Identity

Dan is a San Francisco Bay Area-based psychologist specializing in leadership development in public, private, and non-profit organizations. He works with CEOs, Executive Directors, Partners, Founders, and Boards on fine tuning individual and team leadership skills and effectiveness.

Dan has worked extensively with over 45 public and private company CEOs, 10 founders, 400+ professional services partners & GPs, and numerous senior executives in a variety of industries and geographies. Every client has taught him something valuable about the practice of leadership in the real world, and working with these extraordinarily talented executives continues to be an education in itself.

In his work with founder-led companies, Dan addresses the complexities involved in founders keeping pace with the changing leadership needs of their growing organizations and what they must do to elevate themselves, while distributing and leveraging the leadership talent required to scale. Dan’s experience with founders and founder-led organizations includes Allbirds, Boom Supersonic, Cadence Health, Common Sense Media, Dell Technologies, Kistler Vineyards, Kite Pharma, Prologis, Room to Read, SAP, and DaVita HealthCare Partners.

Dan’s experience in professional services began with Bain & Company in 1996, when he was engaged to collect and deliver professional development feedback to 22 West Coast partners. This initial engagement led to the creation of the global partner coaching and mentoring program in place today, with dozens of partners every year being matched with external professional coaches and internal mentors. Dan continues to play a leadership role in this program as well as in global partner training platforms.

His experience with private equity started with TPG Capital (and Growth, Real Estate, and Credt). Through his 14-year affiliation with the firm, he supported the founders internally and externally on a variety of leadership and organizational challenges including selecting/developing internal firm leaders, selecting CEOs of portfolio companies, and working with a variety of investing and ops professionals in strengthening their own leadership skill and effectiveness. He currently works with GI Partners, Apollo Global Management, Makena Capital, MSD Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz.

Dan’s international experience includes working with CEOs and senior partners in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, São Paulo, Shanghai, and Singapore.

Before launching his independent consulting business in 2001, Dan was a Partner at Towers Perrin, a Senior Consultant at the Hay Group, and a Consultant with RHR International. During graduate school, he co-managed the Employee Assistance Program at Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco, and prior to that held a variety of meaningful (and not-so- meaningful) jobs including Shelter Group Home, Burger King, Delta Airlines, 7-Eleven, The Center, Peterson Interiors, and Otis Spunkmeyer Cookies. These early work experiences offered many first first-hand glimpses of good, bad, and indifferent leaders, setting the stage for a lifelong interest in the multiplier effect of extraordinary, principled, capable leadership and the difference character and skill can make in the lives of many.

He lives with his partner and two dogs in Northern California, with residences in Berkeley and Sonoma. He earned his BA in psychology from Wittenberg University in Springfield Ohio, and his MA and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology in Berkeley, California.