Workshops

Treasa Branagan

Head of People and Culture
Kablamo

Treasa Branagan is the Head of People and Culture at Kablamo Pty Ltd, a fast-growing digital and product technology consultancy. She is also a Director at The Culture Movement, a values-driven Leadership and Organisational Development Consultancy. Her work is committed to the positive evolution of the world of work and creating inclusive workplaces where people and businesses thrive. Treasa has more than 20 years of experience in learning and development, organisational development and human resource management, having held senior leadership roles in the Financial Services, Technology and Hospitality sectors. Her experience includes building and implementing human resources frameworks for startup organisations, developing and implementing workforce management and learning frameworks for large IT corporations to building human resources strategy, culture, diversity and leadership transformation programs. Her previous positions include Head of People and Culture at 1Cover Travel Insurance Group and Head of Learning and Organisational Development at NTT Australia (previously Dimension Data Australia). Treasa holds a Bachelor of Business degree with a major in Human Resource Management. She holds a Cert IV in Training and Assessment, Hogan Assessment Certification, Coaching Level 1 Certification from the Institute of Executive Coaching, and is a Certified Online learning facilitator. 

Gavin Nelson

Productivity Ninja
Think Productive Australia

Gavin Nelson is a learning and development specialist consultant, professional facilitator and a certified Productivity Ninja practitioner. 

In 2020 Gavin formed the microlearning agency Microgo to help organisations create and implement highly engaging training programs easily, quickly, and conveniently via any platform including mobile phones. Gavin recently opened up the Australian office of Improvement Sciences and now provides micro learning content development services across Australia / Asia Pacific.  

Having spent many years of working life leading L&D initiatives in the corporate world, Gavin has first-hand knowledge and experience to understand today’s fast-paced learning environment. 

Gavin’s passionate about helping people – by understanding what motivates them, their wants, and their needs. 

He has experience in multinational, large and small organisations as well as leading sporting organisations. This provides a broad perspective when discussing learning and development, instructional design, stakeholder management and project requirements. 

Gavin’s style has been described as “engages well with everyone”, “a great facilitator”, and “super-helpful”. 

As a presenter and certified facilitator, Gavin receives highly positive participant feedback. 

Gavin’s passions are productivity, micro learning, his family, and his interests include running as well as kayaking and cycling far and wide. 

James McIlvena

Managing Director Australia and New Zealand
LHH

James is the MD of LHH Australia and New Zealand and the Executive Sponsor of LHH partnerships with large customers. James is passionate about helping build better careers, better leaders and better businesses. His strength is in developing solutions to complex problems and addressing these through mobilising and managing talented people. He is responsible for connecting local businesses with the best of globally available LHH solutions helping individuals and organisations reveal and harness their talent and providing tools to support a renewable workforce.  

Prior to LLH, he gained extensive experience of in-house recruitment and RPO models across a range of industries and ASX100 companies. James has a degree in Psychology/ Psychophysiology and a Post Graduate qualification in Human Resources and Industrial Relations. 

Nithya Ramaswamy

Solutions Director
LHH

Nithya Ramaswamy is Solutions Director within the LHH Leadership Development practice, for Australia and New Zealand. Nithya brings over twenty years of experience in providing insights, consultancy, client engagement, leadership development design and delivery to leaders across a range of client organisations globally. Having led complex projects that span multiple levels of leadership and across various markets and functional areas, Nithya has a proven track record in partnering with stakeholders to co-create learning architectures and bring to life robust leadership development experiences. 

Having a career background as both industry leader and consultant, Nithya is a credible and commercial learning professional who brings insightful, practical and innovative approaches in her work. Nithya has diverse global and industry experience spanning banking and financial services, insurance, infrastructure, agribusiness, professional services, telecommunications, public sector, education, and pharmaceuticals. 

Birthe Nohrden

CEO & Founder
TeamTalks

Birthe Nohrden is a thought leader in the realm of human connections at work. With expertise as an innovative learning designer, she has become a sought-after speaker and facilitator, specializing in leadership, productivity, workplace wellbeing, and personal development. In 2022, her company TeamTalks Pty Ltd achieved a significant milestone by winning a seat in the prestigious EY Foundry Start Up Accelerator Program. Leveraging a unique combination of technology and human-centered design, Birthe’s company has successfully created an innovative employee experience that fosters connection among hybrid teams. Her proprietary teaming framework is a simple, yet effective way to build psychological safety in teams in a fun and sustainable way. 

Gillian Andrews

Learning and Development Consultant

With a dynamic trajectory spanning corporate giants like Apple and Oracle, as well as impactful engagements with government organisations, Gillian Andrews embodies the fusion of education, technology, and communication. Following an MBA and post-graduate studies, Gillian maintained the role of adjunct lecturer at renowned institutions such as Macquarie, Torrens, and Notre Dame Universities. Over the past decade, her focus shifted from Product Marketing and Education to the realm of Adult Learning and Leadership Development within emergency services and health.  

Gillian is an empowering force, equipping leaders to conquer change, ignite team inspiration, and flourish amidst transitions. Rooted in her mantra of curiosity, courage, and compassion, she propels individuals, organisations, and teams towards excellence to create a better future. 

George Akle

CEO
Govern HR

George Akle, the founder of GOVERNHR™, is a thought leader in Human Resources structural and procedural Governance. With over 20 years of experience in his field across The Asia Pacific Region, he has headed up HR for Southeast Asia, held the roles of Regional HR COO & Regional HR Business Partner as well as having led large-scale HR transformations, technology implementations, regional payroll, HR Operations, HR Finance and HR Analytics for 17 countries across the APAC region.

Today George combines his business management background and his in-depth knowledge of HR to help companies identify and remediate structural and procedural deficiencies across their HR organisation, build new HR functions or transform existing ones. He also facilitates One-to-One or group HR coaching/training and provides virtual HR Director support services to organisations across the region. He shares his insights into HR in his blogs, through webinars, as a guest speaker at HR events and through his short videos on YouTube.