From African Farm Roots to Future-Fit Change Partner  

I grew up on a farm in Africa, close to the land, the seasons and the night sky. That’s
where I first developed a deep sense of connection to nature, people and the wider
universe – and where I learned hard work, responsibility and community from an
early age. Those years shaped how I see human beings: not as “resources”, but as
whole people living in complex systems.

I went on to qualify as a clinical psychologist, driven by a desire to understand how
people think, feel and adapt under pressure. My first role was at the Military
Psychological Institute, working for the newly formed Nelson Mandela South African
National Defence Force. For five years my core focus was helping to integrate
statutory and non-statutory forces into a single defence force – work at the
intersection of trauma, identity, politics and hope. Working for and with the Mandela
government forged many of my deepest values: reconciliation over division, dignity
over labels, and humanity over ideology.

From there, I joined Deloitte and began my formal journey into organisational change
management. I realised that the same principles I’d seen on the farm and in the post-
apartheid military applied just as strongly in boardrooms and project teams: people
need meaning, agency, clarity and support to move through change.
After Deloitte, I founded a non-governmental organisation, the South Africa
Development Foundation, focusing on community upliftment in sub-Saharan
countries. In this chapter I worked closely with international donor partners such as
USAID and DFID, helping to design and deliver programmes that strengthened
communities’ own capabilities and voices, rather than doing change “to” them.
Since then, my career has been about bringing all of these threads together –
psychology, community development, systems thinking and practical change tools –
and applying them in an international context. I’ve worked across the US, Europe,
the Middle East and Australasia, helping leaders and organisations become more
humane, more adaptive and more future-fit, without ever losing sight of the human
beings at the centre of it all.

Now, based in Aotearoa New Zealand, I’ve focused on building organisational
change capability across both the tertiary and emergency services sectors —
including Te Herenga Waka–Victoria University of Wellington and Fire and
Emergency New Zealand. My work has included training cohorts of change
practitioners, enabling senior leaders in their sponsorship role, designing human-
centred frameworks, and helping organisations navigate change fatigue while
building long-term maturity.

This is where my earlier experiences – from the farm in Africa to the Mandela
government and global consulting – now come together in service of a more
humane, sustainable and future-fit approach to change in this part of the world.