My own business, family and personal set of experiences has equipped me with a deep understanding of the matrix of challenges faced by individuals. This understanding is vital in the process of facilitating and supporting change and growth. A key aspect, often misunderstood or ignored, is the huge influence of personal circumstances, and my skill in the identification and articulation of individual personal and business challenges are often the catalyst for moving forward.

WHAT I HAVE DONE:

• Qualified Chartered Accountant [1977]

• 32 years of diverse international business experience across multiple industries, covering a wide spectrum of business activities and disciplines.
  
  • 26 years of leadership of Johannesburg Stock Exchange Listed Groups – mainly in service industries with sophisticated offerings, complex leadership challenges and large high level client engagements.
  • 6 years of consulting, mentoring, facilitating and advising to business & community leaders & organizations.

• 15 years of active membership & leadership involvement in Young Presidents Organization [YPO/WPO], a significant global business leadership organization with 26 000 members across the world.

• 15 years of participation in sport [squash rackets] as a competitor & administrator at Interprovincial level.

• 12 years of involvement in the Independent Schools environment, serving on various school boards, mentoring Principals, and working with the Independent Schools Association as a member of the ISASA National Council for a period of 5 years.

• Deeply challenging and enriching family experience as a widower and divorcee, with four of my own children ranging in age from 15 yrs to 24 yrs, and two younger step-children.

• Founding member of a Children’s Home providing for abandoned babies [mainly HIV & AIDS infected].

• Significant investment in my own personal development in the context of understanding my strengths, weaknesses, intuitive capabilities and aptitudes, passions and aversions, as well as the value I can take forward from my own business, family and personal life’s experiences.

WHAT I BRING WITH ME:

• Business experience:
  • Business leadership in a Public Company environment with all the regulatory, compliance, shareholder and public relation and marketing challenges.
  • Managing international business activities, with the attendant challenges of operating and servicing clients in other countries and continents, particularly with regard to the opportunities now opening up in Africa.
  • Most facet of day to day business activities including strategy, finance, marketing, sales, operations, resourcing, litigating, corporate finance, and client, supplier and financier relationship management.

• Organisation and people dynamics:
  • A deep understanding of the challenges of organisation behaviour, particularly in the context of leadership; strategy development, integration and implementation; talent and performance management, growth and development, motivation and incentivization;

• Networks:
  • The consequence of my focus over the last few years in building relationships and developing networks has enabled me for any given scenario, challenge or opportunity to identify viable alternative solutions in terms of which individuals or organizations to contact, how to reach them and capture their attention, and how to position and beneficiate the engagement to achieve an appropriate outcome.
  • The depth and breadth of my networks gives me access to a broad spectrum of people and opportunities across multiple industries internationally, from small entrepreneurs to leaders of multinational corporations, financial, technology and operating partners, as well as key government and non-government organisations and decision makers.

• People and personal development:
  • My own business, family and personal set of experiences has equipped me with a deep understanding of the matrix of challenges faced by individuals. This understanding is vital in the process of facilitating and supporting change and growth.
  • A key aspect, often misunderstood or ignored, is the huge influence of personal circumstances, and my skill in the identification and articulation of individual personal and business challenges are often the catalyst for moving forward.
  • My strongly intuitive and deeply developed emotional literacy and compassion enable me to identify with an individual’s circumstances, and thereby to facilitate the entire process of moving forward.

• Strategic and  worldly overview:
  • The privilege and benefit of engaging with the world on a big picture basis as opposed to being focused on one specialized silo of activity enables me to develop a unique understanding and interpretation of any issue, and bring creative and effective solutions which would otherwise to have been identified.

WHAT I AM PASSIONATE ABOUT:

• Making a difference
• Adding value
• Changing lives
• Understanding patterns
• Personal development
• Families
• Education/entrepreneurship
• Equity/inequity