“When a complex system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence in a sea of chaos have the capacity to shift the entire system to a higher order.”

Ilya Prigogine

The power of coherence as a force for change has stayed with me, and it shapes how I think about leadership, systems, and what a steady, grounded presence can actually do during disruption.

Today’s senior leaders are navigating sustained complexity, competing priorities, and decisions that carry real consequences. Many are expected to provide steadiness and clarity for others, even when the path forward isn’t clear to them yet.

Most of the leaders I work with lead mission-driven, publicly accountable organizations: health care, social and community services, higher education, and government, where they answer to boards, funders, and the public at once.

Working with them as an external sounding board and strategic thinking partner, my focus is helping them make sense of complexity, surface blind spots, and think through decisions with greater clarity and confidence as conditions continue to shift. With more than 25 years of experience across the public, private, and non-profit sectors, including government, municipal, financial services, insurance, and pharmaceutical organizations, I’ve worked alongside leaders through periods of significant change, uncertainty, and transition.

A Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University grounded my thinking in systems, decision-making, and leadership in complex environments. Earlier in my career I spent eight years working in central agencies within the Ontario Public Service, responsible for initiatives impacting a range of social and community service ministries, and worked in municipal finance on Wall Street. I continued that learning through integrative coaching certification, training as an Adaptability Quotient practitioner, and deep work in visual facilitation and strategic frameworks through Grove Consultants International, and in organizational and relationship systems coaching through CRR Global.

Leaders I work with often tell me they value having a space where they can think out loud, be fully honest, and explore difficult questions without judgment or performance pressure. They appreciate having an experienced, objective partner who can help them distinguish what truly matters, test assumptions, and see patterns that are difficult to spot from inside the system.

My approach is not to arrive with canned answers or a one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, I work alongside leaders, helping them think clearly, trust their judgment, and make decisions they can stand behind, even in uncertain conditions.

My award-winning book “Lead Conversations that Count: How Busy Managers Run Great Meetings,” grew out of years of watching leaders with genuinely good intentions walk out of meetings having left their people less engaged, less aligned, and less confident than when they walked in. The thinking behind it continues to inform my coaching work today, particularly in high-stakes moments where clarity and alignment are hardest to achieve and matter most.