About me, why and how I work
Working with and for civil society, as I have done for more than 55 years, has never been easy and with current upheavals and disruptions it’s becoming even harder. Now in my mid-70s, I find I am still drawn to do what I can, as best I can, and will do so as long as my physical health and mental energies allow.
I have been facilitating international gatherings since my first assignment with the UN in 2002 which is the same year I set up my company Get2thepoint, extended my facilitation practice and started coaching civil society leaders in crisis. I am accredited by the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) as a Certified™ Professional Facilitator Emeritus.
I try to sense what is healthy, nourishing and energising for me and those around me, and follow those impulses. Knowing that my thoughts and actions have some influence on the world around me, I live as well as I can for the day and enjoy finding creative, life-sustaining (and sometimes idiosyncratic) ways to be alive.
This is the best way I know of Protecting Myself and living well. It is also a good way of responding to the tendency towards hatred, anger, prejudice and fear and other destructive behaviour, which can arise in me and in others. I try to turn ‘Pain to Fuel’.
Here is my CV which presents my professional engagements, activities and some personal interests.
In 2014 I swam from Alcatraz to San Francisco to raise money for prisoners’ education and three years later cycled 100 miles to raise money for struggling families. I have managed not to come last in seven triathlons - until number eight in summer 2025 in the Allgäu when I was not only last but so slow that I finished out of time. But I made it (1.5K, 42K, 10K in 5 hours 26 minutes 13 seconds).
This is what I am doing NOW.
