- About Lucent

Lucent was formed through years of working alongside capable leaders carrying increasing responsibility. Often successfully, with good intent. And often without enough space to reflect on how their judgement, assumptions, and ways of relating were beginning to shape others, systems, and culture.

As responsibility grows, decisions carry more weight. Relationships become more consequential, and the cost of unexamined patterns quietly rises. As AI becomes embedded in everyday work, those patterns don’t disappear. They are amplified.

Lucent exists to work at that point: helping leaders understand themselves, understand others and work well with difference, so their judgement holds as the stakes rise.

What we focus on

Lucent’s work is grounded in a simple conviction:

Leadership is shaped less by what people know, and more by how they understand themselves and others, make decisions and carry responsibility, especially under pressure.

Technology doesn’t bring judgement or values with it. It reflects what is already present.

That’s why Lucent works upstream of visible leadership issues. The focus is not on fixing people or optimising performance, but on strengthening the foundations that shape decisions, relationships, and culture over time.

We pay close attention to:

How difference is understood, or misread
How judgement is exercised when the stakes are high
How disagreement and power are handled
How character and values show up in practice, not statements
What leadership choices end up reinforcing

This work becomes more consequential as AI increases the reach and speed of decisions.

How we work

Lucent creates structured spaces for reflection, dialogue, and learning that hold up in real leadership conditions.

The work is deliberately thoughtful and grounded. It avoids labels, linear development ladders, and off-the-shelf solutions.

Instead, it supports leaders to:

Slow their thinking enough to see what matters
Examine the patterns they bring into systems
Strengthen judgement and relational clarity
Make conscious choices about what they reinforce and scale

Lucent tends to work best with people and organisations who are willing to reflect honestly, stay with complexity, and invest in leadership maturity over time.

Our belief

As AI increasingly shapes decisions, systems and culture, the human side of leadership matters more: how we see one another, how we judge, and how we act. Lucent exists to ensure what grows is worthy of growth.

Dr Rona Mackenzie

Founder and CEO

Helping leaders recognise difference before it becomes friction

Rona is the founder and CEO of The Lucent Collective and Chief Product Officer at Co-Valence, with over 25 years’ experience in and alongside complex organisations where leadership judgement carries real consequence. Twenty of those years were spent in education, including as founding Principal of Lincoln UTC, where she led the establishment of a new University Technical College from inception alongside its university and industry partners. She has since brought that experience to business and the not-for-profit sector, including six years as Chair of Zest Theatre. Her work centres on how leaders understand themselves and others, and how they work with difference, from emerging leaders forming their judgement to senior teams navigating complexity and scrutiny. Alongside James Carter, she leads the development of Co-Valence, a platform already used by hundreds of people to make difference visible across teams. Her own learning has followed the same questions, through an EdD in leaders and leadership at the University of Birmingham, an MBA from Sheffield Hallam University, and now an MA in Character Education exploring when someone’s difference calls for respect rather than judgement. She is also one of 32 co-authors of The Fax Club Experiment. She is known for working calmly and precisely under pressure, creating space for honest reflection while holding leaders to account for what their decisions reinforce.

James Carter

Managing Partner

Helping leaders navigate complexity where systems, technology and human behaviour intersect

James is a leadership consultant and executive coach with over 25 years’ experience working in complex, large-scale organisations. His background includes senior operational and technology leadership roles within global financial institutions, where he led large, distributed teams and complex transformation programmes. This gives him a grounded understanding of leadership under pressure and how systems, culture, and behaviour interact when stakes are real. James works with senior leaders, teams, and organisations to strengthen leadership judgement, team effectiveness, and the quality of everyday working relationships, particularly in environments shaped by technology and pace. Alongside his consulting and coaching work, James is the founder of Tau Ceti, as well as an advisor, technologist, and lecturer. He works alongside leaders during moments of transition and change, drawing on lived operational experience rather than theory alone.

Jenny Weidner

Associate Partner

Building leadership capacity and coaching cultures where people can thrive

Jenny is an executive coach, published author and education consultant with over 20 years’ experience across the early years and wider education system, working with leaders, teams and systems to strengthen practice, decision-making and outcomes. A former Nursery Director, Deputy Headteacher and Advanced Skills Teacher, she brings a deep practical understanding of leadership in complex, real-world contexts. She is a Chartered Manager and an EMCC Senior Practitioner, and holds two Level 7 coaching qualifications with a focus on embedding coaching cultures within organisations. Her recent work includes leading the development of a Best Start Local Plan with Southend City Council, bringing together partners across health, education, social care and the voluntary sector. She has also worked with nursery groups, schools, Multi-Academy Trusts and national organisations to design leadership and competency frameworks and drive sustainable improvement. Jenny works with senior leaders and leadership teams to embed coaching as a leadership approach, strengthening trust, communication and collaboration, and helping leaders engage confidently with evidence and translate insight into meaningful action. She is the founder of B-Intentional and has written widely on early years leadership and practice. Her forthcoming book with Routledge explores coaching for effective leadership in the early years, bringing a relational, evidence-informed perspective on how lasting change takes hold.

Dr Storm Jade Edwards

Associate Partner

Designing learning that helps organisations change how they think, not just what they know

Storm is a learning and organisational development strategist with over a decade of experience designing learning that helps organisations change how they think, not just what they know. Her background spans global organisations across business, sport, and higher education. As founder and director of EdStrat Learning Solutions, she has built learning functions from the ground up and worked with clients including Cambridge Judge Business School, Momentum Metropolitan, and Manchester City Football Group, reaching over 11,000 learners across four continents. She works with cross-functional leadership teams to treat learning as a lever for strategic change rather than a training activity, paying close attention to how new ways of working actually take hold. She is equally at home embedded within an organisation or advising from outside it. Storm holds a PhD in Media Theory (University of Cape Town) and an Executive Diploma in Organisational Leadership (Saïd Business School, Oxford), and continues to practise as an academic and peer reviewer in art and design, bringing a rare depth to the intersection of learning science, organisational design, and digital transformation. She brings a grounded, learning-led perspective on how organisations build the judgement and habits they most want to scale.

Nigel Girling

Associate Partner

Bringing deep perspective on how leaders think, reflect, and exercise judgement over time

Nigel is a leadership advisor, mentor and writer with more than 40 years’ experience working with senior leaders, boards and organisations across a wide range of sectors. His career spans business leadership, consulting and national leadership initiatives, giving him a long-view perspective on how leaders think, decide and act in complex environments. He previously led the National Centre for Strategic Leadership for over a decade, bringing together organisations committed to strengthening leadership capability across the UK. Earlier in his career he led and grew professional services organisations working with major clients nationally and internationally. Alongside his commercial leadership roles, Nigel has contributed extensively to the wider leadership profession, including long-standing work with the Engage for Success movement and the Chartered Management Institute, where he was elected a Companion in recognition of his contribution to leadership and management practice. Drawing on his background in cognitive science and leadership practice, Nigel works with leaders and leadership teams to reflect on how they interpret complexity, examine their assumptions, and strengthen the quality of the thinking behind their decisions.

Dr Ahmed u Shaikh

Associate Partner

Supporting leaders to translate vision into aligned action and sustained performance

Ahmed is a leadership consultant and coach with over a decade of experience supporting leaders to translate vision into action in complex organisational settings. His background spans healthcare leadership, entrepreneurship, and the non-profit sector. He is the founder and CEO of Healthcare with Purpose Group, serving over 15,000 patients across Scotland, giving him direct, current experience of leading complex organisations and carrying responsibility for people, performance, and outcomes. Alongside his commercial leadership role, Ahmed has led large-scale international voluntary organisations. This experience deepened his understanding of leadership at scale, purpose-led systems, and influence without formal authority. Ahmed works with leaders and teams to strengthen judgement, alignment, and follow-through, particularly where vision needs to be translated into everyday leadership decisions. He brings a grounded, execution-oriented perspective, supporting leaders to turn intent into sustained action.

- About Lucent

What we focus on

How we work

Our belief

If your team is capable but something between people isn’t working, we would welcome a conversation.