Our Story
Work should be a place of joy. A place to thrive and grow.
Our founders, Caroline Mabon and Caroline Hampson, built Compassionate Cultures on a simple but powerful belief. Work should be a place of joy; a place to thrive and grow.
Our Journey to Today
Built from experience. Grounded in research. Driven by conviction.
Where it All Started
Commercial & corporate experience
A shared path in a wide variety of commercial and leadership roles within global giant Mars Inc — one of the world’s great people-centred businesses. It was here that our shared belief in the connection between people, culture and business performance first took root.
What led us to today
Developing people, leaders and organisations
Our careers subsequently took us in different directions, building extensive experience across leadership development, coaching, organisational culture and business.
Together, we’ve worked with over 100 organisations, from SMEs to global corporations, helping people and teams realise more of their potential.
Some of the Organisations We’ve Worked With
Ordnance Survey · Freeths · Mars · Whitbread · Levi’s · AkzoNobel · Engage4Success · Moore & Smalley · Napthens · Remsol · Dunbia · Arco · DHL · Danone · Carnival · Radian · Edmundson Electrical · Halfords
2020
Compassionate Cultures is born.
We brought our experience and shared conviction together to create Compassionate Cultures, with an ambition to help organisations become places where people and business can thrive together.
But we wanted to do more than champion the importance of people and culture. We were curious about what thriving really looks and feels like, what makes it possible, and how organisations could create more of it.
Creators of the Thrive & Grow Index
That curiosity led us to develop the Thrive & Grow Index® — a diagnostic designed to make the experience of workplace thriving visible, meaningful and measurable.
What began with our own experience and questions has evolved into a tool that helps organisations understand what’s really happening across their workplaces.
Taking our curiosity further
In 2020, Caroline Hampson began her PhD research into workplace thriving, bringing academic rigour to the questions that had inspired our work.
Today, our approach combines research, real-world experience and insights from the Thrive & Grow Index® to help organisations better understand and create the conditions for thriving.
Meet the Founders
The people behind the work
Caroline Mabon
Co-Founder, Compassionate Cultures & Thrive & Grow Index®
With 16 years at Mars across sales, marketing and leadership roles, followed by first-hand experience of the very different world of SMEs, Caroline discovered that the part of business she loved most was developing people and seeing them thrive. Today, she brings that commercial grounding and passion for people together, working with leaders and teams to unlock human and organisational potential — creating the conditions where people can thrive and businesses perform.
Caroline Hampson
Co-Founder, Compassionate Cultures & Thrive & Grow Index®
With 21 years’ experience across commercial, corporate and leadership roles — alongside PhD research into thriving at work — Caroline brings deep expertise in leadership, coaching and organisational development. Today, she combines real-world leadership experience with research and evidence — challenging thinking, making complex ideas accessible and turning insight into practical action that strengthens leadership capability.
Our People and Wider Network
Small by design. Brilliant people by our side.
Compassionate Cultures is deliberately boutique. When you work with us, you get the personal commitment of the two Carolines, our combined experience and our genuine investment in your people and your outcomes.
But we don’t do it alone.
We work alongside a carefully chosen team of brilliant people who bring complementary expertise, fresh perspectives and shared values to everything we do.
From storytelling and coaching to leadership development and project delivery, they help us bring the right expertise to the organisations we work with.
All are accredited in the Thrive & Grow Index®, giving us a shared foundation for our work.
Want to see what’s possible in your organisation?
Let’s talk about where you are now — and where you want to be.