DREW KNOWLES
Drew Knowles is a behavioural consultant, performance advisor, and workshop facilitator with nearly three decades working at the intersection of human behaviour, stress physiology, and leadership performance.
He has coached, consulted, and advised thousands of founders, CEOs, executives, and change-makers across New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, the Philippines, the UK, the UAE, and the USA, helping influential leaders think more clearly, reduce stress-load, and behave better with anyone, in any situation.
Drew's career began in exercise physiology and psychology. He spent a decade specialising in chronic stress and mental performance, working with executives across some of New Zealand's largest companies and writing a monthly behavioural column for M2 Magazine. In 2015, he became Vice President and partner of global education company Influential U, where he led programme delivery and business development across 10 countries before founding Drew Knowles & Co in 2023.
Now based in Queenstown, Drew works privately with a small number of high-impact founders and executives, and designs immersive workshops and development experiences that blend behavioural science, stress physiology, and real-world leadership application.
DR SIMON McKENZIE-NICKSON
Simon McKenzie-Nickson is a PhD neuropharmacologist, certified flow coach, and peak performance architect with a rare combination of deep scientific expertise and real-world executive experience.
After completing his PhD at the University of Melbourne and a postdoctoral research position at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, where he investigated therapeutic solutions for cognitive disorders. Simon transitioned into data science and corporate consulting, rising to Director of Data Analytics at McGrathNicol, where he led advanced analytics initiatives across complex, high-stakes environments.
He now runs Second Summit Consulting, working with senior leaders and executives to rebuild their performance operating systems from the ground up combining neuroscience research, flow state methodology, and practical leadership coaching to help high performers move from chronic overwhelm to sustainable excellence.
Simon reads hundreds of research papers on human performance each year so his clients don't have to. His work translates cutting-edge neuroscience into practical systems tailored to the reality of senior leadership.
Based in New Zealand, Simon brings both the science and the lived experience of navigating elite performance environments.