Our Story

Our Story

The story of Platypii began in the early 1990s, when Graeme Brooks and Marvin Oka first crossed paths. They came from very different backgrounds—Graeme with a deep, hands-on understanding of education and school leadership, Marvin with a global reputation in behavioural modelling and transformational change. Yet, they quickly discovered a powerful common ground: a shared passion for making a lasting difference in education, especially through the development of exceptional leaders.

By the early 2000s, that shared passion had evolved into a groundbreaking research project. Graeme and Marvin conducted Neuro-Behavioural Modelling research into school principals and leadership teams who had achieved something rare—genuine, transformational change in their schools.

They called the project Principal Conversations. Over many in-depth interviews and analyses, they identified the critical competencies and leadership approaches that set these exceptional leaders apart—and, crucially, made those competencies transferable to others.

This work revealed that transformational educational leadership is not just about technical skill—it’s about identity, presence, and the ability to align people and culture around meaningful change.

Graeme and Marvin’s collaboration has continued ever since, still fuelled by the same commitment they shared when they first met. Through Platypii, their decades of experience and research are now offered directly to school leaders who want to make a real difference—leaders who are ready to evolve themselves to transform their schools.

From the first conversation to today, our mission remains the same: to help educational leaders become the kind of leaders their schools truly need.