COACHES

Andrea van der Merwe

Andrea is based in Sydney. She has more than 20 years’ experience working in corporate roles across three continents. Much of this time was spent as a senior leader in international banks and working in strategy and organisational change consulting roles for global consultancies.  Her early years were spent in innovation and digital banking, which, combined with formative experiences of working with large-scale change, sparked an interest in the study of leadership in complex organisational systems.

Andrea has been coaching leaders and teams since 2007 and has worked with a range of leaders and teams in the both the corporate and not-for-profit sectors.  In Australia, Andrea has coached senior leaders in organisations such as TransUrban, Australian Unity and icare NSW, with consulting assignments focused on developing change leader capability and growing agile organisational cultures.

Andrea is the co-author of a chapter titled “The case study for Learning Cultures in Organisations” in the book “Developing Capacity for Health” (2010, Heinemann). She has lectured and facilitated sessions on leadership, change management, systems thinking and managing complexity for the University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB), Wits University and University of Johannesburg.

Andrea is an avid traveller with a keen interest in differences in culture. She has travelled to over 45 countries and learnt to speak several languages (including isiZulu) in mid-life. She is the mother of a curious and busy toddler, which is sometimes far more challenging and enlightening than learning a new language.