PROFESSOR ILONA BONIWELL

Ilona Boniwell is a professor of positive psychology at the University of East London and the original founder of the UEL’s MSc in Applied Positive Psychology, the first ever degree of this type in Europe. She is one of the world leaders in positive psychology, working in the field for over 20 years, originally mentored by Martin Seligman. Professor Boniwell wrote or edited twelve books, delivered over 200 keynotes and a TEDx, founded the European Network of Positive Psychology, organised the first European Congress of Positive Psychology and was the first vice-chair of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA). She is passionate about practical applications of positive psychology to coaching, business and education. She has developed multiple positive education programmes, such as SPARK Resilience, Personal Well-Being Lessons and +ACTIONS. Nowadays, as a director of Positran, a boutique consultancy specialising in the applications of evidence-based methodologies to achieve lasting positive transformation, Ilona delivers advanced professional training in positive psychology. She has developed her own approach to positive psychology applications and trained thousands of professionals around the world (in Japan, Singapore, China, Dubai, South Africa, Portugal, France and the UK). Her clients have included ClubMed, L’Oreal, Microsoft, SNCF, EDF, Sanofi, Bull, Mars, Eric Bompard, Microsoft, BNP Paribas, Sanofi, Sodexo and many others. She further worked for the Government of Bhutan to develop a framework for happiness-based public policy at the request of the UN, as the lead member of the International Expert Working Group for the New Development Paradigm. Currently, she consults the Prime Minister’s Office of Dubai around the development of the toolkit for workplace positivity and organisational well-being assessment.