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Ngoni Diana Johns, founder and CEO of Chiedza

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Meet the founder

Ngoni
Diana Johns

Founder & CEO · International speaker · Health and aftercare innovator · Author

Building a world where care continues.
Even after the appointment ends.

  • Finance-trained
  • Founder-built
  • Lived-experience led
  • Systems-focused

01 / BSc

First-Class degree

University of Chester

02 / ICMF

Qualified Life Coach

Online coaching and workshops

03 / Founder

Chiedza Health

Building for the aftercare gap

04 / Author

Books, poetry & journals

Stories of recovery and becoming

05 / Speaker

International keynotes

Aftercare, inclusion and innovation

Award-winning founder

Wellness Impact Award, Flourish Summit · Outstanding Contribution to Wellness, OM Yoga Show

Ngoni Diana Johns leaning against a timber wall in a cream dress

The person behind the purpose

Crisis gets attention. Recovery gets resources. Aftercare gets forgotten.

Ngoni named the space in between the Aftercare Gap, and founded Chiedza to build for it.

There are people who survive their story. Ngoni built a company out of hers. She doesn't just speak about resilience. She asks what happens when resilience is no longer enough, and what systems, leaders and communities must build for the aftermath.

01 · The story

Lived it. Named it. Building for it.

From a career built around systems to a life’s work built around people.

Zimbabwean-born and British, shaped by Shona faith, family and her grandmother, Gogo Norah, Ngoni began her career in finance, learning how systems measure success.

In late 2021, her body began, without warning, to fail. She was told, more than once, that it was "probably anxiety". It took four years for testing to confirm what she had been living. In that time she lost her career, her savings and nearly her home.

She refused to disappear into the label. She aimed everything finance had taught her about systems, structure and scale at the one problem no one had built for: the aftermath.

"Recovery is not return. It is reconstruction."

Chiedza means light in Shona. Chiedza hachidzimi: the light does not go out. Care should not end when the appointment does.

Coach Chiedza · ICMF qualified professional coach

Heart · Mind · Body coaching.

Coaching for the part after the crisis, when you got through it but don't yet feel back.

A sacred space for slow becoming.

ICMF qualified Professional Coach (PCC, ICMF 1005). Personal coaching from £225, with app access included for your programme.

Ngoni smiling during a one-to-one conversation at a table

Mind

Quiet the noise.

Decide what matters now, and let the rest wait.

Heart

Grieve what changed.

Then rebuild trust in yourself, one honest step at a time.

Body

Find your pace.

Rest, energy and habits that fit the life you have now.

1:1 coaching

Online, wherever you are.

Workshops & programmes

For teams and communities rebuilding together.

To book or enquire

johnsngoni@chiedza.tech+44 7787 792492View the current coaching offer ↗

We carry more than memory. We carry each other.

Coaching includes app-supported reflection between sessions. It complements healthcare and is not therapy, medical advice or crisis support.

Ngoni Diana Johns in a herringbone coat, smiling outside a garden room
Ngoni Diana Johns · Building for the aftermath

02 · The thinking behind the talks

Two frameworks. Both registered.

Care. Structure. Scale.

Care. Structure. Scale.

The S.A.F.E.R.™ Framework

  • SSelf-Awareness
  • AAccess
  • FFacilitation
  • EEscalation
  • RResponse

Believe. Track. Continue.

The Aftercare Mandate™

  • Believe

    the person, the first time.

  • Track

    stay with the journey.

  • Continue

    help them keep becoming.

Registered UK trade marks UK00004372308 and UK00004372273. Both anchor Chiedza's work, including schools in South Africa with the Nzimande Foundation.

03 · The journey

From finance to the aftermath.

Ngoni Diana Johns working on a laptop at a wooden table beside a vase of dried flowers

2014

Enterprise award at 19

Brentwood Chamber; Peter Jones Programme

1 / 8

Read the complete journey
  1. 2014

    Enterprise award at 19

    Brentwood Chamber; Peter Jones Programme

  2. 2019

    Into finance

    Travelex: a bureau's first £1M; 100% service scores

  3. 2020

    First-Class BSc

    Chester; 11 CIMA exemptions

  4. 2021

    Her body begins to fail

    A four-year search for answers

  5. 2022

    Wellington Management

    Client Analyst, UK institutional clients

  6. 2023

    Founds Chiedza

    Building for the aftermath

  7. 2025

    Diagnosis, four years on

    Standing on Our Last Bones published

  8. 2026

    Registered. Recognised.

    Two registered frameworks, two awards, app launch

04 · Signature keynotes

Boardroom and story. Data and poetry. Innovation and policy.

Corporate precision, hard-won emotional intelligence, and a wit that insists healing doesn't have to be heavy. She moves rooms rather than simply addressing them.

Ngoni Diana Johns holding a copy of The Aftercare Journal by Chiedza Co.
01

Signature

Invisible Battles, Visible Futures

Recognising invisible struggle, and building places where people can participate and thrive.

Audiences leave with

Practical ways to recognise hidden barriers and respond with action.

02

Keynote

Not a Footnote. A City: Building for the Aftermath

Designing cities, workplaces and services for disability, illness and disruption from day one.

Audiences leave with

A new lens for inclusive innovation, built around real lives.

03

Keynote

The Aftercare Mandate: Believe. Track. Continue.

Why support must continue beyond the crisis, and how organisations can own what happens next.

Audiences leave with

A registered framework for moving from crisis response to sustained support.

On stage

I Will Come Back With Embers

A keynote at the Flourish Summit, listed on Ngoni's Innovation Women speaker profile.

05 · Proof and platforms

Recognised for building what comes next.

Ngoni Diana Johns standing confidently with one hand on her hip and a walking cane in the other

Winner

Wellness Impact Award

Flourish Summit, Washington DC (2026)

Winner

Outstanding Contribution to Wellness

OM Yoga Show, London (2026)

Guest of Honour

Forbes Women's Conference

South Africa (2026)

Shortlisted

ESAY Awards

2026

Author

Standing on Our Last Bones (2025) and Chiedza: Reflections on Darkness, Light, and the Moments in Between (2019).

Forthcoming: The Body That Still Believes / Muviri Unorangarira.

Podcast

Co-host, The Gentle Resolve podcast.

Press

Women in Leadership, OM Yoga Magazine.

Innovation Women speaker profile

Building continuity, beyond the stage.

Chiedza Health

Founder & CEO of Chiedza Innovations and Chiedza Health, developing digital aftercare infrastructure for recovery, reintegration and continuity.

Early exploration

Her speaker profile reports that her work has reached approximately 1,000 prototype users. This is prototype reach, not evidence of clinical outcomes. The Chiedza Health app is now live.

Education & recognition

First-Class BSc, 11 CIMA exemptions and the Chester Difference Excellence Award.

View Ngoni's Innovation Women profile ↗

The principles behind the work

Care built around real lives.

01

Believe the person

Lived experience belongs at the centre of the conversation, not in its footnotes.

02

Continue after the crisis

The aftermath deserves structure, attention and support of its own.

03

Make room for capacity

Rest, fatigue and changing needs should shape care rather than disqualify someone from it.

04

Keep humans responsible

Technology can support reflection. Clinical judgement belongs with qualified people.

05

Respect culture and story

Language, family and memory are part of how people make sense of recovery.

06

Build for reconstruction

Returning to a former life is not the only meaningful way forward.

Connect with Ngoni on LinkedIn ↗

Speaking & workshops · A conversation with Ngoni

Good things begin
with a conversation.

Life coaching, speaking and thoughtful partnerships. Make room for your next step.

A conversation with Ngoni

Book a discovery call

30 minutes
  1. 1. Date
  2. 2. Time
  3. 3. Your details

Select a date

The real question is: what happens next?

Bring Ngoni to your stage.

Now booking keynotes, workshops, masterclasses, panels and leadership sessions.

Book a call with Ngoni
For event hosts · Read Ngoni’s introduction
"Our next speaker built a finance career at Wellington Management, BMO, Barclays and Travelex. Then a four-year search for a diagnosis showed her where recovery fails: after the crisis. She named it the Aftercare Gap, built two registered frameworks to close it, and founded Chiedza. Please welcome Ngoni Diana Johns."

Represented by the Self Made Speaking Academy.

Unouya neyi? What will you come away with?