ABOUT JVSTO

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LEADERSHIP EXPERT IN RESILIENCE AND ELITE PERFORMANCE

 

Harvard and Oxford trained JVSTO helps leaders, pro athletes, and rising change-makers avoid the pitfalls that derail potential and overcome the adversity that shatters dreams—transforming them into fuel to unlock potential, smash barriers, and sustain excellence.  Through his work, JVSTO lives his purpose - to help elite performers realise their true greatness!

 

He believes that empowering those with the greatest capacity to lead and influence is the most effective way to make the biggest, positive, lasting impact in the world. ​​​​JVSTO's expertise is built on a proprietary three-pillar framework:​​

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🔹   AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP
🔹   MINDSET & MENTAL MASTERY
🔹    HIGH-STAKES COMMUNICATION  

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From world-class institutions to world-record moments, his proven, unique content represents a synthesis of lived experiences, scholastic rigour and professional accomplishments.  ​

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​🔹   AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP​​​​

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Built at Harvard. Proven Worldwide.

 

 

JVSTO’s leadership philosophy was forged through transformative years at Harvard University:

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►   Earned a Master’s Degree, specialising in leadership, communication and influence.

►   Served as a Teaching Fellow under U.S. Brig. Gen. (Rtd.) Dana Born.

►   Co-published with a Harvard Professor at the US Air Force Academy.

►   Conducted leadership research with faculty at Harvard's Center for Public Leadership.​

As Head of Teaching at the Center for Asia Leadership, JVSTO coaches emerging talent to national leaders — and has interviewed  three Australian Prime Ministers  on effective leadership under pressure.​​

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🔹   MINDSET & MENTAL MASTERY

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 Elite Performance Starts Within.​​ 

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JVSTO’s mental resilience and performance isn’t just learnt and taught but lived. He’s overcome significant challenges to become: ​​

►    Australian Memory Champion

►   Guinness World Record Holder

►   World Mental Sports Olympian

►   Represented Australia at the World Memory Championships

►   Represented Australia at the Mental Calculation World Cup

►    Fulbright Scholar  to Harvard

►   Harvard Kennedy Fellow

►   Harvard Graduate top of his class. ​

​He has mastered the very mental tools he teaches — to defy the odds and shape elite performance from the inside out.

 

 

🔹   HIGH-STAKES COMMUNICATION

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Helping high performers master the moments that define them;

With composure, clarity, and command.

From record-breaking speeches at Harvard to co-authoring research at Harvard’s Shorenstein’s Center on Media, Politics & Public Policy, JVSTO has explored the science of strategic communication at the highest level. He was featured in the lead chapter of a major international book on persuasion and influence, and has  coached world leaders  — including Prime Ministers and Presidential candidates — to communicate with authenticity, presence, and power.​​​

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​Beyond world-class credentials and results, JVSTO’s work is grounded in values forged through decades of purpose-driven action. ​

Performance is built on purpose. Resilience is built through service. 

These experiences aren’t résumé lines — they’re the foundation of the empathy, grit, and mission behind everything he teaches.This lived commitment underpins JVSTO’s unique lens on leadership and elite performance:​

►   Olympic Torch Bearer, Sydney 2000

►  Finalist, Red Cross Young Ambassador (Qld)

►  5 years with Samaritans UK, supporting those in suicidal crisis

►  4 years as full-time caregiver for a loved one with Alzheimer’s

►   Co-founder of Support Kids in Pain (SKIP)  — the world’s first nonprofit for young people with chronic pain (now in its 15th year)