About Matthew
Born to a working-class family in South Ealing, London in 1969. I grew up playing ‘Hide & Seek’, ‘Get Back To The Cherry Tree’, all manner of ball games and avoiding, where possible, getting into fights with local lads and getting into trouble with local police for playing ball games in areas off limits.
I left school at 17, having decided university wasn’t for me, to go and work for a local estate agent on £70 per week. With no real ‘career plan’ what I do remember most is the unwavering fire, drive and energy in my belly for ‘success’.
Given my background (I hit my teenage years in the early 80’s on the outskirts of London), it takes little imagination to understand what success meant to me and why my drive took me to ‘The City’ as a self-employed (commission only) so called ‘financial adviser’ at age 19.
‘The City’ was a steep learning curve with some harsh lessons for a young man with no experience, cutting his teeth. I spent the next 30 years working hard to build a successful wealth management business – always striving to learn, develop and to improve as a business owner, as a leader and as a human being.
Those 30 years came with both personal and professional hardships and numerous failures. I eventually accrued enough of life’s lessons (and a commensurate amount of luck) to build a successful wealth management company which was sold 2 months prior to my 50th birthday in 2019 and I ‘retired’ from financial services.
This has afforded me the time to focus on my passion for people and coaching specifically. I have always had a fascination with human behaviour and psychology; how we see and interpret the world as individuals.
I have learned how to support others pursue and find the lives they want through the lessons I have learned from living mine.
On reflection, the finance world never fulfilled me, it was a ‘means to an end’. I was ‘successful’ but it didn’t satisfy my fascination with the human mind. Coaching does just this and allows me time for continued reflection about who I am, what I’m doing here and about my place in the world, whilst supporting others to navigate what can be “the ruthless furnace of this world” (Elizabeth Gilbert, Creative Living Beyond Fear).
I understand what it’s like to ‘reinvent’ yourself. Today, as AI reshapes the professional world, I use that experience to support others who find their ‘successful’ paths suddenly disrupted, helping them find answers in a time of radical change.
I am very familiar with the hurdles that life throws at us and so I ‘coach from my wounds’ – a place of deep personal experience and understanding.
The bottom line is that you can change your life for the better. We are all unique and supporting you to harness your inner resource and to make decisive positive change is at the core of my coaching. I firmly believe that ‘We don’t have to be a victim of the past and we are much more than the events that happen to us.’
When I am not coaching you will find me listening to music, working out, practicing martial arts, and enjoying my garage ‘toys’. Making the most of time with my wife and family, going to the opera, travelling and being present wherever I am and whatever it is I find myself doing. I continue to work on me and to grow through self-awareness and reflection.
I hold a Level 7 coaching qualification from the world-renowned coaching centre at Henley Business School (UK). I am both an accredited coach and a member of The International Coaching Federation (ICF).
‘Life is pain, uncertainty and constant work’
Phil Stutz – Lessons for Living 2023
‘To live lightly, without striving for purpose or looking for meaning, these come from within when living with gratitude, discipline, presence and learning’
Matthew S. Devereux – Life is Pain 2025