ABOUT
Forty years alongside leaders.
Being a CEO or President can be one of the most rewarding and most isolating roles in business. The same is true of leading an Executive Leadership Team. For more than forty years, I have served as a confidential advisor, mentor, and thought partner to the leaders carrying that weight.
My role is not to tell leaders what to do. It is to help them think more clearly, challenge their assumptions, and arrive at decisions they can stand behind. Clients often describe me as a confidant who combines strategic experience, candor, and compassion — the kind of presence that helps a leader find their footing in moments that matter.
Forty years alongside leaders.
ABOUT
Being a CEO or President can be one of the most rewarding and most isolating roles in business. The same is true of leading an Executive Leadership Team. For more than forty years, I have served as a confidential advisor, mentor, and thought partner to the leaders carrying that weight.
My role is not to tell leaders what to do. It is to help them think more clearly, challenge their assumptions, and arrive at decisions they can stand behind. Clients often describe me as a confidant who combines strategic experience, candor, and compassion — the kind of presence that helps a leader find their footing in moments that matter.
My career began at Arthur Andersen as a CPA. From there, I served as Chief Financial Officer and Acting Chief Operating Officer of a six-billion-dollar mortgage banking company — a role that taught me what it feels like to sit in the executive seat during periods of growth, scrutiny, and change.
I moved into investment banking, leading mergers and acquisitions and counseling principals through high-stakes decisions. I served on boards and advisory boards, and eventually as Chairman of TEC Worldwide — now known as Vistage — where I advised CEOs on leadership effectiveness, strategic decision-making, and organizational performance.
Through all of this, one pattern became clear: technical skill, capital, and strategy matter, but the strength of the leadership team at the top is what consistently determines whether everything else succeeds or struggles. That recognition has shaped the work I do today.
THE PATH HERE
I listen carefully. I ask questions that get past the surface. I bring forty years of experience to bear without imposing it. I tell the truth — kindly, but plainly — when it serves the leader. And I treat every conversation as confidential.
When working with an individual CEO or President, I serve as a confidential thought partner. We meet regularly, in person or by video. The agenda is whatever you need it to be on a given day — a strategic decision, a leadership challenge, a difficult conversation you are preparing for, or simply a place to think out loud.
When working with an Executive Leadership Team, I design and facilitate the gatherings that strengthen trust, improve alignment, and surface what most needs to be addressed. With more than three hundred executive retreats, leadership summits, and strategic planning sessions behind me, I approach each one with fresh attention to what this team, in this moment, most needs.
HOW I WORK
I have worked with more than 150 CEOs and Presidents across North America, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and Asia. My clients have included Worley, Patagonia, Air New Zealand, AMGEN, EY, Northern Trust, and Dyno Nobel, among others.
At this stage of my career, I work selectively. I am drawn to progressive companies whose leaders care about their people, want to be excellent at what they do, and recognize that the quality of their leadership team shapes everything else. I am less interested in scale than in impact — and I would rather work with one leader who is committed to becoming better than ten organizations chasing growth at any cost.
WHO I WORK WITH
When a CEO and their leadership team are aligned, trust one another, and work together well, the effect does not stop at the leadership team. It reaches the people who report to them. It reaches the people who report to those people. It reaches the families of everyone in the organization — the partners, the children, the people who share a dinner table with someone who works in a place where they are trusted, respected, and challenged in the right ways.
Conversely, when leadership at the top is fractured, anxious, or politicized, that experience travels outward too. People bring it home. They carry it into their conversations, their friendships, their parenting. The cost is rarely measured, but it is real.
This is why I do this work. Helping one leadership team find clarity, trust, and alignment is not a small thing. It is, quietly, an act of service to everyone that team's work ever touches. That is enough reason for me to keep showing up.
WHY I DO THIS WORK
I live in Mount Shasta, California, where I moved after many years in the Los Angeles area and Melbourne, Australia. I hike daily, stretch each morning and evening, mountain bike, and try to spend as much time as I can outdoors. I share my life with a wonderful partner, and I am the proud father of a son and two daughters, and grandfather to two grandchildren who are a great source of pride and joy.
PERSONAL
If we should talk.
If something on this page suggests we should have a conversation — about a leadership challenge, a transition, a question you are sitting with — I would be glad to make time.
Conversations are confidential and carry no obligation.