Dr Anthony Howard

Founder & CEO

Anthony Howard is a CEO, entrepreneur, thought leader, philosopher, and author who focuses his energies on helping high level leaders excel in their leadership. People started calling him ‘the CEO Whisperer’ over a decade ago, as they recognised his uncommon insights about people in complex challenging leadership roles, combined with an understanding of the true nature of leadership, and how it impacts communities and corporations.

He started his unusual career as a navigator in the merchant navy, giving him a unique perspective on life and starting the common thread of helping individuals navigate their own journey.

After leaving the seafaring life to become a lay minister, Anthony found himself being a trusted advisor to a wide variety of people as they grappled with ‘living a life’ in the midst of competing demands and priorities. A conversation with a businessman in the 1990s ignited the idea of moving into executive coaching, which he entered in the early 2000s following a series of executive leadership roles, eventually becoming a confidant to senior leaders in blue chip organisations across the world.

In 2009, Anthony founded The Confidere Group, a leadership strategy firm with a mission to build a better world one leader at a time. The firm includes a number of Board Chairs and Directors, and proven CEOs, and provides mentors to individual leaders and their teams, and conducts leadership workshops, programs and retreats.

Anthony now spends his life traveling the world as a confidant to senior leaders in almost every sector of business across four continents. He writes and speaks extensively on leadership from his unique background and perspective. He is an adjunct senior lecturer at The University of Notre Dame Australia, where he completed a Ph.D. in personalist leadership. He speaks on radio, at conferences, and in boardrooms. He has been quoted in a wide range of business media, writes for the popular press and has been published in academic journals. His book Humanise – why human-centred leadership is the key to the 21st century, is a comprehensive look at the kind of leadership required to succeed when leading other people.

Anthony founded the Socratic Leader Academy in 2019, as the culmination of his life’s work, to bring a deep philosophical questioning process to the challenges which challenge humanity.