Today we celebrate the loss of Simon, a treasured member of the KDVI community, who was integral to the building of the business and who’s deep understanding of leadership and group dynamics has had a deep impact on the many leaders and organisations that he worked with.
Simon and began work with KDVI in 2013. I remember so clearly meeting him for the first time in Amsterdam in the restaurant of the Pulitzer hotel. My father had been impressed by his EMCCC thesis (which later he published as a book) and had invited him to join us – we sat for a long time dreaming what KDVI could become. Simon and I met and discussed many times the following year, planning KDVI together. I went to visit him at his home where we walked around the idyllic lake and town that he was so proud of, and we had dinner in his home where I had the privilege to meet his family.
Simon shared a poem from Invictus by William Ernest Henley with a group he was working with when he was in treatment. I thought I would share it with all of you in turn as it says something about the spirit with which he fought his illness:
Out of the night that covers me
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance,
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul.
Simon will be sadly missed by all in our KDVI Community and we wish his family courage and peace during this time.
Add Comment