Louise van Haarst

The Power House

The conversations most leaders avoid are the ones Louise van Haarst has spent her career walking towards. As co-founder of The Power House and co-creator of Smart Conflict®, she has coached thousands of leaders and teams across sectors including luxury, financial services, technology and media, working with household names like PwC, BBC Studios, HSBC, Accenture & Puig.

With 20 years as a merger and restructure consultant inside some of the most complex organisations in the voluntary and international NGO worlds, Louise came to executive coaching with a particularly sharp perspective: she had already seen up close what happens when the hard conversations don't get had. She is now resident coach at some of the most ambitious businesses in the UK and internationally, supporting leaders through periods of exceptional volatility, opportunity and change.

As one half of the co-founding team of The Power House – a leadership development and culture transformation business - Louise has spent much of the last 12 months on stages and in conference and Zoom rooms globally, training more than 25,000 people at work in how to create the conditions for Smart Conflict® and have hard conversations well. And, in turn, learning about the real conversations that companies – from start-ups, to SMEs to enterprises - are really grappling with today.

Louise holds qualifications in Executive Coaching and Behaviour Change from Henley Business School and is a recognised authority on conflict and courageous communication at work, named in the Thinkers50 Top 30 to Watch for 2026.

Her book, Smart Conflict: How to Have Hard Conversations at Work, is a 2026 Business Book Award finalist and redefines how businesses think about conflict, challenge and the conversations that drive high performance. Alongside Alice, Louise is shortlisted for Entrepreneur of the Year in the Allica Bank Great British Entrepreneur Awards 2026.