My Story

Group of school children and teachers outside Bukoba Airport.

Early Years

I was born in Kampala, Uganda, and grew up in Bukoba, Tanzania. When I was ten, I was given the chance to leave school in Bukoba and carry on my education in the UK. I didn't realise then how much that one decision would shape my life.

I arrived without a word of English. I remember how overwhelming it all was, the language, the classrooms, the cold, the feeling of not quite belonging. I had to work hard at school, harder at university, and harder still at finding my place in a country that didn't always make room for me.

Finance turned out to be where I felt at home. Eleven years after I first arrived, I graduated from the University of Essex with a First in Accounting and Financial Management.

I'm proud of that journey, and grateful for it. It made me resilient. But it also left its mark. Some of the habits that helped me survive back then took me years to notice, and longer to understand. I'm still learning from them.

That ten-year-old boy is still part of me. I think of him often when I sit with leaders today, because I know that behind every role, there's a person carrying their own story.

Corporate Career

My career started at BSkyB. That's where I qualified with CIMA and learned the basics of finance from the ground up, including treasury and cash management.

In 1999 I moved to Harrods to run the management accounts team. A year later I became Financial Controller at ntl, now Virgin Media. Those were intense years. I worked on bank and bond financing, went through a Chapter 11 restructuring, and helped rebuild how the finance function worked. I learned more in that time than in any classroom.

My first Finance Director role came in 2005, at Affinion International, a private equity-backed business. I then moved to BNP Paribas Real Estate, also as Finance Director. Over those years the job grew beyond finance to take in operations, HR, IT and procurement. I found I cared as much about how people and systems worked together as about the numbers.

At CEG, as CFO, I led a restructuring that meant untangling years of legacy issues in people, processes and systems. We raised over £1 billion in debt financing, including sustainability-linked loans, and built strong relationships with our investors. None of it would have happened without the team. They were talented, committed, and the best part of the job.

Alongside all of this, I've served as a non-executive on the boards of NGOs and charities. That work kept reminding me that good governance and real purpose belong together.

Experience to date

Nervous Breakdown

In November 2022, I had a nervous breakdown. Years of burnout, stress and overwork finally caught up with me, and everything stopped.

It was one of the hardest things I've been through. But it made me look honestly at myself and at the life I'd built. I started asking questions I'd never left room for. Why me? What is my purpose? Who am I, without the title and everything that came with it?

The answers came slowly, in the quiet. I realised how lucky I had been. A boy from Bukoba had been given the chance to build a life and a career in the UK. And I began to see the breakdown differently. Not every storm comes to wreck your life. Some come to clear the path.

What I found underneath was simple. I want to serve. A tree bears fruit it will never eat. It doesn't ask who deserves it or what it will get back. It gives because that is what it is for. That's where my own instinct finally settled: doing what is right because it is right, not for what it might return.

I want to live in coherence with people and with nature, as one human being among many. And I want to help others find their way back to who they are. I can't tell anyone who to be. What I can do is hold the mirror, without judgement, so they can see it for themselves.

Today that happens through coaching, advisory work and board roles. Different rooms, same purpose. I don't miss the person I was before. I'm at peace in this work now, and simply glad to be here.

Self Realisation

Those questions were the start of a long journey inward. Slowly, I began to reconnect with my conscience and with something deeper in myself. I started to understand what had led to the breakdown, the patterns and habits I'd carried for years without seeing them.

For the first time, I could see clearly what actually makes me happy. That changed the direction of everything that came after.

Through the hardest days, I was held by my family and by Shiva. Without them, I wouldn't be here to tell this story. I'm grateful for every day.

That time also opened a door. I read a great deal, sat with what I was learning, and came to understand myself and the world in new ways. It was then that my devotion to Shiva became something I truly understood and embraced.

To me, Shiva is the perfection and certainty that lives within every one of us, quietly guiding each of us back to our own truth. As his devotee, I live now with a clarity I didn't have before. I try to serve, to speak the truth, and to live by what he represents.

That is my purpose: to serve Shiva through how I live, how I lead, and how I support others. It's also why my practice carries one of his names. Neelkantha, the one who held the poison so the world could carry on.

My Future Intent

In practice, that means putting everything I've learned to use, from my own journey and from years in corporate leadership, in service of other people.

I'm especially drawn to people who want to live and lead in a more meaningful, balanced way. And to those who are struggling, whether they're in the middle of a big change, searching for purpose, or trying to find their way back to themselves. I know what that feels like.

My coaching and mentoring bring together three things: awareness and intuition, professional experience, and the lessons my own path taught me the hard way. I work with individuals and organisations who want to grow with honesty and care, and in a way that feels true to who they are.