Our Team & Associates
At Cumberland all our people and Associates are Certified Management Consultants accredited by the International Council Management Consulting Institutes, Registered Business Psychologists or Human Resource professionals with significant experience.
MEET OUR TEAM
Jon Bilson
Managing Director
Jon Bilson is a proven organisational development professional and experienced senior manager with management consulting experience across a wide range of industry sectors. With a background in Senior Management (as a State and Regional Manager), Business/ Corporate Strategy and Organisational Development, Jon has worked as a Management Consultant for over 20 years.
Drawing on his roles and experience as a strategist, corporate psychologist, change management practitioner and business consultant, Jon has assisted clients over 20 years to effect long term cultural change and business improvement through developing their people, projects, commercial awareness and opportunities for innovation within their organisations.
Jon is a Registered Psychologist and began his career with KPMG both in Perth and then Adelaide. This was followed by opportunities in commercialisation and several State Manager roles for internationally recognised professional services firms. Jon currently sits on a number of Boards and is involved with YMCA WA, Dismantle and Rotary International. Based in Perth he continues to work extensively in ‘people based consulting’ including corporate research, strategy development, change management, organisational reviews, development and design and assisting individuals and teams to manage the effects of significant change within their workplace. This work has involved considerable consultation with Boards, Chief Executives and Senior Management in industries including Government (State and Commonwealth), Banking and Finance, Mining and Energy, Manufacturing, Retail, Legal, Engineering, Transport, Education, Health and Information Technology.
Key Expertise:
- Strategy + Business planning and resource assessment
- Organisational and Team reviews & audits
- Innovation and commercialisation strategy
- Change management design and implementation at organisational, divisional/team and individual level
- Research reviews and data assessment
- Group facilitation and development
- Leadership, individual and cultural assessment and development
- Executive + Management Coaching
- Use of psychometric, 360 degree feedback and survey tools.
MEET OUR ASSOCIATES
Martin Graham
Consultant
Martin Graham is an experienced leader, manager and start-up company founder, director and board member with consultancy expertise in market identification, concept ideation and development. His talent lies in critical thinking; embodied in a natural curiosity which leads to asking hard questions and helping people discover their own answers.
Martin is a committed community organiser, currently serving in a voluntary capacity as Chairman of Rotary Means Business Western Australia Fellowship Inc.
Through his firm; Exquisite Friends Consulting, he connects inspired people with novel projects, for purposes that can lead to improvements in the common good.
His 35 year professional career encompasses service in the Royal Australian Air Force, print journalism, advertising, publishing, and, entity creation and management in the commercial, resource, social-enterprise and NFP sectors.
In his consultancy work, advancing critical thinking in Australian businesses and broader society, he draws on twin passions of emotional intelligence advocacy, and, professional education, evolved through collaboration with leaders in these fields; ICMI Speakers bureau, representing some of the world’s brightest minds, and, The Emotional Literacy & Mindfulness Academy.
Martin’s first book; “Awakened from blind’s walking sleep – Journeys into love and reflection”, explores the complex notions of individual perception and reality and their effect on emotional wellbeing. The book featured as a teaching aid within UWA’s Masters of Social Work Program.
He is a former Board member/Director of Peak Body; Men’s Health & Wellbeing WA, in-home community service provider; People Who Care Inc. and, NFP Company Limited by Guarantee; Living Towns Corporation.
Key Expertise:
- Critical thinking and group facilitation
- Ideation, concept and strategy development
- Business planning and resource assessment
- Network identification, engagement and mobilisation
Jon Haines
For the past 20 years, Jon’s career has been characterised by leading cultural regeneration, building leadership capability and driving the execution of high -performance behaviours. Jon has recently returned home to WA following four years as the General Manager Football Operations at the Gold Coast Suns Football Club and has had senior leadership roles with fellow AFL clubs, North Melbourne and Fremantle.
Jon’s deep perspective on leadership, behaviour and character is borne from his lived senior leadership experiences in highly scrutinised, fast moving and complex environments. The responsibility of serving others and creating highly connected and high performing environments is close to Jon’s heart and a clear driver of the work he is undertaking now.
Jon has complemented his professional career with extensive tertiary study, underpinned by a foundation in secondary education, with further post graduate qualifications in business and organisational leadership. Jon has most recently been awarded a Churchill Scholarship and is the only person in Australia to be awarded a fellowship on adolescent character development. The scholarship supported an international study tour to better understand global best practice in character development and the subsequent relationship with leadership impact, performance and cultural dynamics.
Professional Highlights:
- General Manager Football Operations – Gold Coast Suns
- Executive General Manager Football – WAFC
- General Manager Football Operations – North Melbourne Football Club
- Head of Coaching & Development – North Melbourne Football Club
- High Performance Manager – WAFC
- Marketing Manager – Fremantle Football Club
TJ Kotze
TJ started his working career at the corporate level – ie. EY and BMW, before breaking out to run his own management consultancy firm for 5 years.
He then purchased a manufacturing concern, employing up to 150 people, of which he was the sole owner for 23 years. During this time he also did ad-hoc work for a small merchant bank, which kick-started his love for dealmaking and has led to his career as a Corporate Business Broker.
He knows the intricacies of running a small to medium size [SME] business enterprise in the manufacturing and logistics sectors very well; and accordingly understands the heartbeat of SME businesses. He was admitted as a Chartered Accountant in 1990 and is still a member of SAICA. TJ takes pride in working hard for his clients and building long-term relationships.
Susanne Staton
As a strategic management consultant Ms Susanne has worked in a variety of industries and with a diverse range of stakeholders. Her vision and demonstrated management experience has enabled her to help organisations on their continuous growth, development, and emerging leadership journeys. She has experiences that have spanned operations management, business management and development, and numerous leadership positions. A key influencer and adept at stakeholder management, Ms Susanne honed her insights by applying her own diverse perspective with an ability to analyse and adapt to her client’s actual needs.
Her purpose is to drive positive change through community engagement, economic empowerment, and personal growth. As a management consultant, she helps organisations understand through measurement frameworks, how work wellbeing and values offer the foundation to operational efficiency, financial performance, and brand recognition. As a facilitator she balances strategic decisions and social impact with a servant approach to leadership, resulting in solid outcomes aligned to the impact seeking to be achieved.
Susanne’s development as a Social Entrepreneur, drives her to focus through the core values she has of Growth, Experience and Community – enabling her to be naturally motivated to engage, support and collaborate for impact. It is through independent measurement, both qualitative and quantitative data, that the organisations she works with are provided the capability to measure what matters most and put people in the best position to flourish.
Thriving on experiential-based learning and engaging the community’s collective expertise, it is Susanne’s role to facilitate outcomes that take a holistic approach to understanding what each unique client needs, to develop a roadmap that supports sustained and systemic change based on divergent perspectives.
Key Expertise:
- Values Measurement (Axiology)
- Social Impact Measurement (Collective Wellbeing)
- Stakeholder Management
- Leadership Development
- Strategic Planning
Tanya Gawthorne
Tanya is an experienced and innovative consultant skilled at identifying and initiating programs critical to achieving organisational goals. She is competent in strategic planning, community engagement, and customer, client and stakeholder consultation processes. Tanya has spent a large part of her career to date in the health sector, helping consumers and Not-For-Profit agencies articulate their goals and develop strategic plans to address future challenges and opportunities. Tanya is confident working with all types of people from all walks of life, and particularly enjoys bringing a positive, optimistic attitude to resolving difficult situations.
Tanya is also a wise and adept coach. Building on her 20+ years of management experience, Tanya brings a calm and steady approach to assessing and advising teams on strategies to improve team cohesion and performance. She particularly enjoys her one-to-one coaching, helping individuals resolve dilemmas, and learn and grow. Tanya is a competent teacher, speaker and negotiator and enjoys bringing people together and inspiring them to take action.
An environmental background and 20+ years experience in diverse roles in the health sector has given Tanya a broad foundation in addressing quadruple bottom line or ESG (environmental, social and governance) issues. Tanya likes to take a balanced approach to these challenges, ensuring that solutions are fit-for-purpose and meet all ESG criteria. From her extensive time in government, Tanya is particularly well placed to advise on governance issues involving risk, incident management, integrity and Board management.
Key Expertise:
- Community engagement
- Customer / client / stakeholder consultation and focus groups
- Large and small group facilitation and workshops
- Individual coaching (goal achievement or issue resolution)
- Strategic business analysis and advice, planning and evaluation
- Desktop reviews, research and analysis
- Government liaison and negotiation
Darren Perera
Darren started his IT career at 17, initially wanting to be a coder, he soon discovered his love for talking to customers and helping them with technology. He started my first company at 21 and after thirty-five years in the IT industry is still helping customers with their technology and still just as passionate as when he started. Technology has changed so much over that time but there is one constant – people. Everyone has varying degrees of computer knowledge but most business owners he meets just want to run their business and have someone they can trust to help them with IT.
Darren started SecureIT Services 20 years ago with a goal to be that Trusted IT adviser to companies so they can grow and scale their businesses. It’s why he has had many of his customers for that entire period.
Having worked all over Australia, NZ, Singapore, U.K., Paris, Milan and Hamburg, Darren has a great breadth of experience and have worked with some great teams, many of these people are some of his closest friends and allies today.
In 2015, Darren joined his local Rotary club and felt a synergy with the Rotary motto – Service above Self. It’s really what he has been about for his entire career. He has now been a Rotarian for 7 years, served as President, Secretary in two clubs and a Club Service Director for two years, 6 of his 7 years in Rotary has been at board level. Darren is currently serving as the Rotary District 9455 Technology Officer and has for the last two years. His is also been involved in local sporting groups on committees and am part of the Perth SMBiT community. Darren joined Rotary to give back to his community and it has been a great way to do that.
Darren has been married for 25 years and has three kids who he is incredibly proud of. In his spare time he likes to volunteer, play chess, golf and ride his e-bike. Darren is an avid reader and his favourite author is Robert Jordan.
Cumberland Consulting Group
Leading people to business excellence
Contact Us
Level 2-7 Rheola Street, West Perth WA 6005
info@cumberlandconsulting.com.au
Our strong partnership and collaboration with Rotary International and Rotary Means Business stands as a testament to our commitment to supporting the community