Housing and homelessness

Her recent experience has included:

• Working alongside an executive director of Australia’s biggest public transport project – to bring their team together, to connect, and align on the key priorities for the team for the next 12-18 months. This included agreeing measures of success and ways of working to deliver their program of work effectively.
• Working with the CEO and board of a community affordable housing organisation in Sydney’s west to agree their overall strategic direction and aspiration and consider key strategic questions to set them up for future success and to assess their investment pipeline and growth strategy.
• Working with the head of External Affairs of a peak body in the energy industry, Gemma worked collaboratively with the team to develop a set of ‘mega themes’ to better define their work priorities and align their work to the broader organisational goals.

Prior to joining Right Lane Consulting, Gemma was director of Strategic Engagement at Industry Super Australia where she was responsible for strengthening relationships between ISA and key stakeholders. Gemma has built her successful career as a skilled leader bringing complex stakeholders together, solving complex problems and leading and driving outcomes.

Gemma was also previously a trustee director of AustralianSuper, a director of Industry Fund Services and a member of the senior team at the ACTU. She worked in senior roles in the trade union movement for twenty years, including leading organisational reviews for the ACTU. She is a skilled facilitator and enjoys working with boards and teams across a variety of sectors, with her passion being in housing, gender and sustainability.

Gemma is a director of the progressive think tank Per Capita and holds a Master’s degree in Communication from RMIT, an Honours degree in Women’s Studies and Politics from Monash University and is a graduate of the AICD Company Directors course.

Right Lane Consulting. (2024, May). Housing Matters: Unlocking the supply of social and affordable housing at scale

Her recent experience has included:

• Facilitating strategy days with boards and executive teams for multiple organisations, including developing the 3-5 year strategic direction and attendant ‘strategy on a page’.
• Developing Right Lane Consulting’s inaugural Housing Matters Report 2024.
• Designing and delivering sector consultation to inform how a federal government agency can build fundraising capability in the cultural and creative industries.
• Designing and delivering stakeholder engagement to consult members on the current and future state of peak bodies in the community housing sector.
• Supporting an alliance of local councils and social service providers to clarify how they will work together to increase social housing in south east Melbourne.
• Determining the new executive team and organisational structure of a merged social services provider.
• Designing a service excellence hub for a national mental health service provider.
• Designing an early intervention program for young men at risk of violence for a social services provider.
• Drafting an evidence and impact strategy for a national primary prevention agency.

Cassandra is motivated to drive change and make a positive impact and pursues this in both professional and volunteer roles. Cassandra has completed The Observership Program and served on the boards of Music Victoria, CoHousing Australia and Farmer Incubator.

Prior to joining Right Lane Consulting, Cassandra’s most recent role was as the Principal Adviser in the Policy and Advocacy team at the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In this role she delivered the Victoria Summit 2021 Playbook, which created a shared vision for Victoria in 2050, and highlights her ability to turn a big idea into a quality deliverable.

Cassandra has a Master of Business Administration at Monash University and received a Dean’s Commendation. She also holds a Bachelor of Business (First Class Honours) from the Queensland University of Technology.

Ben’s recent experience has included:

• Supporting a not-for-profit community housing provider to articulate their value proposition and search and evaluate potential partners to execute their ambitious growth agenda.
• Helping a not-for-profit community housing provider prepare for their board strategy day by analysing their external and internal environment. This involved interviews with the board and developing archetypes and journey maps for high-needs customer cohorts.
• Leading a workstream developing archetypes and journey maps to help a public sector client understand the needs of its key customer cohorts and identify gaps in required capabilities. This included direct customer engagement through a survey and focus groups, followed by analytics of key outputs.
• Supporting a not-for-profit community housing provider prepare a tender for the HAFF CTAP funding round.
• Designing and facilitating workshops with C-Suite stakeholders to identify desired future-state capabilities for the client’s HR function. Conducting resource modelling to identify resource requirements.
• Designing an evaluation framework to score development programs targeting disadvantaged communities. Used the framework to score and prioritise the programs and created a cost model and business case to package the resulting savings.

Prior to joining Right Lane Consulting, Ben was a Senior Consultant in the Business Transformation team at Ernst & Young. Ben has also worked for start-ups disrupting the healthcare and financial services sectors in Australia and the US.

Ben holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Sydney, achieving a double major in Finance and Economics. He has also studied Design Thinking at New York University and Development Economics at the London School of Economics.