About Us
We are a collective of coaches, creatives and learning strategists.
Candy Jannetta – Founder, Chief Learning Strategist
Candy is the strategist and powerhouse behind Essencial.
With a marketing background working for Warner Music International and CNN, Candy has a wealth of experience in enabling large corporates to nurture talent, to develop outstanding leaders and to embed a new culture. She approaches all her coaching and facilitation with a focus on embedding behavioural change in line with a business’s strategy, while sharing her warmth, creativity and expertise.
Candy is passionate about creating learning organisations. She played an integral part in the design and delivery of adidas’ MDE program that won Gold in the Brandon Hall HCM Excellence Awards for ‘Best Innovative or Unique Leadership Program 2021’
Candy’s Sustainability aha moment
“In 2021, I felt compelled to do more than reducing my general personal consumption and use my skills and expertise to play a role in tackling climate change. I was inspired after reading, Net Positive by Paul Polman and Andrew Winston, who state that “To thrive today and tomorrow, companies must become “net positive”—giving more to the world than they take.” It was at this point that I decided to put sustainability at the heart of Essencial and created The Sustainable Talent Program.
Andy Dunn – Facilitator, Coach
Andy Dunn is our innovation guru. With a background in product development he brings his creative flair and entrepreneurial spirit to Essencial.
His mission is to empower people and organisations to lead with integrity, care for the world, and evoke the drive within us all to make a positive difference in the places we live and work. As an accredited Human Synergistics consultant, Andy partners with clients to be an ally, champion and catalyst for positive change. He uses compelling evidence-based methods alongside a warm, creative and relationship-centred approach.
Kathryn-Sophia DelaHoussaye – Creative Consultant and Facilitator
Kathryn-Sophia is our creative dynamo, having worked as Global Senior Director for Creative Direction for adidas. She thrives on finding creative solutions, smart thinking, collaborating for the best result, building strong relationships, inspiring teams to find purpose and meaning in what they do- in turn making the world around us that little bit better. Her key competencies are Creativity, Big Picture Visionary Thinking, Strategic Acting, Leading through Visions and Values, Developing Leaders, Managing Talent and Personal Impact. Kathryn currently facilitates creative collaboration for both global organisations and start-ups.
Kathryn’s Sustainability “aha” moment:
“At adidas we used millions of simple metal eyelets. I had no idea about the impact that eyelet manufacturing had on the environment until I visited the factory in China where they were produced. Once at the factory, my senses and thoughts were immediately alerted to the toxic effect of the production of metal eyelet parts. The process requires a high heat for smelting and employs sulphur etching and stone washing. One major result is how the paint solvents that are used in the cleaning process have a direct environmental impact on the river outside the factory. All for a little eyelet! I made a conscious and deliberate decision to ban any use of metal eyelets in our designs. From that point on, I led our team to make more conscious design decisions.”
Susana Garcia – Facilitator and Coach
Susana is our coaching specialist and has a chemical engineering background and a 15-year career in sales.
She is a coach and international leadership facilitator who specialises in helping leaders to think more creatively, communicate more effectively, and influence others more skilfully. She is highly experienced at coaching senior managers, helping them to enhance their emotional intelligence and to build high-performing teams. She facilitates in both English and Spanish.
Chrissie Wanless – Facilitator and Coach
Chrissie is our learning-experience expert and founder of The Be Seen Project. Chrissie’s 20+ years of experience has seen her work with many of the world’s leading brands – from ASOS, Capgemini, Exterion Media, Orange and Lynk & Co to Spotify, NGA HR, Sony Music, The Birley Clubs and Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield. She proudly partnered with adidas to co-create and implement their Manager & Director Development Experiences (MDE & DDE). Chrissie is particularly interested in the topics of growth mindset, ‘the inner critic’, diversity and inclusion, and communicating for connection rather than competition. She always champions the building of trust and psychological safety, and the importance of appreciating our differences and uniqueness. She is proud that the work she does leads to the improved performance and growth of individuals, teams and organisations.
