Proven business transformation, driven by agility.

Alex Rebkowski

Partner and Managing Director

Alex has spent more than 12 years working within Agile Teams, large transformations  and  Enterprise Architecture to ensure that business and technology delivers long lasting change and difference for organisations. At BCG, he specialises in Agile at Scale transformations and Technology having spent more than 10 years working for ING Group and ING Bank in various roles across business, operations & IT. His experience includes:​

• Support of ING Bank in the Netherlands and Australia in building their Agile Ways of Working based on the whole enterprise adoption of the Spotify model with a strong focus on governance and implementation.​
• Led numerous Agile at Scale transformations in terms of design, implementation and coaching across Australia, Asia and Europe.​
• Support of numerous Customer Journey teams in adopting Agile Ways of Working​
• Build a global Enterprise Architecture function for ING Bank, to ensure coherence and modularity of IT platforms to support autonomous Agile teams​
• Led numerous transformation Program’s with budgets varying from $10m to $350m​

Key Facts

• Bachelor of International Affairs and Economics and a Master of Political Science from Warsaw School of Economics​
• Involved with various charities raising more than $500,000 for UNICEF​

Douglas Ross

Partner and Managing Director

Douglas founded ADAPTOVATE to help business teams rapidly scale innovation across their organisations so they can adapt, grow, and sustain success in global markets.​

Douglas has had global management roles within JP Morgan, News, and Macquarie and has worked as a consultant with Boston Consulting and Accenture as well as becoming a serial entrepreneur and investor. He has helped start-ups and large organisations successfully transform the way they work in Australia, Asia, North America and Europe.​

Douglas has​

• Led executive teams in design sprints to solve large and difficult business problems, that lead to workable and testable prototypes and successful implementations​
• Led large business transformations in retail banking, insurance, investment banking, media,  telecommunications and public sector​
• Supported start-ups and corporates from strategy to design of their business model, through rapid design sprints and implementation to scaled delivery​
• Led corporate teams to change the way they work so that overwhelmed teams become high performing, collaborative and motivated to deliver valuable output everyday​
• Led the turnaround of stalled transformation programs using a proven approach, based in agile execution and enterprise architecture, systems thinking and lean principles​

Key Facts

• Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (Honors) and a Bachelor of Arts in Japanese and Economics from the University of New South Wales.
• He has founded, invested, motivated and sold a number of startups from cloud technology to consulting to healthcare.

Paul McNamara

Partner and Managing Director

Paul leads our Agile practice, helping organisations to be more focused on customer and business value, deliver better outcomes and achieve faster time-to-market.  He was previously CFO at Simple, a leading Agile Marketing SaaS platform and led Agile Practice in Asia Pacific at The Boston Consulting Group.​

Before joining BCG, Paul spent more than 12 years in software development and marketing. He has held global roles in Product Management, Software Engineering, R&D, Sales and Marketing and has extensive experience in the USA, UK, Europe and Asia. He is an Agile practitioner and certified Scrum Product Owner. ​

Paul’s consulting experience covers over 10 large scale Agile programs across Asia and Europe:​

• Establishing a large efficiency program in support functions through new Agile ways of working for a global Industrial Goods player​
• Supported the design and rollout of a complete business transformation to Agile ways of working at an Australian bank and a large Thai bank​
• Led the Agile enablement of a large scale customer journey transformation at an Australian bank​
• Supporting building an Agile Academy of a customer journey innovation team at a Malaysian bank​
• Designed a customised Agile rollout plan for an Indonesian telecommunications provider​
• Developing a new S&OP optimisation model for a large Australian consumer products company using Agile development ​

Key Facts

• MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM)
• Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (First-Class Honours) and a Bachelor of Science in Computing from the University of New South Wales.
• He has 11 US Patents granted to date

Alan Trivedi​

Alan helps leaders and organizations drive value and improve culture through agile transformations. He guides leaders and their teams in confidently establishing agile ways of working in their organization. ​

Alan has led consulting engagements with Fortune 500 organizations establishing agile practices, program offices, and delivering global technology projects. He is an Agile practitioner, certified professional coach and scrum master​

Relevant project experience​

• Implemented multiple large-scale program offices for transformations in automotive, energy, entertainment, financial services, healthcare, and pharmaceutical client sectors​
• Led the agile transformation programs across multiple business, technology, and vendors teams in healthcare sector​
• Led the agile transformation and project delivery of a 250-person health insurance contact center transformation to improve member experience and agent service quality​
• Led the delivery of a $80M return on investment solution reducing claims rejections and improving provider data through process and technology.​
• Improved agile adoption and effectiveness across the enterprise through quantitative and qualitative analysis and methods ​

Key Facts

• Bachelor in Information Technology, American InterContinental University, ​
• Executive Master of Business Administration, University of Maryland​
• Graduate Certificate in Information Technology, Rochester Institute of Technology​
• Graduate Certificate in Organizational Development and Executive Coaching, University of Texas, Dallas​
• Certified Scrum Master​
• Professional Certified Coach​

Amanda Rennie

Amanda is our Office Manager.

She began her career in Direct Marketing at Cellarmasters, where she gained experience as Product Manager in both direct mail and outbound telemarketing channels.

She then moved into Advertising and worked at M&C Saatchi Direct and George Patterson Bates in account management. In these client-facing roles, Amanda’s focus was on providing value and being a knowledgeable and reassuring point of contact between the client and advertising creative teams.

Following some time off to focus on family, Amanda joined events company – The Eventful Group – and worked in their Accounts Receivable department.

More recently, she joined ADAPTOVATE where she works part-time as our Office Manager.

Andrew McNamara​

Andrew has 10 years’ experience supporting, designing and developing IT systems for the public and private sector. ​

Andrew prides himself in delivering a high level of service to help maintain business continuity and boost productivity. He is passionate about designing IT systems that change people’s way of thinking and challenges them to deliver more.​

Andrew’s experience includes:​

• Team lead in the Australia wide rollout of mobile devices and supporting applications ​
• Supported the transition from Exchange on prem to O365 ​
• Team lead on implementation of cloud telephony/Salesforce solution to a high volume customer service centre​

Key Facts

• Bachelor of Computer Science & Technology​
• Salesforce Administrator​
• Microsoft Certified Support Technician (Windows 7)​

Andy Koh

Andy specialises in Agile Transformation and coaching teams through the transition from traditional to agile ways of working. He has more than nine years of experience in consulting, project management and financial services technology in Asia Pacific. Andy has experience working across many diverse cultures and regions, and enjoys seeing the amazing results diverse teams can achieve. He is fluent in English and Mandarin.​

Before joining Adaptovate, Andy was in Accenture managing various programmes and projects across financial services firms in the Asia Pacific region. Prior to that, Andy spent time with DBS, Barclays Capital and Bank of America Merrill Lynch leading application and infrastructure projects.​

Selected engagements Andy have performed or led include:​

• Functioned as one of the senior Agile coaches for a major Thai bank in the Transformation Office and business Tribe in the bank’s Agile transformation through parallel focus on classroom training and on-the-job coaching​
• Conducted Agile Fundamentals classroom training for 120 Product Owners and 100 Scrum Masters for a regional renewable energy producer in the Philippines ​
• Led the Agile project delivery of Credit Cards business for the Hong Kong office of a UK-based global bank; Andy coached the project team on Agile which successfully delivered product MVPs consistently​
• Planned and managed a digital transformation project transitioning from waterfall to Agile ways of working (using Scrum) for a Singapore-based regional bank​
• Managed QR push payment market entry programme (Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka) for a global US-based payments solution firm​

Key Facts

• MBA from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)​
• Bachelor of Computer Engineering (Honours) from the National University of Singapore ​
• Certified Agile Coach (ICP-ACC) – ICAgile; Certified Scrum Master (CSM) – Scrum Alliance; Certified SAFe Scrum Master (SSM) – Scaled Agile; Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) – PMI​

M Anthony Librizzi​

Anthony is a digital transformation leader and Certified Enterprise Agile Coach. With over 15 years’ experience spanning startups to Fortune 500 companies, he has demonstrated success in partnering with clients on digital solutions, solution architecture, and agile transformations across finance, insurance, entertainment, healthcare, real estate, retail, and hospitality industries.​​

Anthony’s experience:​

• Partnered with executive leadership team at Fortune 10 media company to restructure agile portfolio operations and coordinate into value streams to reduce time-to-market. ​
• Coached operations team for delivery of $400MM in investments in a large Insurance company​
• Mentored Product Owners and Scrum Masters to improve competencies and implement best practices, in support of the transition to a new role matrix for the agile transformation of a health insurance company. ​
• Launched strategy execution teams to accelerate tactic-to-market speed and build internal marketing capabilities for long-term cost savings in a global pharmaceutical company ​
• Mobilized and coached agile release trains focused on authorization, content management/scheduling, and integrating business service capabilities to rebrand and relaunch a leading digital telecom platform for over 300M direct-to-consumer relationships.​
• Led DevOps workshops and working sessions for a global financial services company looking to improve quality and service-line automation.​

Key Facts

• Full Sail University – MBA​
• West Chester University – BS​
• Agile Coaching (ICP-ACC) Certification​
• SAFe Program Consultant (SPC) Certification​
• SAFe Agilist (SA ) Certification​

Ashwini Patil

Ashwini specialises in digital transformation and coaching agile teams on the agile methodology. She has more than seven years of experience in technology consulting and digital transformation, in addition to performing Scrum Master and project management roles. Clients were located in the United States and Asia Pacific, focusing primarily on life sciences, finance, information technology and the public sector. A designer by profession, she is passionate about solving complex problems, creating a collaborative environment and bringing new perspectives to the room.

Ashwini’s coaching and consulting experience includes:

• Agile coaching and training to scum teams for successful scaled transformation at a leading Malaysian bank
• Designed and established a centre of excellence to help organisation sustain and drive Agile at scale
• Facilitated workshops, customer-centric design bootcamps and brown-bag sessions to upskill scrum teams in Agile ways of working
• Co-designed Agile academy and learning frameworks for teams to understand the career pathways while adopting Agile
• Trained Scrum teams with Agile fundamentals and developed playbooks for better understanding of various agile roles and frameworks

Key Facts

• Masters of International Relations – RSIS, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
• Bachelor of Engineering – Computer Science VIT Pune, India
• Certified Scrum Master (CSM) – Scrum Alliance

Ban Leng Chua​

Ban Leng is our Junior Talent Scout.​

Ban Leng began her career with Cisco Group where she focussed on general administrative and human resources services. There, she gained experience in assisting people with enquiries relating to their daily work processes.

As an undergraduate in the Degree of Human Resource Management, she found her passion lay with people, and Ban Leng finds joy in helping people to find the right fit in their career. ​

​She is passionate about growing professionally and has shown keen ability while participating in all the recruitment activities at ADAPTOVATE. ​

Key Facts

• Undergraduate in Human Resource Management from Singapore University of Social Sciences ​
• Diploma in Business Information Technology from Singapore Polytechnic ​

Benny Ko

Benny has worked with employees and leaders of enterprises to develop the future strategy and vision of the organization. He has a passion for technology and how technology can transform business processes and enhance customer experience. Benny enjoys helping agile teams collaborate and solve complex problems. Before joining ADAPTOVATE, Benny worked as a Digital Consultant at KPMG and Cognizant delivering digital transformations and strategies.

Benny’s consulting experience includes

• Worked with an Australian leading university to develop a digital strategy discussion paper explaining the importance of a digital strategy within a university context
• Designed and co-facilitated internal strategy sessions to help a global consultancy to achieve 30-40% growth in revenue within Australia
• Worked with an Australian energy provider to develop a Business Technology Strategy to support the Business Strategy using an Agile approach. The Business Technology Strategy enabled internal teams to create and prioritise initiatives relating to technology
• Part of an agile software development team in developing betting interface platforms to allow a leading gambling organisation to comply with Australian gambling laws

Key Facts

• Bachelor of Engineering (Computer and Network Engineering) (Honours) – RMIT University
• Professional Scrum Master
• Certified SAFe Practitioner

Brigitte Odgers-Jewell​

Principal

Brigitte is a dynamic, results-orientated team player with a collaborative, innovative style, and a passion for solving difficult problems. The depth and breadth of her experience has involved the successful delivery of several complex multimillion-dollar programs of work across Banking, Insurance and Government sectors. ​

Over the last 15 years she has led and supported globally distributed software development teams, responsible for project delivery and mission-critical operations for a wide range of enterprise technology applications. She is zealous about creating a high-performing, engaged, Agile culture, one that is continuously transforming, adapting, evolving and striving to deliver what matters to people, businesses and communities. ​

• Coach and trusted partner to executive teams. Coaching leaders and providing mentoring and training to direct reports focusing on people, culture and Agile new ways of working​.
• Coach and mentor to divisional managers and Champion of the Agile practice within the Queensland Government, Big 4 Bank in Australia, large Bank in Malaysia and Energy company in the Philippines. ​
• Coach to multiple scrum teams across financial platforms; helping project teams to decompose legislated obligations of regulatory programs of work and ruthlessly prioritise and force rank features. Introducing and embedding a solid delivery governance frameworks and building an environment of psychological safety. ​
• Facilitate workshops throughout the delivery lifecycle and training from “the back of the room”.
• Designed, co-facilitated and established a thriving and dynamic community of excellence with various mentoring and training programs. Agile academy, Product owner academy, Agile bootcamp.

Key Facts

• Certified by the Scrum Alliance as a Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), has multiple ICAgile Certifications including Agile Coaching Professional and is a PMI-certified Project Management Professional (PMP)​
• MIT Sloan Executive Education​

Brooke Pannell​

Brooke collaborates with teams and organizations to gain maximum value in product and service delivery operations. She has proven experience implementing agile methods and values across eCommerce, non-profit, and software industries with a strong ability to articulate complex agile principles and methods in a digestible format to all levels of leadership including executive. ​

Brooke is a skilled agile practitioner specializing in real-world implementations of methods such as Scrum, Kanban, and Disciplined Agile Delivery. She employs a comprehensive communication and change management approach to agile transformations which increases adoption and retention within teams by reducing complexity while teams adjust to new ways of working. ​

Brooke’s experience:​

• Decreased time to market by 33% by incorporating agile product development methods through redesigning prioritization, restructuring product teams, and aligning business objectives to value​
• Trained executives, leaders and teams in establishing measurable outcomes, agile ways of working, and Kanban and Scrum methodologies​
• Mentored and coached teams of Agile practitioners in adopting agile best practices. Orchestrated Agile communities of practice to enhance learning and adoption throughout enterprise​
• Proficient in utilizing Jira, Jira Service Desk, and Confluence to improve team performance through measuring and reporting capabilities​

​

Key Facts

• BS in Public Relations from the University of Texas at Austin​
• Certified Scrum Master (CSM) ​
• Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)​
• PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)​
• Lean-Six Sigma White Belt (LSSWB)​

Caitilin Studdert

Principal

With over 18 years experience managing digital and marketing teams in large corporations, Caitilin now focuses on helping executives, their teams and their departments deliver more value to their customers, faster.​

Caitilin reinvigorates teams in start-ups and large corporations that are struggling to deliver the value that their customers demand. She uses Agile ways of working with cross-functional technology and business teams and conducts end-to-end design sprints to align these teams to deliver minimum viable products that can be tested by customers in the market. She has worked in competitive industries including finance, entertainment, education and consumer quantitative research.​

Caitilin has experience working with multiple stakeholders and managing cross functional, cross company projects. She understands the importance of creating value for the customer at speed and consistently testing and learning to adapt the service or product offering. ​

Prior to ADAPTOVATE, Caitilin managed iconic heritage brands including ABC Commercial, Play School, ABC KIDS, Bananas in Pyjamas and Nickelodeon, across Digital and non Digital channels. ​

Regardless of the brand or client Caitilin always starts by asking “Who is our Customer?” and “What do they value?”  and “How do we deliver an MVP to test it?”​

As a Certified Scrum Master, Caitilin has an enthusiastic approach towards all aspects of working as part of a team towards a shared goal. ​

Key Facts

• Bachelor of Commerce (Dual Major Marketing and Hospitality Management) from the University of New South Wales
• Professional Scrum Master (PSM 1) – Scrum.org
• Certified SAFe 4 Scrum Master​

Charles Tan

Principal and Singapore Managing Director

Charles leads our Singapore office, and specialises in strategy and operational improvement. He is very passionate about people development, and was responsible for building up and training the in-house strategy team for Telstra Enterprise. Prior to Telstra, Charles was a senior manager at A.T. Kearney, and conducted various engagements in commercial due diligence, business strategy development, operational improvement and strategic sourcing. He has over 20 years of working experience across South East Asia and Australia in industries such as financial services, telecommunications, tertiary education, agriculture, private equity and utilities.​

Selected engagements Charles have performed or led include: ​

• Functioned as the Tribe Agile Coach for a large Thai bank undergoing an Agile Transformation​
• Functioned as the senior coach for major global investment company​
• Supported coaching numerous project and business teams to increase efficiency and effectiveness of global support functions at a large global mining company​
• Led the onboarding of multiple squads in Agile ways of working for a major bank in Malaysia​
• Supported many senior leaders on their Agile Leadership journey through workshops, training and 1:1 coaching in Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines​
• Helped to course-correct Agile implementations that have gone awry at a global airline and a regional energy company​

Key Facts

• Masters of Business Administration (MBA), Melbourne Business School, Melbourne​
• Bachelor of Business, Curtin University of Technology, Perth ​
• Certified Scrum Master (Scrum Alliance)​
• Certified SAFe 4 Scrum Master​

Chelsea Bates

Principal and Melbourne Managing Director

Chelsea has helped large enterprise clients deliver business and customer value quickly through digital services such as digital transformation, digital strategy, UX/UI and design thinking, cloud, IaaS, PaaS, DevOps and using agile and lean practices. She has worked with business leaders, technology leaders and the procurement function to help deliver value quickly using an incremental approach instead of a ‘big bang’ approach. ​

Chelsea has experience working with multiple stakeholders and managing cross-functional, cross-organisation projects. Her experience is with organisations within financial services and mining and energy and includes:​

• Led a team to mobilise agile at scale for a government regulator across the organisation ​
• Facilitated a design sprint for at a large telco to assist the sales team devise a new strategy​
• Led a program to optimise business processes using a customer lens for an energy retailer and government body​
• Delivered agile fundamentals and agile leadership training to financial services, energy, insurance and government clients​
• Managing multiple digital teams, supporting both delivery, products and projects, to ensure they met the customers needs ​
• Supporting the delivery of large scale business and operational projects transforming to Agile ways of working, focusing on largely cultural, mindset changes and embedding agile practices​

Key Facts

• Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting and Finance), Griffith University​
• Graduate Diploma of Chartered Accounting (GradDipCA)​
• Chartered Accountant (CA), Member Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand​
• SAFe 4 certified Scrum Master​

Danielle Kwiatkowski​

Danielle is our Resourcing Manager.​

She began her career in Logistics with the Starlight Foundation where she was responsible​ for overseeing their national fundraising campaign, Star Day.​

She then moved into Client Relationship Management with TAL Life Ltd and ING Australia.​

In these roles, Danielle’s focus was on building and maintaining strong working relationships​ with corporate superannuation clients and select high net worth members, delivering​ valuable customer and business outcomes.​​

After a career break to focus on family and living abroad – Danielle joined the ADAPTOVATE​ team part-time as our Resourcing Manager.​

David Pullen​

David is an experienced consultant specialising in Agile delivery and Agile transformation. Over the last ten years David has supported numerous clients to set up, deliver and turnaround their largest, most complex, transformational change programs. David is passionate about helping organisations to understand, adopt and embed Agile ways of working.​

David’s select engagements include:​

• Agile coaching and training for an international airline while supporting the transition of a digital transformation program from a traditional approach to Agile ways of working​
• Coached and developed an internal agile capability for a global payment services organisation
• Portfolio Lead and Transformation Manager as well as delivery roles for an international energy provider ​
• Led the assurance review of an agile transformation program for an international rail company with a focus on Agile maturity and Agile Tooling​

Key Facts

• Certified SAFe Program Consultant (SPC) and Scrum Master (CSM)​
• Bachelor of Arts in Accounting and Controls, is certified in Managing Successful Programmes (MSP), and proficient in project delivery with the Prince2 certification

​

Evan Jago

Principal

Evan is passionate about bringing people, process and technology together to achieve tangible outcomes. He is motivated by driving to simple solutions from problem definition to final execution for complex problems. He has over 20 years experience working in many roles, from consultant, business analyst to executive manager, across a variety of industries in Private Equity and ASX100 Corporations​

• Helped course correct a large scale IT transformation program using agile principles for a large insurance firm​
  • Reformulated the IT strategy and enterprise architecture to align with the strategy of the firm​
  • Developed and visualised the transformation roadmap to prioritise business value​
  • Design and supported the execution of a vendor selection process for Agile implementation partners​
  • Created new end-to-end customer-centric journeys to deliver on the key component of their strategy​
• Developed a MVP for integrated ticketing system for a State Transport Authority, replacing the 300+ scoped ticket types with a simplified charge per trip and free trips after eight trips per week ​
• Developed the core-business requirements for a large Australian Banks first SAAS implementation, delivering results earlier, within budget and with great customer feedback​
• Successfully co-lead a $4m p.a. turnaround (on revenues of $12m) for a dangerous goods warehousing company​
• Developed and executed a new operational strategy for a division of an Agribusiness company delivering savings of in excess of $30m p.a. (over a third of the division’s cost-base)​

Key Facts

• Executive MBA, Strategy – Australian Graduate School of Management
• BSc (Hons), Maths and Computer Science – UNSW

Ewelina Winska​

Ewelina is an Agile transformation expert with an affinity for leading high performing teams in distributed environments. Helping organizations and teams to find better ways of working, which creates the conditions for learning on both team and organizational level. She combines multiple years of industry-specific knowledge (Banking, Research & Development, Software Lifecycle management, Media and IT audits) with experience in global companies including Samsung, Credit Suisse, Viacom Tech, NEC, SoftwareONE and Accenture. ​

• Developed Agile CoE for leading financial services organization and played leading role in digitalization programme for business process automation​
• As a Head of Agile delivery, led change management advisory board at an enterprise level​
• Introduced DevOps culture and orchestrated adoption process​
• Proposed metrics, data visualization dashboards and reports for support of data-driven decision making at the program level during digital transformation​
• Managed distributed team of 50+ developers, QAs and BAs​
• Led Atlassian products implementation as a Product Owner across South Korean conglomerate’s R&D Center and provided Agile, Scrum and negotiation skills trainings​
• Implemented corporate-wide standards and processes and led Internal IT audits for R&D projects​
• Speaker at conferences and events​
• Delivered NGO – CSR project Hacking for Humanity – coding for good cause engaging public sector and high-tech companies like Microsoft and Skanska​

Key Facts

• MBA graduate​
• PhD candidate focused mainly on metrics driven IT project management and product delivery. Publications: A comparison of Scaling Agile Methods – Springer, Digital transformation in construction.​
• Master of Science, Software engineering and databases​
• Certificates: Large-Scale Scrum, Professional Scrum Master III expert level, Professional Kanban with Scrum, Agile PM

Fiona Royall

Working at the intersection of design, strategy and technology, Fiona’s goal is to help clients digitally​ transform, grow and innovate through delivering engaging experiences and creative solutions that drive​ superior results.​

Prior to ADAPTOVATE, Fiona worked for Accenture Interactive as a Digital Consultant and has over ten​ years experience with a background in digital marketing. She has held roles in Digital Product​ Management, Social Media and Search Marketing. Her industry expertise spans across government,​ financial services, FMCG, retail, energy and automotive.​

Fiona’s previous consulting engagements encompass:​

• Part of the coaching team who trained more than 500 people across the organisation in agile ways of working, from fundamentals to advanced Product Owner and Scrum Master training and coaching. Attendees have been from all parts of the organisation, including finance, HR, technology and legal for one of the world’s largest mining company​
• Supporting the External Affairs team in building capability around and adoption of new ways of working as well as co-creation of new ways of working workshops which was delivered to top 60 leaders within External Affairs and disseminated to 700 EA staff at a mining company​
• Agile coach and scrum master for a big 4 bank, supporting the large scale transformation to Agile ways of working across multiple squads encompassing embedding Agile practices, training and reporting​
• Business Designer creating a Digital Business Model for a retail & commercial property owner and operator, including business model research, ecosystem mapping, business model definition, value proposition development, resource modelling and roadmap​​

Key Facts

• Bachelor of Business (Marketing), RMIT University
• Bachelor of Arts, The University of Melbourne

Ghaleb El Masri​

Principal and Toronto Managing Director​

Ghaleb helps organizations start, execute, and deliver their agile business transformation. Ghaleb has worked with executives and teams across the different phases of the business cycle, including the setup of greenfield operations, scaling new business lines, the optimization and turnaround of underperforming businesses, and divestments and integrations.​

Ghaleb has:​

• Led and coached executive teams at the local and multinational level through an agile strategic planning cycle, helping them to define and refine their strategies and business plans,, and cascading them through the organization with clear objective-setting and delivery methodologies to improve execution. ​
• Led and coached the end-to-end digital transformation of an insurer, from customer journeys to analytics to back office automation, working cross-functionally in agile delivery sprints.​
• Conducted strategic assessments for an executive team in how to improve their delivery capabilities, ranging from the introduction of autonomous teams to the transformation of the entire company operating model to Agile.​
• Implemented several cost transformation programs including zero-based budgeting, lean operations, straight-through processing and robotic process automation.​
• Led the successful launch and scale up of a new business line (Health Insurance) at an insurer, achieving 10% market share in 3 years.​
• Ran 7 divestitures in Asia, Europe & North America from 2011-2014, including 2 IPOs, with transaction value exceeding $1.5 billion.​

Key Facts

• MBA from Columbia Business School & London Business School. M.Sc. In Biochemistry & Medical Biophysics from the University of Toronto.​
• Change leader and C-level executive with a record of driving strategic transformation from concept to execution, including business unit carve-out and integration.​

Greg Skinner

Greg is a versatile consultant with passion and expertise in agile, lean and human-centred design. He enjoys collaborating with people from graduates to executives in evolving approaches that unlock value swiftly and effectively. Greg is particularly passionate about transparency and autonomy as tools to affect positive change. ​

He has worked roles including Head of Customer Experience at APD and Lead Consultant at ThoughtWorks. Prior to his consulting work he worked as an Architect, giving him deep capability in human centred design. Greg has travelled extensively over his career, including working in Australia, Singapore, China, India and the UK. ​

Greg has:​

• Introduced and operationalised a value pyramid (visualising over $500m in value) in one of Australia’s largest banks, resulting in transparency and a direct relationship between work being done and value being delivered, and ensuring alignment to the company strategy. This was part of a scaled agile transformation that reduced costs to the organisation by 26%.​
• Run an agile PMO in a scaled organisational restructure and transformation for a company of 60,000 ultimately reducing costs by 30%.​
• Defined and developed agile capability in Australia’s largest independent superannuation fund.​
• Used lean and agile approaches to recover over $40m in unaccounted losses for Australia’s largest insurance group.​

Key Facts

• Bachelor of Architecture (First Class)
• Master of Architecture (Distintion & Dean’s, UCL)
• Certified SAFe 4 Scrum Master

Greg Tennant

Greg is a charismatic Agile coach and practitioner with an energized approach to coaching for performance and innovation delivery. He specializes in team and leadership coaching, customer value chain optimization, waste reduction and the delivery of customer value. Wearing both his consulting and coaching hats, Greg instinctively applies intuition and pragmatism when stimulating change and solving complex issues. Greg has lead, coached and consulted for a number of product teams, leaders and organizations in their scaled Agile efforts. Greg has delivered results working in growth-stage technology startups and corporate clients in the banking, insurance, health, wealth and telco industries in the markets of South Africa, USA, Singapore, Malaysia, India and Mexico.

Selected engagements Greg has performed or led include:

• Served as Head of Product and Agile transformation lead and coach for a major Singapore private capital fin-tech company with a deal cap of USD1.8b, helping to scale their technology and transformation efforts across 5 SEA markets
• Coached and mentored numerous squads, tribes and leaders (300+) of diverse demographics and domains in 6 countries
• Served as Senior Coach and Product Lead to 50+ members and leads of a highly successful US based Series C field service software management company
• Led the design and development of a large scale enterprise agile onboarding program and learning development academy for a major Malaysian bank, that supports scaled development and maturity of fundamentals and competency
• Coached and mentored the coaching CoE for a major Malaysian bank and consulted on a number of transformation efforts

Key Facts

• Bachelor of Commerce, with majors in Business and Marketing Management.
• Professional Scrum Master (PSM)
• Professional Product Owner (PSPM)
• Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)

Jack Zhou

Jack has an interest in business strategy development, process optimisation and agile transformation. This interest stems from his experience representing the University of New South Wales internationally at numerous consulting case competitions. ​

Prior to joining the firm, Jack worked in equity research at Fidelity International, specialising in the consumer retail sector. In this role, he published initiation reports detailing market entry, marketing and distribution channel optimisation strategies for Australian consumer companies.​

Jack is a 4th year Commerce (Finance) / Law student at UNSW, Sydney. He is also the VP of Education at UNSW Consulting Club, coaching students on how to structure their problem solving processes.​

Jack’s consulting experience covers:​

• Conducted an Agile maturity assessment of the IT transformation program of a large insurance firm, identifying areas of improvement and delivering the appropriate Agile operating model to embed new customer centric mindsets.​
• Designed and implemented an Obeya room for one of Australia’s largest banks, encouraging transparency of information, highlighting impediments and enabling more efficient decision making across the line of business.​
• Agile coach for a fintech start up, embedding Agile practices across the organisation and supporting the implementation of a new technology platform.

Key Facts

• Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) / Law at the University of New South Wales
• 1st place at Strategy & Case Competition 2019
• 1st place at EY Advisory Case Competition 2018
• 1st place at Fidelity International Case Competition 2017

Jessie Choo​

Jessie is an experienced consultant specialising in Agile coaching, digital transformation and enterprise wide technology implementation. She has consulted for a range of clients in the public sector. Prior to joining ADAPTOVATE, Jessie was a technology consulting Team Lead with Accenture, assisting organisations to operate and “lead in the new”.​

Selected engagements Jessie has performed include:​

• Agile coaching and training for a regional Malaysian bank to develop their Agile Centre of Excellence to operate and upskill their in-house Agile coaches and build Agile capabilities throughout the organisation​
• Drove and defined future Whole of Government HR and Payroll processes across all Statutory Boards and introduced transformational elements for future implementation in South East Asia. The new processes projected a cost savings of 18 – 30 % and laid the foundations for the implementation of a new HR and Payroll system​
• Managed and conducted in depth interview sessions with a public sector client’s customers to collect insights from data points over a span of two months. Facilitated workshops for public sector client’s customers and client to ideate and co-create a customer centric experience. New concepts were generated for implementation of a customer centric user journey​
• Played a key role in implementing public sector client’s digital transformation initiative by designing core modules for a custom Java system through analysing and aligning to client’s organisation structure and existing enterprise architecture. Hosted client workshops to outline existing processes and identify areas of improvements. The project went live on time​

Key Facts

• Bachelor of Science (Information Systems Management) with second major in Finance from Singapore Management University ​
• Certified Scrum Master by Scrum Alliance​

Jian Lee​

Jian is a curious and passionate individual. He has a deep interest in helping organisations explore and adopt new ways of working. ​

Prior to joining the firm, Jian worked in KPMG, as part of the Information Technology Enabled Transformation team. In this role, he participated in requirement gathering workshops, formulated and tested hypotheses for technology choices and worked closely with the internal team in developing recommendations for the client’s management. ​

Some of Jian’s consulting experience includes:​

• Led the delivery of a data extraction and analysis application for a cyber security consulting firm ​
• Established an IT Procurement Framework for a public institution ​
• Volunteered for a Victorian Government Initiative to identify techniques to improve overseas alumni relations

Jian’s other relevant experiences includes:​

• Project lead for a start-up property development firm, executed land conversion and subdivision, and led civil earth works project to prepare site for development.

Key Facts

• Bachelor of Management (Property and Real Estate) – Deakin University​
• Masters of Information Technology – RMIT University ​

Karrie Chen​

Karrie is a motivated individual with interests in the interaction between business strategy development and agile transformation in an increasingly complex global environment.​

​Karrie is a 2nd year Commerce (Accounting and Information Systems) student at UNSW, Sydney. She is the Co-President at UNSW Business Society for 2020, overseeing the operations of the largest student society on campus. In her role she maintains relationships with the UNSW Business School, Corporate sponsors as well as the Education Committee. She is also a member at UNSW Consulting Club, further developing insights into consulting. ​

​Prior to joining ADAPTOVATE, Karrie worked at EY in the People Advisory Services division providing advisory and compliance services to multinational corporations and expatriates. She has worked with multiple stakeholders, spanning industries of technology, pharmaceuticals and financial services to high net worth individuals. ​

Some of Karrie’s recent experiences:​

• Assisted clients with recovery of over A$750,000 from the Australian Taxation Office​
• Designed and setup system as part of the Centre of Excellence team for Private Clients with global movements, mapping out end-to-end processes to identify individual needs​
• Awarded 1st place at Oliver Wyman Case Competition 2019, Australia – recommended new product range with a go-to-market strategy for Hungry Jacks Australia to drive sustainable profit growth, presenting to the Founder, CEO and CMO​

Key Facts

• Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting and Information Systems) at the University of New South Wales

Katie Cordes

Katie looks after our Social media content and strategy.​

Katie is an experienced Content strategist with over 25 years in the digital and media industry. She’s passionate about connecting consumers and brands through content creation that is bedded in storytelling.

Katie has led large teams in global organisations to drive marketing campaigns through branded storytelling. She is experienced in digital and broadcast mediums, having been in senior roles running large national campaigns predominantly in entertainment industries. She is a skilled team leader, working with multinational teams and is passionate about diversity and inclusion in the workplace.​

Katie’s experience:​

• Led commercial opportunities for all major brands as part of Australia’s national broadcaster​
• Management of large marketing campaigns for global entertainment company​
• Senior director roles as head of content and programming across multiple content platforms​
• Has won various global digital awards for best practice in broadcast media​

​

Key Facts

• Advanced practitioner and futurist in the first global team for Strategic Foresight initiative for worlds largest media organisation​
• Diploma in Fine Arts – Open University​
• Diploma in Chemistry – Auckland Technical College​
• Completed Agile Project Management Course​

Katy Hughes

Katy has a passion for technology and its place in transforming the way businesses operate and provide unique customer experiences. She enjoys working with teams to solve challenging issues by promoting collaboration and breaking down barriers to thinking differently.​

Before joining ADAPTOVATE, Katy worked in London as a Senior Technical Consultant where she was involved in the delivery of several high profile, high value IT and digital transformation projects across the financial services sector.​

Katy’s consulting experience covers​

• Led the design and implementation of an Obeya room for the Marketing team at a major Australian bank, working closely with leadership to define quarterly objectives, cascade to teams and visualise the appropriate information in the Obeya room to enable good decisions to be made​
• Mobilised multiple cross functional squads as part of an Enterprise Agile transformation of over 200 people, delivering training, alignment on strategy and objectives and on the ground agile coaching to set squads up for success​
• Designed and co-facilitated design sprint workshops to help a health insurer define, design and implement new end-to-end customer-centric journeys across business ​
• Undertook Agile diagnostic of a project struggling to deliver, identifying areas for improvement, delivering appropriate Agile coaching to embed customer centric mindset ​
• Re-engineered failing processes with an Enterprise Architecture function; introduced Agile ways of working, redesigned the team structure and provided Agile coaching to increase quality and improve delivery cadence ​

Key Facts

• Bachelor of Software Engineering (First-Class Honours) from City University London​
• Certified Scrum Master​

Kayla Cartwright

Kayla is an experienced transformation coach with a demonstrated history of results across private, public and non-profit sectors. Kayla is passionate about partnering with leaders to shape and execute their visions, drive productivity, and build strong organizational cultures.​

Kayla has led transformation engagements with Fortune 500 organizations implementing agile practices, innovation and design thinking principles, and driving client-centric cultures.  She is a design thinking practitioner, certified coach and seasoned adult leadership development facilitator who has worked with over 300 clients across the globe.​

Kayla’s experience:​

• Drove large-scale global process efficiency and client experience enhancement programs impacting over 6000 institutional clients in 130+ countries for large global bank​
• Led team to 108% increase in Client Satisfaction/Wallet Share momentum by driving cross-functional agile transformation of the Uruguay franchise for a large US bank​
• Secured investment of $65mm USD for a national Mexico banking agile transformation by working across global cross-functional teams, vendors and c-level stakeholders​
• Set and executed the agile coaching strategy of a major US national non-profit, leading to client and employee satisfaction/retention rates >2x the historic average​

​

Key Facts

• MBA – University of Virginia- Darden​
• BA – Management and Anthropology​
• Certified Behavioral Coach​
• Professional Scrum Master (PSM I)
• Languages: English, Spanish and Portuguese

Krzysztof Mysior

Krzysztof is passionate about digital and organizational change and utilizing new methods of working and tools in providing concrete business results. He has 7 years experience in consulting and marketing. Krzysztof worked in PwC Strategy & Operations, Deloitte Digital where he was engaged in large scale implementations and strategic projects utilizing agile methods of working, new digital solutions and process optimization. He has experience in pharmaceutical marketing at Sanofi focusing on both ATL and BTL communication strategies. At IBM Interactive Experience he was involved in mobile strategies, rapid product and service design focusing on mobile application and direct marketing solutions.

• Major Tobacco Company (Poland, Ukraine, Malaysia, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt): Global social media solution and analytics business landing, processes adjustment, change management, agile training and coaching
• Major Bank: New premium banking client strategy, focused on user experience improvement, digital application development through service design sprints and utilizing design thinking and agile implementation training
• Major Bank: New client digital acquisition strategy approach, activate and entice new client segment through innovative digital solutions, design thinking workshop training and customer journey mapping for service and functionality creation utilizing agile methods of working
• Major Chemical Company: New digital sales and product strategy, field force application development and requirements gathering. Through design thinking, on the ground interviews, designing a low fidelity mobile application for sales representatives and POS
• Major Pharmaceutical Company (CEE Region): Digital transformation strategy development, company structure adjustment for agile planning and project execution with service design utilizing design thinking and design sprint

Key Facts

• Master’s degree in International Business from Warsaw School of Economics
• Honors Bachelors Degree in Economics & History from the University of Toronto
• Passionate about Digital Transformation and Organizational Change
• Languages: Polish, English

Lené Marx​

With over 13 years’ HR and L&D experience in small, medium and ASX listed companies, Lené has spent​ the majority of her career delivering HR and L&D projects, policy and process development and​ implementation, coaching and facilitation and the implementation of HR and L&D strategies.​

An excellent people person, her approach to work is structured and focused on delivering the objectives of the task or project at hand. She is passionate about creating meaningful relationships with people, whether it is to achieve set outcomes or develop skills, her ability to build highly effective relationships has contributed to a solid track record in achieving genuine results.​

• Acted as a trusted advisor and provided high quality, compliant and ethical HR advice and guidance to Leadership groups and broader team members; guide, coach, and support managers in effectively managing their teams as required.​
• Drove HR initiatives and ensured effective People functions, systems and processes, which were aligned to business and workforce goals, were in place.​
• Developed and delivered effective induction and on-boarding programs for all new team members to ensure all employees are well supported in quickly becoming valuable, contributing members of the team.​
• Worked with the Leadership Team to establish the company values and implemented creative ways to build the company culture around the core set of values.​
• Implemented a high quality and effective recruitment processes including interview tools for managers and providing advice on effective recruitment and selection processes which assisted in the attraction of high calibre candidates.​

Key Facts

• Bachelor of Arts​
• Diploma of Management​
• 2010 Gold Medal Winner and Ranked #1 in the World as Best Support Professional HR, presented by Contact Centre World​

Laura Scott

Laura has 10 years experience in consulting, software implementation and customer success in marketing and operations. Laura is passionate about changing ways of working in order to enhance the customer experience, increase focus on delivering customer and business value.

Laura is skilled in optimising business processes, and embedding the change in client teams through  training and coaching. She builds strong relationships with teams that allows her to influence mindsets and behaviours to ensure that team success is paramount and sustained in the long term.

Laura’s consulting experience includes,

• Managing key client relationship at major Australian banks to deliver new marketing processes leveraging Marketing Resource Management (MRM) software to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing teams
• Developed and delivered many training workshops translating the business objectives to delivering change in the way teams work that increased transparency, accuracy and accountability
• Managed enterprise customer engagement plans to ensure growth through system optimisation and business processes that resulted in increased customer retention
• Implemented a new needs analysis service model to determine training and change management strategy with new clients, this model increased employee engagement and user adoption

Key Facts

• Bachelor of Arts in Organisational Learning major in Human Resources
• Diploma of Human Resources
• Certified Scrum Master

Lu Qiu​

Lu specialises in Agile coaching, organisational process optimisation and enterprise digital implementation. She is passionate about enabling organisations to embrace the Agile way of working.​

Selected engagements include:​

• Delivered bottleneck analysis and process-waste assessment on the Service Management SDLC for a leading global mining company, including 20 developers, architects, testers and scrum masters. She identified constraints to speed, quality and capacity of Agile implementation, for which the findings were proactively adopted as advice for improvements for future sprints by project leadership​
• Performed 6-Sigma analysis for process statistical control for the implementation of Agile for the mining company, created a suite of recommendations which includes embedded system metrics for process tracking and monitoring​
• Agile coaching and training for a regional Malaysian bank to develop their Agile Centre of Excellence​
• Co-created Agile academy and learning frameworks for a regional Malaysian bank, designed and developed curriculum structure and training content​

Key Facts

• Bachelor of Engineering (Industrial System Engineering and Management) from National University of Singapore​
• Certified Scrum Master by Scrum Alliance​

Lucy Brennan

Lucy is an experienced strategy leader with the ability to drive business transformation from strategy and design through to execution. Lucy enjoys working with teams and leaders to challenge their mindsets on how to approach any business problems. ​

Prior to joining ADAPTOVATE, Lucy had 10 years experience of corporate strategy / management consulting in financial institutions.​

Lucy’s consulting experience includes:​

• Part of the coaching team who trained more than 500 people across the organisation in agile ways of working, from fundamentals to advanced Product Owner and Scrum Master training and coaching in a top mining company​
• Product owner for a $20m retail banking transformation project at one of Australia’s ‘big 4’ banks. This was also one of the first business related projects to be run under the agile methodology in the Bank​
• Lead role in a HR transformation project to redefine the Enterprise Agreement for a company with 30,000+ staff​
• Lead in the strategy and management of a productivity project across a $1.5bn cost base in retail banking​

Key Facts

• Masters of Applied Finance, Macquarie University Sydney
• Bachelor of Economics, University of Sydney
• Certified Scrum Master

Maja Kurzyna

Maja is an experienced project manager, consultant, trainer and coach with over 12 years of experience using PMI methodology and Agile. She obtained several training and train-the-trainer certifications, incl. Kepner-Tregoe Project Management, Issue Resolution, Problem Solving (Princeton, NJ); Mary Gober Managing Customer Experience methodology (UK). She has 7 years of experience in the telecom industry in commercial management, delivering projects and leading B2C/B2B teams in software development and commercialisation, knowledge management, sales improvement, omni-channel, digital transformation. Maja has​ 6 years of experience in consulting in areas of communication strategies and project management for various clients. She’s passionate about an interdisciplinary approach to solving business issues. Awarded with Polish National Sales Award for Innovations in selling.​

• Introduced Agile in managing development and implementation of new CRM for B2B sales channels for large telecom ​
• Delivered several large-scale, change and knowledge management initiatives for managers and frontline, improving key business KPI’s by using quality tools and measures and involving over 100 outsourcing coaches and trainers​
• Led an international multidisciplinary pilot team, redefining marketing and sales approach to selling convergent offer, trained and coached managers who implemented the approach ​
• Redefined customer experience across sales channels within a global rebranding project​
• Led 12 internal trainers that designed and commercialised digital adaptation software ​
• Coached and trained 120 service desk engineers at international IT company in problem management and issue resolution ​

Key Facts

• Master’s Degree in Social Psychology at Warsaw University​
• Bachelor of International Business at Warsaw School of Economics ​
• Passionate about applying rational and critial thinking skills in organizations​
• Curator and organizer of TEDxOrange​ and Orange Digital Meetup​

Mark Barber

Mark is committed to helping organisations realise their potential by developing and nurturing strong collaborative environments and continuous improvement cultures. ​

He is highly knowledgeable and experienced in the application of agile and lean values and principles at scale, and strives to lead and coach people to work effectively together, focusing on customer value and improving speed to market. ​

Mark has successfully:​

• Established and coached Agile Portfolio Management Offices in large organisations working on scaled agile transformation programs, across various industries including mining and energy​
• Redesigned the retail arm of an energy company to use startup methods such as test-and-learn cycles and venture capital style funding models ​
• Coached senior leadership and portfolio managers through transformation and change at scale​
• Coached product management teams in various digital organisations​
• Led the team delivering Australia’s first online property recommendation engine, bringing big data and machine learning to online real estate for the first time​

Key Facts

• Bachelor of Commerce (Information Systems), Vice Chancellor’s List, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia​
• Conference speaker on agile and lean​
• Certified SAFe 4 Scrum Master (SSM)​
• Professional Scrum Master (PSM)​
• Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO)​

Melanie Burrows​

Melanie is our CFO and also heads up our Business Services Team, including the Finance, IT, People & Culture, Recruitment, Social Media and Resource Management teams.​

Prior to joining ADAPTOVATE, Melanie gained over 15 years’ experience as a Finance Executive across a variety of industries including Finance, Recruitment, Insurance, Marketing and Engineering. As a Chartered Accountant, she prides herself on her keen analytical skills and business acumen. ​

Melanie’s experience includes:​

• Financial budgeting and forecasting for ASX listed financial services provider, comprising of over 400 franchises​
• Leadership of cross divisional teams including the introduction of processes and policies to streamline procedures and deliver optimal business outcomes ​
• Cashflow management for multiple entities in numerous currencies​
• Financial and strategic analysis for Australian division of international insurance company ​
• Led process improvement initiatives to deliver improved financial reporting quality, efficiency and accuracy​

Key Facts

• Bachelor of Business, University of Technology, Sydney ​
• Chartered Accountant (CA) -Member CAANZ​

Michal Bak​

Principal and Warsaw Managing Director​

Michal specializes in leading teams to make things happen in complex, often cross-cultural, settings. He combines multiple years of industry experience (banking, consumer goods, direct selling) with a consulting career at McKinsey&Company. He has strong international experience working and living in France, Poland and Russia, as well as delivering projects across Europe, Asia, the US. He is passionate about people and organizations and strongly believes in empowered teams as a pre-requisite to delivering successful business transformations​

• ​Developed Agile CoE for a large bank in South-East Asia, including developing coach recruiting plan and support, building coach community based on level of competency (squad coaches vs tribe coaches vs portfolio coaches), designing coach coverage model across the organization ​
• Led and coached a team of managers who delivered customer journey projects with focus on customer segmentation and value proposition, digital banking (including new app creation) and pricing for a leading global bank​
• Acted as Head of Customer Strategy for global Retail Banking operations at Société Générale in Paris focused on customer journey transformation​
• Delivered a multi-year business transformation for Avon in Russia (one of the biggest global business units, with over $1bn revenues)​
• Led Post-Merger Integration effort for a large financial institution in Europe ​
• Led commercial transformation for a global consumer company in South-East Asia​
• Led Regional Recruiting function (Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, as well as Emerging Markets) at McKinsey&Company, managing a team of 30+ Recruiters​

Key Facts

• CEMBA – Executive MBA graduate ​
• CEMS Master’s degree in International Management (l’Université Catholique de Louvain and Warsaw School of Economics)​
• Passionate about Large Scale Transformations with focus on People and Culture​
• Languages: Polish, English, French, Russian​

Mina Gurgis

Mina has 9+ years of experience in running and scaling the agile ways of working in Software Development projects and non IT related projects.​

Since joining ADAPTOVATE, Mina has worked in multiple roles across different industries focusing on agile delivery of digital transformation projects, including:​

• Designing a new scaled agile operating model and managing the change for the Marketing department of a big four Australian bank that was merging two sections. This resulted in breakdown of silos, reduced levels of hierarchy, 5x simplification of roles, and new career paths for growth. The merger was delivered through a disciplined change management and communication process to support employees on the journey​
• Transforming the IT delivery team’s way of working, at one of Australia’s biggest health/life insurance providers, from waterfall to agile, resulting in the release of the CRM (Salesforce) MVP within 6 months from date of purchase​
• Guiding a leading Australian FinTech start-up in its turnaround, resulting in alignment of goals from company down to individual teams’ goals, new cross functional teams for the Call Centre operations following the agile methodology, and common agile ways of working across the company within 3 months​
• Helping an Australian government authority undergo a once-in-a-generation change as it transformed itself as the state’s regulator in a short timeframe set by the government. The organisation was setup for success to achieve the transformation goals through a common understanding of agile ways of working towards goals that have been aligned and cascaded to individual teams​

Key Facts

• Masters of Business Administration (MBA) – Macquarie Graduate School of Management (MGSM)
• Bachelor of Telecommunications Engineering (Honours) and Bachelor of Computer Science – University of New South Wales (UNSW)
• Certified Scrum Master and Product Owner
• Certified SAFe 4 Scrum Master

Nathan Nelson​

Principal and Los Angeles Managing Director

Nathan leads ADAPTOVATE’s Los Angeles office, where he supports leaders, teams and companies to form, grow and thrive. As a servant leader, his focus is on building a culture and environment for teams and individuals to accelerate their personal and professional growth.​

Nate has a diverse business background.  He has experience in cofounding and advising start-ups, launching new service offerings and offices, and consulting for Fortune 500 companies. ​

Nate has deep experience in business and technology transformations across multiple industries including energy, health manufacturing and insurance. ​

Nathan’s experience:​

• Led the agile transformation from waterfall to a $250m digital transformation in the manufacturing industry that significantly improved the employee and customer experience​
• Launched new product strategy and business model to achieve an additional $700m p.a. in operating income with a digital transformation in the automotive financial services industry​
• Led the portfolio planning, alignment and governance of business initiatives of large Biotech firm on the East Coast, resulting in clear prioritization of over 100 initiatives supporting department and company strategic objectives.​
• Drove large transformations in energy distribution and health insurance including a $2b acquisition integration​

​

Key Facts

• Bachelor in Science in Computer Systems – Bradley University ​
• Executive Leadership, Yale School of Management​
• Digital Accelerator Advisor – Southern Methodist University​
• Start-up cofounder and advisor​

Nathan Stickney​

Nathan is servant leader who uses his key strengths of communication and context to bring unique insights and perspectives to complex challenges. He leads by encouraging integrity and inclusion, acknowledging that most progress is made as a collective group. He loves to influence and execute on initiatives together with different people, as well as across organisations, taking ideas and executing on them at-scale across the organisation. Nathan has around 10 years of work experience and has a diverse background across multiple industries including education, technology, consulting and sports.​

Nathan’s experience includes:​

• Utilised influence and technology skills to manage global e-commerce expansion, including architecture, business, and technical requirements across 37 different agile teams, delivering on-time for a global sportwear company​
• Worked with senior leadership to reimagine business practices using Lean Portfolio and Kanban methodology to manage 3rd party vendor work, reducing time to market and defects for the global sportswear company​
• Implemented agile processes for a $500m project, led data analysis efforts to inform product owner’s backlog based on historical data and employee feedback, created thought leadership pieces on Agile, and led internal trainings on LEAN, Kanban and Scrum project management methodologies for an American global manufacturer of confectionery, pet food, and other food products​
• Led incorporation of agile delivery methods into consulting services business model, including gathering executive support, preparing teams, and developing go-to-market methodology for an international supplier of geographic information system software, web GIS and geodatabase management applications​

Key Facts

• Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the Ohio State University, and an MBA in International Business from the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University. ​
• Professional Scrum Master (PSM) and certified SAFe Program Consultant (SPC).​

​

Nicole Thio

Nicole specialises in strategy, business design and operations transformation. She is passionate about helping organisations achieve strategic outcomes and influence key leadership decisions. Prior to Adaptovate, Nicole was in Monitor Deloitte, focused on strategy engagements predominantly in the financial services, consumer business and public sector industry and includes target operating model design, market entry strategy and go-to-market strategy. She has experience working in the Asia-pacific region – Australia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. ​​

Selected engagements Nicole has performed or led include:​

• Assisted in conducting Agile Fundamentals training for 70+ participants​
• Coached 6 squads from a renewable energy producer in the Philippines, inclusive of helping the squads to develop their agile artefacts (e.g. squad wall) ​
• Assessed project feasibility of a digital data economy platform in Singapore for a public sector client which included organising workshops​
• Developed a go-to-market strategy using the growth path methodology for a Swiss agribusiness company which included recommending digital strategies to engage stakeholders in the Philippines ​
• Performed a project management role for an IT outsourcing and business transformation project for a telecommunications client in the Philippines​​
• Designed target operating model for a public sector client in the healthcare industry in Singapore which included senior management interviews ​
• Led value creation workstream and supported Project Management of a transformation project with a global investment company in Singapore

Key Facts

• Bachelor of Commerce in Finance, Marketing and Management from The University of Melbourne ​​
• Master of Commerce in Management from Melbourne Business School ​
• Certified Scrum Master (by Scrum Alliance)​

Rachna Verma

Rachna is driven to promote lean thinking and continuous improvement to drive business value and improve customer experience. Rachna has a passion for collaborating with teams, delivering tangible business benefits and bringing clients and stakeholders on the journey towards on-time project delivery.  ​

Rachna is a Chartered Accountant with over 14 years experience across Professional Services, Banking & Financial Services and Aviation in Australia and the UK. ​

Prior to joining the firm, Rachna immersed herself in the Agile way of working and was a Product Owner in Banking and business partnered with the Finance community to deliver tangible business benefits.  Rachna’s interest in lean thinking and continuous improvement has been self-cultivated and has grown from an interest to a full-time passion.  ​

Rachna’s experience:​

• Led Scrum Team to deliver Group Performance Reporting to the CFO on working day 10 for Group Finance at an Australian bank by delivering two key IT capabilities​
• Automated business processes to deliver value-add data and time savings at Australian and UK banks​
• Business partnering with front office, technology, finance and shared services in Banking to deliver monthly management reporting, produce budget and forecast data with value-add analysis and commentary​
• Recognised as a top performing Scrum Team for Agile enablement in Banking​

Key Facts

• Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting & Economics) from the University of Wollongong​
• Chartered Accountant (CA).  Member Chartered Accountants  Australia & New Zealand​
• Professional Scrum Master PSM I​

Ray Freeman​

Ray supports executives and teams to challenge traditional thinking and accelerate value delivery. He is a persuasive leader able to build strong relationships and is a real champion for organizational change.​

Ray is an entrepreneur, author, and senior Agile consultant who is passionate about connecting strategy with purpose and liberating human potential. With over 22 years’ experience in transformation, Ray has created high-performance teams in several of the world’s largest corporations. ​

Ray’s mission is to bring people together by transforming the culture of work and scaling lean operations, globally.  Through his hands-on role in discovery, solutioning, training and coaching, Ray helps organizations challenge traditional thinking and accelerate value delivery​​

Ray’s experience:​

• Launched scaled agile center of excellence and coaching charter at a large telecommunications company that reduced idea to market time by 50%​
• Led an organizational transformation to realign people, process, and technology for a major streaming media provider; launching to over 20 million subscribers ​
• Coached and launched new agile teams to improve value delivery, communications and employee satisfaction throughout the integration of two global airlines launching the largest customer loyalty program in the world​
• Led scaled agile program rollout for major bank that reduced time to market for compliance features delivering 40% cost reduction in regulatory fees​

Key Facts

• Agile, including at scale, in financial, energy, media, transport, telecommunications and retail industries​
• Scrum and SAFe certified​

Saytina Vielot​

Saytina leverages her experience as an Agile Coach and consultant across industries to drive teams to success. She is a strong relationship builder who quickly enables teams to reach consensus and take action. ​

Saytina pushes leaders and teams to analyze problems through a root cause lense, and partners to empower clients to focus on their ultimate goals. Through her hands-on role in analysis, execution and coaching, Saytina helps organizations distill their challenges to be able to drive change and deliver value.​

Saytina’s experience:​

• Coached and launched new agile teams to improve value delivery, communications and employee satisfaction throughout one of the largest technology firms.​
• Coached and led the implementation of Azure DevOps for various Agile teams and clients.​
• Led scaled Agile program rollout for a major consumer client using Essential SAFe.​
• Established and supported communities of practices to promote an open environment for organizational understanding of Agile and Azure DevOps best practices.​
• Led Scrum teams, Scrum Masters, and Product Owners through large global Agile transformations including a $1b SAP S/4HANA transformation on Agile Values and Principles to promote continuous improvement and deliver business value.​

Key Facts

• BS – Business and Management Information Systems​
• Agile, including at scale, in healthcare, Consumer, product development, Supply chain and Enterprise applications/DevOps​
• SAFe Certified Scrum Master​
• Certified Design thinking and Lean practitioner​

Sean Woon

Managing Director of TRIBE

Sean leads the TRIBE business that provides our clients with resources and support to help sustain their transformation successes with a global community of highly sought-after talent. Sean is passionate about bringing the best out of people and teams, having led a number of major programs and projects within the banking, automotive and government sectors. He also has a strong interest in innovation and providing assistance to start-up businesses after running his own digital start-up in the arts for four years. ​

An accomplished professional and consultant having previously held leading roles in large and complex transformation programs: ​

• Lead Agile Consultant within an Enterprise Agile transformation program to a major retail bank in Finland​
• Program Manager to the largest core-banking transformation program in Australia​
• Led an enterprise-wide transformation program (Agile) for a major European automotive company​
• Managed a number of risk, analytics, data, and business intelligence-based projects (Agile) for two major Australian banks​
• Experience in mobilising complex risk and compliance based projects (Agile) in response to ASIC and APRA enforcements and regulatory change​
• Mobilised a project and innovation practice for a major Japanese automotive business​
• Held intelligence-based roles for an Australian Government Department

Key Facts

• Masters of Business Administration (MBA)​
  Australian Graduate School of Management ​
• Graduate Diploma of Business Systems​
  Monash University, Melbourne​
• Bachelors of Commerce, Monash University, Melbourne​
• Nominee to represent Australia in the 2011 Asia Society Asia 21 Young Leader Program​

Shannon Gilliam​

Shannon works with leadership to develop Agile understanding and transform their organizations. She is a Servant Leader who has extensive experience in building strong, self-sufficient and high performing teams. Shannon is skilled in teaching Agile methodologies, such as Scrum and Kanban, as well as coaching individuals, teams and leaders to implement and improve sustainable changes. She has a proven ability to develop and evolve process and tools to suit the organizational culture and strategy of desired improvement and outcomes. ​

Shannon’s experience:​

• Developed, taught and refined release planning workshops that improved sales by 15% by getting new capabilities to market faster ​
• Coached product owners to develop and apply Agile mindsets and principles to their ideation, workflows and planning processes to deliver on defined business value each sprint. Introduced reporting process to communicate these results monthly with executives​
• Taught teams to provide transparency around deliverables and deliver predictably using Agile methods resulting in improved trust, motivation and collaboration across the company​
• Implemented processes and procedures to provide regular visibility to Executives around day to day team activities so that decisions could be made quickly around project direction, risk and professional development​
• Launched initiatives and mentored individuals and teams to improve skills around collaboration, communication, public presentation, verbal and written interactions​

Key Facts

• BS in Graphic Communications from California State Polytechnic University, SLO​
• Certified Scrum Master (CSM)​

Shilen Modi

Shilen is a motivated and driven economics graduate. He is skilled in analysing companies economic climate, its international structure, market conditions and is experienced in how organisations operate in an increasingly competitive and complex global environment.

Having worked in 4 different countries, Shilen has the ability to settle easily into new environments and build strong relationships with others. Prior to joining ADAPTOVATE he was a student at the University of Nottingham and a data analyst at a marketing agency.

Some of Shilen’s recent experience:

• Designed the Agile operating model and supported change management at an Australian bank’s marketing department​
• Undertook Agile diagnostic at a G20 initiative that was struggling to deliver, identifying areas for improvement, delivering appropriate Agile coaching to embed customer centric mindset 
• Found an alternative supplier which resulted in a 5% variable cost saving for one of Nottingham’s biggest hospitality chains
• Was recognised by the University as the outstanding President for leading and implementing an engagement strategy that increased student satisfaction ratings and was inclusive of all students residing in his Halls of Residence
• Was an official NUCO Ambassador and led a NUCO Representatives team to ensure that the customers had an enjoyable and worthwhile experience

Key Facts

• Bachelor of Science in Industrial Economics at the University of Nottingham

Simmy Li

Simmy has been with ADAPTOVATE since its inception, and is an integral part of the team.She began her career in Hong Kong, working in real estate sales, where she focussed on building a global network of financial services investors.

Simmy graduated with a Property Valuation degree, and gained career experience marketing residential and commercial properties to overseas buyers.

Following her move to Australia, she soon discovered that her true passion was people – and helping them to develop their careers.Simmy is our Chief Talent Scout.

She is a master at building relationships and takes great pride in finding people that are the right fit for ADAPTOVATE and ensuring ADAPTOVATE and the roles they are placed in, are the right fit for them.

Slawek Koziol

​Slawek is an experienced agile enthusiast specialized in building and leading high-performing teams within innovative large-scale transformation programs. With +15 years of experience (both consulting and client-side) supported teams that successfully implemented innovative solutions across a wide range of areas including sales strategy, service models, sales supporting tools, digital transformation, process and omnichannel excellence, network management, analytics, reporting, people development and leadership culture. Slawek established himself as industry thought leader with numerous think-tank and industry conference speaker engagements.​

• Led omnichannel excellence initiatives including set-up and coaching of agile multidisciplinary teams that implemented digital-first service model at a leading bank​
• Analyzed and improved customer journey through Design Thinking approach and Agile coaching of the team​
• Led multi-year branch network transformation journey at a leading bank ​
  (also co-authored new branch format awarded Best-of-Show at FinovateEurope)​
• Supported post-merger integration of large universal banks with micro-planning of Day-1 activities for to ensure smooth operational transition and customer migration​
• Developed, documented and implemented sales leadership culture for a financial institution​
• Designed and implemented training and development programs for sales networks of leading banks ​
• Led and co-led numerous presentations, training sessions and workshops for bank managers of all levels​

Key Facts

• Graduate of Warsaw School of Economics​
• Financial services expert​
• Industry conference speaker​
• Technology enthusiast ​
  (HarvardX, MITx, The Linux Foundation certifications)​
• Languages: Polish, English, German​

Sonya Doshi

Sonya is an experienced Human Resources professional with a passion for Talent Acquisitions. Sonya has a strong cross-industry background and experience supporting large and diverse work forces including temporary staff, front-line staff, mid-level and senior management.​

Sonya has enhanced recruiting teams by reducing the average fill time, establishing Applicant Tracking Systems and building lasting relationships with candidates. ​

Sonya’s experience:​

• Reduced overall Cycle Time to Fill from 45 days to 18 days by creating a candidate pipeline, implementing sourcing strategies and encouraging candidate engagement
• Successfully implemented a new Applicant Tracking system using Smartsheets, resulting in improved user and candidate experience
• Implemented company-wide work from home policy, resulting in an 87% increase in employee satisfaction and retention, a 21% increase in productivity, and a 38% decrease in PTO usage
• Ensured personal and company compliance with all federal, state, local and company regulations

Key Facts

• Master or Science, Human Resources ​
• Bachelor of Arts, Political Science, Public Relations ​
• Languages: English, Hindi, Gujurati ​

Steven Walton

Steven is enthusiastic about working with organisations to bring people together to shape teams that deliver value to customers and satisfaction to employees. He has over 20 years’ experience working across multiple domains including Sales, Marketing, Finance and IT. ​

Steven has experience in bringing lean thinking and an agile mindset to small business, large corporate and government environments including:​

• Designed and setup new Agile ways of working at an Australian government policy department to drive innovative citizen led thinking that increase responsiveness and quality ​
• Establishing a large efficiency program through new Agile ways of working for a global Industrial Goods player​
• Co-designing and documenting team structures, practices and procedures for a New Ways of Working program at an Australian Retail energy provider​
• Managing delivery of a $24m p.a. Data and Analytics program of work at an Australian Telecommunications network infrastructure provider​
• Transforming Program Office methodologies to a continuous flow inspired, Kanban way of working at a large Telecommunications provider​
• Preparing for a scaled Agile transformation including designing teams structures, transitioning projects and designing a continuous deliver improvement roadmap at an Australian Telecommunications network infrastructure provider​
• Designing and transitioning multiple departments as part of a scaled Agile and DevOps transformation at a global finance technology company​

Key Facts

• Master of Business & Technology from the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) ​
• Certified Scaled Agile Program Consultant, Scrum Master and Release Train Engineer (SAFe)​
• Graduate of Telstra Top Talent Management program​
• Australian Data-driven Marketing & Advertising (ADMA) award finalist

Tanja Hoger

Tanja is an experienced Consultant in the design and implementation of transformative business and technology change, with a focus on Financial Services. She has experience across Europe and Australia, where she contributed to, and led work streams on Digital Transformation programs spanning across the Operating Model.​

With a passion for holistically transforming customer journeys, Tanja embraces digital technologies and advocates the design thinking approach and new ways of working as enablers for innovation and organisational agility that enhance customer experiences.​

Tanja’s experience includes: ​

• Designing Agile service delivery strategies for a complex back office business unit of an Australian Bank ​
• Supporting the establishment of the Agile Project Management Office and setting up the structures enabling an agile operating rhythm for a large-scale reporting automation project at an Australian Bank​
• Leading a specialist work stream on a customer journey transformation relating to customer identification and onboarding at a large Swiss Bank​
• Coaching Pilot Squads in the Investment Banking sector through a large-scale, global Agile Technology & DevOps transformation​
• Coaching business transformation and change participants in the Banking and Insurance sector in organisational agility and Agile ways of working with the support of specific Agile frameworks, tools and processes​

Key Facts

• Graduate Diploma of Chartered Accounting (GradDipCA)​
• Bachelor of Business (with Distinction) from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology​
• Design Thinking Coach at IDEO U School ​
• Nominated for the Top Talent Senior Consultants Program at Deloitte​
• Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO)​
• Professional Scrum Master (PSM)​
• Certified SAFe 4 Scrum Master (SSM)​

Ted Tomoyasu​

Ted is a seasoned enterprise agile coach. management consultant, and trainer with proven experience designing, developing and leading strategic initiatives, evangelizing agile principles and practices, driving continuous improvement and achieving goals. ​

Ted is focused on helping companies scale agility throughout their businesses to achieve lasting improvements and deliver value.​

Ted is an accomplished change agent with 20+ years of experience in aerospace, bio-medical, defense, ecommerce, electronics manufacturing, healthcare, and logistics. ​

Ted’s experience:​

• Drove enterprise-wide agile transformation increasing employee engagement by 48%, reducing cycle time by 72%, and improving delivered quality by 35% in an in-flight entertainment organization​
• Led a team of agile program managers and cross-functional resources to develop and execute multimillion-dollar transformational improvement projects, enhancing competitiveness and quality while deploying scaled business agility across the enterprise​
• Engaged as Agile Coach in e-commerce, healthcare, and logistics industries coaching scrum teams to effectively deliver value as well as mentoring and training agile leaders across multiple business areas to make the agile transformation sustainable​

Key Facts

• BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona​
• Certified SAFe Program Consultant (SPC)​
• Certified SAFe Release Train Engineer (RTE)​
• Project Management Professional (PMP)​
• Lean-Six Sigma Black Belt (LSSBB)​

Tess Duggan​

Tess is an experienced and energetic People and Culture Business Partner, with 8 years’ experience in a variety of People and Culture roles. Tess worked as a People & Culture Advisor within two global consulting and leadership development firms, before moving to a People & Culture Manager role in the hospitality industry. Her time in these roles exposed Tess to all facets of human resources including recruitment, performance management, remuneration and benefits, engagement and strategy, and mergers and acquisitions. Tess is now our Global People & Culture Business Partner, coaching senior leaders to build leadership capability, foster engagement and deliver on operational objectives. Tess is passionate about creating an exceptional team member experience and is motivated to create a positive and engaging workplace for the ADAPTOVATE team.​​

Tess’s experience includes: ​

• Senior Leadership Team member, managing a People & Culture team and function for over 420 employees​
• Development and implementation of effective HR policies, practices and procedures that support strategic growth​
• Provision of high-quality recruitment advice and support, workforce planning and developing employer brand strategic initiatives​
• Presenting to board members of renowned institutions regarding company culture and engagement and the benefits of a strengths-based culture​
• Developed a training and capability framework, with a structured training program, enabling managers to build on individual skillset, facilitating progression and improving employee engagement and client feedback​

Key Facts

• Bachelor of Business Management, Majoring in Human Resource Management from RMIT​
• Awarded the employee CEO ‘Shine Award’ at UXC Oxygen​
• Awarded the Global President’s Award for ‘Exceptional Performance in an Operations/Administrative Role’ at Lee Hecht Harrison​

Thomas Ross

Thomas has an interest in psychology and how human behaviour impacts teams within business and agile transformations. ​

Thomas is a Commerce graduate who studied a major in Marketing at UNSW, Sydney. Whilst at university, Thomas was involved in a Founders accelerated media start-up designed to innovate unbiased media sourcing and coverage.​

Thomas combined his time studying with working on process improvement at Dan Murphy’s, founding a start-up that repurposes retail space optimisation. He also managed a team within the Woolworths Group and understands the important link between employee satisfaction and business performance. ​

Thomas’s experience includes:​

• Conducted training and development with Dan Murphy’s employees to ensure that in-store operations were optimised and consumer-centric. Engaged in planogram and program design to maximize profitability of retail locations.​
• Drafted promotional and recruitment material for a media start-up that achieved 1.8 thousand subscribers its first 6 months.​
• Worked with an international team to release new product lines into Woolworths and Coles. ​
  ​

Key Facts

• Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing) at the University of New South Wales​
• Founded and worked on successful start-ups from the UNSW Founders Incubator

Tiong Yeow

Tiong Yeow specialises in agile coaching and training, digital organisation transformation, agile project management and organisational design. He has consulted for a wide range of clients in the Asia Pacific,  focusing primarily on financial services and energy & resources.​

Before joining Adaptovate, he was a Senior Consultant with Deloitte Consulting, focusing on Human Capital consulting. He has designed and delivered solutions for clients in the areas of agile organisation transformation, agile project management and organisational design. ​

Tiong Yeow’s consulting experience includes:​

• Agile coaching and training for a tribe for a top Thai bank – coach and train ~120 people to operate and deliver value in agile as well as upskill in-house client agile coaches to enable continuous agile capability embedment in the organisation​
• Agile coaching and training for a strategy design team for a leading Chinese bank  – embed agile ways of working to deliver customer-centric strategy design to capitalise market ​
• Digital organisation transformation for a top Filipino bank – agile organisation design to set up “teams of teams” and agile ways of working, as well as pilot team onboarding to transform the bank into an adaptable organisation​
• Digital HR strategy design for an Indonesian bank – agile workshops to ideate and pilot new ways of working in HR​
• Agile project management and change management for one of Asia’s largest real estate organisations in Singapore – agile project management and change management for a frontend digital transformation to build a strong and coherent digital brand identity for customers​

Key Facts

• Bachelor of Social Sciences – Double major in Psychology and Organisational Behaviours and Human Resource (OBHR) from Singapore Management University (SMU) ​
• Professional Scrum Master (PSM 1) – Scrum.org​