Petrus Van Der Merwe · Private Global Advisor
It is lonely at the apex. Let's build what stays standing.
You are carrying a vision, a move or a business that matters, and carrying most of it alone. I am an advisor and trusted companion who understands what that is costing you, and who stands beside you, wherever in the world it is happening, until it can stand on its own.
What is a Private Global Companion Advisor?
One trusted person who holds the whole picture of your goal, and works beside you, in the same room, the same country or the same time zone, until it can stand on its own.
The advisor
Senior, cross-sector strategic thinking applied to your move, venture or project: clear priorities, honest feedback and a plan with next steps.
The capability
Someone who can also solve the real-world problem, from site visits and meetings to working with translators, local crews and contacts.
The companion
A calm, honest and discreet presence through the decisions, the unfamiliar places and the hard moments. Strictly professional, and agreed in writing.
Instead of paying separately for a strategist, a coordinator, a local guide and a confidant, you work with one person, personally, with no handoffs.
How it works
A clear, private process with no surprises. You decide at every step whether to continue.
01. Private enquiry
Tell me briefly about your goal, your timeframe and the support you have in mind. Every enquiry receives a personal reply.
02. Confidential conversation
A 30 to 45 minute video call to understand your situation and confirm there is a genuine fit on both sides. A confidentiality agreement is signed before we go into detail.
03. Proposal and agreement
If it feels right, you receive a tailored proposal. Before work or travel begins we sign the service agreement, complete identity and safety checks, and the first fee is paid in advance.
04. We begin
Remote Advisory, On-Location Advisory or a Project Mission. For travel engagements I recommend starting remotely, then moving in person once clarity and trust are built.
You are the strong one. Who is strong for you?
People rely on your confidence, so you rarely show them the doubt. Over time, that silence becomes its own weight.
The loneliness of leading
Plenty of ideas, and almost no one who can match your pace and tell you the truth without an agenda.
Too many decisions at once
Business, residency, home and lifestyle all shifting together, with no steady ground to decide from.
The quiet toll of carrying it
Running on adrenaline, sleeping less, telling everyone it is fine. You do not need another task-manager. You need someone beside you.
Ready for the journey, but not willing to do it alone.
You have a place you want to see, a project you want to explore, a new country to understand or a chapter of life to design. What is missing is someone capable and trustworthy beside you.
I combine senior strategic experience with practical, on-the-ground capability. I help you plan, decide and act, and I am present while it happens.
- Entrepreneurs and investors exploring a country, a site or a venture
- Individuals and families relocating or planning an extended stay abroad
- People entering a new chapter who want to broaden their world with a capable partner
- Purpose-led clients exploring sustainable, community or eco-tourism projects
Being truly understood changes how you decide.
When someone sees the whole picture without judging it, something loosens. The mind stops defending and starts thinking. Fear gets named, so it stops steering.
This is not soft. In a review of 148 studies, people with stronger social relationships had about a 50 percent greater likelihood of survival (Holt-Lunstad et al., PLOS Medicine, 2010). Connection protects your health, and your judgement.
What changes when you are not alone
Relief
The exhale of finally saying it out loud to someone who understands.
Clarity
Noise becomes priorities. You know what matters this week and what can wait.
Courage
Big steps feel possible when someone steady believes in them with you.
Belonging
You stop being the person holding everything, and become someone who is accompanied.
Momentum
Decisions get made, plans move, and progress becomes visible again.
Wonder
With the weight shared, there is room to enjoy the place and the adventure you set out for.
Whatever you are stepping into
Starting a new project
Turn the idea in your head into a clear first step, then the next, with someone who keeps you moving.
Starting or growing a business
Work smarter, not harder: find what makes you different and build systems that carry the load.
Living or building abroad
Navigate a new country, culture and system with a companion who has lived it.
Exploring the world
See, learn and experience new places with someone who has travelled widely, and make the journey part of the point.
Overcoming loneliness
Warm, trusted company through a lonely chapter, without having to perform strength.
A life reset
Closing one chapter and opening another is easier with a steady hand beside you.
What is on offer
Three ways to work together, each built around a clear goal and a defined period, so the engagement is about progress.
Remote Advisory
Strategic guidance and planning without travel.
$3,500 – $5,000
per month · one-month minimum
- Up to four private video sessions a month
- A confidential space to say what you cannot say to staff, family or stakeholders
- A strategic sounding board for decisions big and small
- Travel, relocation and opportunity research
- Decision support and monthly action roadmap
- Document, proposal and project review
- A psychologist's eye for stalled decisions, strained partnerships and early signs of burnout
- Wellbeing built in: rest, rhythm and boundaries protected alongside the work
- Weekday response commitment
On-Location Advisory
I travel with you, as advisor and trusted companion.
$6,500 – $8,500
per month · two to three month minimum
Everything in Remote Advisory, plus
- Agreed travel and in-person accompaniment
- Site visits, meetings and destination orientation
- Cross-cultural navigation, including working with translators, local crews and contacts
- Real-time decisions with someone beside you, not days of messages
- Preparation before, action planning after
- Practical problem-solving in country
- A steady presence through the hardest moments
- Room to enjoy the place you are in, with someone who knows how to travel it well
Project Mission
A specific goal with a start and an end.
$2,500 – $7,500+
fixed fee, scoped to the mission
- Strategic review or opportunity evaluation
- Country, site or venture exploration plan
- Business plan or investor-pack coordination
- Clear deliverables, milestones and a shared definition of done
- Coordination of the advisors, specialists and local people the mission needs
- Early risk-spotting and honest reporting, including when something is not working
- A proper handover, so the work keeps standing without me
- Can lead into an advisory engagement
Founding-client rates apply to the first engagements and include a structured feedback conversation. Fees are paid in advance. Flights, accommodation, daily living costs, insurance and third-party professionals are covered separately by the client. Every engagement is agreed in writing, with working hours, rest days and separate accommodation defined from the start.
Advisor first. Trusted companion always.
The companionship in this service is the quality of the relationship: calm, honest, capable and present. It is not a substitute for strategy, and strategy is not a substitute for being there.
You can tell me the real situation, as it is. I will not judge it. I will help you work with it. It is a professional relationship built on trust, discretion and mutual respect.
What every client receives
Instead of paying separately for a strategist, a project coordinator, a local guide and a confidant, you have one trusted person who holds the whole picture. That means fewer costly mistakes, less lost time and decisions made with a clear head.
Strategic clarity
Cross-sector thinking applied to your goal, from first idea to a workable plan.
Practical capability
Someone who can also solve the real-world problem, not only advise on it.
Trusted presence
A steady partner beside you through decisions, meetings and unfamiliar places.
Total discretion
Your plans, finances and personal life stay confidential, protected by a signed confidentiality agreement.
Safe to say everything
This only works if you can speak freely. Before we go into detail, we sign a confidentiality agreement. You work with me personally, with no handoffs to a team, and your information is never shared with ECAHLI or anyone else. It is handled as set out on my Privacy, Confidentiality & Ethics page.
The road behind the work
Advice carries weight when it comes from lived experience. This is where mine comes from, and what each part gives you.
Leaving South Africa
I left home and rebuilt my life in unfamiliar countries, more than once.
For you: I know what relocating really costs, and how to make it easier.Nepal, with Buddhist monks
I stayed with monks to learn how different traditions understand life, death and the cycle of life.
For you: I can stay steady and open when the questions get big.Europe's metaphysical traditions
I studied energy exchange and manifestation across Europe.
For you: I read what is driving a person, a room or a decision.Complementary health
I studied practices that support a healthier, better-running body.
For you: I understand that well-being and performance belong together.Psychology
Years studying the human condition and how people process the world, which sharpened my pattern recognition.
For you: I see the pattern behind the problem early.Business, economic and development systems
I have worked out why systems fail, and how to change them, including with technology.
For you: practical redesign, not just advice.Latin America: finding where change is needed
I travelled to see where I could bring positive change to rural industry and to communities deprived of opportunity, and to work out how ECAHLI Community Development Nodes could help with industry, housing, infrastructure and advancement. Along the way I networked with like-minded people, projects and organisations to collaborate on new ideas, technologies and systems for sustainability and growth, while preserving the natural beauty and charm of each place.
Paraguay: 4.8 years of building
In my first year I started building a pilot house from natural, recycled and refurbished materials, using rammed earth, recycled bottles and conventional building materials, with four local Paraguayans. I trained other locals in sustainable building technologies and systems. I also tried hospitality, which did not work out, and I learned from those mistakes. Paraguay is now my home base, close to my young daughter. Between projects, I have kept refining the ECAHLI Community Node designs, infrastructure and concepts for multiple countries.
Lived in: Ireland, Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom, Poland, the Netherlands, Russia and Paraguay. Travelled in: Latvia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Bulgaria, Nepal, India, the United States, Brazil, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina, Panama, Botswana, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Mozambique.
My focus is people: human kindness, and supporting and guiding people, projects and businesses to grow, work more easily and last. I am also a single dad, building toward a better future for my children and the next generation. Now I want to share what I know with like-minded people, to help them turn their goals into a sustainable, stress-free reality.
Experience, achievements and knowledge
A career built across corporate, entrepreneurial, community and international settings.
Achievements
- Founder, CEO and Lifelong Chair of ECAHLI Global Holdings
- Author of seven-plus books, including the two-volume memoir What Silence Builds
- Built and ran five wellness centres across Europe
- Led investor documentation, financial modelling and partnerships across Africa and Latin America
Experience
- Industrial psychologist for some of the world's largest IT companies
- Years of events, retreats and workshops across Europe
- International project development and negotiation
- Business diagnostics, turnaround and brand strategy
- Hands-on: maintenance, electrical, plumbing, landscaping, agriculture, hospitality
Knowledge
- Psychology and organisational development
- Complementary health and wellness
- Economics and business strategy
- Sustainability, green economy, eco-tourism
- Cross-cultural communication and international living
Clear by design
Professional boundaries make the relationship safer and better for both of us.
This service is not:
- A dating, romantic or escort service
- Therapy, medical care or crisis support
- Legal, tax, immigration or investment advice
- Personal security or caregiving
Where you need a regulated professional, I help you find, prepare for and work with the right one.
Questions and answers
Who is this service for?
Individuals, entrepreneurs, investors and families who want a capable, trusted person alongside them while they explore, travel, relocate or pursue a project. It suits people who are ready to act and would rather not do it alone.
What does "trusted companion" mean?
It describes the quality of the working relationship: presence, steadiness, good conversation and shared experience while we work toward your goals. The service is strictly professional and non-romantic, and this is agreed in writing.
Why is the service exclusive?
I accept only a small number of engagements at any time. This protects your privacy, my availability and the quality of attention you receive. Every engagement begins with a confidential conversation to confirm there is a genuine fit on both sides.
How does an engagement begin?
You send a private enquiry, we hold a 30 to 45 minute video call, and if it feels right I send a tailored proposal. Before we go into detail we sign a confidentiality agreement. Before travel or work starts we sign the service agreement, complete identity and safety checks, and the first fee is paid in advance.
What is included in the fee, and what is not?
The fee covers my time, expertise, planning and agreed availability. Flights, accommodation, meals, transport, visas, insurance and third-party professionals are paid by you, directly or through an agreed expense float, with written approval above a set limit.
Will I have your full attention while we travel?
Yes. Focused client hours are defined in the agreement, along with a weekly rest day. I also continue my ECAHLI and consulting work outside those hours, which keeps my experience current and your engagement well structured.
Can you give legal, immigration, tax or investment advice?
No. I research, prepare and coordinate, and I introduce qualified local professionals for regulated matters. I also cannot guarantee visas, returns or business outcomes.
Where can you travel?
I am based between Ecuador and Paraguay and work internationally. Each destination goes through a documented risk review, and I may decline locations where risk cannot be responsibly managed.
Is everything confidential?
Yes. Before we go into detail we sign a confidentiality agreement, and client identity, plans and personal information are never shared or published without your written permission. Any testimonial or case study is optional and anonymised by default.
Can I begin remotely first?
Yes, and I recommend it for travel engagements. A first month of remote planning builds clarity and trust before we travel.
Request a confidential introduction
Tell me briefly about your goal, your timeframe and the kind of support you have in mind. Every enquiry receives a personal reply, and every conversation is confidential.
Prefer to reach me directly? You are welcome to write or message me.
Email petrus@petrusvdmerwe.com | WhatsApp +595 98 109 3123
Private Global Advisor is a professional advisory and travel-support service. It does not provide legal, tax, immigration, medical, mental-health or financial advice, and it does not guarantee any specific outcome.