Professional background and experience:

Sharon is a mediator, facilitator, executive coach, and trainer, based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She has a background in law, and over 25 years’ experience in conflict resolution. Her experience covers both the statutory and private sectors, as well as mediating, facilitating, and conducting relationship-building processes in international organisations. Sharon is a regional mediator for the World Bank and 1 of 16 mediators on the Bank’s Internal Justice Service. She serves as a mediator-on-call for the UN Global Mediation Panel and is a consultant to several international organisations, including the International Labour Organisation (ILO). On behalf of the ILO, Sharon trains mediators and negotiators internationally, as well as designs develops, and delivers programmes on various aspects of labour relations, workplace cooperation, and conflict management. 

Sharon has a BA LLB from the University of Cape Town and an Advanced Diploma in Labour Law from Rand Afrikaans University. She is accredited as a mediator by Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) and she holds international certifications as both an Integral and Ontological coach. 

Mediation experience and style:

Sharon mediates a broad range of disputes in a variety of settings, from individual and collective disputes within traditional labour and employment settings to mediating high stakes interpersonal conflict at senior levels in private and public organisations, locally and internationally. She has extensive experience in dealing with conflict in which sensitive and complex matters of diversity and difference have played a significant role, both in the conflict and in the mediation process itself. Sharon supports parties to work more constructively with their differences, and wherever possible, restore the working relationship.

Facilitation experience and style:

Sharon frequently facilitates group processes using approaches that empower participants to have more meaningful, inclusive, and resourceful conversations, positively impacting relationships, organizational wellbeing, productivity, and decision-making. Sharon’s approach emphasizes valuing each individual's unique contributions, irrespective of their educational, cultural, social, or financial background. In doing so, she fosters an environment where challenging issues can be addressed with authenticity and respect. She conducts facilitation across diverse settings, topics, and group sizes. Her facilitation experience ranges from resolving language, cultural, and methodological differences among local and international teams on a billion-dollar construction project in Namibia, to facilitating relationship-building and improving team effectiveness for the Southern African Development Community of the World Bank. 

Comments from clients:

“I requested Ms Wakeford’s professional intervention for some very delicate and difficult cases which could not be managed internally. As a mediator, she proved to be balanced, respectful, intelligent, open and firm, competently managing even the most challenging steps of the process.” HR Director, International Organisation, Rome, Italy.

“Through this process, we have matured in our relationship – we are now engaging with each other with greater speed, directness and honesty and showing joint leadership to our teams. We appreciated how Sharon established trust so quickly and enjoyed the different things she brought to the process, that was fun yet constructive and allowed us to get to know each other more. We are coming out better than we started, and this must be a true way of saying the process was successful.” Two Directors of an international UN financial institution who participated in a four-month mediation process.