Seventeen years of helping Ugandan professionals and organizations discover and realize their full potential.
Our Founding
Forest Harbor Hall Consulting Ltd. was founded in 2009 by Josephine Nakato and David Ssemwanga, two Kampala-based professionals who shared a bold conviction: that world-class coaching and organizational consulting should be accessible to African businesses on African terms.
Josephine brought fifteen years of human resources leadership from the banking sector, while David contributed a decade of executive management experience spanning telecommunications and manufacturing. Together, they recognized a gap in Uganda's professional development landscape — one where generic, imported methodologies failed to account for the unique cultural, economic, and social dynamics of East African business.
What began as a boutique two-person practice operating from a small office on Yusuf Lule Road has grown into a team of twelve certified coaches and consultants, serving over 200 organizations across Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania.
Our name reflects our ethos: a harbor is a place of refuge, direction, and safe passage. Like a harbor nestled in a forest, we provide a grounded, natural space where leaders and teams find stillness, clarity, and the courage to chart new courses.
What Drives Us
To equip African professionals and organizations with the coaching tools, mindsets, and frameworks needed to lead with excellence, communicate with integrity, and grow with purpose — in a way that is rooted in local wisdom and informed by global best practice.
A Uganda — and an East Africa — where every professional has access to transformative coaching, and where organizations are powered by engaged, capable, and purpose-driven people who bring their full selves to work every day.
The People Behind the Practice
Our coaches and consultants bring decades of combined experience across business, government, and civil society in Uganda and across East Africa.
With over 22 years of leadership experience spanning banking, HR, and executive coaching, Josephine is widely regarded as one of East Africa's most impactful leadership coaches. She holds an ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC) credential and an MSc in Organizational Psychology from Makerere University.
David brings 18 years of executive management experience from Uganda's telecommunications and manufacturing sectors. As co-founder, he oversees strategic development and organizational consulting engagements. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (UK) and a certified DISC practitioner.
Grace specializes in designing and delivering transformational leadership programs for mid-level and senior managers. She holds a Masters in Leadership from Uganda Christian University and brings experience from the NGO sector, having led people development at international organisations for over a decade.
Samuel is the architect of Forest Harbor Hall's acclaimed Workplace Communication Programme. A former broadcast journalist and corporate communications director, he combines storytelling expertise with behavioral science to help teams communicate with clarity, empathy, and impact.
Faith is a certified life and career coach who has guided over 400 individual professionals through career transitions, goal-setting, and personal transformation. Her approach blends positive psychology with practical action-planning, creating breakthroughs that last well beyond the coaching engagement.
Robert specializes in team diagnostics, collaboration workshops, and conflict resolution. He holds a BSc in Industrial Psychology from Kyambogo University and an Executive MBA from ESAMI. His facilitation work has helped teams across finance, health, and government sectors unlock extraordinary collective performance.
Find Us
Our offices are located in the heart of Kampala, easily accessible from the central business district and major commercial hubs. We welcome clients for in-person consultations, coaching sessions, and discovery meetings.
We also offer remote and virtual engagement for clients outside Kampala, across Uganda and across East Africa.
Milestones
Josephine Nakato and David Ssemwanga establish Forest Harbor Hall Consulting Ltd. at Plot 21 Yusuf Lule Road, with a mission to bring contextually grounded coaching to East Africa.
We deliver our first large-scale leadership development programme for a major Ugandan bank, coaching 85 managers over 12 months and achieving measurable improvements in engagement and retention.
After six years of practice, our team formalizes the proprietary HARBOR coaching methodology — a six-phase framework now used across all our engagements.
We expand operations to serve clients in Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania, solidifying our reputation as a regional leader in professional coaching and organizational development.
Forest Harbor Hall serves its 200th organizational client — a landmark that reflects the trust and impact built over thirteen years of consistent, results-driven practice.
Today, Forest Harbor Hall continues to grow, innovate, and lead — expanding our digital coaching offerings and deepening our work in public sector organizational transformation.