We have decades of experience supporting the boards of leading organisations to add genuine value and have greater impact.
Dr. Judith MacCormick – FOUNDER & CEO
Recognising that the ‘tone of organisations is set at the top’, Judith’s passion and focus centres on advising Boards and top management teams on enhancing their value contribution. Judith draws upon a unique set of skills and experience, including as an academic, a corporate executive and a management consultant specialising in governance, strategy and culture.
As chief consultant with global management consultancy firms and Partner with a top-tier global leadership search firm Judith has worked in, and consults to, leading corporations across most industry sectors as well as government bodies and social enterprises, throughout Asia and Australia.
Judith is a published academic and awarded university lecturer, visiting fellow with UNSW Business School, a faculty member and senior advisor with the Australian Institute of Company Directors, as well as a successful business founder, owner and angel investor. At the board level, Judith has held a number of board positions in Australia and overseas including as Director, Governor and Chair. Judith also founded 3 Japanese restaurants in Sydney.
Most recently she is a Director of Murrawan Pty Ltd, was a founding member of the board of Skin Check Champions, an early detection of melanoma foundation and the advisory boards of Lineaire, Western Sydney University Business School and Incept Labs.
Judith has a PhD and MBA (UNSW & USYD); Grad Dip Sci (ANU); BA (Soc Sci), studied Indonesian & Malay (SOAS, London U), Corporate Governance (Harvard), and is a Sasakawa Leadership Scholar, Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (FAICD) and Visiting Fellow & Alumni Leader, University of NSW Business School (UNSW).
DR. HILARY ARMSTRONG
Hilary’s work focuses on building organisational cultures that flourish through moral awareness, cognitive diversity and wise decision-making. She has worked with individuals and teams as well as the whole organisation. Currently her work involves governance, executive and remedial coaching as well as working with difficult relationships at senior levels.
In organisational ethics she made the significant innovation of employing an Organisational Network Analysis to map patterns of ethical influence and provides the digital insights to design a change process of targeted dialogues and capacity building workshops.
Hilary has a PhD (Crit. Psych), MSc (Hons), GradDip (Soc Ec), B.Phys. She is an MCC (Master Certified Coach) with the International Coach Federation, a group psychoanalyst, ethics consultant and an experienced mediator and facilitator. Past roles include Head of Consultancy at the Ethics Centre, Director, Education at the Institute of Executive Coaching and Leadership, Director, Post Graduate Studies, Centre for Critical Psychology, School of Psychology WSU.
Hilary was Chair, Academic Board, Institute of Emotionally Focused Therapy, Sydney (2005-2009), Chair, Governance Board, Metavision Institute, 2006-10, Member of Advisory Committee to NSW Police 1999-2002, Member Advisory Committee, Masters of Family Therapy 2000-2004 (NSW Institute of Psychiatry), and Advisory Committee Member, South East Area Health Service, Koori Outreach, Langton Centre (Alcohol & Drug Agency).
Currently, she is on the Advisory Panel of the International Coaching Psychology Review, and has significant publications in the area of organisational coaching, ethical conversations and leadership. She has edited and co-writing three books on Social Research.
In the last 5 years she has worked in a range of organisations including RBA, ASX, ANZ, Westpac, NAB and AMP and BUPA; Telstra, Sydney Water, Westfarmers, Fonterra, Leidos, Qantas Engineering, and ASIC, NSW Transport and UNSW, RMIT and Sydney University.
Hilary is accredited to administer: Human Synergistics, Life Styles Inventory (LSI and GSI) Cognitive Edge Tools, The Leadership Circle (TLC), Leadership Maturity Framework (LMF), Genos Emotional Intelligence Instruments, Belbin Team Roles, Hogan Personality Profiles, Harrison Assessments
dr. ingo susing
Ingo is a highly qualified and experienced leadership consultant and coach who has been working collaboratively with boards and senior leaders for more than two decades.
He is a recognised authority on leadership succession, having contributed to Australia’s ASX Governance Guidelines as well as researched, lectured and presented on the topic, including with the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD). More importantly, Ingo is proven in successfully supporting organisations in the assessment, development and succession of their senior leaders.
Prior to founding Leadership & Succession, Ingo worked with Johnson Partners’ Leadership Advisory group where he supported a number of scale leadership development programs and CEO succession processes. Before this, Ingo was a Partner of the international leadership development firm Praesta since 2009. This followed a 15-year career in investment banking and private equity, including as a Director of ABN Amro Capital.
Ingo’s approach is focused on supporting individuals and teams optimise their impact as senior leaders in support of important business outcomes. Much of his work is focused on the evaluation and development of senior executives at CEO level and below, generally with the objective of increasing leadership effectiveness on a sustainable basis. Apart from this, Ingo also facilitates high-performing team processes and consults on leadership risk due diligence, pre-hire assessments, transition support of new senior hires, board performance reviews and organisational alignment programs.
Ingo’s work combines evidence-based approaches in coaching and high-performance psychology, neuro-science, organisational development, strategy consulting and leadership studies with commercial expertise gained as a private equity manager and investment banking analyst. His experience includes serving on numerous company boards and qualifying as a Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australia (F.Fin).
Ingo holds a Doctor of Philosophy from the Sydney Business School, a Masters in Applied Science (Coaching Psychology) from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Business from the University of Technology Sydney. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD), accredited in a number of market-leading psychometric tools, and previously lectured at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Sydney. He conducted his doctoral research on leadership succession management practices within leading global organisations.
CLAUDIA NEMETH DE BIKAL, BA, Cert Gov Prac & Risk Mgt, GAICD
Claudia Nemeth de Bikal is an Advisor with BoardFocus and Peakstone Global, specialist board advisory firms. Claudia has worked on board review engagements for a range of for-profit, government and not-for-profit organisations.
Claudia is a Director and Company Secretary of HerVillage Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation connecting Australian communities with newly arrived Australians from difficult backgrounds and creating future female leaders from recently arrived refugees in Australia.
She is also the Company Secretary at Pymble Ladies’ College, an independent girls’ school in Sydney. She works with the College Board, Pymble Foundation Board, Asset Management Committee, and Audit, Risk, and Finance Committee.
Prior to her governance roles, Claudia had over 20 years’ experience in the financial services sector in digital transformation, marketing, project management and regulatory reform, including experience in larger insurers and a challenger insurance company.
Bernie Ferguson - DIGITAL, INFORMATION and TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATOR
Bernie is passionate about building the culture, technology, systems and ways of work within organisations to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Bernie has held key leadership positions across various industries, where he has successfully guided companies through complex governance challenges and strategic transformations. With experience as a Non Executive Director and Chairperson, coupled with first hand experience at two of Australia’s most successful technology companies, Atlassian and Canva, Bernie understands what it takes to build a culture of high performance.
Bernie's collaborative style and inquisitive nature are invaluable, specifically when when seeking to;
● Build an agile mindset into the organisation that delivers results
● Cut through technical jargon to key risks and issues
● Build a culture that supports pragmatic innovation and creativity
● Understand the technical capability of your organisation
● Evaluate strategic frameworks and product delivery processes
● Bring clarity and focus to key product technology metrics
● Manage technical risks and compliance obligations
● Build trust and collaboration between the Board and Management team
Bernie is an invaluable partner for the Board of any organisation aiming to enhance their organisation’s technical capabilities and establish fit for purpose governance structures
Ros Endicott – Executive Assistant
With an aptitude for calmly balancing multiple priorities, Ros Endicott has over two decades of experience assisting top-level executives. Her early career years were spent working in real estate and financial services, before taking a role in 2006 assisting the CEO of BNP Paribas. This turned into 13 years between both Sydney and London, working also with the firm’s COOs and within their Project Office, focusing on governance, headcount and financial reporting.
With her extensive experience, coupled with an innate propensity to organise and support people, Ros provides seamless, well-structured administrative support.