My Story

I have the privilege of coming from New Zealand, which makes me literally one in a million*

I didn’t get a proper job until I was 26, as a journalist and newsreader for Radio New Zealand, fresh out of my post-graduate journalism course. Before then I studied, lived in Paris for a year, and studied some more. I’d been head girl, the Alexandra Lions Club Young Ambassador of the year, and bored by rugby (I’ve changed). 

I first visited the UK in 1985, to see my grandmother, and I’ve been living here since 1990, picking up four English children along the way. 

My corporate career in the 1990s saw me buzzing around London and Brussels in Armani suits for a FTSE-100 company, and my last proper job was as Business Director for the Whitehall and Industry Group, working on relationships between business and government. In the early 2000s, I helped set up in the UK what’s become the biggest expat Kiwi community, but mostly I was focussed on my own business, with my husband, writing and coaching. 

The formal coaching qualification came in 2009, and my first official clients included a Member of Parliament (she’s still there) and an academic studying at the University of Oxford. I believe the world will be a better place when women step up more in public life, and men in private life**. 

In my own private life, I read and follow up footnotes, try to get people to help me with cryptic crosswords, and love walking.

* The population of New Zealand reached five million in 2020 (a lot of expats moved home!) and there’s another estimated million of us outside the country. 

** Please read this as: “people who have qualities that are traditionally regarded as feminine or masculine”.