About Us
We are military veterans with proven experience training, building, and leading high-performance teams in dynamic environments. As experts in leadership and resilience, our mission is to train, educate and advise your organisation with building resilient leaders. We provide multi and single-day programmes, customised training, web-based programmes, and consultancy services.
DONALD DA VIA
FOUNDER
Donald Da Via is a retired military veteran serving 35 years within the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) deploying on multiple operations in East Timor and the Middle East. Don has led teams throughout various theatres of operation, developing an array of specialist skill sets. His leadership experience has allowed him to deal with dynamic situations calmly and effectively.
His zen-like demeanor to challenges and obstacles allows him to take a pragmatic practical approach to achieve mission success. For Don, an important concept is the principle of Mission Command. It is critical for leaders at all levels to understand their commander’s intent. This involves implicitly understanding the mission objectives, parameters, and key performance indicators.
Don is a student of resilience from a practical and theoretical perspective. He has served in a number of specialist units within the military from Assault Pioneers (Mountain Warefare) to Amphibious Operations all of which require physical and mental strength. He has also completed several university qualifications focusing on Resilience at Work, Strategic Thinking, and Planning and Management.
During his career, Don served as a Survival instructor imparting his knowledge of leadership and resilience to the next generation of military operators. Placing new operators in challenging, complex, high-risk situations confirmed that leadership principles need to be simple and easy to implement.
As a qualified syllabus designer, Don refined complex leadership and resilience theory into several key tenets that can be applied across all organisations at all levels.
Don founded Excalibur Leadership to share his passion for leadership and resilience.
SURESH HARIDAS
TRAINING MANAGER
Suresh Haridas is a retired military officer, having served 19 years in the Singapore Army and Air Force. Whilst in the military, Suresh led his team/company in several local and overseas operations leading to successful outcomes including winning the Best Air Force Squadron.
While serving within Singapore's military headquarters, Suresh was instrumental in forging defence relations with countries such as Australia, France, India, Indonesia and the USA paving the way for Singapore Military to train overseas. In recognition of his stellar military career, Suresh has won the Outstanding Safety Award, Long Service and Good Conduct Medals as well as the Top Student in Military Intelligence at the highest level.
Suresh has worked in many roles, both local and foreign public service departments including Employment and Training Consultant with the New Zealand Department of Corrections, Work-Focused Case Manager at the Ministry of Social Development, Business Communications Trainer for S-PEAK. Suresh brings extensive experience in operations and team management, staff development and training, coaching, administration, and customer service/case management.
Suresh is an active, energetic leader who embodies transformational, servant, coaching and visionary leadership styles, and who firmly believes that personal mastery, effective communication coupled with good leadership play critical roles in achieving mission success and positive outcomes.
As a Business Communication Trainer for S-PEAK, he specialised in developing programmes and training customer service officers and frontline staff to incorporate best practices in communication and achieving client satisfaction.
Suresh has a Master of Life Science Degree and certificates in Coaching, Client and Customer Satisfaction, Conflict Resolution and Organisational Learning.