Our Team

About Ian

Ian is the Managing Director of Huron Studer Group Australasia. Ian has over 30 years’ healthcare industry experience in both the public and private sectors in the roles of general manager and chief executive officer. These roles have often been in businesses requiring a strong strategic and operational focus or needing strong leadership as the organisations rapidly grew and developed.

Professional Experience

Ian established Studer Group in Australia and New Zealand in 2005, leading its highly successful development and growth across these two countries and now expanding into Southeast Asia. Ian had a successful career in public health management including roles in general management of hospitals and working in a variety of roles at the area health service level. In the private sector, he held numerous chief executive officer appointments and project roles at both state and corporate levels. In addition to executive and strategic management roles, Ian developed a specialised expertise in the privatisation of health services, overseeing the largest privatisation project in Australia, the Joondalup Health Campus in WA.

Ian has an outstanding skillset to enable complex and difficult challenges to be analysed, actions planned, and implementation of goals achieved. This is combined with his experience in cultural change and executive development that allows him to support organisations to grow and meet the challenges before them. He has a strong rapport with the many stakeholders involved in the health industry and has led many stakeholder discussions and negotiations. He is also well-versed in the clinical and business issues facing the healthcare industry. This blend of strong operational and strategic skills combined with his focus on how organisations culturally function allows Ian to provide an outstanding level of support and advice to a broad range of health facilities across both the public and private sectors.

Signature Engagements

• Led large scale organisational change across healthcare systems and hospitals
• Senior leader and advisor to multiple healthcare organisations in the public and private sectors
• Advisor, mentor and coach to boards and senior executives across the healthcare industry
• Led the largest privatisation and redevelopment of a public hospital in Australia
• Specialist in business and performance turnaround across healthcare businesses
• Leader in the development of strategy to move organisations to higher levels of performance

Education and Certifications

• Bachelor of Health Administration, University of New South Wales
• Master of Management, University of Technology Sydney
• Accredited Facilitator, Team Management Profile
• Marketing in Healthcare
• Total Quality Management
• Various Leadership, Teams & Change Management Development Programs

Professional Associations & Memberships

• Fellow, Australian Institute of Management (AIM)
• Fellow, Australasian College of Health Service Management (FCHSM)
• Surveyor, Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS) for 14 years

About Michele

In her role as Director and Coach Leader, Michele has seen her partner organisations continually demonstrate improvement in patient experience, quality, efficiency and retention of high performers.

Professional Experience

Michele is a passionate and dedicated coach who has more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry. Her nursing background combined with her skill in coaching provides the expertise necessary to aid in the development of systems, people and organisations to deliver better care and outcomes. As a coach for Huron Studer Group Australasia, Michele has specialised in coaching metropolitan, regional and rural health services in implementing and creating sustainability around the Evidence-Based Leadership℠ framework. She is diligent in creating and maintaining strong relationships and her ability to develop rapport at all levels coupled with her deep understanding of quality, patient experience and staff engagement drivers and her strong clinical and education skills allows her to work well with executive teams, managers, frontline staff and doctors to lift organisational performance. Prior to working with Huron Studer Group, Michele served as an internal coach for the Excellence Program for Epworth Healthcare. She provided training, coaching and validation of the Evidence-Based Leadership℠ tools and tactics. The organisation saw remarkable progress with steady and sustainable change in staff and medical engagement and patient experience over four years.

Signature Engagements

• Led partners to obtain and sustain top decile results in patient experience and make substantial increases in staff engagement
• Coached partners recognised as Huron Studer Group’s Australian Health Care Organisation of Distinction
• Coached partners presented best practices at What’s Right in Health Care® USA and Australia.

Education and Certifications

• Bachelor of Nursing, Latrobe University
• Graduate Certificate in Clinical Education, Latrobe University
• Diploma in Project Management, Australian College of Project Management
• Cert IV in Workplace Training and Assessment, Australasian College of Coaching and Mentoring

About Owen

Owen has over 30 years of healthcare industry experience in both the public and private sectors in a variety of executive and managerial roles. He has led many organisations in the role of chief executive officer, general manager or area director, ranging from teaching hospitals to specialist private centres. These roles have often required significant change management implementation to achieve the desired results at all levels.

Professional Experience

Owen has had an extensive career in public health care including the creation of executive management development programs, management of multi-sited service delivery care models and the development and transformation of two major teaching hospitals. He has also held numerous positions at the area health service level which included line management responsibility for service delivery through to strategic change management leadership and implementation roles. Additionally, Owen has spent time as a chief executive officer of a specialist hi-technology private hospital and has a solid understanding of the dynamics of private hospital operations. Owen’s deep understanding of organisational and cultural change and his insightful ability to drive the core issues allow him to develop both strategic and tactical solutions to achieve desired outcomes. He has highly developed interpersonal skills and a proven track record in stakeholder management. This combination of strategic, operational and interpersonal skills combined with a customer-focused philosophy ensures Owen brings value to any client or organisation with which he works.

Signature Engagements

• Led several major capital works programs including the redevelopments of both St. George and Wollongong Hospitals, major teaching and trauma centres
• Specialist in mentoring and onboarding executives and managers
• Proven leader in engaging with doctors across all levels
• Trusted advisor and mentor to healthcare leaders

Education and Certifications

• Bachelor of Commerce, University of New South Wales
• Master of Health Administration, University of New South Wales
• Management Development Program, Australian Management College, Mt Eliza
• General Management Program, Australian Graduate School of Management
• Strategic HR Management, Australian Graduate School of Management

Professional Associations & Memberships

• Surveyor, Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS) for 6 years
• Owen has served on the Board of a leading private school in Sydney’s south for over 10 years during which time the school has experienced substantial growth.

About Jaime

Jaime is a highly motivated person who loves to make a difference for people in healthcare. Combining her skills as a coach, leader and systems thinker, Jaime shares with her customers the “how to” of getting tasks completed.

Professional Experience

Jaime has worked across finance, telecommunications and healthcare industries in customer service, systems and finance roles. Jaime has been an internal HuronStuder Coach for a large healthcare provider and during that time coached managers in a patient-centred change management system, provided ongoing coaching to managers using the Evidence-Based Leadership℠ framework, assisted managers with goals and action plan development, and facilitated and coordinated training sessions for teams. Combining this with her extensive financial and applications software understanding, Jaime has the expertise necessary to efficiently and effectively hardwire Huron Studer Group tools and tactics. This is seen in her skill of using the Leader Evaluation Manager® and Validation Matrix™ software, both of which accelerate alignment and accountability for organisations and ensure compliance to key process and behaviour measures. Additionally, Jaime currently serves as the coach specialist for Huron Studer Group’s electronic rounding tool, MyRounding®, and the Must Haves® tactic of Rounding for Outcomes. Jaime is an engaging leader who drives activities to completion. She is skilled at working with people and in teams and is instrumental in assisting Huron Studer Group’s partners to fulfil their objectives.

Signature Engagements

• Deployment and coaching of alignment and accountability systems across multiple small and large healthcare organisations
• Coaching and support of staff and managers to drive improvements in the delivery of frontline services
• Living Values Coach for Uniting Health Care supporting the Linen Service to achieve the Huron Studer Group Organisation of Distinction Award in 2014

Education and Certifications

• Mastering Resilience
• Leader as Coach
• Leading and Inspiring Change
• Leading with Emotional Intelligence
• 5 Dysfunctions of a Team
• Cert IV Integrated Training in Communication
• Cert IV in Training and Education

Professional Associations

• Member, Australasian College of Health Service Management

About Kylie

As a Coach for Huron Studer Group Australasia, Kylie works both as a coach with organisations in implementing and creating sustainability around the Huron Studer Group Evidence-Based Leadership℠ framework and in a development role to help create leadership and change programs to support leaders and grow their organisations.

Kylie loves to utilise her extensive experience in clinical, general operations, management and leadership to build, lead and implement systems, approaches and programs that enable positive organisational change. Kylie is passionate about developing individuals, teams, services and organisations to utilise their strengths, enhance services and provide quality outcomes.

Professional Experience

Prior to joining Huron Studer Group, Kylie was the Senior Lead for Organisational Development for the Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District and then the Manager of Organisational Development at Nepean Hospital, a 600-bed metropolitan tertiary hospital. In this role Kylie lead the “Committed to Excellence” program, utilising Studer Group’s Evidence-Based Leadership℠ framework to transform the culture and operations of the organisation while undergoing a billion-dollar capital redevelopment and financial turnaround. As a member of the executive team, Kylie has been instrumental in setting the foundations for and seeing improved performance results which will see it set up for its future growth.

Kylie commenced her career as a qualified speech pathologist and has now had a successful career of over 20 years where she has gained extensive experience in management and leadership of multidisciplinary teams, project and change management and organisational development. Areas of expertise include leadership and team development, change management, recruitment and on boarding, development of practice frameworks and learning and development programs.

Signature Engagements

• Lead for transformational culture & performance change initiative at large tertiary metropolitan hospital
• Developing and delivering leadership development programs to Senior Executives & Managers
• Held Senior Executive & Leadership roles across Healthcare, Disability and not-for profit sectors.
• Change manager for a variety of projects & initiatives within healthcare.

Education and Certifications

• Bachelor of Applied Science (Speech Pathology) Sydney University
• Diploma of Government Management – Institute of Public Administration Australia
• Certification in Change Management – PROSCI
• Accredited Trainer, Team Management Systems (TMS)

About Maryann

Maryann is a highly regarded leader, clinician and coach with over 30 years of healthcare industry experience in both clinical and managerial roles.

Professional Experience

Maryann has held a variety of roles ranging from clinical nurse, discharge coordinator, assistant director of nursing, director of nursing, director of clinical services and general manager, along with a range of project roles at both facility and state levels. Maryann has worked across clinical settings, including management roles in human resources, quality and safety, education, imaging services and major health planning and capital works. Throughout this time, Maryann has demonstrated strong leadership and operational skills, developing new and emerging managers to rise to any task. Often, Maryann has gone into facilities within the broader organisation to undertake targeted turnaround work. This expertise stems from her experience in state and national roles where she facilitated enterprise agreements on behalf of the organisations.

Signature Engagements

• Led the development of the new Gold Coast Private Hospital, a 284-bed private hospital and the transfer of an existing hospital into the new facility and health campus; Maryann was involved in the design, care models, development of systems, introduction of new clinical services and the eventual transfer and commissioning of the new facility
• Held a leadership role in organisational Quality and Safety systems across multiple organisations

Education and Certifications

• Bachelor of Nursing, Geelong Hospital
• Discharge Planning Certificate, University of New England
• Cert IV Leadership & Management

Professional Associations

• Member of Australian College of Nursing
• Surveyor, Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS)
• National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards Specialist (NSQHS)
• Lead Auditor ISO 9001

About Matthew

Matthew joined Huron Studer Group in 2012, serving as a coach and international speaker and working in a variety of areas including emergency departments and critical care settings. He enjoys coaching and speaking on patient engagement, performance excellence in the age of change, clinical communication, high reliability and human factors engineering.

Professional Experience

Matthew’s experience is diverse and truly international, having worked in Australia, USA, UK, Southern Sudan and Kenya and across a range of organisations including public and private hospitals, international aid/relief agencies, the Australia Federal Police and the Australian Defence Force. He has passion for and expertise in improving performance across organisations.

Matthew is currently coaching partners who range from major metropolitan teaching centres to regional and rural centres across both the public and private sectors. As a specialist emergency department coach, Matthew, in conjunction with our USA Executive Medical Director, Dr. Dan Smith, works with hospitals to assist in improving performance across the key areas of clinical quality and outcomes, patient flow, patient perception of care and staff engagement.

Signature Engagements

• Worked with various Queensland agencies to deliver special clinical governance, communication and patient safety programs
• Lead advanced training and simulation programs with Australian Defence Forces and the Australian Federal Police in Advanced Cardiac Life Support, Field Trauma Care, Humanitarian Assistance and emergency medical skills and tactics
• Development of effective change management models linked to the Evidence-Based Leadership℠ framework
• Performance improvements in regional and teaching centre emergency departments

Education and Certifications

• Diploma of Applied Science (Nursing), Monash University
• Bachelor of Nursing, Monash University

Professional Associations

• Faculty Member Clinical Skills Development Service: ACLS, ECRM, PHTLS, ACLSi, ACLSiTT

Publications/Speaking Engagements

• Healthcare Asia Pacific 2018, Singapore, March 2018
• Tiande Healthcare Management Services Co, Beijing, July 2015

About Melanie

Melanie is an accomplished clinician and coach who has a passion to improve healthcare for all patients, residents, clients, their families, staff and visiting practitioners.

Professional Experience

Melanie has a broad general experience in nursing, management and project roles and enjoys teaching and supporting people to continually improve. In her role as a manager, mentor and leader, Melanie has assisted many people to develop and improve their skills. Melanie is a skilled project manager and change agent who is able to coordinate people, services and decision makers to promote organisational change which is sustainable.

Melanie has a deep understanding of patient satisfaction drivers and linked this with her strong clinical and change skills to work successfully with executive teams, managers and doctors to drive organisational performance.

Signature Engagements

• Held lead role for Medication Safety Breakthrough Collaboration and the Safe System Saving Lives where she led the development, stakeholder consultations, implementation and maintenance of these programs across the organization.
• Participated in best practice studies i.e. Orthopedic pain management and longitudinal studies on Urology Robotic Surgery with Deakin University.

Education and Certifications

• Bachelor of Nursing, RMIT University, Melbourne
• Graduate Diploma in Case Management, Melbourne University
• Cert IV Workplace Training & Assessment
• Cert IV in Business and Personal Coaching

About Warren

Warren is highly regarded as a cultural change leader and supports organisations and individuals to lead and manage complex change from the boardroom to frontline staff.

Professional Experience

Warren has over 30 years’ experience in education, training and management across a broad range of organisations and industries including aviation, mining, police, transport, banking, justice, industrial and healthcare. Over the years, he has developed a passion for using outdoor experiential learning techniques to help people move forward and learn new skills. Combined with his background in psychology and education, he can help people yield new skills and implement different behaviours in their workplaces by applying what they have learnt to deliver the desired results. He is a skilled facilitator and trainer with a strong emphasis on individual learning and organisational outcomes. Warren combines these expert skills with his specialist knowledge around business performance enhancement and business process redesign, inclusive of Lean. He has extensive experience across the healthcare sector, having worked with Huron Studer Group for over 10 years.

Signature Engagements

• Successful development of executives and managers across many organisations
• Cultural change and leadership coaching with Qantas Airways over 4 years to implement LEAN
• Lecturer and facilitator, Australian Graduate School of Management
• Lecturer, Sydney Graduate School of Management

Education and Certifications

• Diploma of Teaching (Industrial Arts)
• Bachelor of Arts (Education & Behavioural Science)
• Master of Educational Administration
• Cert IV Workplace Training & Assessment
• Accredited Trainer, Team Management Systems (TMS)
• Accredited Trainer, Human Synergistic Life Styles Inventory (LSI)

About Debbie

Deb commenced with Studer Group Australasia in 2008 and is a highly valued member of the team. As Huron Studer Group’s  Partner Relations Manager- Deb’s role is varied and she performs many important functions that ensure we can successfully deliver services to our partners and clients. Some of the main functions of Deb’s role includes; primary contact and support for Partner organisations, development and support to the coaching team in an administrative role;  management of travel , Executive Assistant to the Managing Director and Coach Leader, management of conferences, workshops, institutes and USA study tours, oversight and assistance with marketing material, website, social media and branding.

Deb has invested in a number of Diploma’s which have supported her to grow and develop her skills set in order to be a more valuable asset to the organisation and customers we support.

What Deb most enjoys about her role is being able to work with people who motivate her, job variety, flexibility and the privilege to work with an organisation who believe family is important.

Deb’s goal is to be the best support to our team to enable them to be the best at what they do – mentoring our partners to make a difference in healthcare. Her aim is to try and be a better person today than what she was yesterday.

Professional Experience

Debbie has over 30 years’ experience in administration, having worked with Huron Studer Group for over 15 years.

Education and Certifications

• Diploma of Project Management
• Diploma of Event Management

About Peta

Peta commenced with Huron Studer Group Australasia in 2016 and is currently employed as the Finance and Administration Officer.  Her role consists of all facets associated with the finances of the organisation. In addition, Peta also conducts a range of administrative functions including; managing publications and processing book orders, marketing functions and assisting with our conferences and events.

Peta has a background in sales and marketing in media and tourism, human resources and payroll.

In her role, Peta enjoys the opportunity to be able to approach any team member with ideas and solutions to increase productivity across the organisation. Peta enjoys the variety in her role and is keen to continue to utilise her background in marketing to support Studer Group to continue to highlight our achievements and increase our impact across the sector. Peta appreciates the balance between work and family life within an organisation who actively demonstrates that people and family matter.

One of Peta’s great accomplishments was in 2015 when she completed the 96km Kokoda Challenge on the Gold Coast in 31 hours!

Professional Experience

Peta has over 30 years’ experience in administration, having worked with Huron Studer Group for over 7 years.

Education and Certifications

• Diploma of Tourism Management.