I help individuals, teams and groups perform better.

I am an executive, team and organizational coach with a consulting practice working with individuals, teams, and organizations. I bring to my work over 25 years of business experience and a work background that spans industries including financial and professional services, high tech, biotech, retail and wholesale distribution. While I know a lot of theory, I also know a lot through the school of experience and practice. I haven’t been just a ‘tourist’ in the corporate workplace - I’ve lived there and been a citizen.

When I work with individuals and teams it’s often the about terrain and environment I know well since I’ve held jobs based from cubicles to the executive suite - all the while having coaching as a key component of my work. My consulting practice - Back West, Inc. - is focused in three areas – executive coaching with individuals, coaching work with teams such as team start-up and team building, and group facilitation and off-site design.

Representative clients / client organizations in the last 12 months have ranged from virtual start-ups funded by venture capital firms such as Domain Associates, smaller firms such as Asia Alternatives LLC, mid-size companies such as Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Cypress Semiconductor Corporation, and Fortune 500 companies such as AT&T, Gilead Sciences, Inc. and Genentech. Recent non-profit clients have included the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Robert Toigo Foundation. Corporate roles I have held include positions as a Senior Vice President of Human Resources with McKesson, a Director of Human Resources for Chiron Corporation, a Principal and Director of Human Resources for internet applications developer Fluid, Inc., and as a senior director for Human Resources with Barclays Global Investors, a San Francisco-based asset manager company and the world’s largest money manager.

Formal training and background includes work in the areas of coaching, group facilitation, talent assessment and competency development, conflict intervention and resolution, succession planning, and instructional design and delivery. My first post-graduate position was at the University of Southern California serving on the staff and faculty, and where I designed and implemented my initial competency based selection system. During my career I have worked with or been trained by such leading organizational practitioners as Jack Hawley, John Jones, Edward Yager and Wayne Brockbank.

As a speaker at groups such as BIO HR (the Biotechnology Industry Organization Human Resources group), the Northern California Human Resources Association, and the Bay Area OD Network, I have presented to a range of audiences. Professional memberships include various professional organizations such as the Professional Coaches and Mentors Association, and the International Coach Federation.

I have a B.A. from Willamette University and an M.Ed from Oregon State University. I currently serve on the Board of Trustees for the Bay Area Discovery Museum, as well as on the Board of Trustees for my son’s former preschool, The Little School, in San Francisco, where my family and I reside. Road biking (including completion of the SF to LA AIDS Ride / LifeCycle seven times), following National League baseball, emerging technologies, and cooking take up his time when I\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'m not enjoying active parenting.