Creating that remarkable space where high quality thinking can occur

Des O’Connell

Faculty member

Former City lawyer and Barclays senior executive now a consultant and student of Nancy Kline.


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Des O’Connell

Since 2001 Des has been a partner in Sherwood PSF Consulting. Before that he spent 21 years working in the City of London – as a lawyer, managing partner of a City law firm, and as a senior executive at Barclays. He has an MBA from Nottingham Law School and taught on the Nottingham MBA programme for several years.

Initially his work with Sherwood consisted of training and consulting – mostly to professional service firms.  That work led Des into coaching and, in 2005, he completed Mastered (formerly the Meyler Campbell Business Coach Programme). He joined the Meyler Campbell teaching Faculty in 2012. His focus now is working with corporates and professional partnerships on coaching and leadership-team development, and his teaching work with Meyler Campbell.

Like many coaches, Des has a particular interest in positive psychology, strengths, and neuroscience. Important influences for him are Barbara Fredrickson’s work on positive emotions and Nancy Kline’s Time To Think approach. Des has been fortunate to be able to study with Nancy Kline over a number of years to deepen his understanding of The Thinking Environment and to experience the transformative effect of giving attention as a coach.

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