Vanessa King
Vanessa is the lead author of the Doing Well From the Inside Out programme. She is a board member of Action for Happiness and was the architect of our 10 keys for happier living framework and the psychology-related content on our website. She is one of a small group people globally to have completed a Masters degree in Applied Positive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, studying under Martin Seligman and other leaders in this field. She is also trained as a facilitator on the Master Resilience Training programme for the US Army, a master practitioner of New Economics Foundation's Happiness at Work diagnostic and is a member of the UK Government's taskforce on employee engagement, Engage for Success.
Vanessa specialises in leadership, talent and organisational development. She combines in-depth knowledge of the science of well-being with this client experience to help people get the most from work and for organisations to get the best from people. She delivers a range of workshops focused on well-being, resilience and workplace creativity as well as working alongside organisations to design bespoke solutions. Prior to consulting Vanessa qualified as a chartered accountant. She has a BSc in Psychology and Zoology and is a member of the International Positive Psychology Association and an affiliate member of the CIPD.
Dr Mark Williamson
Mark is Director of Action for Happiness and has overall strategic and operational responsibility for the organisation. Mark has engaged extensively with organisations in the area of happiness, wellbeing and resilience, from major multi-national companies (for example in retail, investment banking and professional services) to public sector organisations, SMEs and charities. He has overseen the development of all Action for Happiness resources and training and is invited to speak regularly on related topics at events and conferences all around the world.
Mark has a diverse range of experience across private and non-profit sectors, from start-ups through to large multi-national companies. He was previously a Director at the Carbon Trust, a non-executive director of Solar Press, and founder of online initiative What You Can Do. Prior to that, Mark spent nine years as a management consultant at Accenture. He has also worked for Hewlett Packard Labs and Orange. Mark has an MBA from IMD business school in Switzerland and a PhD and first class honours degree in Electronics and Communications from the University of Bristol. He is a member of the Institute of Directors, a Sainsbury Management Fellow and a Chartered Engineer.
Paul Sternberg
Paul specialises in communications, innovation and organisational learning and has been heavily involved in developing and delivering the Doing Well From The Inside Out programme. He is a consultant to leading media, business and not-for-profit organisations and heads the Partnership and Campaigns programme for Action for Happiness.
He was previously Chief Executive of the Peter De Haan Charitable Trust, Head of Incubating Innovation at Nesta, Managing Editor, Education at Channel 4 Television, Managing Director of The Ethical Communications Agency and Director of Communications at Business in the Community.
Paul is currently designing and teaching a Masters Degree on creative leadership for Ravensbourne College and writing a book on strategies for sustainable behaviour in corporations. He is a member of the International Coaching Federation and is an accredited NLP Practitioner. He is also on the Board of Trustees for Citizens UK.