About

I’m Dean. I’m a coach, a South African, a Brit, a New Yorker and someone who has spent a large part of my life becoming.


Changing careers, countries and quite a few ideas about who I thought I was supposed to be has shaped how I think about growth.  I don’t believe there’s an ideal or true version of ourselves somewhere inside, waiting to be discovered. We are always becoming, shaped by what we do, the people around us and what we choose to create together.


My working life started in teaching and moved through HR consulting, leadership development and leading talent development teams. For more than 20 years, I’ve worked with people inside organizations, helping them grow as leaders and creating programs and experiences that help people learn together.


What has always fascinated me is how we become. How can we do things we don’t yet know how to do? How do other people help us become more than we can become alone?


This curiosity has also led to years of reading psychoanalysis and studying human development and Social Therapeutics. They’ve shaped the way I listen and the way I coach; paying attention not only to the challenge in front of us, but to the person, their relationships and what they’re creating with other people.


Alongside coaching, I design and facilitate leadership programs and advise organizations on how people learn and develop.

'To begin is no more agony than opening your hand.'


~ June Jordan

International Expertise

 Born in Cape Town, I’ve lived and worked in South Africa, London and New York.

My working life has taken me from teaching into consulting, leadership development and leading talent development teams.

For more than 20 years I’ve worked with people inside organizations and across very different cultures and industries.

Lived experience

Coming out as a trans man changed my life and deepened my understanding of what it means to become. It taught me that who we are is never finished, and that creating a life that feels like our own can ask a great deal of us. And becoming, of course, doesn't stop there. My life continues to change as I continue to create it with others.


I have enormous love and respect for people creating change while they are still discovering who they might become.

Certifications and commitment to learning

  • ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC)
  • Core Strengths Facilitator
  • Social Therapeutics Group Practitioner
  • Korn Ferry Leadership Potential Solution
  • StandOut Strengths Coach
  • Hogan Levels 1+2 Certified Coach
  • Blanchard Situational Leadership II Facilitator
  • Beyond EI Emotional & Social Competence Inventory
  • Hay Group Leadership Styles, Organizational Climate and Behavioral event interviewing accreditation