We are Ithaka.
Equipping leaders to make confident, courageous decisions.
Ithaka’s work brings human judgement and leadership into the era of AI. We draw on deep experience in ethics, organisational change, and leadership development to help leaders exercise sound judgement as technology reshapes how decisions are made.
Our People
Rob Hayward is the Founder of Ithaka, bringing two decades’ experience guiding senior leaders through their most complex challenges at the intersection of strategy, sustainability, and ethical business.
Known for his clarity, empathy, and ability to ask the right questions, Rob is dedicated to helping leaders navigate moral and strategic dilemmas with confidence and courage.
Prior to founding Ithaka, Rob spent a decade building Principia, the global advisory network dedicated to organizational ethics. As Principia’s founding Chief Operating Officer, Rob brought together a team of renowned academics, consultants, and practitioners around a bold mission: to build more ethical organizations.
Under Rob’s leadership, Principia became a trusted partner to boards and C-suites at some of the world’s most influential companies, including Citigroup, Bank of America, Google, Meta, and Salesforce, where the firm helped to establish the sector’s first Office of the Ethical and Humane Use of Technology. In this role, Rob led transformative projects across industries, guiding leaders on ethical decision-making, ethical leadership, and culture transformation, and working across functions and disciplines to establish ethics as a strategic imperative for long-term success.
Earlier in his career, Rob spent ten years with Accenture Strategy, where he helped to launch and grow its Sustainability Strategy practice. Working at the forefront of ESG and responsible business, he led client engagements worldwide and established partnerships with the United Nations Global Compact and the World Economic Forum to drive systems change across industry sectors.
In addition to his work with Ithaka, Rob regularly speaks on responsible leadership and the ethics of technology, including as a visiting lecturer at the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School. He is a Director at the Forward Institute, and the Andy Eder Business Faculty lead at the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics.
Through Ithaka, Rob continues his mission to empower leaders with the confidence, tools, and courage to make values-driven decisions. By drawing on his network built over twenty years in ethical and responsible business, Rob builds tailored advisory teams that combine domain expertise with the emotional intelligence required to work seamlessly with each client’s leadership team.
Sarah Miller is a Sarah Miller is a Senior Advisor at Ithaka. She is an experienced executive leader, coach, and leadership development advisor with 25 years’ experience guiding organizations through complexity and change. She supports individual leaders and leadership teams to lead with clarity and courage and to build new capabilities and readiness for the future.
She is an executive coach and leadership program facilitator for Duke CE, as well as a speaker and executive advisor for the Institute of Business Ethics and the Forward Institute, where she leads development programs on responsible leadership. She brings extensive experience across diverse industries, including energy, technology, infrastructure, and professional and financial services.
Having lived and worked across three continents and 30+ countries, Sarah understands the complexities of multicultural teams and operating models. Her practice integrates her experience and expertise with foresight and systems thinking, ethical decision-making and culture, complexity theory, and human-centred design, development and change management to help leaders align around a shared ambition, learn and adapt, shape culture, and drive growth.
Sarah was previously the CEO of Principia, advising boards and executives in the US, Europe, Australia, South Africa, Japan, and the UK on their most pressing ethical decisions. In this role, Sarah worked with senior clients to build aligned leadership, conduct, and culture. Prior to Principia, Sarah led a global future and foresight platform, working with leaders to engage with future trends and position their teams to drive change towards future ambitions. She spent the first half of her career in learning and development design, organisational transformation, and change management, holding senior operational and people leadership roles in the international humanitarian and development sector.
Sarah holds a BA in English Literature and Spanish from Wake Forest University, and an MSc in International Relations with a focus on political science and geopolitics from the University of Edinburgh. Her executive education includes global facilitation, executive coaching, change management, conflict mediation, systems change, and safeguarding, mental health, wellbeing and psychosocial safety in the workplace.
Our team in the media
BBC Radio 4, The Bottom Line: “In denial”
Forbes, “How can leaders effectively speak out? Three strategies for success.”
Influence & Impact for Leaders: “How to Make Hard Decisions”
Governance and Compliance, “Ethics in the boardroom”
World Finance, “Tone from the top? The flawed ideal of executive leadership”
Board Talk, “Ethics As Comparative Advantage : An Empowering Agenda For Business”
People Management, “Why ethics training is fundamental to cultural change”
HR Zone: “Business scandals: Can you predict and prepare for them?”
Entrepreneur UK: “It's Rarely One Bad Apple: Getting to the Real Cause of an Ethics Crisis”
ESG Investor: “Getting to Grips with Ethical Risk”
Corporate Compliance Insights: “The Heart of Ethical Execution”
Our Values
Empathy
Leadership takes courage. At Ithaka, we respect those who choose to lead, and we empathise with the challenges it brings. By listening deeply to understand the context and complexities leaders face, we guide them toward thoughtful, courageous decisions.
Humanity
We connect human-to-human, not business-to-business. We strengthen human judgment by celebrating ingenuity, embracing fallibility, and focusing on the human dynamics that drive courageous, confident decisions.
Trust
Trust is the foundation of our work. We demonstrate our trustworthiness by bringing candour and courage to every interaction, building relationships that empower leaders to navigate complexity with confidence.
Impact
We are committed to making a meaningful difference. At Ithaka, we partner with organizations where we believe our work can significantly enhance their ability to make effective, values-driven decisions. Our focus is on delivering tangible outcomes that strengthen leadership capabilities, align actions with values, and drive long-lasting impact.
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