Few leadership coaches have combined creativity, innovation, and future-facing strategy with the depth and impact of Gabriella Goddard. Founder and CEO of Brainsparker Ltd, a Leadership Coach, Innovation Strategist, and Published Author with over 20 years of experience, Goddard has dedicated her career to helping leaders, entrepreneurs, and teams unlock their creativity, lead transformation, and innovate the future. Her nomination for Coach of the Year at the Influencer Magazine Awards 2026 recognises her extraordinary work igniting creativity in over half a million people worldwide, her pioneering integration of AI into leadership coaching, and her role as a mentor for some of the world’s most ambitious space-focused programmes.
Based in London, United Kingdom, Goddard launched the Brainsparker Creativity Coaching app in 2013 with a mission to help people overcome blocks and spark new ideas. Since then, the app has reached over 550,000 users worldwide and consistently ranks in the Top 10 apps for “creativity” in both the US and UK, receiving mentions in Forbes, The New York Times, and My Modern Met. This digital tool represents just one facet of a broader mission: to ignite the creativity of over one million people across the globe and to improve life for all.
Over two decades, Goddard has coached and mentored thousands of senior leaders, entrepreneurs, and teams across a wide range of sectors, including aerospace, healthcare, FMCG, financial services, technology, and media. Her clients have ranged from executives in S&P 500 and FTSE 100 organisations to global high-potential leaders, startup founders, and entrepreneurs shaping the future of their industries. Her work has consistently focused on helping people lead innovation, build high-performing teams, and create meaningful impact — both on Earth and beyond.
That “beyond” element is no exaggeration. Goddard has served as a mentor for the UK Space Agency Accelerator, UNOOSA Space4Women, the European Innovation Council Women Leadership Programme, and World Space Week Astropreneurs, supporting ambitious founders and leaders who are actively shaping humanity’s future trajectory. Her contributions to this field were recognised in 2025 when she received the “Guiding Star” Award from the UK Space Agency Accelerator— a fitting honour for someone helping leaders reach for the stars.
More recently, Goddard’s coaching has focused on preparing leaders for the AI era. She believes AI will transform the way we work, not only by improving efficiency and productivity, but by liberating something far more valuable: headspace for leaders to elevate their thinking, imagination, and impact. When AI takes on more of the repetitive, routine, and operational work, she argues, leaders and teams have more space to think strategically, solve problems creatively, and focus on the kind of innovation only humans can bring. This philosophy has led her to develop the “SPARKER Prompt Protocol™” and the “ROAI Leadership Cycle” for team AI capabilities, as well as to personally train an “AI Creativity Coach” while implementing AI workflows into Brainsparker Ltd.
Her thought leadership on this subject has been widely published. She is a regular contributor to Forbes.com as a member of the Forbes Coaches Council, with recent articles including “The Creative Edge: 7 Skills That Make Leaders Irreplaceable in the Age of AI” and the forthcoming “Automate to Innovate: Unlocking the Human Dividend of AI” She is also the author of “Gulp! The 7-Day Crash Course to Master Fear and Break Through Any Challenge” (Penguin/Bantam), a book that distils her coaching methodology into an accessible, high-impact format.
Goddard’s coaching qualifications are extensive. She is a graduate of The Coaches Training Institute (CTI), a Certified Practitioner for Coaching Across Cultures, and a Certified Practitioner in Lumina Spark and Belbin Teams. Her academic background includes executive education from Harvard Business School (“Disruptive Strategy”), Stanford University (“Innovation & Entrepreneurship”), IDEO (“Creative Collaboration”), Darden (“Design Thinking for Business Innovation”), and the International Space University (“Executive Programme”). She also holds a Bachelor of Food/Biotechnology (Hons) and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Business & Administration from New Zealand. Her commercial experience prior to founding Brainsparker included roles as European Commercial Director at Atlantic Telecom (UK), Senior Product Manager at Avantel/MCI Worldcom (Mexico), Product Marketing LATAM at AC Nielsen (Mexico), and Account Manager at AC Nielsen (NZ), a diverse career that gives her unique insight into the challenges faced by leaders across different industries and geographies.
Goddard’s work has earned her multiple accolades. In addition to the UK Space Agency Accelerator’s “Guiding Star” Award, she was named “Best Coach” at the 2025 Best Businesswomen Awards. She is a member of the International Coach Federation and the Forbes Coaches Council, and Brainsparker has also received a Globee Women in Business Award.
What distinguishes Gabriella Goddard is not simply her impressive client list or her award-winning app, but the depth of her commitment to human potential. As Shelli Brunswick, Founder and CEO of SB Global and a fellow UNOOSA mentor, says: “Gabriella Goddard is the kind of mentor and coach who elevates every conversation. I continue to be grateful for the clarity and courage she helps others find in pursuing their bold visions.”
With over 550,000 app users, thousands of coached leaders, mentoring roles with space agencies and UN programmes, a portfolio of Forbes articles, a published book, and a pioneering approach to AI-integrated leadership coaching, Gabriella Goddard stands as one of the most innovative and impactful coaches of her generation. Her nomination for Coach of the Year at IMA 2026 celebrates not only her extraordinary achievements to date, but her ongoing mission to help leaders develop the creative edge that makes them irreplaceable, on Earth and beyond.
