My role is not to duplicate your technical expertise but to be your ideal thinking partner, sympathetic and rigorous. In investment banking and venture capital, I saw human capital failures cause individuals, teams – and even whole firms -- to fail. Leaders without a vision, tactics over strategy, founders who could not delegate, teams with no communication . . . Scientific ambition and technical capacity need to be matched by talent that is fully enabled. 

These problems stunt startups and are even more acute at scale. At a mid-sized biotech or a division of a large pharmaceutical company, the stakes are higher and the pressures more complex, stressing the support structures. The right coach can be hugely useful.

I focus on the UK and Continental Europe, in particular the healthcare-rich ecosystems of London, Oxford, and Cambridge in the former, and Basel, Switzerland in the latter.

I help executives to:

• Navigate the scientist-to-leader transition — to go from being the expert to being the person who leads experts
• Manage a team through setbacks (delays, pipeline, regulatory)
• Work through career transitions: to move from a large company to a startup, or vice versa, or from a scientific to a commercial role
• Deal with investor and board relationships at moments of pressure

I work with individuals directly, and I am also engaged by HR and talent development teams at larger companies who want to provide confidential, one-to-one coaching to key people.

Conflicts of interest in coaching are, I believe, both real and under-studied. When I coach someone, I have their interests and well-being in mind. This means confidentiality is a given, as is going wherever the coaching leads. Client, sponsor, and coach should work to align expectations from the start.