A Non-Linear Path
As an environmental scientist and farmer who later moved through business development, governance roles, and executive coaching, I’ve occupied multiple positions within conventional organisational architectures. What remained consistent was questioning the narrow lens of traditional strategic approaches; not just playing the game better, but asking why this game.
My 2003 Nuffield Scholarship examined how agriculture might relate differently to a world facing environmental constraints. That core question, how systems might work differently with constraints rather than against them, continues through my current research on governance transformation and institutional grammar.
As the 2023/24 chair of Ireland’s Sustainable Development Goals National Stakeholder Forum’s public meetings, I saw the challenge of governance accountability. This experience deepened my appreciation of Ireland’s policy landscape and the challenge of influencing whole-of-government alignment. The process reveals the tendency within governance systems to absorb transformation attempts despite resources and political will.
Rootweavers is the conceptual frame that names this work, staying with what lies beneath surface solutions, working with the root structures that shape what’s possible, weaving between stakeholder positions rather than forcing premature resolution.
My qualifications span environmental science (BSc 1st Class Hons), business management (MBA), international finance (MSc), executive coaching, and corporate governance (IoD Diploma in Company Direction). But what enables this work isn’t credential accumulation; it’s the combination of technical depth, practical experience inside organisations, and the conceptual frameworks needed to notice patterns across systems.
