I started my career out of a need to not be caught in the dilemma of having an academic qualification but no work experience and so after 1 year of full-time study at the University of Cape Town, I transferred to the University of South Africa  to study through correspondence and got my first job with a large financial services institution.

This started my journey of navigating the corporate life of building competence, credibility and relevance while managing the unavoidable politics, egos and at times having to sacrifice your own needs for that of the “system”.

For 15 years I moved between operations, sales, credit, learning and development, human resources and organisational development consulting. Parallel to this I studied and got my undergraduate degree, my honours and finally my masters degree in Industrial & Organisational Psychology. 

So, I had an amazing foundation to my career and personal growth which I am really grateful for, but I needed to spread my wings and move on.

I had realised that although working in corporate had many benefits and opportunities, it was also a place of answering to the Boss, following policy, being performance managed within a bell curve and having way too much noise that drowned out the possibilities within me. Alison had been filtered and in many ways diluted to fit into the requirements of the job.

Then there was Anton, a man I met and married in this time and I gained 2 step son’s and then we had 2 children of our own, Ashleigh and Damien. These children added dimensions to my life that helped grow and shape me in so many ways.

My family was part of me needing to move on to the next chapter in my life…

I explored the space of being an Independent Consultant and started working with various consultancies, business schools and developed a portfolio of my own clients. For 12 years I have juggled various roles from Organisational Psychologist, Consultant, Programme Director, Facilitator to Executive Coach. My focus was to offer a systemic approach to the unique and complex challenges facing organisations and leadership in times of change. I was able to work across Africa and globally with many individuals, teams and organisations. I learned about the importance of contracting, understand the deeper issues people are grappling with, building strong networks based on quality relationships, navigating the cycles of famine and feast as a consultant and juggling the challenges of travelling with my family at home.