About Edward
Achieving lasting change on the outside, by shifting the inner landscape.
Originally trained as both an actor and a lawyer...
I’ve spent more than twenty years helping leaders, teams, and individuals navigate moments of growth, challenge, and transformation. I’m endlessly curious about human behaviour – how we make sense of our world, how we work together, and how real change actually happens.
I’m a lifelong learner, and my accreditations include:
MSc in Mediation and Conflict Resolution
Extraordinary Leader Facilitator
Systemic Constellations Facilitator
PRISM BrainMapper Profile Coach
CFOR Facilitator
ICF PCC Coach & Coach Assessor
Archetypes at Work Facilitator
I’ve had the privilege of working with clients including Adobe, eBay, Booking.com, Elle Saint-Gobain, HMRC, Metropolitan Police, Rabobank, Barclays, JP Morgan, BT, Lloyds of London, AON Hewitt, Macarthur Foundation, Gamesys, Vodafone, Microsoft, Levi’s, BlueCoat | Symantec, Inlumi, PageGroup, Jotun, HSBC and many media, pharma, and marketing organisations. I also work with SMEs and charities to strengthen internal relationships and support sustainable growth.
What to expect when working with me
Edward possesses the rare combination of clarity, humour, empathy and an authentic drive to achieve the best possible outcome. This enables him to bridge language barriers, cultural differences and diversity.
Mark Milders
Head of Wholesale Banking, ING
My own story...
Born in the 70s
I was born in the 1970s, the son of a diplomat, and spent my childhood traveling the world. This unique upbringing gave me profound insights into how different societies function, their norms and assumptions –and also presented plenty of challenges. Together, these planted the seeds of the work I wanted to do – bringing different perspectives and people together to, ultimately, connect.
One early catalytic memory that stands out is living in the USSR during the early 1980s, at the height of the Cold War. I attended an Anglo-American school (diplomat kids) in Moscow - the capital of the then “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.” We were the enemy. Contact between us and the Russians was frowned upon and kept to a minimum. There was a real and palpable divide, we even imported our milk from Finland and shopped in “special” shops - an "us and them" way of living. Not that we had much cause to interact. This was amidst the back drop of nuclear proliferation – the arms race that made us MAD = Mutually Assured Destruction. That atmosphere of separation fostered a sense of fear and uncertainty, especially with the constant threat of nuclear war looming over everything. That is a scary place for a seven-year old. Those formative experiences left me with a strong drive to understand how we might prevent conflicts from escalating, how people can learn to get along better and ultimately to find the connection between us?
Living life
On my journey to answer this question, I’ve explored many paths. I studied for a combined degree in Acting and Law (remember LA Law?) – focusing on contracts, family law and indigenous/human rights. The acting won out though – what better way to understand human nature and relationships?
After a short stint with a leading agent in Sydney, I thought the best training was to live life, so I travelled the world. Along the way I became a snowboard instructor, English teacher, yoga instructor and ended up on a First Nations community in Canada. These people, the Nuxalk of Bella Coola, inspired me to return to Australia where, alongside efforts into indigenous rights activism, I became a permaculture gardener, studied landscape design with Jamie Drury (Winner of Chelsea Flower Show). From there I decided to become an acting teacher as it seemed to bring all my skills together. I also became a mentor for youth at risk through MenMentoringMen in Canberra.
Then after what was meant to be a two-week visit to the UK, a friend changed my life. She sent me a job application to become a Youth and Conflict Project co-ordinator in East London. I hated every minute of filling it out, but I couldn’t stop writing as each skill set requested, I lit up: “I could do this”. Funnily enough, they didn’t give me the job, but they did offer to train me as a mediator, and then hired me to work with the young people director, combing my training skills with my acting exercises. And so in 2004, my journey as a facilitator of groups began.
Creating collaborations
My professional journey has included workplace mediation, facilitating meetings between police and young people (“at-risks” = ASBO youths innit!) This work inspired me to start partnering with leaders, from senior-level police to healthcare professionals and then on to corporate teams, always exploring how they can work together more effectively and avoid unnecessary conflict.
This has led me to a whole range of different work: I have facilitated newly-formed exec committees, including post M&A, supported banks through the financial crisis, fostered culture changes, and helped leading fashion brands agree on environmental standards, while coaching countless leaders and individuals seeking transformation.
Along the way, I’ve become a coach, accredited other coaches, earned an MSc in Conflict Resolution, trained as a Constellations practitioner, an Archetypes At Work and ZengerFolkman Extraordinary Leader coach.
Looking back, I see how all of these experiences come were informed by those early concerns about global conflict and my ongoing passion for helping people collaborate for a better world.
Hard won wisdom
In my twenty years of doing this, what I’ve discovered is that real change requires both inner evolution and outer practice. In my work –whether it’s coaching individuals, teams, or organisations – I focus on helping people develop inner resourcefulness alongside building new ways of working together. At the heart of it all is the genuine commitment and engagement of the people involved – their outer and inner journey. When we tune into that, anything is possible.
And I know this from my own personal experience, having been forced to re-examine my priorities –
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What does it mean to be in connection?
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Learning to discern what is my business, what is their business and what is "God’s" business?
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What helps and what hinders my success?
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How can I continue to relate effectively in environments where there is little trust?
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How do I pick myself up and start again when life changes dramatically from what I had imagined?
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And how to keep being a great role model for my family and those around me?
These are questions that I haven’t always answered with the best possible outcome, but they have guided me to a level of self-resilience and self-acceptance that I never knew was possible.
And now that informs my work:
How do I bring more connection to the situation?
Everything else is just second prize
Imagine a world where that is the bar, the goal, the purpose for existing?
How would we treat each other?
How would we serve our communities, our stakeholders, our friends?
If that is the sort of world that you’d be interested in being a part of, I’d love to hear from you.