Business coaching in Sydney for founder CEOs and managing directors of mid-sized private businesses. Dual qualified in commerce and clinical psychology, with twenty-five years inside the operator's seat and the boardroom. Confidential counsel from Surry Hills, or online.
Most of my business coaching clients have already built something real. The company runs, the people are mostly the right people, the numbers mostly work. They're here because the next stretch of the road asks something different of them, and they want a thinking partner who can hold the commercial and the personal in the same conversation.
You started it. You still feel responsible for everything. The job has outgrown the way you used to run it, and you want a sounding board who has actually been in the seat.
Family-owned, founder-owned, or PE-backed. Carrying shareholders, a board, a leadership team, and the parts of the job that don't show up in any report.
The leadership group of a business moving from owner-run to executive-led. Working together so the next stage of scale doesn't break the operating culture you've built.
An evidence-based framework refined over twenty-five years. Sessions typically run weekly or fortnightly across a four-to-six month arc, shifting to monthly as ground is held. Each engagement is bespoke; the architecture beneath it is not.
Founder CEOs and managing directors of privately held mid-sized businesses, alongside senior leaders at Westpac, AMP, Knight Frank, Macquarie Bank, NAB, Goldman Sachs, M&C Saatchi and Sonic Healthcare, draw on this work to lead at the highest level. Each engagement is private, deliberate, and bespoke.
Running a privately held business is a particular kind of pressure. The founder CEO carries the strategy, the people, the cashflow and the brand, often without a peer in the room to test thinking against. The managing director carries the same load with a board and shareholders added on top. Business coaching is the structured conversation that gives you back a confidential space to think out loud, before the decision lands on everyone else.
This is business coaching rooted in commerce and behavioural science. I trained in commerce at Macquarie University, ran businesses myself, and lecture into the AGSM MBA program at UNSW. I also lead a corporate psychology firm supporting more than 600 member organisations. Working with a dual-qualified business coach in Sydney, you get nuanced feedback on your decision-making, the relational dynamics inside your leadership team, and the operating patterns that quietly throttle growth. The outcome is sharper decisions, stronger influence, and a quieter, more confident leadership presence.
I see a small number of leaders each year: founder CEOs, managing directors and executive teams of privately held businesses in the 20-to-500 staff range. Engagements run four to six months, weekly or fortnightly at first, shifting to monthly as ground is held. From Surry Hills, Sydney CBD, or online wherever you are. For enterprise C-suite work see executive leadership coaching; for the full picture of the practice see the main practice page.
I strongly endorse Dan as a trusted advisor and expert CEO coach. He helped identify and leverage core leadership strengths and transition from directing executives to truly empowering them. Results were transformational.
“Dan is smart and deeply understands business and the challenges that come with business leadership. He asks questions that deep down you know you should be answering, and many that you didn't.”
“He made me see things much more clearly and helped me overcome barriers that initially seemed insurmountable. The way Dan builds trust and makes discussing difficult issues very easy is unique.”
Two practices, kept in the same room. The first: a corporate psychology firm I built that today supports more than 600 member organisations across Australia. The second: a private clinical practice. Both still run, day to day. I trained in commerce, lectured into the AGSM MBA program at UNSW, and built both. My clients come for the operator who reads psychology, not the other way round.
Transparency reduces risk for both of us. Here's the architecture of a typical engagement: adapted, never improvised.
Thirty minutes, no obligation. We test fit, you ask anything, I'm direct about whether I can help.
360-degree input, Leadership Circle or Hogan as appropriate, and a careful read of the terrain.
Weekly or fortnightly sessions across four to six months. Self-mastery, then relational, then strategic.
Monthly check-ins to consolidate gains and apply them to the decisions in front of you.
The best way to find out whether this work is for you is a short conversation. If it isn't a fit, I'll often know someone who is, and I'll point you there.
Sydney time (AEST). By phone, video, or in person at Surry Hills.