I spent more than twenty years fixing businesses. The hardest turnaround was my own.
I’ve spent my working life where people, pressure and change meet. I studied psychology, sociology and business communication, went on to complete two master’s degrees, in business leadership and in global supply chain management, and built a career leading businesses, and the people in them, through turnarounds, growth and upheaval.
Before any of that, I grew up in the countryside, much of it outdoors on family farms, learning early to fend for myself. It made me capable and fiercely independent. For a long time, that independence served me well.
The fixer
I moved fast in the corporate world and was soon being brought into struggling businesses to turn them around. Over more than twenty years I led companies as Chief Executive, Managing Director and President Director across Africa, Asia, Europe and Australia. One role spanned fifteen countries in North and West Africa. Another put me in charge of a national business of around 300 people.
I stabilised failing operations, rebuilt leadership teams and won back customers who were ready to walk. One of those turnarounds was recognised with an award. Along the way I worked in more than twenty countries and travelled to more than forty.
The hardest turnaround
Every career has its tests. My biggest one came later, and it was personal. A run of difficult years, some of it down to events nobody saw coming and some of it down to my own confidence, took apart much of what I had built. I had spent my whole career fixing things. This time I couldn’t fix it on my own.
What it taught me
Independence had looked like strength. Underneath, it had become a habit of trusting only myself: my judgement, my plans, my ability to control the outcome. Coming back meant learning what two master’s degrees never taught me. How to ask for help. How to let people close enough to hold me up. How to stop performing for others and get honest about what matters.
Resilience, I found, has less to do with how much you can take and more to do with how you recover, and how clearly you know what you’re rebuilding towards.
I also learned the value of having someone in your corner. Someone outside the situation who can see it more clearly than you can, asks the questions you’ve been avoiding, and holds you to the next step when it would be easier to stall. That’s what a good coach does.
Why I coach
Most of the people I’ve seen get stuck were capable and hard-working. They were pushing hard down a path that no longer fitted them, or trying to find their feet after life knocked them sideways. I’ve been in both places. That’s the ground I coach from: more than twenty years of leading people through pressure and change, and the personal experience of coming through a hard season clearer and more resilient than I went in.
How I coach
Direct, practical and focused on your future. I won’t tell you what to do with your life. I’ll help you get clear on what matters to you, then hold you to the plan you make. Expect honest questions, a clear structure, and the occasional dry joke.
Education and training
- Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Psychology, Sociology and Business Communication, North-West University
- Master of Business Leadership, UNISA Graduate School of Business Leadership
- Master of Global Supply Chain Management, TIAS Nimbas Business School, Tilburg University, Netherlands
- Results Coach, Authentic Education Accelerated Coaching Certification
More on my background: my LinkedIn profile.