Team Profiles

OUR APPROACH

We believe that people have infinite capacity to achieve and extend beyond what seems possible. We also believe that it takes deep personal commitment and courage to embark on a change journey and stay the distance. We are there to help.

We work at the individual, team and organisation level because we believe that profound organisational change can only occur when individuals driving the change have the courage to transform themselves. The process begins and ends with the individual.

We design customised programs for each individual, team or organisation.

 

MEET THE TEAM

Graham Richardson, Director

Graham is passionate about the human element in business and is dedicated to helping top management realise their personal and corporate goals in making a difference for themselves and others. He has been working with top teams on their development as high performing units as well as coaching senior executives for over twelve years, across industries including financial services, telecommunications, aviation, building & construction, manufacturing, utilities, government and FMCG.

Graham’s corporate career included managing director, board member and senior executive positions in advertising and marketing.  He worked for three of the world’s top advertising agencies, and serviced the world’s leading brands and services. Graham’s executive presence allows him to interact with very senior clients as their coach, mentor and facilitator. He is known for his challenging style as well as his enormous empathy.

Graham is committed to working in areas that effectively provide Change Management and Workplace Transformation, Management & Leadership Training, Executive Development, Team Facilitation & Conflict Resolution.

Graham is a Master Practitioner in Neuro Linguistic Programming, an accredited International Neuro-semantic Trainer and PCMC (Professional Certified Meta Coach), and is a qualified Train the Trainer through AIM, a graduate High Performance Coach, member of the Career Development Association Australia (CDAA) and a member of the International Coach Federation.  Graham is qualified in the practices of Frameworks for Change,  Hogan  Personality Inventory, Australian Values Inventory, Human Synergistics LSI, GI & LI, Team Management Systems TMP, Crucial Conversations & Active Learning ‘Play of Life’. 

Graham dedicates his life to learning how to learn for himself and others, and is actively engaged in his own professional development to this end.

To hear Graham in interview click here.

Melissa Richardson, Director

Melissa’s business experience prior to consulting spans various roles in Marketing, including Marketing Director at Unilever, after which she owned a marketing strategy and research business with two partners.

Melissa founded Marketing Women in 1997, a non-profit association that provided volunteer mentors for female marketing executives for fourteen years. Since 2007 she has convened a mentor program for Network Central, a networking group for female executives. Melissa consults to a number of organisations on their coaching and mentoring strategy, and supports and administers their internal mentoring programs. Melissa has been coaching since 2004.

As an executive coach, workshop facilitator and strategic consultant, Melissa has worked in professional services, banking and finance, publishing, law, technology, telecommunications, packaged goods, healthcare, energy, government and airlines.

Melissa has an undergraduate degree in psychology, postgraduate qualifications in Strategic Marketing, in Counselling, and a Masters degree in Organisational Coaching. She is accredited in a number of profiling, assessment and development tools, including LSI (Life Styles Inventory), PD (Personal Directions), LEA (Leadership Effectiveness Analysis), Birkman, Play of Life and AVI (Australian Values Inventory). She is an Associate Fellow of AIM, member of  the Career Development Association Australia (CDAA), the International Coach Federation and the AICD.

Melissa is a non-executive director of WorkVentures Ltd, a non-profit social enterprise, and is a member of the fundraising committee for Osteoporosis Australia.

Karen Reilly, Associate

Before starting her own consultancy, Karen built a successful career in HR and Organisational Development with blue chip organisations in FMCG, Financial Services and Media industries in Australia and the UK. She now specialises in: coaching and development for leaders, career coaching/counselling/career services and strategic learning/HR projects.

Karen is a member of the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and a professional member of the Career Development Association Australia (CDAA). She has completed a Masters degree in Coaching Psychology and a Graduate Certificate in Career Development. She has coached junior to senior leaders since 2000 and this is now a large focus of her work. Karen’s approach is supportive, challenging, and builds greater client self awareness and insight. Karen energises and empowers her clients through robust goal-setting, action planning, support resources and regular contact. She has been involved with 1:1, team and reverse mentoring programs.

Karen is certified to work with MBTI (Step 1&2); Hogan Assessment Tools, and Managing Transitions (Change Management by William Bridges). 

Karen led the design, development and implementation of global leadership development at Reuters (now Thomson Reuters) for 4 years, creating programs which reached 500-1000 managers annually. She has extensive experience in  training needs analysis, program design, traditional and eLearning development, implementation and evaluation of learning. In 2008, a program she developed won an Open University (UK) Award for Most Innovative Program in a Corporate Environment.

Jo Corcoran, Associate

Josephine is an Executive Coach, Facilitator and Trainer with a strong Business Development background winning and managing large scale accounts.  She worked for 18 years both with and servicing blue-chip companies in senior Learning and Development consulting roles, Recruitment, Marketing and PR positions. 

Throughout her career she has focussed on guiding and mentoring individuals to achieve their career aspirations and goals.  To bring rigour to her work, she completed her Masters of Coaching in Psychology and became actively interested in positive psychology.  She has found this approach to coaching work to be fruitful in supporting individuals to achieve their potential. 

Josephine has supported individuals to achieve goals related to career aspirations, business development, account management, personal branding, communication, networking, business performance and leadership.  She has worked across a range of industries including professional services, telecommunications, IT, property, banking and finance, retail and government.  Josephine’s open style and ability to win confidence and trust, enables individuals to clearly set their goals and draws out issues that may be hindering their success. Depending on the situation she engages both behavioural and skills coaching techniques. 

Jo holds a Masters in Psychology of Coaching, Graduate Diploma in Marketing and a Bachelor of Science (Psychology major).  She is a member of the International Coaching Federation.

 

Penelope Craven, Associate

Coach, Facilitator and Learning and Development Consultant, Penelope has had an extensive career within the professional services sector in the United Kingdom and Australia, having held senior management positions in the fields of Financial and Commercial Due Diligence.

Her various roles within professional services included responsibility for project management, client liaison, management, identification and development of internal and external talent and improving the performance of individuals and teams. This provided her with the opportunity to engage with clients from various industries and a cross section of individuals from senior executives to first line managers. In 2004 Penelope was transferred by KPMG to Australia to establish and develop their Strategic and Commercial Due Diligence Department which she accomplished over the next three years before embarking on a career change.

Penelope is passionate about helping people to develop and achieve their greatest potential, and now specialises in executive coaching, career and capability development, developing and facilitating organisational mentoring programs.

Penelope has a Bachelor of Science (Hons), a Masters of Applied Science (Psychology of Coaching) and is a Chartered Accountant and an Associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales. She is accredited in numerous assessment and profiling tools including DiSC, Hogan and LSI. Penelope is also a coach and trainer for a number of women’s mentoring programs in Sydney.