Elham Mottahed-Asdaghi brings to the Diafora team her expertise in interpersonal communication and intercultural coaching. She helps leaders and multicultural teams maximize their performance and stakeholder value through more effective collaboration, communication and alignment. She customizes her approach to a range of needs and profiles, drawing on her own multicultural background as a UK-born, US-educated, France-based Canadian citizen of Persian descent.

Prior to launching Cardinal Coaching, Elham spent two decades working with the executives of multinational companies on their communication, strategy, and change management projects as Director of Internal Communications and Employee Engagement. She also co-founded a professional women leaders’ network in 2016.

Accredited in team and individual coaching by the EMCC (European Mentoring & Coaching Council), Elham is certified as a Global Executive Coach by HEC Paris, a PQ Coach by Positive Intelligence, and a Systemic Team Coach by the Global Team Coaching Institute. She has also been trained as an instructional facilitator, an organization & relationship systems coach practitioner, and holds master’s degrees in Communication from both Stanford University and ESCP Europe.

Based in the Paris area, Elham is a native-English speaker and bilingual in French.

Diana is a Training Manager and Customer Relations Manager at Diafora.
With a portfolio of corporate clients, Diana manages relations with companies, gathering their training needs and advising them on the courses best suited to their profiles and contexts. She is also responsible for managing new contacts and client development. She participates in the organisation of the Young Female Talent, Self-Marketing and Leadership training programmes delivered by Diafora on an inter-company basis.

In addition, she is Quality Manager – Qualiopi, where she analyses evaluations and satisfaction surveys of course participants and companies, monitors performance indicators for trainers and courses, and leads continuous improvement initiatives.

Passionate and committed to the defence of human rights, particularly women’s rights, Diana joined the Diafora team in 2022 and brings her management skills, interpersonal skills and desire to promote gender equality within companies in France and internationally.
With a degree in social and political sciences, Diana has had the opportunity to work with a range of vulnerable populations and victims of armed conflict, as well as leading teams of professionals in the implementation of public policies in various regions of Colombia.

Kerry J. Francis has more than 20 years of global and national experience in senior Human Resources Leadership and Talent Management practices in Financial Services industries. She held several senior level roles in Talent Management, sitting on the Senior Leadership teams at AIG and Deutsche Bank. She has successfully advised and coached Executives and Leaders though post-merger transitions, business transformations and reorganizations and is adept at navigating global, fast paced, ambiguous environments and cultures.

Kerry studied in London at the L’Institut Francais (affiliated with the Sorbonne in Paris) and is certified in several psychometric instruments and learning certifications (MBTI; EQI; Kolb; OPQ; MQ; Belbin; British Psychological Society Level 2; Lominger and DDI’s Business Impact Leadership series). As a lifelong learner, she is continually seeking out opportunities to improve her knowledge and skills, both professionally and personally. She is passionate about working with teams and individuals to explore and unlock potential for optimum success and performance.

Kerry is based in New Jersey, U.S.

Sovannary is a training coordinator and personal assistant to the managing Director.

She handles all training requests for the customer accounts that are part of her portfolio and helps direct participants towards trainings that match their profile and needs.

Sovannary is more specifically in charge of the end-to-end organisation of the Young Female Talent, and Self Marketing training courses, and makes sure these inter-company training sessions run smoothly.

As the personal assistant to the managing Director, she provides support to the consulting activities and leadership events (interactive workshops or conferences, mentoring programmes) organised by Diafora for management teams of major companies.

Wishing to contribute to the development of balanced leadership within companies, Sovannary joined the Diafora team in 2016 and brings her efficiency, organisational skills and natural ability to listen.

Having graduated from a DUT in Marketing Techniques, Sovannary worked in sales where she developed her interpersonal skills. Certified in Human Resources at the EIMP (Ecole Internationale de Management) in Paris, she has very early on oriented her career towards training.

Catherine Chavigny brings to the Diafora team her expertise in developing potentials, communicating with impact and added value, and helping to build rewarding careers. As an executive coach for managing directors, managers, entrepreneurs and their teams, she creatively helps professionals from all walks of life to use their talents, with clarity, meaning and consistency.

Certified at the Coaching Academy in 2009, trained in Non Violent Communications (Marshall Rosenberg), and in Narrative Practices (Michael White), she also is a partner for a major French business school, helping students and alumni build their careers. For several years, she has been facilitating a Club of CEOs for the Association for the Progress of Management, that helps CEOs develop their competencies and learn from peers.

Before creating her own company in 2011, she initially worked for almost 10 years in international marketing at Global One, a telecommunications joint-venture. For over 15 years, she then managed internal communications within the Orange Group, before leading training and leadership programmes based on innovative approaches, for Orange executives in France and abroad.

Based in Paris, Catherine works both in English and French.

Laurence du Baret, Deputy Managing Director of DIAFORA brings to the team over 20 years’ experience in the Oil Industry (BP, Exxon Mobil, Castrol) managing large scale international transformation projects and leading multi-cultural teams through significant change. At Diafora, Laurence contributes to the vision and the growth strategy of the company, she is in charge of continuous improvement projects and integrating new technologies. She oversees the team who ensure each of the Diafora Training sessions are outstanding learning experiences for the participants. She manages the interface with Diafora’s major clients and works with executive committees and leadership teams to develop gender diversity in their organization as one of the key levers of their success.

She has a strong collaborative style and performance delivery discipline. Her functional expertise include Strategy, Learning & Development, BtoB Sales & Marketing as well as Continuous Improvement (Six-Sigma ®) and Performance Management. Before joining Diafora, she specialized in building organizational capability and helped her clients revisit their processes, governance and ways of working. She has strong expertise in Learning & Development, assessing skills & competencies to be developed and building appropriate learning paths.

Laurence is based in Paris, she is bilingual in English and French, and bicultural.

Victoria Marshall brings to the Diafora team her solid experience in strategic communication gained from working for global industrial groups such as Honeywell and Valeo Service where she was Director of Communications. Victoria has always worked in international, intercultural environments and has particular expertise in developing culturally and linguistically appropriate messages. Since creating her own business in 2011, she has facilitated workshops on the fundamentals of management and organisational change for both private and public organisations. She also co-runs an employability and self-branding programme for Executive MBA students at a top French business school.

Victoria is passionate about the power of language to create and transmit meaning and her mission is to support individuals and organisations to successfully bring their message to new audiences. Victoria graduated from Middlesex University in the UK and has studied Marketing and Communication at the ESSEC business school and CELSA school of journalism and communication at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. Victoria holds qualifications as a Co-Active Coach and Organisational Relationship Systems Coach (ORSC), accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF). Victoria is bilingual in English and French, and bicultural.

Dawn Cheyrouze brings to the Diafora team over 35 years of business experience across multiple geograhies and industries – financial services; airlines; energy.  Dawn’s contributions focus on people and human capital – partnering with business leaders to facilitate change in times of consolidation, growth, crisis and transformation. Her proven talent expertise links performance management, executive development, diversity and inclusion, learning and organizational effectiveness to business strategy.

Dawn moved to Europe in 1991 to lead HR for AIG companies, 26 countries, based in Paris, then to London in 2010 to head up an expanded region for EMEA.  In 2011, as AIG shifted from decentralized regions to globally aligned businesses, Dawn took on a global role as VP Talent Management to help create, build and eventually lead the global Talent Management Center of Excellence.

Always passionate about talent development with a special focus on increasing women’s success, Dawn was the pioneer for creating and sustaining high potential programmes, implementing mentoring programmes, women’s networks and development forums, engaging AIG with external women’s learning organizations and ensuring focus on senior succession.

Dawn has a BA in Education and English from Principia College, a Masters in HR Management from American University, accredited facilitator for Development Dimensions International (DDI) leadership programs, accreditation for Korn Ferry Lominger 360 coaching and Human Synergistics Leadership Impact survey tools. Dawn has dual nationality, US and French.

Véronique Préaux-Cobti is Founder and Managing Director of DIAFORA. She is a change management specialist and works with companies to understand and unlock the remaining barriers blocking women’s progression into senior management (talent) and to better read and respond to women as consumers and end-users (market). Her significant professional experience and understanding of corporate strategy, change management and business allow her to address the diversity issue as a crucial business imperative. Before creating DIAFORA, she was General Manager of the BIPE, a consulting firm specialised in economic forecasting for decision-makers.
Previously, she spent 10 years at Stratorg, a strategic consulting firm, where she was responsible for the change management practice. She started her career with IBM in a sales function. Véronique is a Certified Coach from the Coaches’ Training Institute. As well, she is the Founder and Honorary President of GEF Grandes Ecoles au féminin, a group representing women in France’s grandes ecoles which bring together the graduates’ associations of the Centrale paris, ENA, ENPC, ESCP-EAP, HEC, ESSEC, Insead, les Mines et Polytechnique.
Ten years ago, she co-founded the BoardWomen Partners Programme together with Marie-Claude Peyrache – a programme gathering 34 CEOs of Top companies and aimed at promoting a better gender diversity among boards.

Gad Abitbol provides Diafora with his experience in communications. He acts as an operations consultant, working alongside Diafora clients to help them define and implement communication and digital strategies.

Gad’s career in corporate, HR, event and digital communications spans more than 20 years. He served in general management positions at the Publicis Group (which helped to found the concept of employer branding in 1996) and decided to establish his own firm specializing in events and advertainment. In 2009 he joined the international Keyrus Group and formed Spikly, a digital agency that specializes in digital communications and strategies.