Our team
Our expert team of consultants are passionate about what they do.
Chiara Lawry
Chief Executive Officer
Marc Levy
Founder & Chair
Zoe Pappas
Principal
Gemma Pinnell
Principal
Les Hems
Principal
Debbie Williams
Senior Expert
Matt Hardy
Senior Expert
Katie Riuli
Senior Expert
Simon Brown-Greaves
Senior Expert
Helena Mcgeorge
Associate Principal
Georgie Swan
Associate Principal
Dominic Leaver
Associate Principal
Aaron Richards
Engagement Manager
Radhika Chelliah
Engagement Manager
Cassandra Pace
Engagement Manager
Dheeraj Jayakumar
Engagement Manager
Alvin Wen
Engagement Manager
Matthew Foskey
Engagement Manager
Sacha Leonard
Engagement Manager
Jess Cossens
Expert
Ashlee Booth
Expert
Stefan Fothe
Expert
Shmuley Goldberg
Expert
Ellen Hooper
Expert
Mark Jeanes
Expert
Andres Pollano
Expert
Llewellyn Prain
Expert
Alice Zeng
Senior Associate
Adrian Halimi
Senior Associate
Afsaneh Rashidi
Senior Associate
Priyadarshini Bose
Senior Associate
Josh Ramsay
Senior Associate
Benjamin Johnston
Senior Associate
Arielle Palermo
Associate
Freya Clare
Associate
Cory Smith
Associate
Penelope Stephens
Head of Operations
Shona McKendry
Executive / team assistant
Bec Yule
Graphic Designer
Euan Bruce
Graphic Designer
Jackie Laws
Quality Assurance Specialist
Lauren Spiteri
New Client Development
Chiara Lawry (Chief Executive Officer)
Chiara is the Chief Executive Officer at Right Lane Consulting. Chiara has deep experience in the public and social sectors where she has extensive experience as a strategy consultant and policy adviser.
Beyond the public sector, Chiara also has consulting experience across a broad range of industries including financial services, the community sector and the retail industry. She has experience in strategy, digital transformation and business development and is passionate about supporting her clients to solve their toughest problems.
Her recent projects have included:
- Strategy and planning: Working alongside the CEO and executive team of a national education organisation to reset their vision and strategy.
- Organisation design: Working for the executive team of a government social services agency to redesign their operating model to increase program integration and improve client outcomes.
- Growth: Supporting the CEO and executive team of a national advocacy organisation to scale their influence in response to increased government funding.
- Stakeholder alignment: Designing and leading a co-design process to bring together government community leaders and end-users to design a new initiative to support economic development in regional Victoria.
- Digital transformation: Leading the customer journey mapping for a financial services client.
Chiara has a deep passion for social impact and has worked with a number of local and international NFP organisations. She was a founding volunteer and board member at the Oaktree Foundation. She has worked with indigenous organisations in the Cape York Peninsula and the Tiwi Islands. She has served as a board member and deputy chair of Environmental Justice Australia.
Prior to joining Right Lane, Chiara worked at the Boston Consulting Group where she was a core member of the public sector practice. Chiara was a policy adviser at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in Canberra where she worked under the Rudd and Gillard Governments on health reform and international policy.
Chiara has a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from the Australian National University and a Masters of Public Administration from Columbia University.
Marc Levy (Founder & Chair)
Dr Marc Levy is the founder and chair of Right Lane Consulting. Marc has been in management consulting for over 30 years. In that time he has facilitated more than 750 board and executive team strategy offsites, probably more than anyone else in the country.
Marc has worked directly with more than 120 CEOs and has provided strategy counsel to:
-
Australia’s largest biotech
-
Australia’s largest and the world's fastest growing super fund
-
A world leader in influenza vaccines
-
The world’s leading responsible investment initiative
-
Australia’s #1 asset consultant
-
Australia’s largest digital advertising company
-
Australia’s leading plaintiff law firm
-
Australia’s #1 online lender to small businesses
-
The world’s online accounting software leader
-
Australia’s leading cancer charity
-
Australia’s largest union and the peak body representing workers in Australia
-
Australia’s second largest employer
-
One of the world's largest infrastructure managers and one of the country’s largest infrastructure projects
-
The country’s leading audit firm.
Marc is particularly proud of his work advising profit-to-member super funds over nearly 25 years; and the counsel he has provided to more than 100 Australian non-profit and public sector clients, including numerous peaks and advocacy organisations, foundations and charities, sporting bodies and public institutions.
Marc holds bachelors and masters degrees in business from Monash and the Melbourne Business School respectively and a PhD from the University of Melbourne.
He is on the advisory board of the Social Purpose Centre at the Melbourne Business School, where he has recently been teaching EMBA students strategy consulting for social impact.
Over 13 years as CEO, Marc led Right Lane to a revenue CAGR of 24%.
Zoe Pappas (Principal)
Zoe is a principal at Right Lane Consulting. She has been with the firm for 13 years. In the past three years, Zoe has worked on nearly 130 consulting projects and facilitated over 200 workshops, primarily with executive teams and boards.
Zoe has developed a reputation for clear thinking and communication, including the ability to reframe complex problems making them easier to understand and solve. Her projects consistently achieve high client satisfaction and advocacy ratings, in part because she stays close to clients and their wants and needs. Zoe prides herself on never missing a client signal and always being on top of how directors and executives are thinking about her projects.
Zoe has extensive experience in leading strategy, planning, growth and organisation projects in the financial services, retail, healthcare and government sectors. Her recent projects have involved:
- Strategy and planning: Facilitating strategic thinking and strategic planning workshops with a multitude of for profit, not for profit and government organisations. Facilitating steering committees (including a diverse range of stakeholders and views) as they oversaw a critical organisation change. Developing a strategy and organisation design for a disruptive specialty retailer with a promising growth trajectory.
- Vision and purpose: Working with several organisations in the financial services and travel and leisure sectors to help board and executive teams rethink their vision and purpose statements to help guide strategic decision making.
- Growth strategy: Facilitating staff and board workshops with one of Australia’s largest industry super funds. Working with a large client team to transform a financial services organisation’s approach to growth strategy, from executing priority growth options to supporting a subcommittee of senior directors to advance the merger agenda.
- Organisation: Leading organisation redesign projects for wealth management, superannuation and telecommunications industry clients. Helping clients to design and operationalise integrated performance management systems, from corporate balanced scorecards to individual KPI frameworks. Working with marketing, business development and operations teams to improve the effectiveness of their structures, processes, resource allocation and performance management.
Before joining Right Lane, Zoe had 15 years of experience in operational and management roles. She was previously a business manager, financial controller and management accountant in the publishing, entertainment, communications and IT security industries. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne and an MBA from Melbourne Business School.
Gemma Pinnell (Principal)
Gemma is a principal at Right Lane Consulting. She has worked in senior positions in superannuation and the labour movement for over two decades.
Gemma has delivered projects across strategy, policy and program evaluation, new service design and implementation, data and analytics, and transformation. She is focused on partnering with clients to tackle challenging problems and deliver solutions that can be executed to achieve impact.
Her project experience includes:
- Strategy and planning: Working alongside an Executive Director of Australia 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.
- Strategy development: 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.
- Developing an advocacy narrative: 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, Gemma was Director, 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.
Les Hems (Principal)
Les is a Principal at Right Lane Consulting. Les is a career long social impact professional and is recognised as an expert in social planning, social infrastructure, strategy development and implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and social impact measurement.
Les specialises in advising NGOs, government, and business on strategy, demand for and delivery of social infrastructure, service design, social impact measurement, impact investing, outcomes-based contracting, collaboration, place-based mechanisms, and organisational capacity building. He has worked with a range of organisations across various fields, such as health, housing and homelessness, disability, aged care, education, arts and culture, and Indigenous communities.
Les is an expert and advisor in relation to Environment, Social & Governance (ESG) and sustainability in the context of development and capital investment.
Some of Les’ project experience:
- Social impact assessment and stakeholder and community engagement for the redevelopment of the Albury Regional Hospital and a wide range of social infrastructure including seniors living, residential, commercial and mixed use.
- Highest and best use assessments that consider social value alongside commercial value to inform strategic decisions relating to social infrastructure, residential, commercial, retail and mixed-use developments.
- Social cost benefit analysis and funding application for an innovative proposal by WentWest PHN to introduce outcome payments to reduce avoidable presentations to emergency departments and reduce overall costs of the health system.
- Development of assessment criteria for investments using the ESG framework.
- Lead advisor on the first tranche of the NSW Social and Affordable Housing Fund including developing the overall concept, design principles, and contract and operational parameters.
- Strategic Advisor for a range of social benefit bonds that attract private capital to deliver sustained social outcomes.
Les holds a Master of Business Administration from Aston Business School. Les is a founding member of the Social Impact Measurement Network of Australia.
Debbie Williams (Senior Expert)
Debbie is a senior expert at Right Lane Consulting with 26 years of consulting experience across a range of industries including government, community services, education, health care and financial services.
Debbie is respected by her colleagues and clients for her ability to quickly synthesise complex information, assess the potential of opportunities and ask probing questions.
She is an expert in governance, strategy development and implementation, and performance improvement. She has contributed significantly to Right Lane’s knowledge and methods in the areas of assessing board capabilities and effectiveness, growth strategy and merger option evaluation.
Her recent projects have included:
- Strategy and planning: Developing the Council plan and Business plan for one of Victoria's largest metropolitan councils. Conducting strategic planning processes – including the facilitation of executive team workshops – for several clients.
- Organisation design: Working with the Executive team of a social services organisation; designed a new organisation structure and accountability framework to align the organisation to its new strategic priorities.
- Governance: Working with directors of a professional services company to diagnose governance challenges in the partnership structure and collaborate to establish the framework of an improved leadership structure.
- Growth: Helping the board of a major institutional investor agree on a growth strategy and build a new management structure, working from strategy, through capabilities, to PDs and KPIs.
- Merger assessment: Developing a merger assessment tool for a homecare health services provider to guide the Board’s decision making on potential partners.
In addition to her consulting work, Debbie is an experienced non-executive director. She is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company and from 2009-18 was a non-executive director of Monash Health the largest health service in Victoria with a budget of over $1.8 billion.
Debbie started her consulting career at Booz & Co. She has a MBA (with distinction) from one of the world’s leading programs at INSEAD, a masters of operations research from Auckland University and a bachelor of commerce from Canterbury University.
Matt Hardy (Senior Expert)
Matt has spent more than a dozen years in consulting, including five years at McKinsey & Company and seven years with Right Lane Consulting, leading high-performing teams in strategy, organisational and operational problem-solving studies.
Matt’s recent projects have included:
- Reviewing operating models for super funds, fintech companies, a major energy company, mining companies, FMCGs, supermarket retailers.
- Reviewing strategy and operating model for the digital R&D agenda of an ASX100 company.
- Reviewing operating rhythms for the investment department of a leading super fund.
- Reviewing an organisation’s values, with respect to connection to strategy and performance culture, for a leading corporate client.
- Facilitating a series of strategy reviews for the Australian office of a global FMCG company.
- Conducting a strategy review for a leading logistics company.
- Conducting a strategy review for a diversified industrial holding company.
- Supporting a super fund in developing an integrated growth strategy.
Matt previously worked for seven years in management roles in the finance function of wholesale bank Abbey Financial Markets in London and the United States. His industry experience spans financial services, mining, retail, consumer goods, transport, energy, oil and gas, telco, government and not for profits.
Matt holds an MBA from the Melbourne Business School (Dean’s List) and a Bachelor of Commerce from Monash University.
Katie Riuli (Senior Expert)
Katie is an senior expert at Right Lane Consulting with over 10 years of experience in consulting and a background and passion for public health and social impact to deliver value for the for-purpose sector.
Katie is passionate about working with organisations to solve their most pressing challenges and realise their commercial and impact aspirations, whilst remaining grounded in their operational realities.
Her recent projects include:
- Led the development of a Social Impact Investing Strategy & Implementation plan for a national disability services provider, providing the architecture for investing a multi-million dollar surplus across a portfolio of initiatives that would deliver both outcomes for people with disability and, in some cases, commercial returns.
- Led the development of an Impact Report for a global infrastructure knowledge agency, estimating the social value they deliver annually. The final report was a key component to their successful multi-year funding request.
- Led multiple workstreams as part of an organisational operating model design and implementation for a large community services provider. Additionally, I facilitated workshops and stakeholder engagement activities to upskill client workstream leads. This resulted in a new operating model better enabling the organisation to deliver against their purpose and strategic plan.
- Developed, planned and implemented a series of initiatives to uplift the capability of a children and family services team and enable this team to meet key compliance requirements. This included establishing systems, processes and ways of working based on best practice and the organisational context to create a sustainable way of operating.
- Led co-design and development of a Child, Youth, Family Services Strategy for a national community services organisation, leading a team and the development of a Strategic Intent presented to the Board. This resulted in board endorsement to make an organisational shift from a focus solely on tertiary services to prevention, early intervention and breaking the cycle programs.
Katie holds a Master of Public Health, Prevention and Community Health, Health Communication and Marketing from George Washington University and a Bachelor of Science, Health and Exercise Science from Wake Forest University. Katie is also a trained RIVA Facilitator and is a trained Prince 2 Agile practitioner.
Prior to joining Right Lane, Katie was a senior manager at Deloitte in the Social Impact practice, and a consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton.
Simon Brown-Greaves (Senior Expert)
Simon Brown-Greaves is an experienced senior executive manager and Organisational Psychologist and Coach with extensive experience in complex, sensitive and high-risk environments.
Simon has more than 35 years’ experience working with clients in complex environments including law enforcement, a range of judicial systems, regulatory bodies, superannuation, banking and manufacturing and has worked with a broad range of Federal and State Government bodies including ABS, Defence, WorkSafe, ACCC, ASIC, AER, DJCS, Parliament and many others. He has worked with leaders across all levels of Government in more than 25 departments. He has a deep understanding of the operational realities of these types of organisations and for the last 2 years was the inaugural Chief Mental Health Officer at Australia Post.
Simon has extensive experience in delivering occupational violence and aggression training, conducting peer support and leadership development sessions, and providing strategic wellbeing recommendations. In his facilitation, Simon draws on his experience to authentically guide collaboration and the creation of working business outcomes. He has facilitated hundreds of workshops ranging from tactical sessions designed to build effective teams and promoting healthier and more productive workplaces to high level strategic workshops around culture, values and mental health strategy with the key output to enhance organisational wellbeing and performance.
Simon’s ability to deliver dynamic and engaging forums with outstanding impact has resulted in him becoming one of the most reputable facilitators of mental health and wellbeing content in Australia.
Other key skills include strategic business reviews and planning, a data-driven, analytical approach and balancing complex stakeholder relationships and competing priorities,
Simon’s areas of expertise include human capital management, leadership development, strategic organizational consulting, facilitation and development of senior management teams, mergers/acquisitions integration, assessment and development of organisations and individuals, coaching senior executives and Employee Assistance Programs and CIMS.
Simon’s qualifications include a bachelor of Science (Hons), Masters of Science in Clinical Psychology and a Diploma of Criminology, and he is a member of the Australian Psychological Society, the APS College of Organisational Psychologists and he is a Registered Organisational Psychologist.
Helena McGeorge (Associate Principal)
Helena McGeorge is an associate principal at Right Lane Consulting. Helena has significant experience in superannuation and financial services sectors and serves clients across a range of other sectors, including education and professional services.
Helena leads project workstreams, which often includes structuring problems, research and analysis, development of insights and project documentation. She enjoys working with clients on projects where there is a tangible outcome or impact on the end user/customer.
Her recent projects have included:
- Strategy and planning: Preparing for and facilitating the board strategy day for a place-based not-for-profit to align on strategic priorities and develop plans for execution.
- Organisational effectiveness: Helping senior teams better understand and resolve operational and structural challenges limiting performance.
- Strategy mobilisation: Assisting clients in the superannuation and other sectors to scope and implement strategic priorities.
- M&A: Assessing and integrating the product portfolios of merging super funds, as well as detailed due diligence.
Helena previously worked as a manager at Deloitte, during which time she worked on engagements spanning strategy and business planning, product design and regulatory reform. Her role also encompassed mergers and acquisitions, and actuarial valuations.
Helena has a Bachelor of Actuarial Studies, majoring in Finance, from the University of NSW. She has also successfully achieved her Actuarial Fellowship, awarded by the Institute of Actuaries of Australia.
Georgie Swan (Associate Principal)
Georgie Swan is an associate principal at Right Lane Consulting. Her expertise is in strategy, facilitation and team development. She is a passionate not for profit leader, previously holding senior roles in the sector for a decade.
Georgie’s projects are steeped in methods of co-design, where she uses her masterful facilitation skills to work with groups and teams to build engagement and commitment to outcomes.
Georgie focuses on inclusivity, she values different perspectives and ideas, and builds engaging approaches to bring teams into projects.
Her project experience includes:
- Organisational development: Worked with Australia’s largest industry superannuation fund’s senior teams to build capability of the organisation, through the development and implementation of a bespoke high performing teams framework.
- Strategy and planning: Worked with the board, CEO and Executive Team of a large Government Agency to develop a 3-year strategy, focussed on redeveloping their priorities to meet the needs of a changing policy and program environment, a reorganisation of government agency responsibilities in the sector and rapidly evolving consumer expectations.
- Strategy development: Worked with the CEO and board of a mid sized community services organisation to agree their overall strategic direction and aspiration, to ensure their priorities align with consumer and funder expectations, and consider key strategic questions to set them up for future success in an evolving competitive market.
- Strategic initiative design and implementation: Worked alongside the senior leadership team of a large public institution to co-develop action plans for key strategic initiatives across a 3 year time horizon. This included sequencing of initiatives to manage competing priorities and to set the organisation up to achieve their strategic aspiration.
Prior to joining Right Lane, Georgie was an Executive Director at Teach For Australia, a not-for-profit organisation which aims to address educational inequity in Australia, responsible for the Leadership portfolio. She partnered with both Federal and State based Education Departments, to design, implement and continuously review programs in communities facing educational disadvantage; predominantly those in regional, rural, and remote Australia.
Georgie holds a Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Arts from The University of Melbourne and studied abroad at ITESM University in Mexico.
Dominic Leaver (Associate Principal)
Dominic is an Associate principal at Right Lane Consulting. Dominic brings a wealth of experience and a proven track record in strategy and transformation, particularly within the social impact sector.
Dominic joins us from Deloitte, where he served as a Senior Manager in the Social Impact Consulting Practice. Over his 5 years at Deloitte, Dominic partnered with Australia's largest disability, community, and aged care providers to develop leading strategies that drive social impact at scale. His leadership and expertise have been instrumental in delivering over 20 client engagements valued at $4.5 million.
Some of Dominic's notable achievements include leading the design of a 3-year growth-oriented strategy for Westhaven, which enabled the organisation to expand into two regions and deliver successive operating surpluses. He also developed a national disability employment strategy for Scope Australia, integrating various services into a financially sustainable business unit and enhancing customer experience through flexible pathways.
Dominic's experience extends to the public sector, where he managed the program design stream for the reform of the Disability Employment Services program, supporting over 310,000 people nationwide with an annual budget of $1.4 billion. Prior to his time at Deloitte, Dominic spent 7 years at The Smith Family most recently as the National Manager of Strategy. Dominic holds a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Policy Studies from the University of New South Wales, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from the University of Technology, Sydney. His passion for building the capability of social impact organisations to commercially thrive and deliver impact at scale aligns perfectly with Right Lane Consulting's purpose.
Aaron Richards (Engagement Manager)
Aaron is an engagement manager at Right Lane Consulting. He works with senior consultants and client teams to deliver successful engagements by overseeing project delivery and conducting in-depth analysis.
He has a background in research with strengths in conducting numerical and qualitative analyses and problem-solving. He also has experience communicating complicated ideas in digestible formats through previous work in tertiary education and the professional sports industry.
Since joining Right Lane nearly 4 years ago, Aaron has worked on over 40 projects across a variety of industries, including financial services, government, education, sport and not for profits.
Aaron has extensive experience working on strategy, planning, growth, organisation and culture projects. His recent projects include:
- Strategy and planning: Supporting an Australian university to co-develop a long-term strategy in a rapidly changing sector. Helping the Australian subsidiary of a global electronics manufacturer and distributor to develop a new strategy centred on taking a ‘circular economy’ approach to its business. Assisting a government asset manager to run an inclusive process to develop a new strategic plan.
- Strategy mobilisation: Working with a Victorian government agency to develop and cascade their strategic decisions through to all staff by developing workplans and establishing monitoring processes and software.
- Growth: Identifying and conducting detailed analysis on growth opportunities for one of Australia’s largest industry super funds. Conducting market assessments for an emergency medical solutions company to inform strategic decisions on where to compete.
- Organisational effectiveness and governance: Diagnosing governance challenges for a public health not-for-profit organisation and for an industry super fund and developing recommendations for future improvements. Conducting a strategic review of a national academic journal and presenting options for organisational structure, governance, and resourcing.
- Culture: Developing and piloting a well-being health check process for a national sporting body, involving an in-depth survey and outcomes reporting structure to measure wellbeing outcomes and support.
Aaron holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree with first-class honours from the University of Melbourne and honours in Economics with a focus on behavioural biases relating to attribution.
Radhika Chelliah (Engagement Manager)
Radhika joins Right Lane as an engagement manager. She has significant experience in transformation projects and has served clients across a range of sectors, including financial services, utilities, education, aged care and media. With external and in-house consulting experience, she brings a human-centric focus for sustained outcomes.
Radhika's focus areas include organisational effectiveness, operating model, workforce transformation, organisation design, change management and business case development across Asia, UK and EMEA. Her experience includes:
- Operating model: Redesigned the target operating model for project delivery in a professional services firm, through job redesign and process improvement with a user-centric focus; increasing effectiveness of client servicing teams and increasing employability of back-office staff
- Organisational effectiveness: Conducted a global strategic review for organisational effectiveness and cost efficiency of finance teams. Built a business case for potential areas of improvement including team structure, talent fit assessment, system improvement, process improvement, and centralization of activities
- Strategy mobilisation: Worked with different lines of services to cascade strategic decisions through to all staff; providing forums for staff to present their perspective and co-design the implementation plan
- Change Management: Designed and delivered end-to-end change management for a multi-country shared service centre and ERP implementation, leading stakeholder alignment, communication, training and staff engagement
Radhika has a deep passion for creating change agents and is the Founder of Impact Catalyst which delivers experiential learning projects for undergraduate students, anchored on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Her recent projects have been commended by the Financial Times and Harvard Business Publishing.
Prior to joining Right Lane, Radhika was with PwC and EY. Radhika holds a Masters Degree in Human Resource Management and Organisational Analysis from King's College London, CIPD Level 7, PROSCI certified change practitioner and a Bachelors Degree in Commerce (Accounting) from Monash University.
Cassandra Pace (Engagement Manager)
Cassandra is an engagement manager at Right Lane Consulting. She is responsible for structuring and leading consulting workstreams and small to mid-sized projects and overseeing day to day project management.
Cassandra has nearly 20 years of experience in a range of strategy, policy, project and research roles. She has worked in federal and state government in Australia and local government in England spanning topics including film, television and digital games, small business and international tax. Cassandra has strengths in developing strategies and policies, leading strategic and business planning processes, tailoring written communication to diverse audiences, and managing projects and stakeholders.
Cassandra’s recent projects include:
- Developed the 3-5 year strategic direction and attendant 'strategy on a page' for several organisations in the caring economy.
- Determined the new executive team and organisational structure of a large merged social services provider.
- Designed a service excellence hub for a national mental health service provider.
- Designed an early intervention program for young men at risk of violence for a social services provider.
- Drafted 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 recently completed 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.
Dheeraj Jayakumar (Engagement Manager)
Dheeraj is an engagement manager at Right Lane Consulting. He works with senior consultants and client teams to deliver successful engagements by overseeing project delivery and conducting in-depth analysis.
Dheeraj’s most recent role was as a strategy analyst at RMIT University, leading project workstreams and supporting stakeholder engagement efforts in strategic planning and organisational effectiveness projects.
Dheeraj's passion lies in effective problem solving and his diverse background in consulting, engineering and human-centred design have exposed him to numerous problem-solving approaches.
Dheeraj’s recent projects at Right Lane include:
- Assisted a large institutional investor to undertake a fee structure review to continue to offer a compelling value proposition for its clients while delivering on its objectives of simplification and sustainability
- Helping a leading asset consultant to run an inclusive board strategy day, with an emphasis on the organisation's employee value proposition and people strategy
- Supporting a large Australian airport articulate its core purpose and customer-focused vision by engaging the organisation, along with refreshing its 3-year strategic plan
Previously he worked in Accenture, liaising with cross-functional teams in the development and implementation of business solutions. Dheeraj also collaborated with a leading seaport in India and published a paper on productivity improvement in the International Journal of Business Innovation and Research in 2017.
Prior to joining Right Lane, Dheeraj’s most recent role was as a strategy analyst at RMIT University, leading project workstreams and supporting stakeholder engagement efforts in strategic planning and organisational effectiveness projects
Dheeraj holds a Master of Engineering Management from RMIT University and a Bachelor of Technology from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India.
Alvin Wen (Engagement Manager)
Alvin Wen is an engagement manager at Right Lane Consulting with operation's supporting senior team members on project replating to on operating model design and implementation.
Alvin has over six years of consulting experience, spanning an internal strategy role at AMP and over 3 years in an operation’s advisory role in KPMG’s Customer and Operations practice.
In addition to his operating model experience, Alvin has experience working with financial services, education and not for profit clients on projects related to strategy, pricing, and business case development and is a passionate an active member of Right Lane’s diversity, equity and inclusion team.
Alvin’s recent projects include:
- Developing a national operating model for a leading animal welfare not for profit organisation resulting in significant operating expenditure benefits, through improved centralisation, as well as more sustainable and efficient operations.
- Developing a retail banking operating model for an international financial institution including assessment of current operations, identifying productivity gains, simplifying services offered, streamlining service delivery, and a simpler organisational structure.
- For a NSW government authority developed a business case to improve equitable access to education. This included an assessment of the operational impact to inform a Treasury funding request.
Alvin has a Masters of Applied Finance (Distinction) from Macquarie University, and a Bachelor of International and Global Studies from University of Sydney. He is also an accredited Lean Practitioner.
Alvin also volunteers at the Asylum Resource Centre in Sydney
Matthew Foskey (Engagement Manager)
Matthew is a engagement manager at Right Lane Consulting. He works with senior consultants and client teams to deliver successful engagements by overseeing project delivery and conducting in-depth analysis.
Matthew has expertise in strategy and policy working at Right Lane Consulting and across multiple portfolios in the Victorian Public Service, most recently in the role of Strategic Adviser and acting Director at Emergency Recovery Victoria in the Victorian Government.
His recent relevant experience includes:
- Stakeholder engagement: Facilitated 25 focus groups across a Victorian Government agency to inform a review of its operating model, including ways of work and culture. Matt devised engaging sessions to enable buy-in and stakeholder comfort, leading to rich insights that laid the foundation for a robust diagnosis of current opportunities and clear next steps to drive improvement.
- Program evaluation: Conducted evaluations of youth engagement programs designed to reduce incarceration rates for a large not for profit employment provider across Victoria, South Australia and Queensland. The work clarified theories of change for each state-based program, involved significant consultation across diverse cohorts (delivery staff and program participants), and provided a rigorous performance evaluation including recommendations and tools to empower the organisation to sustainably enhance its impact.
- Strategy development: Developed a 4-year strategic plan for a Victorian Government emergency management agency informed by significant engagement with key stakeholders including board, executive team, staff and volunteers. The strategy identified key internal and external forces on the organisation and aligned the board and executive on the strategic approach to best position the agency for success in a resource constrained environment.
- Operating model review: Completed an operating model review of a national mental health services provider. The review led to a more fit for purpose leadership structure, clarified target organisational capabilities and positioned the organisation to meeting savings targets. A ‘lived experience’ lens was considered throughout the project to reflect the organisation’s work and promote buy-in for resultant changes.
Matthew is a qualified Australian Lawyer and commenced his career delivering tax and employment law advisory services to both ASX-listed companies and not-for-profits for a large consulting firm. This included extensive engagements relating to people matters, in particular industrial disputes, workers’ compensation, fringe benefits tax and payroll tax.
Matthew has a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts degree from Monash University and a Master of Public Policy and Management at the University of Melbourne, which included a first-class honours thesis.
Sacha Leonard (Engagement Manager)
Sacha is a engagement manager at Right Lane Consulting with a passion for public policy problems.
He has experience serving clients in the superannuation and not-for-profit sectors, focusing on issues including climate change and the clean energy transition, social and affordable housing development and social service provision. He brings a rigorous research background, strong qualitative analysis skills and keen stakeholder management to all engagements. Sacha holds a Master of Public Policy and Management and Bachelor of Arts Honours (Philosophy) from the University of Melbourne.
Sacha’s recent projects include:
- Developing member and outreach strategies for Australia’s peak climate philanthropy network
- Reviewing programs and departments within Australia’s largest organisation engaged in primary prevention of violence against women and their children
- Assisting with strategy and planning days for the Executive team of one of Australia’s largest super funds
- Supporting with stakeholder consultation for a global responsible investment organisation.
Jess Cossens (Expert)
Jess is an expert with Right Lane Consulting, who works closely with client teams to deliver projects that engage participants, make the work fun, and deliver relevant and usable outcomes.
She is cognisant of the perspectives that different stakeholders bring to a project, and designs her interactions to get the most from these different groups. In her 5 years at Right Lane, Jess has delivered strategy, organisation and engagement projects across a range of sectors, including financial services, government agencies, not for profits, healthcare and education.
Jess’s recent engagements include:
- Strategy and planning: Working closely with clients to diagnose the internal and external factors impacting upon their organisations, and using this knowledge to inform the development of their strategic plans. Facilitating strategic planning workshops for social-impact organisations, helping to balance financial needs with social aspirations.
- Organisational effectiveness: Working with the executive team of a family business to develop a revised organisational structure based on their new strategy. Developing a fit-for-future performance management approach for a mutual insurer to help uplift management’s focus on results and better support staff with their development.
- Strategy mobilisation: Engaging with teams to help them understand the broader organisational strategy and how their contribution has impact; supporting team and individual performance plans in line with the needs of the business strategy.
- Gender equality: Supporting organisations across education, local government and emergency services to better understand the state of gender equality in their workplaces, identify strategies to improve their performance and build internal capability through collaborative learning and training.
- Stakeholder alignment: Planning and facilitating inclusive stakeholder engagement processes, ensuring all perspectives are expressed and fostering innovation in client organisations.
Jess represents that rare mix of analytical thinking and creative expression. With degrees in Mechanical Engineering (first class honours) and Arts (Drama and Theatre Studies) from Monash University, she appreciates bold visionary thinking supported by solid evidence.
Ashlee Booth (Expert)
Ashlee is an expert at Right Lane Consulting. Ashlee has broad cross-sector experience working across government, financial services, retail, mining, industrials, power and utilities. Ashlee is passionate about driving strategic growth outcomes for her clients, and garnering energy and strategic alignment across organisations. Ashlee has deep experience in delivering strategic projects, both in-house and as a strategy consultant.
Prior to joining Right Lane, Ashlee was based in New York, working as a senior manager in the Strategy and Corporate Development team of a US$2.1bn eCommerce/retail start-up, Warby Parker. Prior to that, Ashlee spent 4 years in the strategy team at EY.
Her recent projects include:
- Strategy and planning: Led the strategic planning process across multiple business units at an eCommerce/retail company including development of 3-year strategy, OKRs, operating plan, technology roadmap, headcount plan and budget.
- Growth strategy: Led the development of a new revenue growth strategy for an Australian electricity transmission company through current state assessment, market analysis, strategy development and financial modelling.
- Organisation design: Managed the strategic restructure of a global mining services company through future-state organisation design, cost modelling and executive engagement.
- Stakeholder alignment: Facilitated multiple global workshops to gain executive alignment of vision, target operating model, organisation structure and KPIs for a global financial services company.
Ashlee has a Bachelor of Economics and Bachelor of Commerce from Monash University.
Stefan Fothe (Expert)
Stefan Fothe is part of Right Lane’s professional network. He is Director at Ownity and former Head of Learning and Development at BCG in Australia.
He has a PhD in adult learning and 12+ years of experience working on the intersection of capability, leadership and organisational development.
Stefan has been working across sectors in Australia and overseas. He is certified as an Executive coach as well as a team coach.
Shmuley Goldberg (Expert)
Shmuley is an expert at Right Lane Consulting. He has 15 years of experience across financial wellbeing, health and human services and other for-purpose sectors in leadership and consulting positions in Australia and globally.
Shmuley’s advisory and leadership experience includes:
- Strategy development and alignment: lead strategy development, alignment and implementation, as well as major strategic initiative at leading organisations including at Australia’s largest profit-to-members superannuation fund.
- Economic modelling: Lead economic modelling for a large public health entity formulating a fair and viable economic and financial model in collaboration with JV care delivery partners. Modelling encompassed all care delivery settings and care phases.
- Business case development (Government and commercial): Engaged to provide commercial oversight of ICT business cases, including strategy, benefits management and ROI analysis. Lead business case development on a range of programs in government advisory and commercial settings.
- Data and insight: Lead design and implementation of data-strategy, performance dashboards, insights and advanced analytics.
- Clinical service delivery model design: lead design of pilot Accountable Care Organisation (ACO), an innovative population health care delivery model championed by the US federal government to offer quality and equitable health outcomes in appropriate care delivery settings.
- Health quality and patient safety: Lead the analysis and program delivery of various quality and patient safety initiatives including hospital stay and discharge optimization that resulted in length of stay reduction
Previously, Shmuley was Senior Manager Strategy and Transformation at AustralianSuper. Prior to that he held various consulting roles and was Director of Corporate Development at the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre (VCCC) where he led development of financial modeling enabling proposed care delivery plans across Parkville hospital partners.
Shmuley led numerous turnarounds and operational excellence initiatives at leading organisations.
Ellen Hooper (Expert)
Ellen Hooper is part of Right Lane’s professional network. She is an expert in people and culture and has a range of experience leading HR teams and functions.
Throughout her career, Ellen has advised both individuals and businesses in the state and federal public sector, education industry, not-for-profit environment and advising major multinationals and ASX listed companies as an employment lawyer and HR practitioner. An accredited executive coach through the International Coaching Federation, Ellen is an accredited mediator through Resolution Institute, certified in training and assessment with Inspire Education and a member of the Australian Human Resources Institute.
Megan Mclean (Expert)
Megan has 25 years of experience in facilitation, communication and stakeholder engagement spanning both corporate and not for profit settings, and is a practical and pragmatic facilitator with a focus on useful outputs that create value.
Megan’s recent experience includes:
- Facilitation of online workshops in the last 6 months including: a series of 35 compliance workshops across 500 staff, an online awards night of 850 people across Australia and New Zealand, 20 sales coaching workshops across Australia and Mumbai for 100 people and a series of 12 product launch workshops across Australia and India and regular online executive coaching sessions.
- Stakeholder engagement and community consultation: Working with a state government agency to conduct a state-wide stakeholder consultation program to develop a uniform campaign tackling Victoria’s recycling challenge. Facilitating a series of workshops for a state government department as part of a wider inter-agency approach with an aim to improve the educational outcomes for vulnerable children.
- Strategy and planning workshop facilitation: Facilitating a planning workshop for the divisional management team of a global catering company to agree areas of focus, goals and initiatives in a period of change. Facilitating a planning workshop for the management group of a large Melbourne-based professional services firm to develop an action plan to increase employee engagement. Working with the project team of a large Victorian infrastructure project to agree 12-month priorities and develop detailed operational plan for that period.
- Team effectiveness and alignment: Working with a national sales team of an industry-leading manufacturer to distil customer service principles into daily behaviours guiding all customer interactions. Working closely with a team from a large metropolitan council to connect the roles of team members to their purpose, including the development of goals, key initiatives and corresponding measures that will drive team’s success.
Megan has been described as a straight shooter who gets things done. Having owned businesses, worked for large corporate entities and consulted across a variety of sectors she brings a number of different perspectives. She also thinks there should be a few laughs along the way!
Holding a Bachelor of Arts in literature and professional writing, and a postgraduate certificate in journalism, she was also a founding member of the Family Advisory Council at the Royal Children’s Hospital – staying involved for a further four years. Megan is a keen baker, pursuer of zero waste and runner of half marathons.
Mark Jeanes (Expert)
Mark is a senior expert with Right Lane’s Professional Network, with over 25 years’ experience in corporate and financial leadership roles across multiple industries, including banking and finance, renewable energy, information technology, media and non-government organisations across Australia, Europe and Asia. His experience spans commercial banks and investment banks including ANZ, NAB, Macquarie Bank, Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas.
Mark specialises in financial strategy and financial modelling, providing deep insights to help clients to make high-yield decisions.
Some of Mark’s previous projects include:
- Developing a "Big Data" strategy for one of the Big Four banks, allowing it to deploy its customer data to the Cloud, providing valuable and actionable insights into customer behaviours and preferences.
- Assisting another Big Four bank to update radically its Treasury capital management system.
- Developing a business plan and building a financial model to facilitate the transfer of funding and operations of a global medical non-for-profit group to a new organisation.
- Developing a go-to-market strategy, business plan and then capital raising for a start-up renewable energy company, raising $9 million.
- Conducting a strategy review, and accompanying financial forecasting, for an Australian clean-tech property investment fund.
Mark has built sophisticated, powerful financial models for:
- A large housing investment company, including three separate investment funds and two other business divisions, for a large capital-raising.
- A large industry superannuation fund, to forecast and model member contributions, funds flow and funds under management, to inform the fund’s policy engagement with the Australian federal government.
- A large Australian charity, to forecast and test its plan to restructure its workforce.
Mark has a Bachelor's Degree in Business Systems from Monash University and a Graduate Diploma of Applied Finance and Investment from the Securities Institute of Australia.
Andres Pollano (Expert)
Andres is an expert at Right Lane Consulting. He joined the firm in June 2019 and has particular strengths in quantitative analysis and problem-solving. He has demonstrated a strong ability to gather and analyse complex data to deliver practical insights.
Prior to joining Right Lane, he worked in private equity and in valuation advisory services.
Andres’ recent projects include:
- Helping a large non-profit superannuation fund to refine its direct-to-member growth strategy, including segmenting, sizing and prioritising the market.
- Helping a large non-profit financial services firm refresh its long-term strategy.
- Conducting financial analysis for a large network of pharmacies to understand the key drivers of profitability across the business and developing a plan to return underperforming pharmacies to profitability.
- Assisting a superannuation fund to review and redesign a detailed strategy and business planning process map.
- Framing and conducting analyses to assess different strategic growth options for small-to-medium-sized industry super funds.
Andres also plays an important role in Right Lane’s institutional investor practice. Since joining Right Lane, he has worked with eight superannuation funds and related service providers. and has contributed to the last two editions of Right Lane’s Industry Super Forces at Work report.
Andres holds a Bachelor of Financial Management from Tec de Monterrey, Mexico. He graduated Summa Cum Laude and completed exchanges at the University of Melbourne and at Monash University.
Llewellyn Prain (Expert)
Llewellyn Prain is an award winning leader and experienced company director who has served on boards spanning the infrastructure, health, justice and disability sectors. She has a background in law, developing and communicating public policy, strategy, and corporate governance.
She has worked in senior roles in a number of government agencies and has provided consulting services in health, justice, emergency management, education, transport and workers compensation.
In 2014 Llewellyn lost most of her eyesight to a hereditary eye condition. She is a Fellow of the AICD and the Williamson Community Leadership program. In 2020 she founded WaterAble, a network for people with disability and their allies in the Australian water industry.
Llewellyn has designed and led WaterAble leadership programs, industry workshops to improve disability inclusion, and has developed a financially sustainable structure for the WaterAble network.
Alice Zeng (Senior Associate)
Alice is a senior associate at Right Lane Consulting. She works with senior consultants and client teams to deliver successful engagements by overseeing project delivery and conducting in-depth analysis.
Alice has over five years' experience in consulting across a broad range of sectors including in the public, social, community and not-for-profit sectors. She has experience in supporting organisations and senior leaders on organisation-wide improvement projects, including ways of working, governance review, strategic development, planning and mobilisation and operating model design.
Alice is a strategic and logical thinker with a proven track record in delivering high quality, differentiated outcomes for clients through data-driven research and analysis.
Alice’s project experience includes:
- Ways of working: Conducted several focus groups with DTF staff as part of 2023 Ways of Working program of work gathering perspectives required to support the establishment of the new Infrastructure Division. Alice developed a report for senior leaders with a summary of collective themes heard from staff and proposed next steps to support a successful transition to the new Division.
- Governance review: Reviewed the governance and institutional arrangements for a Victorian government owned corporation and development of an enterprise-wide governance and decision-making framework for a global biotechnology company that was endorsed by the CEO.
- Strategy and planning: Developed a series of practical, meaningful strategic planning and measurement documents to cascade strategy to business functions and enable ongoing monitoring of progress for a Victorian public authority and purpose-driven organisations.
- Organisation design: Worked with the executive team from a Victorian public authority to define their CEO-2 and full structure of key functions to maximise impact and deliver on strategic ambition.
Prior to joining Right Lane, Alice worked as an Associate Manager in Strategy and Consulting at Accenture. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce/Laws (Honours) from Monash University and studied abroad at Maastricht University in the Netherlands.
Afsaneh Rashidi (Senior Associate)
Afsaneh is an experienced professional with consulting experience from LEK, where she was a consultant and delivered Strategy and M&A projects, assisted government and private organisations across a myriad of industries including Transport, New Mobility, Automotive, Aviation, Education, Energy, Industrials, Healthcare, Waste and Consumer products. This has been backed by a wealth of hands-on experience in business transformation, business development, stakeholder management, operational improvement, and growth/market entry strategy development.
Afsaneh is passionate about building strong relationships with internal/external stakeholders, developing partnerships with clients from diverse industries or cultural backgrounds and helping them solve their problems. She advocates mutually beneficial partnerships where added value is created through collaboration, trust, sustained and committed relationship.
Afsaneh's selected accomplishments include:
- Leading the future mobility strategy development for a global automotive OEM for their fleet business. This included the development of a 5-year strategy plan for their offerings.
- Leading a study of the Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) market to understand the likely uptake of such technology. This included a review of current policy and incentives, competitors’ landscape, and forecast modelling.
- Developing an implementation strategy for the roll-out of the next generation ticketing system across different transport modes with a Government Transport Department in Australia.
- Supporting the business planning process and strategy for automating the concession validation in an account-based ticketing environment for a major Transport Department in Australia.
- Delivering vendor and commercial due diligence projects for clients across a range of industries. This included the assessment of the business and growth drivers, government policies, market size and dynamics, competitive positioning, customer perspective and the organic and inorganic growth opportunities.
Before moving to consulting, Afsaneh worked for Cambridge Boxhill Language Assessment (CBLA) where she played a crucial role at the time of business transformation to assist with transforming the business from a small local Melbourne-based operator into a high-performing global leader in healthcare mobility with the adoption of the exam in the UK, Ireland, US, Singapore, UAE as well as ANZ. She led the business expansion, capacity building and strategic partnerships management during her 7 years of working with CBLA, and this led to 475% growth in revenue from 2013-2020.
Afsaneh has an MBA from Melbourne Business School, is currently president of the Net Impact Club and vice president of the Women in Management Club. Afsaneh has high conviction to the purpose economy and is extremely motivated by Right Lane’s values.
Adrian Halimi (Senior Associate)
Adrian is a senior associate at Right Lane Consulting and has been involved in the delivery of projects in multiple sectors. He has strong quantitative skills and works with senior consultants and client teams to deliver successful engagements.
Adrian is an analytical problem solver with a passion to assist business leaders in solving important problems. He has previous experience in the financial advisory and end to end mergers and acquisitions space. Coupled with an MBA, Adrian is supporting the delivery of financially sustainable strategic insights through data-driven analysis.
Adrian’s recent projects at Right Lane includes:
- Research and evaluation: Developed the Australian housing crisis report which highlights the increasing demand coupled with a chronic undersupply along with suggested new approaches to housing through partnership with institutional investors and the build-to-rent model.
- Strategy and planning: Supported in developing a counterfactual model as the basis of a new service design model as part of an overall strategy refresh for a provider of financial help and superannuation solutions to the Australian superannuation sector.
Adrian’s previous project experience includes:
- Infrastructure divestment: Provided end to end support for a state-owned enterprise in divesting multiple toll roads to private investors valued at over $100 million. This included due diligence, valuation, divestment and post-divestment strategy.
- Strategic IPO preparation: Worked with the senior leadership team of a health provider company in preparing for an IPO which included highlighting sources of competitive advantage and organisation restructuring for efficiency.
- Financial analysis, modelling, and valuation: Developed financial analysis and models across different sectors to be used as a basis for valuation and strategic decision making.
Priyadarshini Bose (Senior Associate)
Pri is an experienced senior associate with over 5 years’ consulting experience most recently at Kearney serving clients across the globe to solve their strategic and operational challenges.
Over this time, Pri has helped deliver multiple projects that improved efficiency, transparency, and profitability for clients, while improving their environmental and social impact. Pri is passionate about capturing the value in data to drive business and social outcomes.
She has worked across diverse industries such as consumer retail, manufacturing & mining, and agriculture across ANZ, Europe, and Southeast Asia and has worked closely with executive teams to actualise their sustainability ambitions within their operations.
Pri has been involved in various sustainability-focused initiatives, embedding ESG attributes in M&A deal advisory, promoting sustainable sourcing practices, and enhancing transparency in supply chains.
Prior to her role at Kearney, Pri was an analyst in the risk advisory team at EY.
Pri’s recent projects include:
- Advising the COO and CMO of an Australian food conglomerate to design a carbon efficient product portfolio by optimising production bottlenecks, reducing ingredient waste while maintaining market share.
- Strengthening Australian’s supermarket supply chain after covid, war and inflationary disruptions by improving
shipment utilisation, optimising distribution logistics and inventory levels across 2500 stores.
Pri has a Master of Business Analytics at Melbourne Business School, and loves Tableau, Power BI and Python. She also has a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics and Statistics from St. Xavier's College
Josh Ramsay (Senior Associate)
Josh is an senior associate at Right Lane Consulting. He works with senior consultants and client teams to deliver successful engagements by overseeing project delivery and conducting in-depth analysis.
Josh’s project experience at Right Lane Consulting includes:
- supporting the preparation and delivery of a workshop for the external relations team of a global pension fund manager to determine how to build the appropriate capabilities and ways of working to execute on their strategy
- providing support to a mid-sized superannuation fund to clarify their priorities and resource their strategic activities alongside an impending merger
- supporting a community-based member organisation to develop its new strategy and working alongside the board to consider options for long term sustainability
- preparing for and coordinating stakeholder forums to gather input across the housing and homelessness sectors to inform the creation of a new state government housing agency
- supporting the governance review of the board of a state government agency to assess its function and performance with respect to its unique and evolving obligations
Prior to joining Right Lane Consulting, Josh worked in qualitative research at a strategic marketing consultancy and interned at a boutique management consulting firm.
Josh completed a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne in 2022, majoring in economics and marketing. Josh represented the University of Melbourne internationally in case competitions, winning both the Central European Case Competition and the Trans-Tasman Case Competition.
Josh is passionate about financial inclusion and improving people’s housing security. Whilst completing his studies, Josh was a project leader at the Melbourne Microfinance Initiative, a student-run consultancy. He worked with a microfinance institution based in Laos to develop an environmental sustainability strategy, and with one of the largest charities in the Philippines on a project relating to social return on investment (SROI) which valued the impact of national disaster relocation program.
Benjamin Johnston (Senior Associate)
Ben has 5 years of experience consulting Australia’s largest organisations across the public, financial services and not-for-profit sectors at Right Lane Consulting and Ernst & Young.
Ben has a diverse background covering strategy, operations and human centered design, and is passionate about finding unique formulas to solving complex problems. Ben has supported senior leaders in delivering large transformation projects designed to improve efficiencies while delivering a better experience for end-customers. He has helped design and implement various capability improvement solutions including organisational design, operating model design, process improvement, experience design and online learning tools.
Ben’s recent projects at Right Lane Consulting include:
- Mergers and acquisitions: Supported a not-for-profit community housing provider articulate their value proposition and search and evaluate potential partners to execute on their ambitious growth agenda.
- Strategic planning: Helped 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.
- Customer engagement: Led 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.
- Grant tender preparation: Supported a not-for-profit community housing provider prepare a tender for the HAFF CTAP funding round.
Other recent projects include:
- Organisation design: Designed and faciliated workshops with C-Suite stakeholders to identify desired future-state capabilities for the client's HR function. Conducted resource modelling to identify resource requirements.
- Program evaluation: Designed 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.
Arielle Palermo (Associate)
Arielle is an associate at Right Lane Consulting, leveraging a diverse background in fast moving consumer goods, digital commerce and trade marketing.
At Right Lane Consulting, Arielle has supported a variety of impactful projects across multiple sectors, including the caring economy, public sector and superannuation. Her contributions include:
- Strategy development and refresh: Co-developed comprehensive strategies for organisations to achieve their long-term goals and objectives. This involved conducting internal and external analysis, facilitating workshops with board members and assisting in developing actionable plans to deliver on the organisation’s strategic direction.
- Service and operating model design: Contributed to the design and implementation of efficient service and operating models for leading community service providers, to align internal teams and improve decision-making.
- Gender equality: Played a key role to support DEI initiatives within organisations, such as conducting Gender Impact Assessments (GIAs) on significant projects, process and services.
- Project management: Managed several projects, ensuring the timely delivery and adherence to project goals. Responsibilities included coordinating project teams, monitoring progress and mitigating risks to achieve successful project outcomes.
Arielle is passionate about making a positive impact across various industries through strategic insight and innovative approaches. She is dedicated to fostering meaningful change in all her endeavours.
Before joining Right Lane Consulting, Arielle was as a Key Accounts Manager at Procter & Gamble, where she specialised in ecommerce sales strategy and implementation. In addition to her professional roles, Arielle has made significant contributions as a team lead at 180 Degrees Consulting, where she worked with a non-profit organisation to develop a social impact metrics and evaluation framework and managed a team of five consultants.
Arielle holds a Global Executive MBA and a Master of Business Marketing from Monash University. She also earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Management degree from De La Salle University, Philippines.
Freya Clare (Associate)
Freya is an associate at Right Lane Consulting. She plays a pivotal project delivery role and supports senior consultant deliver impact and outcomes for clients.
A graduate with first-class honours in Bachelor of Science Advanced in Global Challenges from Monash University, Freya brings a unique blend of academic excellence and practical experience to her consulting role. Noteworthy accomplishments include:
- In partnership with the Word Mosquito Program, Freya developed and conducted a knowledge, attitude and practises survey on mosquito-borne disease and mosquito control in Cairns, since the local elimination of dengue. This research is in the pipelines for publication in PLOS Global Health.
- Supported Monash Food Innovation in their partnership with New Zealand Trade and Enterprise to develop an information guide for New Zealand businesses considering expanding to Australia.
- Conducted a customer experience hypothetical with Venturetec, an innovation consulting firm acquired by McKinsey.
- Crafted a science policy brief on the end of life cycle of solar panels.
- Developed a business case on a way to address sexual health education for university students.
Freya's dedication to social impact extends beyond her academic pursuits. While completing her studies, she served as a project consultant at 180 Degrees Consulting, a student-run consultancy club. In this capacity, she collaborated with a nonprofit organisation to enhance their advocacy efforts in preventing mental illness and promoting mental wellbeing.
Freya has also made significant contributions to various committees and organisations, notably with the Monash Student Association where her involvement spanned mental health advocacy and women's advocacy. Freya's leadership shines through her coordination and facilitation of events for Monash SEED (Socio-economic Engagement and Development), Monash's largest club dedicated to social impact.
Cory Smith (Associate)
Cory Smith is an associate at Right Lane Consulting.
Cory Smith is a strategic thinker and passionate problem solver with a proven track record in driving organisational efficiency and implementing innovative solutions. With a PhD from Monash University and a Master of Chemistry (first class honours) from the University of Oxford, Cory has excelled in both academic and professional realms. In his previous role as a Commercialisation Associate at Monash University, Cory managed a diverse portfolio of projects, securing over $1.3M in funding and leading strategic initiatives that significantly improved process efficiency.
In other roles, Cory led a team of consultants and key client relationships at legal advisory firm, where he led a team of 6 consultants while managing 15+ key client relationships, delivering the company's most successful year in terms of revenue and clients processed and developed data-driven solutions at IP advisory firm where he designed and implemented a data-driven fee calculator that standardised pricing strategy, resulting in a 25% revenue, created firm-wide analytics dashboards, improving project tracking and early identification of at-risk engagements.
His work is characterised by a deep analytical capability, strong business acumen, and a commitment to delivering exceptional results. Cory's unique blend of technical depth, commercial insight, and strategic problem-solving will makes him a valuable asset at Right Lane Consulting.
‘Right Lane Consulting’s focus on impact, and their passion to give back to the broader community, resonates incredibly strongly with me and I’m hugely excited at the opportunity to be part of a team working to achieve this goal.’
Penelope Stephens (Head of Operations)
Penelope is a seasoned executive with extensive experience in operational management, finance, marketing, and strategic leadership. As Head of Operations at Right Lane Consulting, she oversees the firm's finance, risk management, IT, governance, legal, and human resources functions, ensuring operational excellence and strategic alignment.
Penelope has a strong track record in the social impact sector, driving sustainable business growth and fostering mission-driven initiatives. Before her current role, she served as Head of Operations for KPMG’s ESG team, directly supporting the Partner-in-Charge and managing operations for a 170-member team.
Her diverse career includes founding A Little Good, a social enterprise dedicated to fair trade and ethically made children's toys and gifts. She was also Head of Operations at BetterEvaluation, where she played a pivotal role in its merger into The World Bank, and worked at World Vision as Child Sponsorship Engagement Manager, bridging the gap between Australian sponsors and some of the world’s most vulnerable children.
Penelope holds a Graduate Certificate in Social Impact from Swinburne University, a Master of International Business from The University of Melbourne, and a Bachelor of Arts & Bachelor of Business Management from Monash University. She is currently pursuing an Executive MBA.
Recognised for her contributions to social impact, Penelope has been awarded the Emily McPherson Scholarship from RMIT for female leaders in the sector and the Faculty Scholarship at Swinburne University for her work in social impact.
Shona McKendry (Executive Assistant/Team Assistant)
Shona is an Executive Assistant/Team Assistant at Right Lane Consulting and works closely with stakeholders to ensure positive outcomes.
Shona brings a wealth of experience to Right Lane, working for large corporate and not-for-profit organisations, where she consistently demonstrated her outstanding organisational skills and attention to detail. Shona prides herself on building high quality client relationships with diverse stakeholders and excels at managing executive offices, streamlining processes and driving organisational success. Her achievements include coordinating high-profile events under budget, implementing award-winning recognition programs, and managing critical projects with precision and efficiency. Shona's dedication to continuous improvement and her ability to adapt to new technologies have earned her consistent recognition and accolades.
Shona holds an Associate Diploma of Business.
Bec Yule (Graphic Designer)
Bec is a graphic designer at Right Lane Consulting.
Bec has worked for a wide range of publishing and for purpose organisations, both inhouse and freelance. Her most recent role was Product and Design Manager for a large family business, where she was responsible for all aspects of brand design, marketing and product design. She brings a passion for finding ways to do things better and create excellent design outcomes at all levels… and she likes to add sparkle to everything!
Bec has a BA (hons) from the University of Melbourne, a Diploma of Graphic Art from RMIT and a Certificate IV in Visual Art from the Northern College of Art and Technology (NCAT).
Euan Bruce (Graphic Designer)
Euan is a Graphic Designer at Right Lane Consulting. With extensive design and technology skills, he has an innate ability to create innovative and impactful designs, illustrations and animations for our projects.
Loving a challenge, he also relishes the opportunity to think through potentially out-dated and time consuming processes, and design innovative and intuitive alternatives to ultimately reduce overhead costs and time.
Euan holds a Bachelor of Design (Communication Design) (With Distinction) from RMIT University.
Jackie Laws (Quality Assurance Specialist)
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit - ARISTOTLE.
Jackie and Aristotle have 2 things in common. First, a commitment to excellence. Second, the desire to be judged by what they do, not what they say.
Jackie has been with Right Lane Consulting in varying roles for the past 9 years. In her current role, Jackie is responsible for embedding Right Lane’s quality assurance standards in all engagements across the firm reflecting our firm's commitment to top quality consulting outcomes, and service quality. Right Lane enjoys a ‘world class’ net promoter score, currently in the mid-70s. Jackie’s role is to keep it there, and in doing so creating long-term trusted partnerships with our clients.
Jackie holds a Bachelor of Arts (majoring in Geography and Psychology) and a Bachelor of Architecture (with honours) from the University of Melbourne.
Lauren Spiteri (Head Of New Client Development & Digital Assets)
Lauren leads our digital marketing and new client development functions.
Lauren matches consulting teams with client projects, considering clients’ needs and project requirements, team balance, and consultants’ development needs. She works closely with our associates, project managers, and analysts, coaching them on engagement management, in order that we can continue to deliver to the highest professional standards.
Lauren also leads our design and data visualisation team whose remit is to create workshop materials, presentations and reports of exceptional quality.
Her ability to think through projects from start to finish helps to ensure that Right Lane projects run smoothly and that no stone is left unturned.
Lauren holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in Business from La Trobe and Victoria universities respectively.