Mark Soar

Swinburne Edge facilitator – Auditing

Mark has a diverse background in Work Health and Safety (WHS) consulting and is an experienced WHS facilitator. He is passionate about promoting and delivering training to professionals and works effectively with employees from all backgrounds and industries to improve safety culture and safe work practices.

Mark specialises in creating opportunities to identify and explore improvement potential that assist individuals and organisations to achieve best practice industry benchmarks. With a diverse client portfolio, Mark’s consultancy and professional coaching services empower both individuals and businesses alike, to achieve work practices that meet industry demands and legislative requirements, while ensuring effective resource management and sustainability.

Specialised skills:
  • customised course design and educational resource development
  • WHS management system development
  • WHS management system auditing services
  • emergency planning and procedural development
  • WHS legislative compliance
  • WHS risk assessment and corrective action management
  • workplace incident investigation.

Rohan Arden

Swinburne Edge facilitator – Auditing

Rohan has a diverse suite of industry experience including 37 years as a facilitator. Rohan brought his skills, experience, qualifications, and knowledge to Swinburne in 2006 and has provided services as a consultant, facilitator, and assessor since then. Rohan’s service and experience in policing, risk management, military and security operations nourish his passion for workplace safety and this fervour drives him to provide training that is memorable, engaging, and effective for participants from all walks of life.

Rohan continues to provide specialised and contextualised training and consulting services to government agencies, healthcare, onshore and offshore petrochemical, wind energy, dairy manufacturing, construction, warehousing and logistics, education, timber manufacturing, hospitality.  

As a highly experienced facilitator, Rohan spends much of his time working within industry, constantly maintaining his practical experience and contemporary knowledge of the subject material and principles he imparts in the classroom.

Specialised skills:
  • WHS Risk Management
  • WHS Management System Development and Auditing
  • Emergency Planning and Emergency Response
  • Design and Educational Resource Development
  • Incident Investigation and Corrective Action
  • Procedural Development
  • WHS Legislative Compliance

Kathy Papafotiou

Swinburne Edge facilitator - Business Skills

Kathy brings 20 years of broad industry experience to her consulting, facilitating, and coaching.  She has consulted and worked in national and state-based management roles with industries such as insurance, manufacturing, scientific research, and health services.

Passionate about workplace and personal efficiency, Kathy incorporates positive psychology to inspire learning and develop her clients’ capabilities.  Her approach incorporates both mind and body to help grow and develop skills that become an inert part of an individual. 

When working with her clients, Kathy connects with clarity, focus and self-management to help them achieve sustainable and productive outcomes.  

Her style can be described as dynamic with enthusiasm and outcomes focused.

Specialised skills:
  • Advanced Presentation Skills
  • Time Management
  • Resilience and Mindfulness practices
  • Certificate IV in Training and Assessment and VET accredited learning
  • Communication Effectiveness
  • Business Writing
  • Workplace assessment and learning design.

Marisa Dantanarayana

Swinburne Edge facilitator – Coaching

Marisa has been an executive coach and facilitator since 2002, has coached hundreds of executives (over 2,000 hours) and has international business and not-for-profit board experience. Her experience spans a diverse range of clients from large corporations to small businesses, from the public to private sectors. She works with teams, groups and individuals, from C-suite to middle management.

Prior to executive coaching and leadership development, Marisa had a highly successful track record as an executive in the corporate world, having worked for leading global companies; and has a track record of growing businesses across multiple industries. 

As an IT sales executive, she worked across banking and finance, telco, utilities, retail, government and transport and logistics. Marisa was a Regional Board Member of the International Coach Federation Australasia and President for the Victorian Chapter. She is also the co-founder and Director of footprint, providing a leading software solution to the mentoring and coaching market.

Specialised skills:
  • individual executive coaching
  • group and team coaching
  • leadership development
  • facilitation
  • coaching skills for leaders
  • cultural and behavioural change
  • alignment of purpose and values
  • high performance and sustainability.

Ann Wright

Swinburne Edge facilitator – Coaching

Ann Wright is an Executive Coach, Coach Mentor and Coach Supervisor. Previously a senior manager in human resources, regional operations and organisational development, Ann’s executive coaching is informed by her understanding of, experience as and commitment to powerful and personable leadership.

For the past 10 years, she has worked as an Executive Coach, facilitator and trainer in coaching skills for coaches and professional leaders and managers including for Australian Federal Government. She has over 20 years’ experience as a senior manager in Human Resources and operational management roles including organisational development and strategic change. She has a deep interest in narrative as an inhibitor and enabler of personal and professional change.

Her experience as consultant, project leader and executive coach is Australasia in the private, public and NFP sectors including aviation, IT, transport, regulation, health, tertiary education, membership, and professional services. 

Specialised skills:
  • Individual executive coaching
  • Coaching for role transition
  • Mentoring for internal coaches
  • Team coaching
  • Coaching skills for leaders

Rachel Moore

Swinburne Edge facilitator - Communication Skills

Rachel specialises in emotional intelligence (EI) profiling and feedback, coaching, and career development. With 20 years of experience in the learning and development field, she works with individuals to develop their self-management and relationship management skills, and to improve their professional performance and career success. Her focus is on providing opportunities and knowledge to become successful at work.

Rachel is a passionate professional with years of experience working with EI profiling tools and coaching senior executives, people managers, and frontline employees in the development of their individual EI goals. She is accredited in the tools of Genos, Six Seconds, EQ-i 2.0 and EQ360 Emotional Intelligence.

Rachel has a strong interest in health and wellbeing and facilitates programs in workplace wellbeing and brain health.

Specialised skills:
  • coaching
  • communication
  • program designing
  • facilitation‌
  • assessment.

Jo Bradshaw

Swinburne Edge facilitator - Communication Skills

Jo Bradshaw has 25 years’ experience in training and development, leadership development, performance management, talent management, developing organisational culture and climate, and leading both training & development and generalist HR functions. 

Jo has had considerable experience working with diverse organisations in both the public and private sectors across many different industries. She has worked with management in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and India delivering programs focused on leading self, leading others and leading the organisation.

Jo is an experienced board director and chair, having spent over 10 years on the boards of various not-for-profit organisations.

Specialised skills:
  • Leadership development
  • Human resource management
  • Consulting
  • Change management
  • Team development
  • Strategic planning
  • Governance

Mechelle Moore

Swinburne Edge facilitator - Hybrid Working

Mechelle is a creative and skilful facilitator, instructional designer and coach, working in learning and development for over 20 years.

Mechelle had a successful career holding various management positions in medium and large companies. In her current role she works across a variety of sectors including private and corporate businesses, not for profit, local, state and federal government departments. 

With an academic background in Adult Education and Leadership and Management, she combines her experience and love of learning to help leaders, managers and teams grow and develop.

Mechelle focuses on expanding their skills to thrive in a work environment that is team-based, collaborative and centred on developing and engaging the best people. 

Specialised skills:
  • Certified MyEverything DiSC Practitioner
  • Certified GENOS Emotional Intelligence Practitioner
  • Leading and Managing
  • Building Effective Workplace Relationships
  • Tailoring Client Learning Programs
  • Developing Enterprise Trainers

Terry Gaven

Swinburne Edge facilitator – Finance

Terry brings to management and leadership development a wealth of experience gained over 20 years at senior executive level. He has worked as a consultant and facilitator for the past twelve years, specialising in business management. Terry's background is in corporate management, with an emphasis on business finance and administration. He has worked with public sector organisations at local, state and commonwealth levels, as well as private sector companies. 

Terry is a Fellow of Certified Practising Accountants Australia, an Associate of the Institute of Corporate Managers, Secretaries, and Administrators, an Associate of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, and a member of the Australian Institute for Learning Practitioners.

Specialised skills:
  • strategic business finance
  • financial management and business planning
  • finance and accounting
  • business case writing
  • contract management.

Peter O'Donnell

Swinburne Edge facilitator - Health and Safety

Peter has a passion and enthusiasm for learning which sees him inspire others. With over 25 years working in leadership, coaching and mentoring roles, he works to combine his experience and facilitation skills to share his knowledge and encourage others to develop themselves in their chosen fields.

Peter has worked in both the private and public sectors with clients varying in SMEs, large Australian and international organisations and federal agencies including Origin Energy, Coles Myer, Diners Club International, GE Money, Telstra, the Australian Electoral Commission, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia Post and major banks. He has been responsible for relationships, human resources management and staff development in his career.

His experience has led him to work across a range of cultures, industries and organisations; embracing the diversity that exists in each client group.

Specialised skills:
  • facilitation
  • assessment and instructional design of accredited courses
  • customer service
  • work health and safety
  • management
  • leadership
  • human resources
  • vocational education
  • executive coaching.

Vanessa Eckhaus

Swinburne Edge facilitator – Human Resources

As a highly regarded business professional, Vanessa has extensive experience in delivering strategic learning solutions to a large range of sectors and industries including corporates, the health sector, and not-for-profit organisations. She has worked with a diverse portfolio including the Alannah & Madeline Foundation, Berry Street Victoria, InTouch Multicultural Family Violence Service, Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency, Australia Post, Crown, Herbert Smith Freehills, and Metro Trains.

Vanessa initially qualified and worked as a solicitor in employment law. She was regularly involved in legal and industrial litigation as well as creating learning programs on employment-related topics for management teams, unions, and solicitors. After a number of years in legal practice, she moved into the human resources profession where she has successfully utilised her legal knowledge and training experience to help managers develop their skills and lead high-performing teams.

Vanessa is an engaging facilitator, able to develop a rapport with all levels of an organisation to determine their needs and to provide tailored interventions. Her areas of expertise include effective workplace communication, resolving workplace conflict, bullying, harassment and discrimination, and increasing team effectiveness (including managing poor performance).

Specialised skills:
  • training and assessment
  • Belbin team roles
  • honey and mumford learning styles
  • DISC-style communication inventories
  • alternative dispute resolution.

Matt Doig

Swinburne Edge facilitator – Human Resources

Matthew is a highly skilled facilitator, learning designer, and consultant. He has extensive experience spanning three decades in which he has assisted individuals and organizations to realize their potential. His work is supported by a strong commitment to enabling personal and professional transformations for aspiring leaders and managers seeking to boost their career and business trajectories.

Matthew’s expertise covers a diverse range of subjects including leadership, people management skills, emotional intelligence, and workplace resilience. He has collaborated with prominent private and public enterprises and educational institutions, delivering valuable insights and impactful learning experiences.

Matthew's professional affiliations include membership of the Institute of Learning Professionals and his ongoing role as a Company Director has afforded him valuable insights into the challenges faced by organisations.

Specialised skills:
  • Assisting new Managers in their role
  • Developing workplace mentors
  • Emotionally intelligent leadership (via GENOS accreditation)
  • Building resilient teams and individuals
  • Supporting Digital Transformations of organisations
  • Communicating for results 

Nick Mills

Swinburne Edge facilitator - Hybrid Working

Nick is a relaxed, thoughtful, and insightful facilitator and coach.  With many years of experience in travel, insurance, finance, and other industries, he is able to adjust his delivery for many types of audiences. 

While facilitating and coaching, Nick also works part time for the University of Tasmania completing his PhD in inclusion for LGBTQ+ leaders in the finance and professional services sectors.

Nick is motivated to help leaders have more meaningful interactions and more effective and sensitive conversations with all team members across their organisations.  This work will be published in 2024.

Recently, Nick was lead facilitator for two major inclusion and awareness program rollouts.   Both of those programs are centred around organisations making real change.

Specialised skills:
  • Facilitation in Management and Leadership
  • Coaching
  • Change Management
  • Diversity, Inclusion and Allyship
  • Sales Training
  • Emotional Intelligence
  • The neuroscience of leadership

Paul Mischel

Swinburne Edge facilitator - Hybrid Working

Paul possesses an eclectic background spanning 29 years across multiple industries including Natural Health, Retail and Professional Services.

Paul's multi-disciplinary approach and systemic mindset helps empower individuals and groups at all levels to unearth their latent talents and resources.

 His adeptness in program design, implementation, and presentation across a diverse spectrum of organizations in public and private sectors spanning the Asia Pacific, European and North American regions underscores his versatile expertise.

His facilitation style is characterized by pragmatism, vitality, and playfulness that fosters a safe, inclusive and transformative atmosphere.

Paul excels in simplifying intricate concepts, ensuring participants can readily grasp and apply pivotal insights and learnings. 

Specialised skills:
  • Positive Strengths Based Leadership
  • Emotional Intelligence – Genos Accredited
  • Presentation skills & Think On Your Feet®
  • Influence and Persuasion
  • Resilience and Wellbeing
  • Conflict Management & Negotiation skills
  • Embracing change and disruption

Terrence Yakub

Swinburne Edge facilitator - Information Technology

Terrence has over 25 years of experience in Training and Management. His success is in developing an interest and aspiration for learning within people and to assist individuals to develop competence and confidence in using software programs in a relevant, enjoyable, and interactive manner.

Terrence delivers courses and manages multi-national projects both overseas and in Australia for clients such as Australia Post, ANZ Bank, Telstra and Realestate.com.au. He also incorporates training needs analysis and creates and develops software training programs for the retail, manufacturing, educational, finance, and the food industries, as well as government departments.

Specialised skills:
  • software training
  • developing
  • consulting.

John Mitchell

Swinburne Edge facilitator – Innovation

John has a passion for communication and believes that it is the cornerstone to solving many of the problems faced by businesses and those who work in them. He also recognises and is passionate about the critical role emotional intelligence plays in the success of our lives, both within and outside the workplace.

John is a highly-engaging facilitator who uses a range of media and methodologies to engage different learning styles, whether it be in face-to-face, blended or online delivery. He has had extensive experience delivering training to a range of different groups in the government, industry, para-military and general public spaces.

John’s training has a focus on the practical application of theories and models taught that ensures that workshop participants gain the ability to not only practice their skills within their training session but also leave with the confidence to practice them in a real-world context.

Specialised skills:
  • Emotional Intelligence
  • Conflict Management
  • Active Listening
  • Communication
  • Feedback Skills
  • Creative Thinking and Problem Solving
  • Assertiveness, Persuasion and Negotiation

Joanne Marriott

Swinburne professional facilitator - Leadership and Management

Joanne is an accomplished facilitator, speaker and coach who is passionate about Leadership and particularly Emotional Intelligence (EI). She works with a broad range of clients, across many different industries helping them understand what EI is and how to build their EI skills. She is accredited with Genos International’s Emotional Intelligence assessment tools.

Joanne has vast leadership experience from a successful 20-year marketing management career in a broad range of industries, including Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Hardware, Hospitality, Financial Services and the Not for Profit sector prior to starting her own business in 2002. Her expertise was gained in her native Canada and since 1997 in Australia. She held senior Management roles such as Director of Marketing at Dulux Australia. She was a member of the Board of Directors of Engineers Without Borders Australia from 2010 – 2014. Joanne enjoys working with clients across all levels of the organisation.

Specialised skills:
  • Leading with Emotional Intelligence
  • Developing Strategic Plans
  • Building Leadership and Management Skills
  • Communicating with Influence
  • Building Customer Centric Organisations

Isabel Boyce

Swinburne professional facilitator - Leadership and Management

Motivated to create a positive impact and to bring the best out in people, Isabel has more than 15 years’ experience in Learning and Organisational Development. She specialises in facilitation, face-to-face and virtual, learning design and coaching.

Her engaging personality, energy and creativity combined with strong business acumen make her a unique Facilitator and Learning Designer who can adapt to the audience with ease and authenticity.

 Underpinning her success is the belief that if you focus on your people, provide support and leadership, they will take care of your business.

Over the years Isabel has worked across many industries including but not limited to Retail, Automotive, Higher Education, Health, Insurance, Banking, Financial Services, Superannuation, Government and Local Government, Travel and Tourism, Aviation, Construction and Manufacturing.

Her experience extends beyond Australia, she has lived overseas, travelled widely and speaks several languages.

Specialised skills:
  • Leadership development
  • Effective communication, DiSC accredited
  • Presentation skills & public speaking
  • Emotional intelligence, Genos 360 accredited
  • Coaching and mentoring
  • Team workshops and conferences
  • Customer experience

Mark Lewis

Swinburne Edge facilitator - Organisational Change

Mark has had an extensive Human Resources (HR) career commencing with Crown as their Customer Service Development Training Manager through to major casino and hotel openings. He then moved to Caterpillar where he enjoyed a long career in senior HR leadership roles both in Australia and in the Asia Pacific. More recently Mark was the Principal and Asia Pacific HR Leader for Mercer Outsourcing.

Earlier this year Mark completed the Executive Coach Certificate Program through Swinburne and is currently providing executive coaching and HR consulting within several organisations, as well as completing an international MBA.

Mark’s ongoing career mission is to assist leaders to achieve significant and sustainable results through their people, to leave a legacy of high-performance organisations with engaged work cultures and to build best in class HR practices that deliver optimal organisational capability.

Cheryl Crostwaite

Swinburne Edge facilitator – Human Resources

Cheryl has over 30 years’ experience in leadership and management in Australia and internationally, and brings a wealth of both theoretical and practical aspects to her clients. She is a well-rounded, flexible management consultant and trainer, results-driven with both public and private sector experience. She is mature and experienced, with a strong customer focus and a high degree of professionalism, and believes strongly in a team approach to the provision of quality services. Her experience in the public service sector and as a cost centre manager in Australia has given her an excellent grounding in all avenues of management and as her experience has been with a very decentralised human resource function it means she was involved in many varied aspects of human resources.  

Specialised skills:
  • well-developed research and analytical skills
  • written communication and business presentation
  • program design and evaluation
  • management of public sector human services
  • general manager experience including profit and loss accountability
  • management and human resources
  • soft skills training.

Stephen Abrahams

Swinburne Edge facilitator - Project Management

A graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, Stephen’s military and business career of over 30 years includes leadership in logistics support, asset management, program and project management, business management and training roles in both operations and corporate environments.

Stephen’s clients include a broad range of medium to large government and commercial clients in diverse industries including automotive, agriculture, construction, education, entertainment, human services, immigration, police, retail, logistics, utilities, travel, security and professional services. Stephen specialises in developing the creative potential in organisations by linking strategy to execution and empowering individuals and teams.

Specialised skills:
  • strategic and business planning
  • portfolio and program management
  • project and risk management (including agile methodologies)
  • leadership and influencing
  • creative thinking and problem solving
  • managing operational improvement (including lean and six sigma)
  • decision-making and analysis
  • managing for innovation.

Gillian Harris

Swinburne Edge facilitator - Risk Management

Gillian is an experienced facilitator and trainer in project management, agile project management, business analysis, organisational change management, innovation and leadership. With over 20 years’ experience in senior executive roles, she has developed and launched new services and products for business and consumer markets and has led both small and large teams.

She works in the private and public sectors, with small start-ups supporting innovation, and with large organisations to build project outcomes and develop project and leadership capabilities. Committed to organisational performance, Gillian takes a systemic approach which recognises the need to blend process, people and project skills.

Gillian brings a breadth of experience, an enthusiasm for innovation, and she drives the advancement of sound processes, good stakeholder collaboration, and ultimately, a pragmatic approach.

Specialised skills:
  • project management. (e.g. PMBOK, Waterfall, Prince2, Agile)
  • organisational change (e.g. PROSCI, appreciative enquiry, change intelligence)
  • innovation management
  • product and service development
  • creativity and entrepreneurship
  • business analysis practices
  • agile business analysis
  • requirements elicitation.

Chris Lee

Swinburne Edge facilitator - Risk Management

Having his roots at Engineering and Manufacturing Trade level, and now a Director and Business Owner of a Software Company, Chris has designed and managed IT Projects across Manufacturing, Defence, Educational, NGO, and Finance sectors since 1991.  Chris is approachable and able to converse with a range of business issues. Chris’s sound business knowledge, combined with a practical experience ensures a good grounding in these skills is achieved and often provides examples utilised to the benefit of his students. As a facilitator and assessor, Chris aims to provided satisfying leadership training students to improve key abilities and knowledge.  Chris is a long-term Swinburne Student.

Key Motivators: -1- Mentoring and building individuals and teams and -2- continuously improving everything you do.

Favourite Quotes: “You are the most important project that you will ever work on.”, “Keep learning until you have dirt in your ears”.

Specialised skills:
  • Developing high performance online teams.
  • Project Leadership, Mentoring and Coaching.
  • Strong PMBOK and PRINCE2 as best practice in Project Management.
  • Benefits, Customer loyalty and Quality Services Delivery.
  • Process Driven Approaches.

Elle Taurinskaite

Swinburne Edge facilitator – Strategy

Elle brings 20 years of business experience including marketing, leadership and education management. Prior to starting her consultancy, she worked for the government and the private sector.

Elle has extensive international experience, having worked in the European Union’s economic development and investment programs and later with global marketing communication networks Saatchi & Saatchi and FCB as an Account Director. She led strategic brand communication projects, engaging mostly with Scandinavian clients and has been involved in designing new products and developing brand strategies for manufacturing organisations and facilitating strategic planning in not-for-profit organisations.

As a professional facilitator and instructional designer, Elle collaborated in international business education programs with UK universities and guest-lectured in Asia and Europe.

Specialised skills:
  • design thinking and strategy development
  • brand management
  • organisational capability development
  • public speaking
  • systems coaching
  • instructional design.

Anna Mastwyk

Swinburne Edge facilitator

For the past 25 years, Anna has worked as a Learning & Development Consultant providing competency-based training and assessment in industry, and facilitates nationally accredited courses and customised programs. She has a diverse background having worked in both the public and private sectors. Anna is passionate about sharing her knowledge and encourages a friendly, experiential and flexible learning environment with a strong emphasis on the transfer of learning into the workplace.

As a training consultant, Anna liaises with training and personnel managers across a wide range of organisations and is committed to working with clients to identify training needs and work towards providing solutions in line with performance requirements.

Specialised skills:
  • management and leadership
  • emotional intelligence
  • time management
  • business writing
  • interpersonal communication skills
  • customer service
  • advanced presentation
  • competency-based training and assessment
  • language, literacy and numeracy
  • instructional design – development of training and assessment resources
  • vocational education expertise – compliance with national and state regulations.

Andrea O'Donnell

Swinburne Edge facilitator

Andrea is an experienced corporate facilitator/assessor with more than 20 years of management and consultancy experience in a range of industry sectors, both public and private. Commencing her career with the Department of Education as a teacher of Primary, Secondary and Tertiary levels, Andrea subsequently moved into a Senior Management role in Human Resources/Recruitment. Following this role, her career evolved around consulting for various clients, combining her management and interpersonal skills to lead, coach and motivate others.

Andrea specialises in the development of tailored programs. She regularly facilitates and assesses accredited programs including; Certificate IV in TAE, Diploma of Leadership and Management, Certificate IV in Leadership and Management, as well as non-accredited short courses designed for specific areas of skill development. 

Specialised skills:
  • VET consultancy
  • RTO compliance
  • Instructional design
  • Assessment resource development
  • Leadership and management
  • Business coaching/mentoring

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