"Maintaining dignity and kindness
Never accept mediocrity in performance"
Thirty Years Of
Creating Impact
Through
Leadership
I believe that any success I've achieved has been fueled by my “magpie-like” curiosity, doses of good fortune, and a discipline that reflects my father’s frequent admonition: “
If you’re going to do it, do it right.”
While my path may have been unplanned, I always knew that helping people was my natural calling. As an attorney, and teacher, I would actively solve problems, as a leadership coach, however, I now listen with an entirely different goal – to help clients find solutions themselves. As a coach, my role is to help you understand the issues that are standing in the way of your current role. A good coach, a genuine one, helps you achieve those breakthroughs. And now, with training from the Center For Executive Coaching certification program, I've focused my energy into a new career as an executive coach for individuals seeking to achieve their best in life and work, globally or locally in the Triangle Area of North Carolina—Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill.
Helping Others Attain Their Vision
My Story As A Leader And Trusted Guide
Graduated with Bachelor’s, law and doctoral degrees at the University of Natal South Africa (now KZN), where I became the youngest chaired professor, at the time, in the University's history
Graduated with an LLM and a Diploma in Legal Studies at the University of Cambridge, England, and subsequently a visiting fellow
Became a tenured teaching position in the USA with Duke University, becoming a leading thinker in American administrative law, financial regulatory policy and climate change as it impacts financial markets
Worked while on leave from Duke with the United States Senate Banking Committee in Washington D.C during and after the savings and loan crisis, helping to draft key provisions the 1989 and 1991 legislation designed to protect banks from failure and to protect consumers
On leaving Duke to enter the corporate world where I was promoted to Chief eCommerce Officer; EVP at Wachovia whereby team and I launched and built the firm’s financial services website to the one of the largest in the US, with 3.3M active customers, 90M+ online transactions, and $1B+ in online retail sales, while executing yearly expense budgets of $250M. Many teammates have proceeded to top executive positions in the industry
Senior advisor for Solidan, LLC, a commodity derivatives trading company, to help establish its business model and strategic positioning for providing commodity derivatives trading services to financial institutions and their clients
Returned to Duke to reinvigorate my academic career. In July 2018 I was awarded the inaugural Zhang professorship.
Retired from Duke, and began serving as the Governor's appointee and inaugural vice chair of the North Carolina Innovation Council, former Senior Advisor to Kaya Partners, Chairman of the Board
for the McColl Center for Visual Art, and other
charitable programs.
Found Strategic Catalytics, a strategic consulting organization, and become certified with the Center For Executive Coaching (CEC). With this experience and certification, top level executive coaching is
my current focus.
As Executive Vice President and Divisional Executive for eCommerce, my teams and I built the then largest online financial services business at Wachovia, taking it from zero to over 3.3 Million active customers, driving on-line retail sales to over $1B in retail sales by year end 2006, representing over 90 million on-line transactions.
Lessons
from a racetrack
I have been fortunate to have driven frequently at the Virginia International Raceway, one of the most beautiful and technically challenging tracks in the United States. For several years, I immersed myself in track driving, making wonderful new friends. A particular pleasure for me was encouraging the role of women and minorities in racing--and to be instructed by them. But it also cooincidentally provided me insight into the mindset, resilience, and and challenges in leadership.
The parallels were hard to ignore. When you're on a racetrack, you learn to navigate pressure in a way that helps you excel. For instance, before a race, you study the circuit, understand where the grip is and where it isn't, and map the fastest line before the wheels even turn. Conditions change lap by lap — and so does your read of them. The ability to focus, pause, debrief, and think things through — is also what makes it possible to sit with a leader and respond with both speed and real judgment.
Another parallel is a well‑known high‑performance phenomenon called the — “Challenge Response”—an adaptive reaction to stress where pressure fuels focus, confidence, and even joy, rather than fear or panic.
It’s understandable that if you’re not emotionally prepared to handle competitive stress, you might find yourself reacting in ways that aren’t helpful—like veering off course, feeling frustrated, or not performing at your best. These challenges are not confined to racing; they also resonate in executive situations, where managing stress is vital for success. It's important to recognize these feelings and know that with the right support and mindset, you can thrive even in the most intense moments. You too can learn to thrive on challenge and summon positive emotions to carry out a winning strategy.
Teaching taught me several important lifelong strategies
My past teaching experience at Duke and my fellowship at Cambridge was a time that taught me about imagination, intellectual curiosity, and scholarship. It also demanded a level of versatility in audio and video production, as well as the evolving role of AI. In a world where curricula constantly shift, adaptability and resilience become essential, turning complexity and change into opportunities for growth. I’ve also learned that while libraries and research resources are abundant, few people take full advantage of the depth they offer.
Through my own teaching and writing, I’ve had the privilege of influencing future generations — including South African legal professionals who later played significant roles in the country’s post‑apartheid legal system — and creating published work that continues to live on, ensuring that knowledge and impact extend well beyond one’s own lifetime.
I also have a large body of published work in print and e-pub, that gets purchased or downloaded globally. Author of the most heavily used treatise in South African law