Laura Ashley-Timms (nee Goldsmith) came to Oriel to read Geography in 1985 and was one of just nineteen women in the college in its inaugural year, and was the first Oriel woman to be awarded a full blue.
Laura started her career in retail (buying), living and working in London and New York, and travelling to Asia as manufacturing moved overseas. She left large corporates to transfer into TV production and brand management, spending four years having fun with ‘The Teletubbies’ (Ragdoll Productions) before finally growing up and co-founding Notion in 2000, a management performance consultancy, with a global client base.
Laura co-designed the unique behavioural change management coaching model, STAR® and the multi award-winning STAR® Manager programme. In recent years her work has been independently evaluated by London School of Economics on behalf of UK Government to see if STAR® can help drive UK productivity, which it has been found to. Laura and Notion are now on a mission to develop one Million STAR® Managers to transform workplaces globally. Following their work with LSE, they are also working with Harvard Business School on a new global academic study.
Laura lives in Leamington Spa with her husband Dominic (with whom she co-founded Notion) and their three teenagers. As for hobbies, she’s looking forward to these in retirement, but they will feature champagne and whisky!