about MARK GOODWIN
Taking on major responsibilities at a very early age, Mark’s activities have taken him into, remarkably, 169 countries, always sharply observing to learn as he goes.
He has had six different careers, in diplomatic service, management consultancy, tropical farming, global manufacturing, leadership coaching, as well as experience as a group psychoanalyst.
Along the way, he has lived and travelled extensively with primordial and tribal societies while learning from indigenous shamans. Having been deaf as a child until the age of seven, Mark was able to communicate with native peoples in a way that a ‘hearing person’ would find hard to understand, using the language which we are all born with rather than our adopted cultural languages.
He has written his first book, Mannership, on the learnings from this experience. Writing this book took him on an unexpected and surprising journey to seek a source of self-destruction that is uniquely human. Using ‘deaf-sight’ in observing differences between cultures led him to understand some of the philosophies that different religions share. By focusing on aspects that different traditions have in common, we can learn what this might teach us to build a better and more enduring inheritance.
UNIVERSITY of OXFORD
Going up to Magdalen College, Oxford as the Mackinnon scholar for Mathematics and with the Johnson exhibition for Physics, Mark took a Masters degree in Experimental Philosophy with first class honours . He travelled extensively in a gap year before commencing studies as well as during long vacations so that by his 21st birthday he had hitchhiked through 50 countries in Africa and Asia. His two longest journeys as a teenager were overland from Sri Lanka, through India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran before returning though Europe (1972) as well as crossing the Sahara from the Nile in Sudan to Senegal with different tribal caravans (1973). He was captain of Magdalen College at Rugby football. At the conclusion of Mark's Oxford education in 1975 he was offered a Fellowship in Astronomy in Oxford or a Fellowship in the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge University. In the tug of war between an academic career and a chance to live with more indigenous people, the heart won.
Children of Kiribati, 1975
Kiribati, formerly the Gilbert Islands
With Mark's love of indigenous and tribal society, his first appointment was for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office where he was posted by choice to The Gilbert and Ellice Islands in 1975. At the age of 21 Mark was appointed District Officer Tarawa with responsibility for facilitating and empowering the first Local Government of Kiribati after their independence from the British Crown. Being such a young man with this responsibility he felt his duty to listen to the local elders in the village Maneaba and enact their choices. The taxation system was changed as well as many other local laws to respond to the culture and wishes of the Kiribati islanders.
ALEXANDER PROUDFOOT
After Kiribati, Mark was offered a position in the Falkland Islands which he declined. Instead he joined the Alexander Proudfoot Company of Chicago, USA. He was trained as a consultant specializing in methods to improve manufacturing through the involvement of shop-floor employees and first line supervision. Over the subsequent six years Mark rose through all the company ranks until he became Director General of European Operations, with responsibility for 285 consultants. Following this success he was invited to assist the USA Company. Living in New York in early 1983, a former UK client, Tate & Lyle, called Mark asking him to take on the management of four sugar industries; in Zambia, Swaziland, Belize and Jamaica. At the age of 29, how could he refuse?
Cotton at Simunye in Swaziland
BOOKER TATE
Mark founded and was the first Chief Executive of Booker Tate. A unique approach to providing leadership and management services to agriculture in the developing world was designed. The confidence instilled by Booker Tate's experience enabled industries to obtain additional finance for development, transforming the agro-industries of many countries. With the knowledge of the country, people, culture and soil being more important than sugar, the Company developed into supporting most large scale tropical crops as well as other industries including the development of tourism.
Booker Tate developed into the World's largest provider of services to tropical agriculture with an outstanding reputation. The most significant activities were in Belize, Jamaica, Guyana, Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Swaziland, Madagascar, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Fiji.
With this experience Mark was asked to become a non-executive director of AMSCO whilst still at Booker Tate
AMSCO
The African Management Services Company (AMSCO) was set up by the World Bank in 1989 to provide management and leadership support to African industries. The AMSCO model was almost identical to the one which Booker Tate had already designed and it was therefore natural for Mark to provide his expertise on the Board of AMSCO. In the early 1990’s Africa was struggling with a number of civil wars. Mark was head-hunted to be the right hand man of the President of CarnaudMetalbox, Europe’s largest metal packaging company with 160 factories globally, including many in Africa and Asia. It seemed a good move as Mark's deputy at Booker Tate, Barry Newton, was a specialist ready to take over.
CARNAUDMETALBOX
The head-hunter’s logic was that Mark was bilingual in English and French; he had provided consultancy to both Carnaud and Metal Box during his years with Alexander Proudfoot; had experience in merging the agri-business activities of Tate & Lyle and Booker into one company Booker Tate. So why not help Carnaud and Metal Box merge their combined 160 factories (with many in Africa and Asia) into CarnaudMetalbox? Mark joined for this challenge. It was made easier by throwing himself into coaching a new style of factory leadership with shop-floor engagement and empowerment. 41 factories were chosen for the initial roll-out of the new philosophy. Having undertaken this leadership challenge himself, it has informed Mark’s ability to coach others when they seek to change their organizational culture.
Fall of Berlin Wall, Source: independent.co.uk/
INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT, Part 1
In 1993, Mark felt the time had come to offer his services as an individual coach, specializing in leadership, engagement and empowerment. His style was to provide the benefits of his own life experiences, informed by the logical mind of a nuclear physicist. Working on his own account, rather than as a part of somebody else’s organization enabled Mark to explore himself more, hence the next two chapters of his journey. This coincided with the flowering of freedom in Central Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall. There was an insatiable thirst for knowledge about new styles of leadership in the former communist countries released from the Soviet Union. Mark set up a base in Prague to be able to respond to this fascination and demand for leadership experience.
the institute of group analysis
Mark combined his exploration of tribal societies as a tropical farmer; his observation of how they kept their spirits alive, with a hunger to understand the workings of his own mind. A favourite African proverb says "make sure that when death finds you, it finds you alive". He was extremely fortunate and will always be in debt to the assistance provided by his first therapist Robin Skynner. After some years in groups, he had support from Lionel Kreeger (following Robin’s retirement), and undertook an analysis with Claude Pigott. Mark then decided to train as a therapist and group analyst with the Institute of Group Analysis (IGA). He received his accreditation in 2001 while supporting individual patients and groups in three London Hospitals. Mark is in debt to his patients who were also excellent teachers. But Mark’s love of indigenous cultures was also running its course alongside.
Shamans Malidoma Somé and Martin Prechtel
INDIGENOUS shamans
In parallel with his own therapy, Mark joined a “men’s weekend” with the movement initiated by Robert Bly’s book Iron John, in Dorset UK. There was a conflict between the participants and the organizers (but not the teachers) of the event. The continuation of the work seemed at risk. With Mark feeling the work so valuable he stood up with Richard Olivier to offer to organize events in the future. Thereafter the teachers usually stayed at Mark’s house in London and he considers himself exceptionally lucky to have the honour of friendship with Martin Prechtel (Tzutujil Mayan shaman from Guatemala) and Malidoma Some (Dagara shaman from West Africa). These two men are giants and towers in Mark’s continued search to understand blockages in the spirit of individuals and organizations, as well as his own mind.
EFESO
In 2003 Mark merged his leadership coaching into the creation of a new subsidiary of EFESO consulting in USA. He developed, with many of his former clients, a company closer to the harmonious culture he was seeking. During the next 13 years, he put his heart into mentoring a team of colleagues in North America whilst developing new approaches to free up the energy and spirit of client organizations. Mark retired from EFESO in January 2017.
THE WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF POULTERS
Booker Tate was involved in the management of poultry industries in Kenya, Zambia and Papua New Guinea. In 1999 Mark was invited to the Worshipful Company of Poulters, in the City of London, as a Liveryman.
In 1274 the prices of 22 kinds of poultry were set by Royal Decree, indicating their importance in the food supply. By 1299 a Livery Company had been established for the improvement of the trade. In 1364 the Poulters Company received its first ordinances from the Lord Mayor of London. It has received several Royal charters, including from King Charles II in 1665 as well as from King William and Queen Mary in 1692
In February 2024, Mark was elected Master of the Worshipful Company of Poulters.
independent CONSULTANT and Therapist, Part 2
Mark is now offering the lessons of his life experiences to organizations with the courage to seek the culture of the future, which he also hopes to discover together with them. One’s personal work is never done, we must continue to complete our allotted task while it is yet day.
He provides inspirational lectures, presentations and workshops as well as longer term support and guidance to those with a desire for a deeper culture change encompassing a healthy climate and invigorated spirit. He has returned, as a grandfather, to offering support in therapeutic groups.
At the same time he is writing what he has learned from so many wonderful teachers in different cultures. Three books were published in 2022-’23 with another due in 2024.