed into an Erasmus + project called L2 Lifestyle, where Boelo is one of the leading partners. He is a regular speaker about Language Coaching on ELT conferences and offers teacher training in Language Coaching techniques.

Gabriella Ferenczi

Gabriella Ferenczi is a German and Hungarian language teacher and trainer, based in London UK. She is the founder of ProLingua Global, a boutique language training company that specialises in language training and coaching programmes for finance executives exclusively.Gabriella uses elements of the coaching approach when working with clients and encourages fellow language teachers and colleagues to incorporate coaching tools into their teaching practices for the benefit of clients and teachers alike.She is also the host and organiser of Language Professionals’ Networking Event, an interdisciplinary monthly social gathering in Central London.Recently, she started to publish a series of articles on effective marketing strategies for entrepreneurial language teachers, and also delivers webinars around marketing hacks, tools and best practices that worked for her.Her goal is to support and facilitate the whole language industry by encouraging fellow training providers to be more creative and innovative in the way they market themselves.Gabriella’s message: You can be a great teacher, but you must beat the drum for it. If you don’t market yourself effectively, then you don’t show up for those who’d resonate to your particular offering and you lose out on having a steady stream of clients.

Ruth Hughes

Ruth Hughes is a coach, educator, consultant, and professional speaker in the fields of coaching psychology, positive psychology, positive education, culture shock and international student wellbeing. After thirty years as a teacher and senior leader, Ruth completed an MSc in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology, founding her company Curious Human in 2018. Ruth Course Director for the Coaching Certificate at Cambridge University’s Institute of Continuing Education; Coaching Module Leader/lecturer at the University of East London; Executive Coach with Compass Coaching (working with leaders in African charities) and Affiliate Partner with Worth-it Positive Education. She has authored/co-authored articles on international student wellbeing in StudyTravel magazine, The Pie magazine and the English UK website. Ruth has spoken at seminars and conferences including ICEF Berlin; English UK Academic Conference; LLE Conference, Bristol; The Positive Psychology Symposium at New Bucks University; British Psychological Society Special Focus Coaching Group International Conference, TENS Academic Conference, Bournemouth, English UK Student Wellbeing Conference, English UK Southwest Academic Conference, LonDOSa/LonSSMa/EUK Wellbeing training London, BETA Wellbeing training, London and the BSA/BAISIS/AEGIS Conference.

Ian King

Ian King is an intercultural communications trainer and “crossover coach”. He sees his work as helping people to expand their comfort zone and embrace the challenges of working in a changing and uncertain world.

Ian’s intercultural experience started well before leaving the UK, when he moved from London to Leeds before obtaining a degree in French and Philosophy from the University of Edinburgh. As part of his studies, he spent a year in French Guiana.

After a spell lecturing at Nice University, Ian moved to Paris where he learned the double trade of corporate trainer and manager at a language and communications training company, becoming a member of the executive committee. He developed several ground-breaking training and coaching programmes, notably “English for English Speakers” for Airbus UK.

In 2012, Ian set up his own company and strengthened his coaching credentials by training as an Executive Coach. Today he delivers training, coaching, team building and conferences in French and English in several European countries.

Based in Paris, Ian is a keen runner and occasional whisky-drinker. In 2017 he combined these twin passions to co-create The Dramathon, a whisky trail marathon in Speyside, Scotland.

Julie Yoder

Julie Yoder is an experienced English language teacher and coach based in Washington, DC. Through her company, English With Purpose, she helps international professionals who are working for a better world communicate in English with confidence.

She has worked in the language learning world since 1996 in a variety of roles teaching, training, and coaching, including: developing and delivering in-house business English instruction for multinational companies and think tanks, teaching in university English programs, teaching immigrant children in U.S. public schools, and, since 2007, delivering customized one-to-one and group coaching programs for international professionals through the company she founded. Her newest project is holistic “Conversation Vacation” retreats focused on presentation and public speaking skills hosted at her farmette in Maryland.

Julie believes confidence is essential in effective communication. After years of working with high-achieving professionals who still felt insecure about their English, she became interested in the emotional component of language acquisition and incorporating mindfulness techniques in her teaching – an ongoing journey that led to finding ILCA.

She holds an M.A. in Linguistics and a Graduate Certificate in TEFL. She is also a drummer, poet, storyteller and amateur tap dancer. She has no previous training in any of these things.

David Guerrero

Colombian-born David Guerrero is a multilingual (Spanish/English/Japanese) industrial engineer, language trainer, and coach that specializes in helping companies and individuals overcome language barriers. Before assuming his current corporate position driving globalization initiatives at a Tokyo-headquartered IT powerhouse, Guerrero worked for five years as a language trainer and consultant. He is now actively involved in creating content that allows learners to maximize their enjoyment of acquiring a new language using blended learning techniques and CLIL in a scalable way. To accomplish this, he utilizes language coaching as an integral tool to help people find meaningful reasons to engage with their learning experience. Guerrero is also a member of the IATEFL Business English Special Interest Group (BESIG) and has presented internationally. He is a founding member of the International Language Coaching Association (ILCA) and is committed to making language coaching the next progression of the ESL industry.

Kathy Ellis

Kathy Ellis is an accomplished educator, language expert, and founder of Intercultural English Services. With a passion for helping individuals and organizations bridge cultural and linguistic divides, she offers a range of intercultural communication sessions, including USA/Brazil orientations, communication skills seminars for second language speakers in the workplace, curricular design, and ESL tutoring. Additionally, she assists others in preparing for the TOEFL, IELTS, and TOEIC exams.

Kathy’s experience in education and intercultural communication is extensive, having taught for international schools across four countries for nine years and undergraduate humanities courses for a decade. She directed an ESL program for eight years at a university and taught ESL at various locations in Atlanta, Georgia. Her work also includes helping managers and employees on second language and American-centered communication skills at international companies in Atlanta and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Kathy’s educational background includes a Master’s in Education and additional graduate studies in Spanish, conflict management, linguistics, and cultural studies. She is certified in Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), Language Coaching, Management, and Cultural Detective strategy tool. Furthermore, she seeks ongoing professional development, with a particular focus on Black Lives Matter (BLM), Diversity/Equity/Inclusion (DEI), and White Privilege.

Kathy’s expertise and dedication to her work have been recognized by various organizations. The Coach Foundation listed her language coaching services as part of their top 20. She was honored to be awarded by BGRS for meeting an “Intercultural Challenge” and regarded as a quality resource by various other destination companies. Kathy also enjoys serving as an editor for SIETAR’s The “I” newsletter’s “Poetry Crossings” column, assisting in SIETAR Atlanta’s webinars, and serving on the Georgia Poetry Society Board.

Marc Anderson

Marc Anderson is co-founder and CEO of Comas LLC which provides language training solutions for businesses in Japan. He came to Japan in 2006 and has worked for some of Japan’s largest IT companies both as a language trainer and as a manager where he was able to develop highly successful specialised language training programs to improve internal communications.

Marc co-founded Comas LLC in 2020 in order to support more businesses in Japan wishing to globalise and improve their language environment and internal communication practices. It is now his mission to create a Japan where language and culture are not barriers to global success.

Marc is particularly interested in leveraging coaching to help create powerful habits and routines to foster more effective learning as well as trainer development.

He has presented at a number of international conferences including IATEFL and EAQUALS .

Marc is also a professional coach, holding the PCC credential from ICF.

Vicki Plant

Vicki Plant provides English training to professionals in business and integrates coaching into her language sessions. She is originally from the centre of England and started her professional career in London, working in technology mainly within the banking sector. Originally a software developer, she gradually moved into projects and customer management where she managed large corporate customers in both England and Europe. She was lucky to spend 2 years working in Italy where she found her passion for learning about new cultures and languages.

In 2008 she moved to France with her husband and young family and retrained as an EFL teacher. She has found her niche in teaching English to adults in business. This has allowed her to blend her previous career in business into the world of language and international communication. She does not see herself as a teacher of Business English but rather as a language coach for business people who need to use English in the international domain. Her sessions will integrate and blend the requirements of learners with the needs of their business environment while adopting a coaching approach to facilitate autonomy and motivation.

Over the years she has been involved in a number of transnational Erasmus+ projects and led the development of a CLIL-based course for the Tourism industry by three partner countries. She regularly becomes involved in other projects and enjoys the international dimension that this provides her. She is currently a committee member of TESOL France where she is involved in conference and webinar organisation and has started to write articles for their publications.

She considers herself to be a lifelong learner and holds a BSc and an MBA alongside a CELTA and DipTESOL (in progress). She is a certified ILCA language coach, and a coach through Erickson France She is currently working towards her ICF accreditation.

Anesh Daya

Anesh Daya, Founder & President of On the Spot Language, is a multilingual, best-selling author, award winning inspirational speaker, and Language Learning Edupreneur.

His innovative, award-winning On the Spot Language program literally takes the classroom outside where coaches put students “on the spot” with proven, trademarked “focus sentences”.

Anesh is passionate about language coaching, equipping other entrepreneurs with the resiliency tools needed to pivot and thrive in the new post-pandemic world. His trademark line is “hire yourself” because anything is possible “one Focus Sentence™ at a time”.

Anesh has been on several ILCA podcasts, was recently brought into the ILCA family as a board-member, and was a collaborating member in A Comprehensive Language Coaching Handbook.

Liz England

Liz England, Ph. D., has had a diverse academic career, contributing to educational programs in universities, ministries, and private and government agencies across five continents. With a passion for program development, teacher education, language and cross-cultural communication training, and sustainable capacity building, Liz has traveled extensively, completing short- and long-term projects in over 30 countries worldwide.

Having spent a year or more living in Egypt, Hong Kong, and Indonesia, Liz has gained invaluable experience in these countries. Additionally, Liz has completed short-term consultancies in countries such as Afghanistan, Botswana, Chile, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Germany, Guatemala, India, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Macau, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Russia, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates (Dubai and Abu Dhabi), Uzbekistan, Venezuela, and Vietnam.

Liz is an accomplished author and education consultant.

André Hedlund

ILCA Board Member 2019-2021

André Hedlund was a Chevening scholar with the 2018 cohort and received an MSc in Psychology of Education from the University of Bristol in the UK. He has been a pedagogical consultant for National Geographic Learning for 5 years, and an EFL teacher for over 15 years, having worked both as an academic coordinator and a CaMLA (Cambridge and Michigan Language Assessments) examiner at a Brazilian Binational Center.Currently, he is the president of Partners of the Americas Goiás (POA-GO) and the representative of the BRAZ-TESOL’s Mind, Brain, and Education Special Interest Group in the Midwest. With POA-GO, André has designed and coordinated an 80-hour competency-based immersion English training program, being directly in charge of hiring, creating and delivering classes to 300 public high school students who received scholarships from the Goiás Without Borders program to study in the USA.André has also been offering courses, workshops, and lectures in Brazil and abroad and discusses education, methodology, and neuroscience/psychology-related topics on his blog edcrocks.com. With Educational Development Courses (#edcrocks), André uses social media and online platforms to offer professional development for teachers and education professionals.

Duncan Foord

ILCA Board Member 2019 - 2022

Duncan Foord is the Director of OxfordTEFL, Barcelona. He has 30 years experience in language teaching, teacher training and school leadership and management. He is the author of “From English Teacher to Learner Coach” (with Dan Barber, The Round 2014) The Developing Teacher (Delta Publishing, 2009) and The Language Teachers Survival Handbook with Lindsay Clandfield (Its Magazines, 2008). He is lead trainer on the OxfordTEFL Leadership in ELT course (on line and face to face).

Analía Duarte

ILCA Board Member 2019-2020

Analía Duarte is a graduate Teacher of English and a Scientific-Literary Translator (Universidad del Salvador). She did a BA in English (Universidad del Salvador), an MA in ELT and Applied Linguistics (University of London, England) and an MA in Organizational Psychology (Universidad de Belgrano).

She is an ICF-certified ontological coach. She will earn her 3-year degree in Ontological Leadership in Dec 2020 (ICP). She does executive and team coaching. She designs, implements and facilitates soft skills development programs and processes focusing on the impact of competencies on the business. She specializes in intercultural communication in business contexts. She has been delivering Business English training since 1990. She created the innovative and autonomy generating LEAPS learning methodology, especially designed to meet the needs of the global pool of talent in today’s organizations. She is the owner and Director of LEAPS Innovative English Methodology.

Also, she is a teacher trainer, a speaker in conferences and a university lecturer in Second Language Acquisition, Adult Learning, and Business English.

Mark Powell

Mark Powell has been involved in Business English as a trainer, director of studies, publisher and instructional designer since 1989. He has also been an accredited teacher trainer with both the London Chamber of Commerce & Industry and Trinity College London, running the Certificate in International Business English Training (CertIBET) more times than any other individual trainer as well as his own Certificate in One-to-One Language Coaching.

A popular keynote speaker at educational conferences all over the world, his bestselling titles include ‘In Company’ (Macmillan), ‘Presenting in English’ (Heinle-Cengage Learning), ‘Dynamic Presentations’ and ‘International Negotiations’ (Cambridge University Press). More recently, he has turned his attention to the fertile middle ground between language and soft skills development.

An Oxford English graduate and lifelong learner, Mark has completed postgraduate studies in cultural anthropology and anthrozoology and is currently embarking on two new projects – a series of soft skills coaching conversion courses for ELT practitioners and a public speaking course for environmental activists and human/animal rights advocates.

To see some of his previous work you might like to check out these links on YouTube: