“We are all actors: being a citizen is not living in society; it is changing it.”

These words by Augusto Boal, have consistently inspired Akhila to create platforms for change and dialogue wherever she goes, in theatres and in businesses. An actor, dancer and applied theatre practitioner, she strongly believes in the power of the performing arts to spark change within people and in turn their organizations.

Akhila has studied drama at the British American Drama Academy in the U.K, and Middlebury College in the U.S.A, from where she has a Bachelor’s in Arts. She has developed and facilitated theatre based interventions with diverse communities. Her workshops have taken her to businesses across India, schools and universities in the US, and orphanages in Latin America. In 2017, Akhila was invited to lead a theatre-based intervention for the U.S. Congress at the Capitol in Washington D.C. Akhila has also directed, performed and taught at theatre companies like Potomac Theatre Project in New York City, the San Francisco Mime Troupe in California and Arena Stage in Washington D.C.

Through her global understanding of the arts, Akhila is highly sensitized to the complex dilemmas of each community and delivers workshops that directly address the heart of those behavioural conflicts.

As a consultant, she specializes in delivering workshops for young professionals. Using her insights from theatre, psychology, learning and development, she brings alive concepts of inner-drive, creativity and communication. She empowers participants to take ownership of their career aspirations and bring their passionate and confident selves to the workspace. As a content designer she crafts engaging and relevant experiences for groups as small as 7 leaders in a boardroom to as large as 400+ new recruits in a packed banquet hall.

Akhila constantly infuses the magic of the performing arts to facilitate meaningful and energetic workshops for her participants who appreciate the chance to not only learn but also to get up and do! Her client list includes among others SRF, Fidelity, HSBC, and Ernst & Young.

Currently she also works at Black Box Okhla – an exciting Performing Arts Lab in New Delhi, and blogs regularly about the applications of Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed methodology. (www.bolworkshop.wordpress.com)

Simple & fair are couple of words that define Anand. One of his life purposes is to “gain clarity & give clarity”. This is something he does intentionally to take care of his physiological & psychological needs.
Anand is the Co-Founder of Pause Play along with being a behavioral consultant, coach & mentor. As a consultant, his repertoire work is diverse - executive presence, ability to lead self & others, resilience to sustain in this ever-changing world, impact during presentations and also team dynamics. He has experience of working with various industries across different levels. Anand has an overall experience of about 19 years! As a behavioral consultant, he amalgamates his experience & understanding of theatre, psychology & corporate to create relevant experiences for his audience.
He believes that theatre & drama has played an important role in his life. Anand is a trained actor & a drama instructor from Barry John Acting Studio. He has also written & directed plays. Anand says, “while in my workshops or coaching sessions, I give undivided attention to each of my participants & use my observations to up their performance, there is a moment to cherish when the transformation happens or even if the process starts.”
Anand is a student of psychology. He believes that human emotions are beautiful & complex hence it is important to go beneath and see why someone is behaving a certain way. He is able to create experiences/moments which help people deepen their understanding of self & others during his workshop & coaching sessions.
His journey in L&D started in 2005 with Convergys (now Concentrix) as a process & soft skills trainer. He has experienced pain & pleasure both in his 8 years of corporate life.
Some of the clients he has worked in the recent past are GSK, Wipro, UNDP, SMBC, HSBC, Cognizant, SRF, Godrej, RBS, Maxlife Insurance, Soprasteria, Nestle and many more.
If you like poetry, spend an evening with Anand! As he says, “Life has been kind enough to offer me experiences, and along with it comes emotions. Whenever he feels an emotion which is strong (good or bad) irrespective, he would wear the hat of a “poet” and put words together.” You can read his poems on Instagram. ( you can access the link below).
https://www.instagram.com/anandmahavirmittal/

Nigel Hughes is an expert on leadership, creativity, and high performing teams. Nigel knows leadership from the inside, a multi-award-winning Founder and CEO of three organisations. Nigel empowers people worldwide. He is an inspirational speaker, leadership coach and mentor. ‘His sessions for senior people in corporations are both riveting and transformational.’
Virgin Unite “Environmental Entrepreneur 2008”.
Royal Institute of British Architecture (RIBA) “Spirit of Innovation 2006”
He is a member of Prince of Wales Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change and an alumnus of the Cambridge University Sustainability Leadership Programme (CPSL) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. (RSA).
His key clients include ArcelorMittal, Arvato/Bertelsmann, Biogen (USA), Capgemini, Deutsche Telekom, Genentech (USA), LightsourceBP, Nucleus Financial, Santander Tech UK and Skyscanner.
One of Nigel’s great personal assets is his global perspective. He spent 25 years dealing with different culture and diversity issues as co-founder/CEO of Green Light Trust. In 1985 Nigel created the Northern Lights Trust UK to support people living with HIV and AIDS. This work took him through Europe, USA and Australasia.
In January 2019 he created Outstanding.Global Ltd to help people become outstanding custodians of themselves, their businesses, and our planet.

A trained counseling Psychologist and a certified drama therapy practitioner, Priyam works with people across ages and diverse communities to enhance well being for individuals and organisations.

She's a relentless learner, and has trained in Neuro linguistic Programming, Cognitive Analytic Therapy, Process work and Positive Psychology all of which allow her to run dynamic behavioral shift programs and be a sought after Executive coach.

At Pause Play she designs and delivers interventions that help participants to become more dynamic in their communication, balance work and life and practice higher levels of motivation, resilience, well being and leadership. Some of her consulting clients include Penguin Random House, Jubilant Life Sciences, Genpact, GSK, Nestle, Deloitte, Max Hospital, Fidelity, Schneider, HSBC to name a few.

While Psychology remains her first love, she is also a Drama practitioner and has been trained by well-known theater professionals such as legendary (Late.) B.V. Karanth, Maya Rao, Arvind Gaur, Aruna Ganesh Ram to name a few. As part of Visual Respiration, an immersive theatre group she has also been involved in devising and performing immersive theatre work, a format that engages the audience to take part in the story of the actor.

A potent combination of theatre and Psychology allows her to create learning spaces where participants are willing to expand their behavioral repertoire and eradicate roadblocks to their own best versions.

An experienced learning and development professional with 20 years of experience in the field of developing human resource in the corporate sector. Her expertise lies in Coaching for performance, Personal effectiveness, Well being, Creating impact in presenting and communication, Leadership- leading self and others and working collaboratively as a team.
A graduate degree holder in hotel management from The Oberoi Centre for Learning and Development, followed by PGD (HRM) from Symbiosis, Pune. Topped with a diploma in L&D from the Indian society of training and development (ISTD), Associate Certified Coach ICF (International Coaching Federation) certification from the Neuroleadership group, India and Coach Masters Academy, Singapore. A certificate in Holistic Coaching-Margaret Moore (U.S.A) is her most recent accomplishment.
She has a total work experience of 2 decades plus in the fields of Hotel operations, HR and Training in various organisations: The Oberoi Group, Barista Coffee Company,Apollo Tyres, City and Guilds UK, Xpotential Consulting, Cox and Kings, and Maynardleigh to name a few.
She is passionate about working with individuals to help them realise their potential and consequently achieve their goals. Being an experienced ICF certified Executive/performance and Well-being coach has helped her do that. Over 4000 people covering a gamut of industries have been trained by her to date. She has conducted workshops for organisations as varied as Aon, American Express, Cognizant, Coca Cola, EY, Fortis, Genpact, HSBC, McKinsey, Pepsico, Wells Fargo, RBS, SRF & Sopra Steria to name a few. She has more than 400 hours of coaching experience.
Sanah has varied interests ranging from psychology to spirituality, from creative arts to well being and she brings these interests to every interaction to create highly engaging learning experiences for one and all. Her thoughts have been expressed in various articles on LinkedIn , Medium and Thriveglobal. Sanah is currently working as an Executive performance and well being coach with organisations in Singapore & India. She also partners with high potential individuals across the globe.

Vivek is the Co-Founder and an executive coach, with an experience of over 22 years in the area of development & consultancy. He has coached, conducted workshops and trained over 40,000 employees and consulted companies both in India and overseas. Vivek, in capacity of a practicing psychologist and an executive coach, works with some of the senior leaders in organizations.
Some of his recent projects include; working as an executive coach and mentor to CEO, CFO of a large multinational media company, personal coach to the finance director of one of the leading BPO’s, has been a performance coach on the impact and influencing ability of executive director of a multi-national liquor company, and senior leaders of one of the top five brands of the world, and an executive coach to the chairman of a huge global company.
He has done some phenomenal consulting work across industries. He uses his outstanding histrionic skills to provide a live experience for all of his coachees and also his participants. Vivek cares passionately about the people he works with and combines his solid experience and depth of expertise with a user-friendly approach. Vivek says “I help to inspire confidence as well as pushing boundaries for improvement into high performance, through providing guidance and support to leaders. As a young CEO, I understand the challenges that Senior Executives face in managing both the strategic and day to day operational activities”.
He is a Diploma holder in counselling psychology, Diploma in International Marketing from Middlesex Community College, USA and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Apeejay School of Management, Delhi; he is also a part of Repertory company at National School of Drama, New Delhi. Vivek recently completed his certification in Psychodrama. He has handled assignments in the area of Personal Impact, Presentation Skills, Communication Skills, Influencing skills, Leadership, Corporate values, Team Building.

“I don’t have the words to describe what’s really happening in my life right now.” This sentiment, in these words and others, has been shared by several clients before. You may yourself have felt so at some point in your life. Vrinda is an experiential facilitator and certified expressive art therapist whose work is rooted in ‘less talk, more play.’ She believes that the humans experience the world through their minds as well as bodies. Which is why, examining things through only the intellect is a limiting illusion. Afterall, if someone can learn something off a simple web-search, why have a trainer in the room at all? In her work, Vrinda brings alive experiences through games, simple yet effective exercises and various mediums of expression that help leaders connect strongly with themselves, their teams and in the larger scheme, their organisation.
In a decade of experience working on human behaviour, she has encountered various organisations, big and small. She has been in workshops room with hundreds of people across titles from CEOs to interns. Some themes that she feels most connected to are ‘Emotional expansion & creating impact’, ‘Powerful teams’, ‘Creative Leadership’ and ‘Inclusion.’
She believes that it is not only possible but also imperative for organisations to move from older paradigms of operation to the more recent empathy driven, open hearted, authentic and expressive paradigm. For example, in the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, leaders who were strategically sound but also able to truly empathise, were the leaders that effectively managed to contain the virus in their countries. The companies that can rewire to the new paradigm of leadership & teaming will not only be able to sustain, they will be the ones that survive. She is committed to helping organisations who are interested in leading this shift, to make the transition in a powerful way.
Along with facilitation, running her practice as an expressive art therapist, Vrinda also actively engages with theatre as a performer and has been a steady witness to the power of drama, play & body-driven insight creation. When she is not delivering programs, she is usually found pottering about in various forms of expression through art (check out her latest comics on well-being during the lockdown on Instagram @textbubble), engaged in a conversation or attempting to care for her body, soul, family, friends and plants.