About Paul
Not long after my father passed away, I found a slide rule while clearing out his belongings.
He used it to calculate and build. No batteries, no screen, and no second chance if you read it wrong. You had to slow down to use it properly.
I think about that when a leader tells me he needs better tools. Usually he does not. He needs enough room to read the one already in his hand.
What I do
I coach CEOs, founders and family principals in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Some are scaling quickly and have outgrown the way they lead. Some are working out what they hand on, and to whom.
The work is not inspiration. It is character, discipline and resolve, in that order, and a structure underneath it that you can see.
How I got here
Twenty years in the Arabian Gulf and Australasia, in food, professional services and the not-for-profit sector, in financial and regional leadership. My career started in private accounting practice, then Fonterra. Through the 2000s I moved through systems implementation and client-facing work, and eventually into coaching. My last leadership post was interim GM of a start-up during Covid.
I operate across KSA, UAE and the Arabian Gulf. I ran business out of the United Arab Emirates for 23 years and continue to do this today from Melbourne with my entire coaching practice remaining in the Gulf.
Sixteen years coaching. Over 3,000 hours. Sixteen of those years spent learning that competence is the gate, and character decides.
The framework I am licensed in
Impactful Leadership is Dane Hudson's methodology, built from six years as a top-tier management consultant and thirty years leading businesses across five industries and every major ownership model. Since 2021 it has been refined through work with more than 100 CEOs and founders, and shared with over 300 other senior leaders, including inside the MBA programme at Singapore University of Social Sciences.
I work with Dane as an associate and leverage this incredible framework. It is deliberate. It means the discipline underneath our work is tested and repeatable, rather than a style I invented.
Credentials
ICF Professional Certified Coach, continuously accredited since 2014, now training as a PCC-level examiner. Chartered Accountant, CAANZ. Business degree, Massey University. Wiley DiSC consultant. Five Behaviours of a Cohesive Team consultant. Intercultural Intelligence practitioner and intercultural coach instructor. Imposter Syndrome Coach Practitioner. Instructor and mentor coach on an ICF-accredited coach training programme.
Personal
Married twenty-six years, four children. A student of the human condition. Lover of Liverpool Football Club, the All Blacks, the wadis and deserts of Arabia, and the mountains and forests of New Zealand and Australia.
Coaching is a confidential service that allows the client to explore new areas with confidence. I am held to the codes of ethics for both the International Coaching Federation and the Chartered Accountants of Australia New Zealand.