I advise senior leaders navigating what the org chart cannot hold - and organizations building the human infrastructure that transformation actually requires. I help leaders Make Awareness Their Edge.
Hard problems. High stakes. Fast, meaningful change.
“Some problems are too expensive to get wrong. They live at the intersection of culture, leadership, and the pressure of real consequences. That is where I work..”
About
There are problems that cannot be solved in a leadership team meeting. Not because the people in the room lack intelligence or commitment. Because the most consequential things — the cultural fault line beneath your transformation, the trust deficit at the top of the house, the AI implementation that is technically on track and humanly unraveling — cannot be fully named when everyone present has a stake in the outcome.
I have spent two decades inside the rooms where these decisions get made. As a two-term elected County Commissioner, as Chief of Staff overseeing 400 people and $137 million in a major American city, and as Global Director of Science Transformation at one of the world's largest conservation organizations, I have learned what organizations can hold — and what they cannot.
I work with a small number of senior leaders at any one time. No political stake. No org chart. No agenda but yours.
How I Work With You
Strategic counsel for senior leaders. Confidential, fast, and grounded in two decades of operational experience at institutional scale. The relationship you establish before the crisis, and call on when it arrives.
Culture and change work for organizations navigating complexity. From AI adoption strategy to leadership team performance to the conditions that determine whether transformation sticks. I bring structure to the work most consultants describe but cannot do.
Keynotes and workshops for organizations navigating culture change and/or AI transformation who want to keep humans central to their strategy, culture, and decisions.
The Human Layer
Your AI strategy has a human problem. Your culture change initiative has a human problem. Your leadership development program has a human problem.
The question no one is asking well enough is why — and what to do about it. That question is what I built my practice around.
For twenty years, I have worked inside complex organizations at institutional scale: as Chief of Staff, as a senior executive managing global programs, as an elected official. I have been in the rooms where the decisions were real and the margin for error was thin. The failures I have seen were almost never failures of strategy. They were failures of the human layer.
That is what I work on.
Signature Talks
These talks were shaped inside boardrooms and hospitals in equal measure — two decades of leading at institutional scale, and a breast cancer diagnosis that tested every assumption about pressure, performance, and what human beings are actually capable of.
For organizations navigating change, pressure, and high stakes Most talks name the problem. This one delivers the methodology — drawn from neuroscience, stoic philosophy, and real consequence — for leading at your best when getting it wrong isn't an option. Your audience will leave with more than insight. They leave with a map.
For organizations deploying AI or navigating transformation The technology works. The adoption doesn't. This talk identifies the three forces that determine whether AI actually sticks — and what leaders need to do differently right now.Your audience leaves with a diagnostic framework they can apply immediately.
For leadership teams at an inflection point The human dimensions of leadership — ethical clarity, moral courage, full accountability — are no longer optional. This talk makes that case and refuses to let anyone look away. Your audience leaves not just inspired, but accountable.
Featured Insights
The person you call before you call anyone else.
If you are navigating something that requires clear thinking, real experience, and someone who will tell you the truth — I’d like to talk.
Your Questions, Answered
What makes private advisory different from coaching or consulting?
Coaching follows a developmental arc toward goals you set together. Consulting delivers defined outputs. Private advisory is neither — it is an ongoing, confidential relationship with no deliverable, no program, and no agenda but yours. The distinction is in the access: open-channel, as-needed, complete confidentiality, no political stake in the outcome.
Who is the Private Advisory for?
Senior leaders at VP level and above who are navigating something their organization cannot resolve through normal channels — culture fractures, AI integration challenges, leadership transitions, or decisions that require a trusted perspective entirely outside the hierarchy.
How do I know if there is a fix?
Submit the three-question inquiry at the bottom of this page. If there is alignment, you will hear from me personally within a few business days.
Do you customize keynotes for specific audiences
Always. Every speaking engagement begins with a conversation about your audience, their context, and what success looks like for the room.
Work With Me
Tell me what you're navigating. If there's a fit, you will hear from me personally within a few business days. I read every inquiry myself.
