Executive developmental coaching
Master the self.Command the battle.
Coaching for mid-career leaders who carry the pressure well, and intend to carry it further without burning out. Not a cheerleader. A peer who has sat in your seat.
The name
A thick skin, but a soft heart.
The root of the name holds two meanings. In ancient Rome, the Spatha was a sword made for decisive action. In botany, the Spathe is the strong shield that protects the flower as it blooms.
That convergence is where I work: helping leaders build the protection they need in order to grow, while sharpening the edge that leadership demands.
The executive in the arena
What's missing isn't insight. It's someone who will push back.
Strategy without self-awareness leads to burnout.
You may be carrying imposter syndrome, exhaustion, or a quiet loss of direction, despite the salary and the visible success. What helps isn't encouragement. It's a peer who has been through the same thing and come out of it.
I don't hand out advice: you already have what you need to find your own answers. My job is to challenge how you think, and to help you build the resilience to navigate the next five years of your career and your life.
We'll look at your career. We'll also look at who you are as an individual, a partner and a parent, because you bring all of that to the office.
Why Spathos
Find the friction
We work out what is genuinely driving your progress, and what is quietly working against it. Usually something you already half-know.
Make the good days repeatable
Tested frameworks rather than theory, so what you are capable of at your best becomes what you do reliably, under pressure.
Decide with clarity
A shift in vantage point cuts through the noise, so the next move becomes obvious instead of something you turn over at 3am.
The programme
High-Performance Alignment
Ten sessions over roughly six months. This isn't a standing catch-up in your calendar. It's a piece of work with a beginning, a middle and an end.
The first conversation
We find out whether we work well together, and agree how we'd work. Fit matters more than anything else here; if it isn't there, I'll say so and point you somewhere better.
The discovery session
A long, deliberate look at what you actually want your life to be for, and what you value. Everything that follows is measured against it.
The work itself
You bring the subject; we go into it, and check it against where you said you were heading. Through hard questions and honest attention to what you're actually feeling, you leave each session with something concrete to do. We move between three things:
- Fulfilment. Are you living the way you say you want to?
- Choice. Are you choosing, or just reacting?
- Resilience. Staying with the difficult part instead of rushing past it.
Closing
Looking back at the ground covered, fixing what you've learned in place, and building the habits that keep it going once I'm no longer in the room.
Practicalities
The things people ask before they email
Fees
Quoted individually, depending on scope and on whether you or your employer is funding the work. Many clients have it covered by a learning, leadership or development budget, and I'll provide whatever your HR or finance team needs. We discuss it in the first conversation, before anyone commits to anything.
Availability
I work with a maximum of six clients at a time. It keeps the work serious and means you get real attention between sessions, not just during them. If I'm full, I'll tell you plainly and let you know when a place opens.
Confidentiality
What's said stays between us. I still hold an operating role in tech, so I'm deliberate about this: I don't coach direct competitors at the same time, I don't act on anything I hear, and nothing reaches a sponsoring employer beyond what you agree to share.
Working with Benjamin has been a step change in how I operate. It gave me the clarity to focus on what truly matters and the discipline to act on it. He challenges you in a way that is both practical and deeply stretching, leading to shifts I wouldn't have achieved on my own. His experience as a senior tech leader makes the work immediately relevant. The impact has been clear, tangible, and sustained.
Senior marketing executive
International technology company · UAE · April 2026
Benjamin Ampen · Dubai
Who you'd be working with
Benjamin Ampen
I've spent more than twenty years in leadership roles inside technology multinationals: Google, Twitter (X), Kraken, and more recently alongside the CEO and founder of Property Finder. Today I sit on the executive committee of Casa, leading its commercial, marketing and customer functions. I coach executives who are facing the same decisions I'm taking myself.
I've lived in five countries across several continents, so I understand cultural nuance and the restlessness of expatriate executive life. I'm a graduate of ESCP Europe and London City University, and I've completed the five foundational modules of the CTI (Co-Active Training Institute) programme, which is over 100 hours of coach training.
Outside work I'm a husband and a father of two, and a purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. That's where the interest in leverage, timing and composure comes from, and it shows up in how I coach.
Get in touch
Ready to command the battle?
The first conversation is free and takes 30 to 45 minutes, with no obligation on either side. It exists so we can both find out whether this is worth doing together.