Former Atomico HR Director launches leadership development venture MQ
Maria Orphanides and Richard Album unveil new platform focused on manager and leadership capability.
Maria Orphanides, former HR Director at Atomico, has launched MQ, a new leadership and manager development venture co-founded with Richard Album, as organizations reassess how they build leadership capability in a changing workplace.
The launch was announced on LinkedIn, where Orphanides described the initiative as a response to shifts in how organizations operate and develop talent. MQ, short for Mindset Quotient, positions itself as a development model focused on strengthening what it calls “mindset capabilities” across individuals and teams.
Orphanides brings 20 years of people and talent experience, including five years at venture capital firm Atomico. She now serves as Founder of Mindset Morph and Co-Founder of MQ.
MQ targets manager effectiveness and leadership capability
In her LinkedIn post, Orphanides wrote: “The world of work has fundamentally changed. How we develop managers and leaders hasn’t kept pace...” She added: “In a world of constant change, leadership capability is one of the strongest drivers of business performance.”
And: “As talent retention becomes harder than ever, the role of people managers has never mattered more.”
MQ is positioned as an alternative to what the founders describe as traditional classroom-style or one-off leadership training. The venture frames mindset as a core driver of performance, defining MQ as “the next evolution of intelligence” beyond IQ and EQ.
The company states that its programs are designed to create shifts in thinking and behavior, with a focus on agency, adaptability, and leadership effectiveness.
Signature programs focus on managers, executives, and scaling teams
MQ’s initial offering includes four signature programs:
Manager Mindset Accelerator, focused on first-time and emerging managers
Leadership Mindset Accelerator, aimed at executive and senior leaders
Start-up to Scale-up Leadership, designed for founders and growing organizations
Leadership Team Lab, a team coaching model for executive groups
The programs combine workshops and one-to-one coaching and are positioned around performance, retention, and leadership alignment.
Richard Album, Co-Founder of MQ, brings experience across law, finance, healthcare, real estate, and technology, and has worked as a facilitator and executive coach.
Leadership development moves toward mindset-based models
The launch reflects a wider shift in how organizations approach manager and leadership development. As hybrid work, talent mobility, and rapid scaling reshape workplace expectations, companies are increasingly revisiting how they equip managers to lead teams.
MQ enters a competitive leadership development market that has historically centered on skills frameworks and competency models. Its differentiation rests on embedding what it describes as mindset intelligence into leadership practice.
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