In October 2018 I was admitted to a mental health clinic in Meiringen, in the Bernese Oberland. I was physically and mentally exhausted, suffering chronic pain and had lost the ability to sleep.

I had lived and worked on 4 Continents, moved the family over 20 times in 35 years working during which I had practiced leading teams in many different cultures and a vast array of challenging business contexts; from running a complex joint venture in Indonesia during a period of civil unrest and financial crisis to steering a mine operation in Canada through a tangible risk of structural collapse. In my last few years I was managing $1Bn business portfolio, a vast geographic region and channelling significant energy in to developing leaders at all levels of the organisation.

My focus has been to understand why people want to work and to create environments where all people thrive. My strengths are a highly associative mind, an ability to synthesise complex issues and a determination to solve problems. In these strengths lie the clues to my vulnerabilities; I am mildly obsessive, have, on occasions, suffered from chronic anxiety and an inability to slow down.

I overcame deep insecurities about being the focus of attention to become a motivational speaker and an inspirational people leader. I have a track record of successfully managing both challenge and change. I believe in harnessing both cognition and emotion and leading with overwhelming care for, and trust in the people around me

As I reflect on it now, Meiringen brought a much needed stop to a break-neck corporate lifestyle. It has allowed me the time and space to reflect on and bring some order to everything that I have learned. Inspired by the incredible talent that helped me in the clinic, I have studied the psychology and neuroscience of behaviour as a basis of further developing thoughts on motivation and resilience.

My intent is to now help other leaders to become the very best versions of themselves they possibly could be.