Are you an engineering leader from an underrepresented group in technology who is looking to grow your impact or overcome difficult challenges?

Coaching can be life-changing but is not always accessible. That's why we — Joel Chippindale, Alex Martynov, Alia Rose Connor, Amy Rich, Fiona Siseman, Francis Lacoste, Stefan Ross, and Tobi Tonner — are committed to providing free coaching programmes to engineering leaders who identify as being from groups that are underrepresented in technology and may not be able to afford coaching yet.

Our coaching offers you a powerful way to develop your skills and advance in your career. Our clients typically find that coaching brings them greater clarity, confidence, and control in their professional lives.

Our coaching programmes will support you to do this by helping you better understand yourself and your situation, challenge self-limiting beliefs you may be holding, explore the possibilities for change, and commit to making those changes.

If you want to learn more about what coaching is and how it can be valuable, then the following articles may be useful:

• How does a CTO know when they need a coach?
• 10 ways to know that you are getting great value from your coach
• How is coaching different from similar disciplines?

Applications for coaching scholarships are currently closed

Applications will open on 1st June 2025.

About the coaches

We are all professional coaches. You can find out a little more about each of us below.

• 

  Joel Chippindale (me)

  Joel is a coach who specialises in supporting start-up and scale-up CTOs to successfully navigate the changes in their roles as their companies evolve.

  He has over 20 years experience building, scaling and leading software development teams, mainly in start-ups, including CTO and COO roles at FutureLearn and CTO roles at Econsultancy and Unmade.

  Joel is offering 2 coaching scholarships.

• 

  Alex Martynov

  Alex is a leadership coach who helps people experience their work in a profoundly satisfying and fulfilling way. Among the themes that he can be most helpful with are emotional intelligence, navigating difficult conversations, dealing with uncertainty, building more trust with your colleagues, developing authentic leadership style.

  After leaving his almost two-decade tech career, apart from his coaching practice, he runs two Ukrainian restaurants in Prague with his wife.

  Alex is offering 1 coaching scholarship.

• 

  Alia Rose Connor

  Alia is a leadership coach with a background in engineering, management, and entrepreneurship. Prior to launching Frank & Eddy Leadership (with Fiona!), she was a coach manager at Spotify for 7 years of explosive growth, where she helped product and engineering leaders (Sr, Director, VP) lead through continual change. She specializes in supporting engineering and product leaders on collaborative leadership teams, and is passionate about digging into understanding – within oneself and amongst others – in order to provoke change and get to impact faster.

  Alia is offering 1 coaching scholarship.

• 

  Amy Rich

  Amy focusses on helping seasoned and emerging Engineering leaders, especially those operating in environments of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA), improve outcomes for themselves and their organizations.

  Amy is offering 1 coaching scholarship.

• 

  Fiona Siseman

  Fiona works with established and emerging tech leaders who are looking to feel more comfortable in their role. She helps overthinkers and doubters develop the confidence to get out of their own way so they can find their own authentic leadership style.

  Fiona has spent 20 years building software development orgs. A generalist, she has been a project manager, engineering manager, agile coach, operations lead. She is known for her curiosity, pragmatism, empathy and frankness.

  Fiona is offering 2 coaching scholarships.

• 

  Francis Lacoste

  Francis coaches CTOs and VPEs to become leaders who nurture amazing engineering cultures. He helps his clients transition from “building the product” into “building the org that builds the product”.

  Before coaching, he spent over twenty-five years in the open-source and cloud developer tools industry. First, as a software engineer, then as an engineering leader at Canonical, Heroku, and Salesforce where he built successful high-performance remote engineering teams. With long history of contemplative practice, he’s also a meditation teacher with Buddhist Geeks since 2020.

  Francis is offering 1 coaching scholarship.

• 

  Stefan Ross

  Stefan coaches engineering and non-technical leadership at tech startups and scaleups, partnering with curious, pragmatic professionals who seek meaningful solutions. Drawing on over 20 years’ experience in high-growth engineering companies, he combines deep technical and commercial expertise to help leaders navigate and make sense of complex situations. Stefan’s approach enables clients to overcome challenges with clarity and minimal resistance, creating pathways to sustainable leadership growth.

  Stefan is offering 2 coaching scholarships.

• 

  Tobi Tonner

  Tobi supports leaders to reach their full potential by developing their curiosity, mental fitness and healthy leadership habits.

  He has a particular interest in product engineering from discovery to delivery and was able to hone his skills working in startups and scaleups over the last 15 years.

  As a member of the International Coaching Federation, Tobi is committed to practicing their gold standard of coaching.

  Tobi is offering 1 coaching scholarship.

The impact for you

We share these quotes from some of the talented alumni of this coaching scholarship programme to offer you a tangible sense of the experiences and benefits of our coaching.

• 

  I was lucky enough to win a scholarship with Fiona, and in advance of us starting to work together I wasn’t entirely sure what we should focus on - I had been struggling with a few things at work, but I couldn’t see the common theme. But in our first meeting Fiona helped me to organise my frustrations and worries into a specific goal: to speak and be heard. There were a number of reasons why I currently didn’t feel like I was being heard, and over the course of our six sessions together we were able to identify and work through each one.

  Over the course of our working together, I was able to implement better ways of communicating. I’m now more confident to share my perspective when before I would have held back, and I’m influencing better outcomes by proactively sharing my experience and opinions. I’ve seen a lot of positive changes in my professional life.

  I really felt seen and understood by Fiona - she is an insightful, empathic coach who listened to my frustrations and made visible the issues I couldn’t quite identify by myself. I’d highly recommend working with her, and intend to work with her again at the next stage of my career.

• Working with Amy was a positive game changer. With each of our conversations, I either learned something new about myself or it reinforced a strong belief that aligned with my values. It was a very holistic way of approaching engineering leadership, going beyond the technical aspects and into the whole self. In doing so, that reaped greater rewards and it had positive ripple effects in my personal and professional life, along with teams and community. I highly recommend Amy!

• 

  If you’re looking for a coach who empowers you to find your own way forward, Stefan is an excellent choice. He creates a supportive and non-judgemental space for exploration, guiding you with thoughtful questions rather than providing direct answers.

• 

  I recently completed a leadership coaching program under the guidance of Alex Martynov, and it was a profoundly impactful experience that exceeded all my expectations. As my first time working with a coach, I wasn’t entirely sure what the process would entail, but Alex’s exceptional approach made it a game-changer for both my professional and personal growth. His calm, compassionate presence created a safe, trusting space where I felt genuinely understood and supported. His deep expertise in coaching shone through in his ability to ask thought-provoking questions, challenge my assumptions, and guide me toward meaningful insights with remarkable skill. He helped me uncover strengths I hadn’t fully recognized and empowered me to become a more confident, authentic version of myself as a leader. What sets Alex apart is his rare blend of empathy, intuition, and practical wisdom. Working with him was transformative, and I’m immensely grateful for his guidance. I wholeheartedly recommend Alex to anyone seeking a coach who can unlock their potential and inspire lasting change.

• 

  Joel’s coaching sessions were nothing short of exceptional. I felt heard and empowered during these sessions. They were also action driven and I’ve experienced an immense amount of growth as a result of these coaching sessions. I highly recommend coaching with Joel.

• 

  Thanks to the coaching I have received from Francis, I have gained a new perspective, enhanced confidence in my decision-making as an executive, and greater effectiveness as a leader in managing and navigating challenging situations with my team.

Frequently asked questions about coaching scholarships