Leeds Entrepreneurs Help Business Leaders Find Clarity Through Nature

A husband-and-wife team from Leeds has launched a unique leadership development company designed for founders and senior leaders of growing businesses, with the great outdoors at its heart.

Ant and Claire Ackers have co-founded WildEdge Worx, a new venture that combines executive coaching with experiential leadership development delivered whilst walking, hiking or wild swimming. Drawing on decades of corporate, entrepreneurial, and coaching experience – along with nationally recognised outdoor leadership qualifications – the couple work with business leaders in outdoor settings to unlock clarity, resilience, and strategic growth.

Claire has been coaching professionally since 2007, helping values-driven entrepreneurs and senior leaders build authentic, high-performing businesses. She has guided over 1,000 clients, from solo founders to executives within FTSE 250 international groups. A trained hill adventure guide and certified Open Water Lifeguard and Wild Swim Leader, Claire has also been running her popular UK-based Rewilding Retreats for over four years alongside her coaching practice.

Claire Ackers, co-founder of WildEdge Worx, said: “Consciously and subconsciously, we’ve been building towards WildEdge Worx for years. It brings together our professional experience and a shared passion for sustainability and the transformational power of nature. With the stunning Yorkshire countryside on our doorstep, our unique approach offers an incredibly powerful way to help leaders grow.”

Ant brings more than 20 years of strategic and operational experience, including four years leading the Business Analysis and Business Improvement functions at Drax Group. He qualified as a Hill and Moorland Leader and Mountain Leader in 2021 and went on to launch his own business delivering mountain-based strategy days and endurance-led corporate team building and charity events.

Ant Ackers, co-founder of WildEdge Worx, added: “We take leaders out of their noisy, distraction-filled environments and into natural spaces that are scientifically proven to boost creativity, strategic thinking, positivity, personal growth and mental health. Working and walking side by side, we help them develop the mindset, systems, structures, and strategy needed to grow their business to the next level.”

Services range from one-to-one, nature-led strategy intensives and tailored leadership programmes to immersive retreats and executive development for senior leadership teams – all designed to help leaders regain clarity, steadiness, and authority as the stakes increase.

Adventures in the great outdoors have been central to the couple’s story, both personally and professionally. Claire explains: “Ant sent me the GPS coordinates for where I should meet him for our second date and proposed to me on the top of Mount Snowdon. Pretty much every major decision in our lives and businesses has been made on a walk.”

Ant added: “Knowing the difference walking in nature has made in our lives, it made sense to combine our skills and bring our unique blend of transformational coaching and outdoor experiences to help others. We help people confront where they are and what they really want, create a plan to make it happen, and then anchor it in experiences that they’ll never forget.”

For more information visit: https://www.wildedgeworx.com/