Biography
Jonathan thinks of operations a bit like orchestral music. At its best, all the parts work together so well you stop noticing the individual instruments and just enjoy the harmony. As a classically-trained oboist who spent years honing his craft, he’s found this approach surprisingly useful when building business systems that actually make people’s lives easier.
His mission is helping purpose-driven teams focus on what they do best by making everything else feel effortless. Jonathan has a knack for spotting the small frustrations that add up to big headaches, then quietly streamlining them away. He’s equally comfortable diving into financial models and data analysis as he is chatting with team members about what would genuinely make their Tuesday mornings less stressful. The best compliment he receives is when people say they’ve stopped thinking about operations altogether (which usually means he’s done his job properly).
When he’s not quietly revolutionising someone’s workflow, you’ll find Jonathan pushing the boundaries of spice tolerance in his kitchen, discovering new music (his playlists are wonderfully eclectic), or testing whatever AI tool has caught his curiosity this week.
Coach training & specialism
- Barefoot Coaching’s ICF Accredited Coach Training Programme (2018-2019)
- Certified in Science of Happiness at Work™ methodologies
- EMCC accreditation process leadership experience
Industry experience
Independent Operations & Finance Transformation Consultant
2024–2025
Jonathan helped purpose-driven organisations work more smoothly. His approach was straightforward: listen carefully to what people actually need, combine that with solid data analysis, then build solutions that feel natural rather than imposed. Most clients found that working with him didn’t feel like a big transformation project. It was more like having someone who genuinely cared about making their working lives a bit easier.
Head of Operations, 3Keel Group Ltd
2021–2023
At this award-winning, fast-growing sustainability consultancy, Jonathan helped coordinate growth that felt manageable rather than frantic. While the team expanded significantly, he focused on making sure both the financial foundations and operational systems grew with them, not ahead of them. His approach was simple: build the commercial frameworks and day-to-day processes that let brilliant people do brilliant work without getting bogged down in the mechanics. The B-Corp recertification process he led improved their score considerably, though he’d be the first to say it was the whole team’s effort.
Operations Director, iOpener Institute for People and Performance
2017–2021
Jonathan’s role here was essentially making a global L&D and coaching consultancy run as smoothly as possible while keeping it feeling human-sized. He built financial systems, technology infrastructure, and processes that helped a small Oxford team work with clients across six continents. His proudest achievement was probably that most people stopped thinking about the operational side altogether – they could just focus on the coaching and leadership development work they loved.
Senior Project Manager, iOpener Institute
2015–2017
Where Jonathan learned that good project management is mostly about making space for other people to do their best work. He discovered that the most successful projects weren’t necessarily the most perfectly planned ones, but the ones where everyone felt heard and supported. This role taught him that operations done well should feel like a gentle hand on the back, not a firm grip on the reins.
Education
McGill University, Montreal (2008-2013): Bachelor of Music in Performance (Oboe) with coursework in Labour Relations