Present yourself in three words or phrases
Cross-cultural port, durable in shift, designing what’s next
What makes you get up in the early morning?
The sound of the ocean assists. Living near the coast implies I typically wake up to waves and a morning chorus of birds, which ends up being a respectable day-to-day reminder that perspective is complimentary, if you pay attention.
Beyond that, I’m motivated by building things that outlive me. Programs, teams, and now frameworks that help people create more intentional lives. At this stage of my profession, success feels less about achievement and more about positioning: doing work that reflects who you truly are, where your voice and strengths have room to matter, and where the work itself brings you pleasure.
Explain a job or initiative you’re currently dealing with that delights you.
There are themes I keep seeing in my work today, and it never gets old. An experienced professional, someone with decades of expertise, walks in believing they’re stuck, but then they walk out with a model and open themselves to possibilities.
After 30+ years operating in global education, I comprehend that sensation thoroughly. I’ve lived the career rotates, the minutes of doubt, the concern of what’s next!.?.!? That experience is exactly what drew me to operating at the intersection of leadership and life design, making use of the concepts from Designing Your Life to assist individuals reframe career decisions as style challenges instead of crises. The structure is effective due to the fact that it meets individuals where they are. Not with responses, however with much better questions.
What’s a piece of work or a decision you take pride in, and what did it teach you about yourself?
The work I’m most proud of didn’t come with a ribbon-cutting minute. It came silently, a couple of years into developing a North American department for a summer season school operation. When I looked around at the group we ‘d put together, I thought, this is it! This is what right looks like!
Arriving wasn’t smooth. There was uncertainty, restructuring, and more than a couple of incorrect turns in the working with procedure. But when the right people were lastly in the ideal seats, something shifted. The numbers followed: success, high customer return rates, seasonal personnel who came back year after year. People who desired to return. That’s the genuine metric.
This taught me that people don’t withstand change– they withstand uncertain modification. My task wasn’t practically method but to bring clearness. Ensuring everyone understood not simply what we were constructing, but why it mattered and that I had their back while we constructed it.
What’s a little daily practice or practice that keeps you grounded– and why does it matter more than people believe?
Making my bed. Every morning, without exception.
It sounds so easy and that’s exactly the point. Admiral William H. McRaven stated it best in his 2014 beginning address at the University of Texas: “If you want to change the world, start by making your bed. One small job completed gives you a sense of pride, motivates the next, and the next. By the end of the day, that one routine has actually quietly increased.” That idea has actually never ever left me.
My variation includes warm lemon water in the early morning. Bed made, lemon water in hand. Here’s what I’ve come to think: the little things are never ever really little. They’re a practice that is ingrained. If you can’t get the small things right regularly, the huge things will always feel more difficult than they require to be. It’s not glamorous recommendations. But in my experience, it’s the unglamorous habits that do the heaviest lifting.
What concept, book, podcast or discussion has stayed with you just recently?
If you have not listened to the recent Mel Robbins podcast episode with Costs Burnett and Dave Evans– How to Style Your Life in One Hour– stop what you’re doing!
It distills the core principles of their 2 books, Designing Your Life and their recently released, How to Live a Meaningful Life, into a single available discussion that has the potential to genuinely shift how you see your career and your life.
I’ll admit I’m not an unbiased recommender. This work is the structure of what I do now. But that’s precisely why I can state with confidence: these ideas work. I’ve seen it in others, and I’m living it myself.
What’s the best present global education gave you, and do you believe you could have discovered it anywhere else?
Point of view! And it started before my career did.
I studied abroad in Spain in the 1980s simply years after completion of Franco’s dictatorship. The country was in the middle of an exceptional, complex reopening to the world. Being there as a young person, seeing that transition firsthand, planted something in me that never left. It taught me early that history is alive, that context shapes whatever, and that appearing somewhere with humbleness and curiosity is not just good manners– it’s important.
That experience set the course. Three decades in global education deepened it. Working throughout cultures, time zones, and systems taught me that complexity is normal, not extraordinary. That my method is never ever the only way. And that curiosity isn’t simply a characteristic, it’s a management competency.
The people formed me most. International education draws in builders, bridge-makers, and individuals who are truly driven by possibility. Being surrounded by that energy for thirty years leaves a mark. Could I have discovered this anywhere else? I do not think so. Not in this mix. Not with this strength.
Even as my work has developed, that worldview takes a trip with me. The global lens does not switch off. It informs how I think of shift, about development, about what it means to help somebody find their footing in unknown area– professionally or otherwise.
What did you think a profession in international education would appear like, and how incorrect were you?
I thought I ‘d have one task for life.
It began with EF Education, the first company I operated at. As it ended up, it was a seventeen-year education in itself. EF had a culture unlike anything I ‘d encountered: strong, agitated, really international, and driven by a belief that nothing is difficult. Work hard, play hard and EF indicated every word of it. That energy entered into my bloodstream early and never left. It set the bar for what a high-performing, purpose-driven organisation could feel like, and I have actually been chasing that standard since.
I presumed the path was linear. That if you strove and provided, the story kept entering one direction. And after that it didn’t. What followed was something I never would have scripted. A profession winding through Study Group/Embassy English, Amerigo Education, Sannam S4, and EC English. Various organisations, different challenges, various variations of me. Looking back, that range was an education in itself.
The pandemic humbled me even more. Laid off numerous times. Humbling doesn’t rather cover it, however humbling, it ends up, is extremely beneficial. Each ending forced a considering what I actually desired, what I was good at, and what work felt worth doing. What looked like disruption was, every time, an invite.
I didn’t strategy to wind up where I am now. However I’m uncertain I could have gotten here any other way.