Dritton Jemmalay on Family-First Leadership, Values-Driven Business, and Lifelong Learning

Host Liz Sweigart and Dritton Jemmalay met more than a decade ago serving energy clients across time zones—she in Houston, he in Brisbane—before finally connecting in person at a Shanghai conference. The friendship has since spanned continents, careers, and now kids. In this episode of Past the Profile, Dritton—global tax and structuring consultant and founder of the independent professional services firm TP Benchmark—reflects on becoming a husband and father, relocating to London to support his surgeon wife’s fellowship, and choosing a family-first operating system at home and at work. He and Liz explore an “early midlife” wake-up, the books and mindset that shifted him from black-and-white to shades of grey, and how team sports taught him to take feedback, learn from losses, and keep going. Highlights Parenting as mirror — Modeling the behaviors you hope your kids will adopt. Values → culture — Building a remote team across NZ, US, UAE, Italy, and Australia where the culture flows from strongly aligned values. Mistakes as teachers — The family mantra: “Mistakes are OK… as long as we learn from them.” From hyper-rational to human — How self-study and reflection reframed work, empathy, and the inner critic. Sport → leadership — Thick skin, honest feedback, and winning as a team rather than 11 superstars. Life-season strategy — Treating tradeoffs as temporary, and why this season is about time with his daughters.