Post on 19-Jul-2020
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Workshop 2009
Speaker Biographies
Dr. Gene Moyle
Sam James
Jacqui Walters
Brian Donaldson
Kay Hallt
Christine Garden
Peter MacQueen
Marcus Champ
Jenny Krasny
Vicki Webster
Megan Peach
Steve Locke
Dr. Gene Moyle - Employer Panel Member
SENIOR PSYCHOLOGIST / BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
Gene, an ex-professional ballet dancer, possesses experience in psychological practice and
business management cultivated within small through large public and private organisations
within Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, and the United Kingdom across health, sport,
safety, recruitment, mining, energy, transport, aviation, explosives, and engineering
industries.
She currently holds the position of Senior Psychologist / Business Development Manager for
Sarina Russo Vocational Health (SRVH) – joining the team in September 2008. Within this role,
Gene is responsible for assisting to grow SRVH into additional business streams, contribute to
the development of new products and services, and support the team in their service
delivery.
Prior to SRVH, Gene held the position of Global Business Leader for Sentis Assessments, a
start-up company she was responsible for establishing which formed part of Sentis – a global
organisational psychology company consulting to the mining and resource industry. During
her time at Sentis, she additionally worked as a Senior Consultant and Organisational
Psychologist and was responsible for the management of multimillion dollar projects and
servicing across both small government owned companies and large multinational, blue chip
and Fortune 500 organisations, in addition to business development activities and the
creation of products and services to meet client’s needs (e.g. organisational and cultural
change, executive coaching, psychological assessment, team building).
Within her specialisation of sport and performance psychology, Gene has held the position of
Sport Psychology Coordinator at the QLD Academy of Sport (QAS) since January 2006 to-date
having worked as the Assistant Sport Psychology Coordinator during 2004-2005. Gene is
additionally an Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) National Network Provider for the national
Short Track Speed Skating squad and national Skeleton team, assisting both teams with their
preparations since 2002 and performance at the 2006 Winter Olympics and leading into
Vancouver 2010. Furthermore, she has been an official provider for a range of sporting
organisations and programs within Australia, traveling both interstate and overseas with
sporting squads competing at State, National and World Cup/World Championship level, and
sees a variety of athletes (AIS/QAS/Non-QAS) and performing artists for individual
consultations in her private practice.
In 2008, Gene was invited to join as the QLD Advisor for the Securing Career Opportunities &
Professional Employment (SCOPE) program for dance artists – a joint initiative of the
Australian Sports Commission, Australia Council and Ausdance. She has been a Sessional
Academic in Performance Psychology at QUT Creative Industries since 2001, in addition to
having presented at various conferences and published articles both in Australia and
overseas.
Prior to Sentis, Gene held the positions of Health Services Coordinator, National Senior
Psychologist, National Job Seeker Assist Client Relationship Manager, Internal EAP
Coordinator, Subject Matter Expert – Employment Services/PSP, and Psychologist Team Leader
for MAXNetWork – an employment services provider. Additionally, she has worked as a
Counsellor at QUT Counselling Services. Gene is a member of the Australian Psychological
Society (APS), APS’ College of Sport Psychologists (CoSP) currently fulfilling the role of
Secretary on the National Executive Committee and QLD State Section, the British Association
of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES), the International Association of Dance Medicine and
Science (IADMS), the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) and Ausdance.
What do you love most about your work?
I enjoy the variety of tasks and projects that I work on at SRVH from product development,
business strategy, marketing, P&P development, securing new business, support of staff, and
use of my psychological expertise within a business medium. Additionally, because of this
variety, I enjoy the great people I get to interact with – from other SRVH team members, other
colleagues within the Sarina Russo Group of companies, through to contacts at client
organisations. Furthermore, I get the opportunity to draw upon multiple aspects of my
psychological experience and expertise across various areas of psychological practice.
Career highlights
SRVH – Assisting in the internal development of infrastructure to assist SRVH grow as a
business and ensure our people can do their job efficiently and effectively.
Sentis – Being responsible for relationship managing a very successful multi-million dollar 4+
year rollout of a cognitive-behavioural safety and wellbeing program across a large Australian
company. The creation from scratch of products (i.e. culture surveys) that have developed into
highly profitable income streams.
OWIA/AIS – Implementing a team culture and development program into Winter Olympic
teams and seeing the ongoing successful impacts of this through the improvement in team
culture and dynamics. Also, assisting the athletes perform at World Cups, World
Championships, the Winter Olympics and the amazing places I get to travel to with this type of
work!
Dance – Being a regular writer on Performance Psychology for Dance Australia magazine since
2002 – the magazine I used to read as an aspiring dancer myself from 11 years of age!
Sam James - Early Psych Panel Member
HUMAN FACTORS CONSULTANT
Sam James is an organisational and performance psychologist with Human Motive. In
2000, Sam took up a graduate position with the Defence Science & Technology
Organisation (DSTO) as a Human Factors Consultant. Working extensively in corporate
and military field contexts, Sam led expert support to defence capability projects and
operational deployments of new technology. These projects included training and
simulation, combat helmets, marksmanship performance, reducing friendly fire and
support to Special Forces.
In response to a challenge and opportunity, Sam took a year off in 2004 to become an
adventure training instructor working with not-for-profit organisations. He then
concluded with Defence on a career highlight – leading a project in the United
Kingdom with international militaries and agencies, to evaluate technologies for
preventing friendly fire in Iraq.
In 2006 he commenced Masters studies at Griffith University. Whilst studying, Sam
convened Griffith undergraduate courses in Organisational Psychology & Training. He
established Human Motive as a part-time consultancy in 2006, conducting an
extensive usability evaluation of an Army battlefield command system. He has
worked in internal project roles designing cross cultural training, as well as
implementing a talent management strategy for Senior Executives at the Department
of Communities.
In late 2008 Sam partnered with associates to increase the scope of Human Motive.
Human Motive provides authoritative advice on safety, leadership and information
technology issues. The consultants at Human Motive have a deep understanding of
how people train for & work in high risk environments. Its services help clients
minimise human error & maximise productivity, support the performance & potential
of senior leaders, & develop IT products that are easy to learn & use.
Sam is certified in Lominger Leadership Architect 360 products and is a qualified
adventure-learning instructor and Workplace Trainer. Sam has expertise in training
simulation systems, human error and performance, usability, marksmanship
performance, adventure learning, leadership development and coaching. He has had
his share of life’s wobbles whilst an early career psychologist and is stronger for them.
He rarely writes in the 3
rd
person about himself, except for bios at workshops.
What do you love most about your work?
• The privilege of helping others across a diverse range of jobs and passions.
• Learning from my experiences, mentors and supervisors
• Helping people cope with the messy, unstable business of life & work and
leading better lives.
Career highlights
• Conducting interviews with soldiers parachuting down around him.
• Leading engagement with Culturally & Linguistically Diverse communities.
• Being restrained by soldiers whilst rioting in East Timor.
• Discussing the 'Inverted U' theory of stress and performance with a frightened
client whilst 25m up a tree.
• Working in the freedom and beauty of the Australian wilderness.
• Coaching leadership teams during major organisational change
Jacqui is a Principal with Evans & Peck in the Business Consulting service line. Jacqui is an
experienced management consultant specialising in working with organisations to align
operations to strategic objectives. Services she has provided to clients include strategy
development, performance management, organisation design and restructure, process
alignment and improvement, change management, and programme design and
management. She has worked across many industry sectors including utilities,
government owned corporations, rail, telecommunications and finance. Jacqui has
worked for multinational organisations in many countries in the UK, Europe, Asia Pacific
and North America. Jacqui holds a Bachelor of Commerce and is a CPA. Prior to joining
Evans & Peck, Jacqui worked as a management consultant for Deloitte, Compaq/Hewlett
Packard, IBM and Price Waterhouse.
Jacqui’s experience in delivering business consulting services over the past 15 years
includes:
• Reviewing Brisbane City Works to identify areas that can be improved to move from
a local government service provider to a more commercially oriented enterprise
• Reporting to the SunWater CEO and executive team, she was responsible for the
design and implementation of a new organisation structure which included designing
the new structure to deliver against strategic objectives, designing the
implementation approach and detailed plan, transitioning the existing work-force to
the new structure including job design, selection, and transition strategies process,
system, and other infrastructure changes occurring as a result of the restructure,
employee engagement and communications, benefit identification and reporting,
and change management including communications
• A review of the IT Strategy for Tarong Energy Company to determine the level of
alignment between the IT Strategy and business objectives. This included
consultation with key stakeholders and a series of working sessions with the IT team.
The outcome was an updated IT Strategy that has been endorsed by the executive
team. The recommendations made in the review have been accepted in full and the
first project has commenced
• An environmental scan for the Queensland Health innovation strategy unit of their
Innovation Program resulting in the design of a process for managing
commercialisation
Jacqui Walters - Employer Panel Member
PRINCIPALOF BUILDING CONSULTING
and intellectual property, providing an assessment of 12 possible commercial
opportunities and advising on the way forward for the program. Recommendations
included strengthening the program and sponsorship structure, improving clarity on
alignment of program to strategic objectives of the department, and improving the
developmental paths that should be followed in developing commercial opportunities.
• Leading the design and deployment of a new single services model for Compaq Global
Services worldwide. She reported directly to the VP Compaq Global Services. Jacqui
was responsible for organisation design, change management and country liaison and
readiness across Europe.
• Working with the Executive Team of Thomson/Marconi Sonar to address deteriorating
business performance and lack of cohesion within the management team by
articulating the strategic goals of the organisation and driving those goals down into
objectives for each executive’s specific area of accountability. She also worked with
them to achieve better communications and team work – starting with the CEO and
his leadership approach and working with the entire team as individuals and as a
whole.
What have you loved the most about your work?
• Working with a vast variety of clients and teams
• Being thrown in at the deep end and helping solve problems that are unique and
complex
• Having to rapidly figure out how an organisation works and how to engage within it
• Developing my team as a business and individuals is very satisfying too
• Exciting, challenging, travel, pretty good pay, great people generally!
A career highlight includes
• Working on a team which assisted Lego in turning their first ever loss around to save
the company – culture change to support new product introduction processes (and
living in the LegoLand hotel!)
• Working with Indian Railways which was the biggest employer in the world improve
the way they ran their business – it was a huge and enjoyable challenge to fit
culturally in a very different corporate culture – lots of personal learning!
I am an organisational psychologist with a specific interest in building organisations that
are intimately aligned with their vision, values and behaviours. The 8 years has seen me
present at a number of conferences, facilitate workshops and develop a series of
initiatives to the mining and resources sector, such as mentoring programs, safety and
cultural programs, leadership and coaching sessions:
• To create organisations that understand and practice the qualities and behaviors that
lead to the creation of enjoyable and successful businesses
• To assist in the creation of an enhanced quality of work life for employees
• To encourage attraction, participation and retention of women in the mining and
resources industry
• To inspire and support the future leaders of organisations to be the best they can be
• To be an inspiration for people to reach their goals in the face of adversity
• To develop role models for females and lift the level of awareness, acceptance and
visibility of women in the industry
I have spent much of my professional life in the mining industry and as a result, have an
intimate understanding of the many challenges facing the industry in creating safe,
innovative and performance oriented cultures. Interaction with my colleagues and fellow
associates indicates that many of these issues mirror that of finance, banking and other
industry sectors. Over the years I have also developed a reputation for being able to
engage with a variety of individuals, ranging from the people at the coal face through to
those within management. I have a strong background in aligning behaviour with
organisational objectives, particularly in the areas of supervision, leadership and safety
within the mining and construction industries. Specialities include: safety and
organisational cultural change management, building high performance teams,
outplacement, executive coaching, mentoring, superintendent/supervisor leadership
development, and performance management.
What have you loved the most about your work?
It's a discipline that offers so much diversity and the opportunity to work with people
from the conception to the death of an organisation in a variety of different situations.
A career highlight includes
My career highlights come from the supervision that I do. Meeting some
amazing students, helping them grow and develop into competent
psychologists.
Jenny Krasny - Early Psych Panel Member
ORGANISATIONAL PSYCHOLOGIST—EMBRACING POTENTIAL
Vicki Webster - Career and Market Overview
PRACTICE LEADER– HUDSON TALENT MANAGEMENT
Vicki is an organisational psychologist, who has over ten years experience in general
management and the delivery of professional organisational development services.
She has undertaken projects that include strategic planning, succession
management/career pathing, attraction and retention strategies, assessing and
selecting talent, implementing leadership development interventions, executive and
career coaching, conducting cultural surveys and increasing the effectiveness of
performance and career development initiatives. She specialises in leadership
development interventions, including leadership profiling and development centres
that assess managers’ leadership behaviours and attributes that are key to effective
performance. This includes providing feedback to organisations on the key themes on
the capability of senior management teams, as well as individual in depth
developmental feedback for participants, including individual reports with suggested
development strategies.
Vicki has consulted to organisations across a wide range of sectors including
education, energy and resources, financial services, government, health, information
technology, manufacturing and tourism. As well as presenting at Hudson events, Vicki
has facilitated sessions at conferences and professional events for a range of
organisations, including Australian Human Resources Institute, Australian
Psychological Society, Business Women's Network, Women in Super, College of
Organisational Psychologists, Interest Group of Coaching Psychologists.
Areas of Professional Competence
• Leadership Development
• Leadership Profiling
• High Potential Programs
• Development Centres
• Executive and Career Coaching
• Competency Profiling
• Attraction & Retention strategies
• Assessment Centres
• Performance Management
Prior to joining Council I was a senior lecturer in the Business School at QUT where I
managed and coordinated subjects such as Management and Industrial Relations (this
included several topics on workplace health and safety), Organisational Communication
and Consulting for Organisational Change. As the director of a management consultancy
organisation I provided change management, leadership development and organisational
development to a range of public sector and not for profit organisations.
Throughout my career I have had a passion for enabling and ensuring that people work in
organisations that are established as effective businesses.
Prior to joining Council my career comprised of training and development, internal
consulting, organisational change management and the facilitation of teams provision of
supporting people through change for work redesigns, merges of branches and closures of
organisations.
I have worked in Council for 14 years and have led and been part of many significant
organisational wide change processes be they strategic planning, policy reviews, work
redesigns and most recent the relocation of over 3000 employees to a new open plan
working environment. This outlines my key achievements prior to Council:
• I have led a change management program including the Zero Harm / Safety First
culture in the design of the new work environments for over 3000 Council employees
• I used influence, collaboration, consultation and partnering to design and implement a
new organisational structure for Council ensuring that all HR policies and guidelines
were followed – including sponsoring ‘supporting people through change program”
• I have developed and promoted best practice in absenteeism management (Improving
Attendance), working in open plan, modes of employment and organisational
capability
• I have managed and developed a diverse range of teams including HR, IT professionals,
medical and nursing, administrative, engineers, planners and “workplace warriors” –
including managing the People Services section which consisted of WorkCover,
Occupational Health, Workplace Health and Safety, Employment Programs and HR
Information.
• I have several qualifications including specialising in marketing, organisational
communication, adult learning, business management and company directorship.
• Lastly, I have had significant experience with a range of professional and field
employees with the most recent being with building maintenance, park maintenance,
Local Laws officers etc who relocated to Green Square.
Kay Hallt - Employer Panel Member
CHANGE MANAGER —BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL
Megan has specialised in organisational development and strategic HR solutions across a
range of client sectors including State and Local Government, Mining and Construction,
Finance, Telecommunications, and Health. Together with her contagious sense of
Enthusiasm, her qualifications in Psychology and Education help her to work with people
at all levels to gain their commitment toward organisational initiatives.
Before joining Assure Programs, Megan has been engaged to deliver solutions in large-
scale systems implementation, organisation and process design, workforce
transformation, culture enhancement, recruitment and new joiner integration, employee
engagement and retention, training and performance support, building leadership
effectiveness and change capability. At the centre of this work, Megan works
collaboratively with employees in order to align their motivations and behaviour toward
organisational goals.
In addition to her experience as a strategic change practitioner, Megan has published
research in the area of employee change readiness and is keenly interested in fostering
sustainable organisational well-being. She is passionate about delivering return-on-
investment to stakeholders with regard to enhancing existing human capital initiatives
and enjoys design and implementation of organisational development strategy that
fosters a positive culture and strong employee engagement. In particular, Megan enjoys
facilitating capability development sessions and coaching for individuals, groups and
teams. Her adaptability in conjunction with a passionate and encouraging style ensures
she gains respect and can build employee confidence in their ability to attain objectives,
whilst still enabling a sense of fun within the workplace.
What do you love most about your work?
People. Working to support them to move forward on a key goal. People’s responses to
work and life experiences are fascinating - I love working behind the scenes or directly
with people to support these endeavours.
Career Highlights
Working within an international project team as Australian lead for the workforce
transformation efforts and implementation new Supply Chain organisation design for a
mining client.
Representing Accenture to present to Australian Computer Society Conference in 2006
on the topic of Career Strategy (a raging extrovert let loose in an audience of
technicians!)
Megan Peach - Career Strategy Planning
ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANT—
ASSURE PROGRAMS
Brian leads the boutique-sized consulting practice in Brisbane with a small team of senior
consultants. DCG frequently partners other firms nationally with common values, skill
sets and methods for assisting our clients.
Brian has been actively involved in large scale organisational change and business
strategy (and its implementation) for twenty five years, first in large government
organisations and then with Ernst and Young, until forming the Group in 1994. Prior to
this time he worked as a line executive, a consultant and leadership development
specialist and a counselling psychologist. He has formal qualifications in economics,
psychology and business management. He and the team work with clients in wide a
range of sectors and industries including energy, health, transport, finance, water, ICT,
human resources, land management, human services, engineering, project management
and all levels of government in Australia.
The business strategy and organisational change work enables Brian to engage with
senior executives around matters of governance, strategy, corporate priorities, the
sponsorship of change and major transformation.
Assignments commonly include new business models and large scale change projects;
integrating business systems, processes and people; the development and
implementation of business strategy; organisational learning, agility and knowledge
sharing strategy; project start up, management, recovery and benefits management;
partnering and alliances, and the development of leaders and professional consultants.
Some recent projects include:
• Large scale organisational change management assignments in banking
• Project recovery assignments
• Facilitating due diligence work in an engineering industry acquisition.
• Large scale organisational change management assignments in insurance
• Reframing the partnering relationship between a purchaser and provider before
renegotiating an annual services contract in rail
• Conducting three projects to prove the business value of “complex adaptive
thinking”
• Operational benchmarking in the rail industry and
• Management of long term capability in a large rail organisation
• Program managing a suite of initiatives in transport
• The resolution of complex business issues with clients in engineering, and
Brian Donaldson - Employer Panel Member
MANAGING DIRECTOR: DCG
Christine Garden - Employer Panel Member
HR MANAGER —ERNST & YOUNG
Christine Garden is a HR Manager with the Ernst & Young People team in Brisbane. She
is responsible for delivering undergraduate and graduate recruitment strategies, as well
as performing a HR Manager role. Christine commenced with Ernst & Young in 2005,
holds a Bachelor of International Business and completed her Graduate Certificate in
HRM 2008. Christine has over five years' previous experience in recruitment within the
professional services and information technology industries.
Christine enjoys the diversity of her role and the opportunity to add value to the
practice from a People perspective. He career highlights include being a Director of the
Australian Association of Graduate Employers (AAGE) a not for profit organisation
assisting Australian companies with their graduate programs and implementing a
Diversity strategy in Ernst & Young Brisbane.
Peter has operated as a self-employed organisational psychologist and management
consultant for several years. Prior to this, he worked as a Senior Psychologist for both a
national and boutique consultancy, specialising within the human resource and
psychological services fields. Previously, after finishing fourth year, Peter worked in the
resources sector and thus gained valuable internal consulting experience with a large
mining operation. Peter’s prime focus is in the area of psychological assessment, from
operatives to senior executives. In addition, Peter offers outplacement, advertised
recruitment and related services.
A graduate of the University of Queensland (including postgraduate qualifications in
business administration), Peter has lectured in psychological assessment, on an ad hoc
basis, to postgraduate students at Griffith University. An advocate for ongoing
professional education and skill development, Peter also recommends that
organisational psychologists gain a good appreciation of organisational and business
issues beyond the field of psychology. He has assessed graduates from various
disciplines for several clients.
Peter McQueen - Employer Panel Member
PRINCIPAL — COMPASS CONSULTING
Steven Locke - Honing Your Applications: Activity
STRATEGIC RECRUITMENT UNIT — MAIN ROADS QLD
Following completion of his Honours year at Griffith University in 2002 , Steven has
enjoyed an extremely varied career. His initial training as a psychologist at Centrelink
provided exposure to some of the most varied and challenging populations in society.
During this time, Steven developed a keen interest in all aspects of psychological
assessment and testing. The advent of Job Capacity Assessments saw Steven take a role
managing this process for a private rehabilitation provider. This role offered the
opportunity to manage a large group of allied health professionals delivering assessments
across the whole of Queensland. This role also exposed Steven to occupational
rehabilitation and he worked on intervention projects with several large government
agencies, private sector companies and the Defence Force.
Steven moved back to specific psychological practice through work with several
consulting agencies. As a consultant Organisational Psychologist, he was fortunate to
work with a variety of sectors including the mining and energy, infrastructure, financial,
retail and pharmaceutical industries. Steven has developed substantial experience in
individual assessment, assessment / development centres, graduate recruitment
processes, organisational surveys and salary reviews. Currently, Steven works at the
Department of Main Roads within the Strategic Recruitment Unit. His team is responsible
for a range of services to the Department comprising:
• A recruitment and selection consultancy service
• Career development counselling and
• Recruitment and selection of some 130 Graduate, Cadet and Scholarship
positions.
What do you love about being an Organisational Psychologist?
The ability to identify patterns in individuals and teams. Being able to explain things that
are going on around you when everyone else sees chaos and disorder.
Being provided with the opportunity to influence organisations’ directions at the very
highest level.
Career highlights:
My experiences in conducting assessments with people who are chronically unwell and
have never worked right through to successful CEOs. I have conducted assessments
sitting under trees in Indigenous communities as well as in steel mills and board rooms. I
have been fortunate to work with a phenomenal range of individual differences.
Marcus Champ - Early Psych Panel Member
PRINCIPAL ADVISOR—MAIN ROADS QLD
Marcus completed undergraduate and post graduate studies in Applied Psychology and
Organisational Psychology in Canberra. His first role was in Workforce Planning and
Human Resources for the Canberra Institute of TAFE and progressed into strategic and
business planning in a large public sector health organisation in the federal public service.
Marcus then transitioned into HR consulting for a small federal public service agency
where he gained experience across a wide range of HR activities from performance
management to interpreting employment legislation, terms and conditions of service and
even payroll. Marcus then secured a role in a small boutique consulting company
specialising in graduate recruitment, learning and development and individual
development programs. During this period Marcus completed further post graduate
studies in Managerial Psychology.
Pursuing a desire to further his studies Marcus moved to Brisbane started a PhD in
Organisational Psychology at Griffith University and worked in HR consulting for a
Queensland Government agency. Marcus then secured a role in the newly formed
Workforce Information and Analysis Unit in the Department of Main Roads. The
Workforce Information and Analysis Unit is tasked with providing managers the
information they need to make informed decisions about workforce strategy and Marcus
is involved in a wide range of organisational research activities such as workforce
planning, workforce profiling and reporting, exit interviews, new starter survey, retention
survey and the whole of organisation staff survey.
What do you love about your job?
Every day I get to directly apply the learning I have undertaken in my professional
studies. I get to make decisions in regard to the strategy, design, and administration,
analysis and reporting of an integrated organisational performance framework in the way
I think it should be done. Furthermore I have access to a large diverse Workforce who
teach me something new about organisational behaviour on a daily basis. Lastly I have
opportunities to present my work to an international audience and develop my
knowledge, skills and expertise in an area that I have devoted my life to. This is not a job,
it is my calling. What is there not to love?
Career highlights?
• Facilitating a whole of organisation review of the service delivery model for the Family
Court • Developing the Strategic and Business Planning Process for the Family Court
Administering the graduate selection process for the Department of Finance (2000
applications, 250 selected for assessment centres conducted across Australia) •
Supporting the development and evaluation of a remuneration strategy for the
Department of Main Roads • Visioning, creating, and building the Workforce Information
Framework at the Department of Main Roads •