Simon McKenzie-Nickson PhD

Peak Performance Architect | 3-10x productivity increase for founders, CEOs and senior leaders through PhD neuroscience | Your load keeps compounding, and clarity, patience and performance are shrinking with it.

New Zealand

About

The leaders I work with aren't short on drive, and after a neuroscience PhD, eight years teaching medicine, and directing consulting teams myself, I kept seeing the same pattern: their biology was the bottleneck. The pattern I keep seeing is successful leaders running marathon careers in sprint mode, the load keeps compounding, and clarity, patience, and performance shrink with it. Everyone reaches for the same fix: better habits, a new system, or a mindset shift, but your psychology follows your physiology, and if the biological foundation is unstable, nothing you bolt on top will stick. I'm a Peak Performance Architect, and I read hundreds of papers on human performance so you don't have to. Before this, I was a consulting director, building teams from zero and navigating the same pressures my clients face now, and that combination of neuroscience research and lived corporate reality is what makes the systems work. My clients are founders, C-suite executives, and senior leaders. Some want to 3-10x their productivity, others want sharper clarity under pressure, and some want to properly switch off at the end of the day and actually be present with their family. Different entry points, but the same underlying problem. I use evidence-based protocols to reclaim 4-6 hours weekly, double deep work capacity, access flow states, and reduce cognitive overload, with performance systems grounded in science, not motivation. If that sounds like you, send me a message.

Experience

  • Founder / Director at Second Summit Consulting
    Apr 2025 - Present · 1 yr 3 mos

    I founded Second Summit Consulting to give high-performing professionals a coach to cut through the noise and provide battle-tested coaching grounded in neuroscience.

  • McGrathNicol (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia)
    • Director - Data & Analytics
      Jul 2024 - Mar 2025 · 9 mos

    • Senior Manager (Data Analytics)
      Jun 2022 - Jul 2024 · 2 yrs 2 mos

    • Manager (Data analytics)
      Jul 2021 - Jun 2022 · 1 yr

  • Postdoctoral Researcher at Monash University
    Mar 2017 - Aug 2020 · 3 yrs 6 mos

    Responsible for designing, managing, and carrying out multiple translational research projects into cognitive restoring drugs for schizophrenia treatment using preclinical models. Co-supervised one PhD student and have supervised one honours student (completed in 2019). I also co-directed the Murine Disease Model Facility.

  • University of Melbourne (7 yrs 5 mos)
    • Medical School MD1 CSL Tutor
      Jan 2013 - Dec 2019 · 7 yrs

      Facilitative tutor for the case-supported learning (CSL) component of the MD1 course. This involves running a 2-hour workshop (twice a week) with a group of 10-12 students with the aim of teaching medical students to apply logical reasoning and evidence based analysis to real-world patient examples.

    • PhD Candidate
      Aug 2012 - Mar 2017 · 4 yrs 8 mos

      My PhD focused on using a novel therapeutic approach to treat neurodegenerative diseases. I designed, carried out, and published a large study using 2 pre-clinical models of neurodegeneration to assess the efficacy of manipulating the levels of the biometal, copper. These results were published in the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience in addition to an invited review.

  • Undergraduate Lab Supervisor at University of Otago
    Jan 2010 - Dec 2010 · 1 yr

    Supervising the running of undergraduate labs. Acted as fire warden and first aid warden for ~90 students and 4 demonstrators.