Facilitator Bios

Alan Colvin

Education: Bachelor of Economics in 1985

Background: Alan’s career began in finance and administration roles at Hewlett-Packard. After receiving strong opinion scores whilst managing the HP Australian Support F&M team, his career transitioned into HR. He was the HR Director when HP won the inaugural Best Place to Work in Australia in 2000. Telstra was next to take notice of his skills, hiring Alan as an HR Director in 2002. In his decade at Telstra, Alan became renowned for his entertaining and interactive approach to facilitating HR related courses and offsite meetings.

Experience: Alan is a practical and common-sense HR Executive with a passion for the power that proper People Management and Leadership can deliver to an organisation. Alan knows the importance of engaging employees, as he was the HR Director when Hewlett-Packard Australia won the inaugural Best Place to Work in Australia in 2000.

After completing a Bachelor of Economics in 1985, Alan then spent the next 13 years in Finance and Administration roles at HP including two stints in the USA, which provided him with a grounding in business financials, plus the disciplines needed to do people management well. Alan’s career then transitioned into HR on the strength of strong employee opinion scores delivered whilst managing the HP Australia Support F&A team of 70 people.

Joining Telstra in 2002 as an HR Director, he gained broad HR experience by supporting many Business Units, including Mobiles, Business & Government, Legal, Finance & Strategy, Corporate Affairs, IT and Wholesale. In the decade Alan spent at Telstra, his achievements were in changing the culture, sharpening performance management, increasing employee engagement scores, and building bench strength through talent management across the Business Units he supported.

Whilst at HP, Alan facilitated courses to emphasise the importance of values, culture and the basics of people management and leadership. At Telstra he became renowned for his entertaining and interactive approach to facilitating HR related courses and offsite meetings.

Alan now runs his own consulting business, specialising in leadership and human resource management and works both in Australia and overseas.

Dr Ian Allsop

Education: BA (Uni of WA), BD (Melb College of Divinity), MBA (RMIT), PhD (Monash)

Background: Ian has had an illustrious career in the education sector, teaching at four universities and working as an academic advisor and examiner for the Melbourne Business School/Mt Eliza Executive MBA Program. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Melbourne Business School at the University of Melbourne. Away from teaching, Ian was an organisational consultant and a former Managing Director of Bioss International (Australia). He is the author of Restoring Faith in Management and a number of journal articles.

Experience: Ian is a Senior Fellow with the Melbourne Business School within the University of Melbourne. He taught Social Enterprise in the Melbourne Business School’s MBA. From 1997-2010 he was an academic adviser and examiner for students in the Melbourne Business School/Mt Eliza Executive MBA program. He taught Leadership and Strategy at Swinburne University for their Master of Management and has taught at RMIT University in their post graduate MBA and DBA programs and in the Box Hill Institute’s Bachelor of Networking (IT) degree.

As well as teaching, Ian is an organisational consultant with a specialisation in the area of Strategic Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Executive Development, and Organisational Strategic Reviews, particularly with organisations facing change. He is a former Managing Director of Bioss International (Australia) the Australian consulting arm of the Brunel Institute of Organisational and Social Studies, UK.

Ian conducts his own consulting company for work within the church, community and not for profit sectors. Ian works with large client organisations from the government, private corporate, church and community sectors at a senior management level.

Ian has held senior management and ministry positions within the church and community sector. Ian is a former president of the Victorian and Australian Council of Churches and a member for eight years of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches based in Geneva. He is a past Chairman of The Council for Christian Education in Schools. He convened the Multi-Faith Working Group of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation from 1992-5. Ian was the national and state secretary for Churches of Christ.

Ian has retired as a Board member of the National Ageing Research Institute (NARI) affiliated with The University of Melbourne. He retired as a director of EIG-Ansvar Insurance after ten years. He served as the Chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee of those boards. He was a member of the Advisory Boards of Moore’s Legal, Merryck and Co, and The Parliament of World Religions

He is the author of Restoring Faith in Management, published by Harper-Collins Dove in 1993 and a number of journal articles.

Paul Runting

Education: Masters in Education Leadership from Monash University, Bachelor of Education from Australian Catholic University and a Fellow of Australian College of Education Leaders.

Background: Paul has been an Educator for nearly 40 years and has worked in the Catholic and Independent school sector as a teacher of English and Literature and later with positions of Head of Middle and Senior School at various private schools.

Head of Caulfield Grammar for 16 years, past President of the Victorian Branch of the Australian College of Educators, Paul has also worked with Monash and Melbourne University in preparing graduate teachers for their professional life.

He has had experience in managing a range of teams, developing strategic plans and developing a Mission, Vision and Values for schools. He is currently engaged in consultancy with schools and brings a wealth of experience and an engaging look at leadership and managing people.

Lisa Galbraith

Education: Bachelor of Commerce, University of Melbourne; Diploma of Applied Finance, Securities Institute of Australia

Background: Lisa began her career with Hewlett Packard where she held business leadership roles in Australia, Asia Pacific and the USA. She leveraged this into the start-up world, where, together with the founder, successfully boot strapped a start up to sale to Thomson Reuters. Building success is her passion and she draws on her experience in building innovative solutions and managing diverse, strong and effective teams.

Experience: Lisa works with start-ups and businesses mentoring and coaching owners and staff to enhance their effectiveness, to problem-solve and to build business and personal success. She has an innate ability to listen, observe, understand and articulate a situation thoroughly and thoughtfully providing critical thinking and feedback.

Lisa began her career with Hewlett Packard where she held business leadership roles in Australia, Asia Pacific and the USA. She then transitioned into the start-up world, where, together with the founder, successfully boot strapped a start up to sale to Thomson Reuters.

Lisa has demonstrated an ability to bring together the classic competing interests of sales vs marketing, start-ups vs corporate, technology vs product development, by understanding their needs, speaking their language, and the most important part – helping them collaborate for success.

Lisa keeps a razor-sharp focus on results and accountability to set strategy and execute to a plan. She brings people closer together, innovating, and building for a common purpose and long-term success. Key to Lisa’s success is her ability to build and coach diverse teams.

Natasha Facci

Education: Bachelor of Business, Certificate in Counselling, AHRI Certified HR Practitioner, Institute of Managers & Leaders Fellow and AICD Member

Background: Natasha decided to move into the world of consulting after a successful People & Culture Leadership career in the corporate world. Over 23 years, she worked across multiple industries including, Civil Construction, Transport, Government, Software & Technology, Telecommunications, Government Business Enterprise, Banking & Finance, Hospitality, Manufacturing & Construction, Member Associations & Natural Resources.

As a facilitator and transformational change coach, she helps executives and aspiring leaders unleash their own resourcefulness, resilience & true potential by being, thinking and doing things differently. She assists her clients to reframe their beliefs & decisions, find their purpose & passion and lead with courage & authenticity.