Meet our trainers

Meet our Trainers

CLARE EDWARDS

Clare’s vision is a world where leaders are inspiring, managers are motivating, staff are engaged and employee wellbeing is paramount. She helps leaders in organisations to tap into the collective potential of their people so that they can think, grow and succeed together.

A passionate storyteller and inspiring speaker, Clare takes her audiences on an experiential journey, offering them new insights and leaving them keen to know more and motivated to change.

Clare’s corporate background spans 2 decades of working in senior management roles with global IT companies, thriving in complex, fast-paced change environments.

She aims to make the complex simple and has studied the neuroscience of leadership extensively, bringing theory and concepts to life helping people to uncover the full potential of their amazing brain and its ability to change – all without the psychobabble.

DAMIEN OPOLSKI

Many of you will know Damien from his time as the director of the Department’s Learning Centre. Over the years he has played a key role in the delivery of both policy and systems information, training and performance management. If you have been in the sector for a while you would most likely seen him at an information session or heard him via webinar. In this role he was responsible for the performance of up to 150 staff. Earlier in his career he spent a number of years on the front line; Damien estimates that he has conducted over 10,000 job seeker interviews and worked with hundreds of employers. Damien is an excellent communicator, who enjoys interacting and sharing his system expertise with his audience. Damien has a Bachelor of Economics from Adelaide University, as well as Diplomas in Training and Assessment, and Project Management. He is also a qualified Teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages.

KEVIN KOSKY

As an award winning speaker and business skills trainer, Kevin utilises his experience from the entertainment industry to present interactive and engaging training sessions. Kevin is passionate about personal empowerment and business improvement, which he believes go hand in hand to produce successful results. Currently Kevin is the sales and business skills trainer working for Dynamo Selling. Kevin launched and operated a number of different businesses over a 30 year period in a variety of industries including: entertainment, hospitality, internet applications, building maintenance, garden and nursery, supply chain, selfstorage, RTO accredited training, and corporate education. Kevin also the teaches business, employability and personal development skills, for both the national and international markets.

LEONIE LAM

Leonie has been recognised for her outstanding facilitation
skills, customer service excellence and her genuine interest in
helping people and organisations. Leonie is a qualified
Trainer, Speaker, HR Consultant and Career Coach. She has
previously held Training and HR positions at Westpac,
Commonwealth Bank, Veolia Water and Western Sydney
University. She is also the Director of a training and coaching
business.
As a Career Coach, she has helped more than 300 people
secure employment in Australia. As a Trainer, she is
passionate about delivering training to organisations to help
individuals and organisations maximise their performance and
achieve their strategic objectives. She consistently receives
outstanding feedback in her training programs.

LINDA PIERSON

Linda is a highly skilled and well-regarded coach & trainer in the employment services sector. Her coaching, training, management and leadership experience includes seven years as a Bounce trainer and ten years in project & senior management roles with Australia Post and Major Change. Linda’s strengths as a coach come from her diverse livedexperiences and professional qualifications and training. Her passion for helping people and unique skills have seen her deliver the Bounce Program within employment services across the country in face-to-face training rooms and online through virtual classrooms for many years. She is a dynamic change-agent, with a talent for leading people through change with positivity and courage. Her ability to effortlessly and elegantly influence and motivate people to achieve peak performance makes her highly sort-after as a coach. Linda is a member of the International Coaches Guild. She has several qualifications, including Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, NLP, Human Behaviour Profiling (EDISC), and Mental Health First Aid, and she also speaks fluent French.

MIKE SYMONDS

With over 15 years experience in ‘Building Stronger Teams, Boosting Staff Engagement and Creating Positive Workplace Cultures’, Mike has worked with some of Australia’s leading businesses. His highly interactive and practical approach is guaranteed to leave you INSPIRED, ENERGIZED and MOTIVATED to implement key learnings straight away! A former pioneer of corporate team building events, Mike’s reputation is a person who is “Highly engaging, practical and fun!” Mike’s interactive team experiences are focused on building positive relationships fast by allowing people’s ‘true spirit’ to shine. His unique ability is to show what is possible and how easy it is to create an environment of choice, heightened morale and improved staff performance. Mike will inject energising fun and engaging activities at key moments during the day.

CHARLIE WAN

Charlie works across the SPG portfolio to deliver training, community consultation and engagement, and group facilitation. Working in group facilitation and community engagement for over a decade, Charlie is passionate about bridging gaps in communication through reaching common understanding. Bringing an expansive professional background, having worked in the arts industry, event and project management, and being a successful business owner, Charlie brings a grounded and pragmatic approach to training, consultation and engagement. Charlie has always been a proud advocate for marginalised community voices and creating empathetic and culturally informed engagement strategies, communication and business practice.

PETER HOLTMANN

Peter is passionate about being a leader of management teams who want to drive innovation and to inspire communities with their own causes, visions and missions. He uses excellent risk management processes to manage programmes from the highest levels of governance to the daily pursuits of individuals. Peter is very comfortable in the community sector, where he has helped organisations to undergo change, to commercialise their visions and to build government relations. He has ticked all the big boxes including restructuring, rebranding, mergers, acquisitions, and organisational change. He enjoys presenting to audiences on the technological and philosophical requirements of the industry he is engaging in. His mantra: motivation is everything, passion is essential, commitment is not an option, leadership is an expression of these ingredients

RAIMOND VOLPE

Raimond Volpe is an established and experienced Sales Trainer. He has over 25 years sales experience in finance, recruitment and pharmaceutical industries. He was the #1 BDM at Toll People for two years in a row, winning the National Finance Industries, BDM of the Year Award. Prior to
sales, he was the director of Five Finance, a mortgage broking and insurance company that won many awards including the Allianz & Tower Finance Broker Company of the Year Award in 2007.

Mindset plays a big part in Raimond’s sales training, as the right attitude is an integral part in a successful sales process.

Raimond is an International Best Selling Author in the SelfHelp industry, with his book ‘Success For Living’ . Shortly after it’s release, it became an international bestseller in x5 countries. Since then, it has been number #1 in Australia in the Self Help Category for many months in a row.

Raimond believes that with a solid sales process, winning attitude and advanced selling skills, excellence can be achieved in any industry.

REBECCA HERBERTSON

Rebecca holds a Bachelor of Psychology, a Graduate
Certificate in Career Development and other qualifications in Training, Management and Human Resources. With over fifteen years experience working in Employment Services and ten years delivering industry training, Rebecca is able to relay her knowledge and experience using a common sense approach and an informal manner which is popular with her clients.

Her Employment Services work has primarily involved
facilitating the Certificate IV in Employment Services
throughout Western Australia and assisting organisations
with other business needs such as tender writing and policy
development.

Currently the Director of Training and Compliance at the Betterlink Group, a Western Australian based RTO she is also a professional member of the Career Development Association of Australia, a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and an internationally certified Continuous Improvement Coach, SME Executive Coach and NLP Practitioner.s.

SHARON MAMO

Sharon is a qualified human services program designer and lecturer with many years of experience in Human Resources. For the last 5 years, she has focused on researching and working with disengaged job seekers and their complex needs. Sharon combines clinical psychotherapy and professionalism with a natural and down-to-earth approach. She is a qualified Drug and Alcohol Facilitator, Psychotherapist & Social Sciences Professional and has worked as a psychotherapist in employment services for over 8 years. As an expert in encouraging mandated and resistant clients to change, she keynotes at national conferences on topics of behavioural change, AOD, mental health and neuropsychotherapy.

KEN LOFTUS

Ken Loftus is the Clinical Director of the Sunlight Centre. Ken has worked for over 20 years in the clinical space in Ireland and Australia and specialises in the self-injury area.

ANDREW KELLY

Andy is a specialist Mental Health Nurse and educator with 30+ years of experience in clinical, management and education roles in health, community, mental health, aged care and tertiary education settings. He operates his own business, Face To Face Mental Health Training and Consultancy. He has been a specialist lecturer in clinical and non-clinical tertiary Mental Health qualification courses in hospital, TAFE, RTO and higher education settings. He is a previous winner of a State Nursing Excellence Award and has been twice nominated for the Margaret Tobin Award for Excellence in Mental Health Service. Andy brings years of clinical experience to his teaching, and his clinical stories add colour and meaning to the learning experience of participants.

Andy became a Master level Mental Health First Aid Instructor in June 2012 and a Principal Master Trainer in May 2018. He provides mentorship to other Mental Health First Aid trainers across Australia. Whilst he is sought after in the inpatient and community health and care sectors for his expert knowledge in mental health and client behaviour management, many of Andy’s training clients come from other industry sectors including those traditionally unrelated to the health sector, such as engineering, local government, primary industries, mining, Disability services, transport, local Govt and Legal Practice.

Andy is now based in the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales and is available to travel to other locations and venues where terms for fees, travel and accommodation have been negotiated. Andy’s organisation, Face To Face Mental Health Training & Consultancy, conducts Mental Health First Aid training as well as tailored workshops on other mental health related topics. He provides consultancy around client/customer management where this is required. Many workshops can be tailored to your needs.

PAUL DAVENPORT

Paul is a Sales Trainer at Dynamo Selling specializing in training individuals and groups in sales training techniques and leadership skills. With extensive experience at a senior executive level in the Banking/Finance, Data Analytics and Consulting industries and a strong background in the development, implementation and embedding of sales and customer engagement programs, Paul brings to each and every engagement, a passion for supporting businesses to optimize their sales and customer engagement resources thereby maximizing the Value they deliver to their Customers.

JULES HADDOCK

Jules is an expert in the Mental Health industry.

An accomplished conversationalist in mental health education, Jules has an engaging and creative approach in helping communities understand mental illness and how to manage the invisible learning blocks and walls often confronted, in learning expeditions. She takes the myths and fictitious beliefs about mental illness, and weaves participants into developing safe and confident based approaches that can be used in supporting and maximising confidence in “the space” for both teacher and learner.

With gaiety and passion, she introduces us into an awareness of mental health literacy, recovery, and the importance of embracing strength based and person-centred learning for each student.

Principal Master Mental Health Instructor
President of Not for Profit Charity Art of the Minds
REACH Facilitator – Black Dog Institute.
Practicing Author and Artist.

BRAD JENSEN

With over 20 years of successful experience in the dynamic world of Retail and Customer Service, Brad thrives as a strategic Leader, specialising in People Management and Sales Training. What truly ignites his passion is witnessing the growth and success of individuals through effective people management and group training. Brad prides himself on his fun and engaging facilitated workshops where he incorporates motivation, personalised customer engagement, figuring out and discovering clients’ needs, getting commitment, great customer experiences, having important conversations, and achieving win-win outcomes. He excels at leading high achieving teams, and his training sessions leave participants feeling motivated and inspired. Now part of the Dynamo Selling family, Brad has a vibe about him that draws you in and makes you feel excited and wanting to learn more. It is this vibe which has helped him in developing countless teams and individuals, including one of Australia’s largest electronic retailers, JB Hifi.

TROY MACRIS

Troy is a registered psychologist with over 20 years of experience as a mental health consultant, trainer and counsellor. He has worked in a wide range of community and corporate workplace settings, including local and state government, the education system, health and community services and the private business sector. Troy’s areas of expertise include: Providing individual and group counselling and coaching to employees, managers and teams, particularly in the areas of critical incident response, grief and loss, wellbeing and resilience and organisational change. Delivering engaging mental health training and resources on topics such as managing workplace stress, building positive relationships, and mental health first aid. Designing and implementing innovative and sustainable projects and programs, which focus on creating mentally healthy working environments and supporting workplace wellbeing. Conducting mental health audits and reviews. Facilitating change management processes within organisations and teams. Troy considers it a privilege to work in a field that can have such a transformative effect on people and organisations.