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The power of the collective.

MEET THE TEAM

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Ella McCann-Tomlin

FOUNDER

Ella spent a decade leading commercial and people teams inside the world of hyper-growth tech before founding Ardent. And the question that kept her up at night back then has stayed the same through to today: how do organisations hold onto their humanity as they scale? Currently VP of ESG at Mews, she brings firsthand experience of building equity, sustainability and culture functions from the inside, and making the business case for why they matter. She believes that this work is best done collectively, and that the organisations willing to do it will be the ones that last.

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Dr. Kirsty Gardiner

Kirsty is a social psychologist with a PhD from Queen Mary University of London, whose interests lay at the intersection of social justice, and behaviour change. She brings academic rigour to real-world change, drawing on her expertise in the sociocultural drivers of individual and group behaviour to build programmes that are grounded in evidence, not just good intentions. She is also an experienced lecturer and researcher, and believes ardently in the power of research to drive lasting social change.

BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE & RESEARCH
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Cheyanne Clair

OPERATIONS & ACCREDITATION

Cheyanne brings structure to purpose. With a background in people and operations, she specialises in helping organisations build the systems they actually need; from B Corp certification and CRM implementation to operational compliance. She takes a practical, systems-led and human-centred approach, and believes that good systems should be beautifully crafted as well as functional, because the way an organisation operates is itself an expression of its values.

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Sophie Burness

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT & COMMS

Sophie has spent more than 13 years advising organisations on how to communicate through complexity; from crisis and reputation management to behaviour change campaigns for some of the world's biggest brands. She believes the communications challenge for businesses right now isn't simply what to say, but whether they can stand behind it. At Ardent, she works with organisations to align what they say with what they actually do — across every audience, inside and out.

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OUR STORY

The murder of George Floyd in 2020 forced organisations to confront conversations they had ignored for too long.

DEI was thrust onto the corporate agenda, and brands rushed to respond with statements, commitments, and hiring initiatives.

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Too often, the systems underneath remained unchanged.

Ella founded Ardent in 2022 to close that gap. To help organisations move beyond the performative and embed meaningful change into culture, leadership, and decision making.

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At the same time, the landscape was shifting.

Clients were asking bigger questions about responsibility, sustainability, and trust.

It was becoming clear that DEI wasn't a standalone issue but one part of a much bigger challenge: how organisations operate ethically in a world facing climate crisis, inequality, and declining public trust.

Ella soon joined forces with Kirsty, a doctor of social psychology whose expertise brought the academic rigour needed to understand not just what needed to change, but why change so often failed to stick.

Sophie and Cheyanne were grappling with the same questions from inside a communications agency. They found Ardent through LinkedIn, brought them in as consultants, and the relationship quickly blossomed.

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What connected the four of them wasn't just complementary expertise, but aligned values and a shared conviction that the challenges facing organisations today can't be solved through isolated expertise or performative action.

They require collective action.

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Like all great stories, our second chapter began at the pub…

THE BIRTH OF ARDENT 2.O

One night, in a pub in North London, after hours of conversation about what business could and should look like, Ardent 2.0 was born.

Not as a traditional consultancy, but as a collective: people with different skills, shared values and a belief that better systems are built collectively.

Today, Ardent helps organisations close the gap between what they say and how they operate — across culture, communications, operations, and responsible business strategy.

Because meaningful change doesn't happen through statements. It happens when behaviours, systems, and accountability move in concert.

And that belief is still the foundation of everything:

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A better future can only be built together.

THE COLLECTIVE

Beyond our core team, we draw on a network of specialists, researchers and facilitators we know and trust, brought in when a project calls for it.

You get the right expertise at the right moment, without the overhead of a traditional agency.

JOIN THE COLLECTIVE