I help PE houses, boards and leadership teams perform when pressure exposes the gap between the plan and their ability to execute it.
I work with investment professionals, operating partners, CEOs and senior teams to surface difficult issues, improve decision-making and build leadership systems that continue to perform when the conditions change.
Who I work with
For PE houses and operating partners
Supporting investment and operating teams through the hold period
Recognising leadership risk before it shows up in performance
Navigating difficult conversations between investor and management
Strengthening alignment across the investor–board–management interface
Providing a trusted resource across the portfolio without creating dependence
I help PE-backed CEOs and leaders to:
- Navigate a difficult or adversarial relationship with the PE house
- Handle succession — planned and forced
- Diagnose and address blame culture
- Change how command-and-control individuals and organisations operate
- Run change programmes that don't stall at the human dimension
- Communicate underperformance and disappointing news — to the board and to the team
- Build the next generation of leaders before the gap shows up in performance
You may be in the right place if…
- The plan is credible, but execution is slipping
- Capable executives are not operating as one team
- Bad news is reaching the board too late
- An acquisition or integration is exposing leadership weaknesses
- The CEO is carrying too much of the organisation
- Investor and management expectations are becoming misaligned
- The next quarter could materially affect the investment outcome
What the work actually involves
The conversations I have with PE houses and leadership teams usually begin with a specific situation — a performance gap, a relationship under strain, a decision that keeps being deferred. We start there, not with a diagnostic framework.
What follows depends on what we find. Most engagements involve some combination of individual coaching, work with the team as a system, and a period of support through the live challenge — whether that is an acquisition, a succession, a restructure, or the first difficult quarter under new ownership. Some clients want a defined programme. Most want someone who can move between levels — from the individual to the team to the board conversation — as the situation requires.
The underlying method is RESeT® — a performance system built from the non-technical skills research in aviation, surgery and military operations, applied to business leadership. It is not motivational. It addresses how people communicate, challenge, decide, escalate and remain accountable under real pressure. That is a different thing from leadership development borrowed from elite sport, and it produces different results.
Experience
- 10+ PE houses supported
- Portfolio leadership teams developed across the hold period
- Five years within a Magic Circle global talent programme
- Board-level crisis exercises
- Critical national infrastructure leadership
- EMCC Master Executive Coach
- Visiting Professor, Glion Institute of Higher Education
- Royal Marines leadership background
What to expect
Thirty minutes. You describe the situation you are actually facing — not a sanitised version. I give you an honest view of whether I can help and what I would do first. It is not a sales conversation. You leave with something useful whether we work together or not.