It is difficult to see where Shân Veillard-Thomas finds the time to fit in the more mundane aspects of life. Her life reads something like a latter-day female Indiana Jones story, mixing various academic endeavours with an endless quest for testing her own physical endurance. 

Of Anglo-French parentage, Shân was educated at the French Lycée in London and began a law degree at King's London before leaving early to join the British army. Here, her five-year stint included a tour of duty in Belfast before her husband, also a serving officer, was successively posted to Brunei, Germany, Oman and France. Shân put her own career on hold, taking time out to raise a family, before starting to teach English in the Loire valley town of Saumur. This period of comparative inactivity had soon begun to chafe for the ceaselessly active Shân: "Having a young family does take up a lot of time, and it was definitely something of a change after my spell in the army," she admits. 

The solution to having time on her hands was for Shân to start teaching English at the local chamber of commerce, national riding school and privately before returning  to university in France to take an English degree and soon afterwards to establish her own English language school in France. Once again, the lifestyle began to pall: "I got fed up with working six days a week for clients who required teaching six days a week," she recalls. It was then that Shân first began her association with Linklaters, as a legal translator and looking after IFS Know-How. On leaving Linklaters and following a year at the College of Law, she returned to Paris where she project-managed a major international Franco-British millennium exhibition.  She then took another post-graduate degree in Dispute Prevention and Resolution, qualified as a mediator and began what was to prove her true metier, that of coaching professionals, notably members of the legal profession, in managing each new stage of their careers and beyond. 

For Shân, Linklaters was an ideal place to begin such a project. "I saw all sorts of lawyers, from trainees to senior partners, and as a non-lawyer, it was fascinating to see how things fitted together. My army background gave me an interest in seeing the firm's chain of command and I got a bird's eye view of its structure and functioning. The idea of coaching was to help people in their evolving professional lives, whether lateral hires, people moving up the ranks or into new roles, or even preparing people for retirement or maternity leave." Shân still recalls her time at Linklaters with the deepest appreciation and pride. "You really learn the meaning of excellence there," she says. "It's a culture where everyone is working at the top of their game and second best just will not do." 

In 2007, Shân had the idea of establishing her own executive coaching business. With a small band of highly competent and experienced coaches, she formed Professional Coaching International Ltd, where the focus is on coaching lawyers in France and the UK. Woven into the coaching fabric of the business are a number of exercises that owe much to Shân's army background and her love of the outdoor life. "I learned offshore sailing in the army and use it a fair bit in my courses," she explains. "It's a very useful tool to see which individuals have the coolest heads and respond best to pressure." Taking people out of their comfort zones in order to develop leadership qualities is a central part of Shân's thinking - French lawyers she coaches are encouraged to speak in English, for example, with the ultimate goal being to instil a genuinely bi-cultural, as well as bi-lingual, approach into her clients. 

The future looks bright for Shân and her business. The next stage is the imminent creation of another centre of operations in Abu Dhabi and Shân allows herself some well-deserved satisfaction at the progress of "her baby", as she calls it. "I love being responsible for the business and working with people who are at the top, or going to the top of their profession," she says. "It is so rewarding to help my clients move from good to great." 

Although she admits with a trace of regret that she no longer rides, Shân still keeps her sporting hand in with regular sailing excursions. It seems that you can take the girl out of the army, but you can't take the army out of the girl.