Advisory Panel
We have assembled a team of expert advisors to ensure we draw from the best of international and local research and practice. We strive to bring together research and practice from Australia, the United Kingdom, United States of America, Canada, and Europe. The PPI Advisory Board seeks to cover a cross section of the wider corporate community as well as the scientific and Psychology professions to properly represent a broader understanding of the client context and the environment within which an organisation operates.
Pannel Members
Australia
Michael E. Bernard, Ph.D
YOU CAN DO IT! EDUCATION
About
Dr Michael E. Bernard is an international leader in the fields of social-emotional learning, rational-emotive cognitive-behaviour therapy and mindset development. Michael was an Honorary Professor in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne. He is an Emeritus Professor, California State University, Long Beach and Managing Director of The Bernard Group. He is at the forefront in creating state of the art curricula and professional development eLearning programs and materials for leaders, managers, employees, parents, teachers and children that challenge traditional learning methods. Michael consults to universities, businesses, sport, schools and government and was the first sport psychologist of the Collingwood Football Team.
Michael is most proud of the program created with Patricia Bernard and colleagues, You Can Do It! Education which has recently been listed as a best-practice program by Beyond Blue-Be You. YCDI! Education’s on-line, curricula programs teach the positive attitudes and social-emotional skills which contribute to highest levels of student achievement and well-being. YCDI! is used in more than 6,000 schools across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, United Kingdom, USA, Canada, Estonia and Romania. Over 1,000,000 students have participated. The latest YCDI! program for university students is the highly acclaimed academic mentoring program, The Successful Mind in Study, Work and Life.
Michael is an author of 50 books on work performance, procrastination, stress management, parenting, achievement and rational emotive therapy. He has just released “The High Performance Mindset at Work” e-learning program for business, public service and not-for-profit organisations.
TANYA JAMES
ECOSYSTEMS Leaders
Tanya is an experienced organisational development specialist in the areas of leadership development, strategy formulation and implementation, environmental education, human services systems change and evaluation. She is the Managing Director for Ecosystems Leaders and Positive Change and Development Pty Ltd. Tanya is also external executive coach at the McKinsey Leadership Academy, and a long- term associate at Cultivating Leadership and The Potential Project.
She has worked extensively with local and international organisations, taking groups of senior leaders through customised programs designed to help them grow into their full potential as leaders. Tanya’s work has helped guide complex, large scale organisational and industry change across a wide range of settings.
During the completion of her Masters in Positive Organisational Development at Case Western Reserve University, Tanya became one of the first people in Australasia to adopt a strengths-based, systemic approach to her work with a major urban council. The way she led this highly successful systemic change initiative was later codified as the shared value or collective impact approach. She went on to become a founding member of Collaboration for Impact, working to develop this approach by consulting to a range of sectors and industries across Australia and New Zealand.
Tanya is one of only a small group of practitioners in Australasia with deep experience both in leading system change through active experimentation and bringing out the innate collective intelligence of leadership groups and designing transformational complex leadership development programs.
Dr Lindsay Oades
Director, Centre for wellbeing Science
Melbourne graduate school of education
Dr Lindsay G. Oades PhD is an internationally acclaimed wellbeing scientist, researcher, educator and author. As Director and Professor at the Centre for Wellbeing Science, at the University of Melbourne, he leads a growing and dynamic team of researchers and educators who promote and investigate how people learn to improve wellbeing, in education, health, organisations and communities.
In 2013 he was awarded an Australian Government citation for outstanding contribution to student learning. In 2020 he was appointed as Associate Dean International, MGSE. As a sought after speaker, known to provoke thought, he has given keynote or invited presentations in Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, UK and the USA. With over 100 refereed journal articles and book chapters related to wellbeing, recovery and coaching and four books with esteemed publishers including Cambridge University Press, Wiley-Blackwell and SAGE, he is a scientific reviewer for the Australian Research Council. Lindsay has consulted to multiple organisations including the NSW Department of Education, NSW Mental Health Commission, Beyond Blue and the Australian Mental Health Commission. He is currently a non-executive Director of the Positive Euducation Schools Association and a former Director of Action of Happiness Australia. Lindsay's multidisciplinary background spanning philosophy of science and ethics, clinical, coaching and positive psychology, business and public policy provide insights into the multidisciplinary area of wellbeing. He was previously a co-editor for the International Journal of Wellbeing, a scientific panel member at the Institute of Coaching (Harvard University) and a visiting researcher at Kings College London. Lindsay's current work involves understanding, measuring and improving wellbeing literacy- (how we communicate about and for wellbeing) part of his new theory Thriveability Theory.
Dr Barry Partridge
Adjunct Professor, Torrens Univeristy
Decision Processing Systems
Dr Barry Partridge is the owner/director of two Australian business organisations involved in the provision of workplace learning and development for managers. He is widely recognized for the successful introduction of a range of strategic learning frameworks into The Philippines, Malaysian, PNG and Fiji national governments, along with his application of action learning and development models to workplaces in a number of Australian Federal and State Government Departments and provision of management development programs in many large scale multinational organizations operating in Australia.
Dr Partridge is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Wollongong where has been supervising honors students from the School of Psychology while conducting research into the implications of unconscious biasing on managers’ decision making at work. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Torrens University where he provides design and delivery of post graduate learning in management studies to MBA students.
His long-term interest is in helping managers deal with large-scale, complex data in building critical thinking into their judgments and flexibility in decision making when working with teams and virtual workplaces. Barry also specialises in Positive Ageing and intergenerational management in the workplace.
Mr Dennis Clark
clark corporate consulting PTY LTD
Dennis Clark is the principal of Clark Corporate Consulting Pty Ltd and a partner in MDS Partners. He has been in his own business for over seventeen years and advises clients on financial management, internal audit, company law, corporate governance, WH&S and risk management issues. He has around 30 years experience in the workplace, as an academic, teacher, auditor, accountant, consultant, company secretary and company director.
Dennis is currently contracted as consultant Risk Manager for the Downer Waratah Train Project and was recently under contract as Head of the Law and Business School and also Risk Consultant to Charles Darwin University.
Previously, Dennis was the Independent Member of the Commonwealth Department of Immigration and Border Protection Audit Committee, a past member of the Druids Friendly Society Board and the Ostara Australia Board and holds a number of company secretary positions. He was a member of the Northern Territory Branch Council of CPA Australia and sat on the International Wealth Solutions Ltd Advisory Board and the DMO Maritime Systems Domain Assurance Board.
UNITED KINGDOM
Professor Alex Linley
CAPPIFINTY
Alex is CEO and Co-Founder of Cappfinity. He is recognised internationally as a leading expert on positive psychology and its applications. In practice, As Co-founder of Cappfinity, Alex blends psychological rigor with data science and technology to develop award-winning programs that help companies identify and develop talent with strengths
Alex’s current focus is particularly on the disruptive potential of new consumer and enterprise technology. Alex was the lead innovator for both Strengths Profile, Capp’s world-leading strengths identification and development tool, and Jobmi. the job matching marketplace.
Alex has written, co-written, or edited more than 150 research papers and book chapters, and seven books, including Positive Psychology in Practice (Wiley, 2004) and The Strengths Book (CAPP Press, 2010), a #1 bestseller in the Human Resource Management category. In his academic career, Alex was a visiting Professor in Psychology at the University of Leicester, also at Bucks New University, and holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of Warwick. Alex founded the Centre of Applied Positive Psychology (CAPP) in 2005.
Professor Stephen Palmer, PHD
Professor Stephen Palmer, the Founder Director of the Centre for Coaching and a Course Co-Director on the coaching and coaching psychology programmes. He is a Chartered Coaching Psychologist, an APECS Accredited Executive Coach and Supervisor, International Society for Coaching Psychology Accredited Coaching Psychologist and Supervisor. He is on the BPS Register of Coaching Psychologists and holds the European Certificate in Psychology. He is President and Fellow of the International Society for Coaching Psychology, Honorary President and Honorary Fellow of the International Stress Management Association, Honorary Fellow and former President of the Association for Coaching. Editor He is Consulting Editor of the International Journal of Coaching Psychology, Co-Editor of the International Journal of Stress Prevention and Wellbeing, and the European Journal of Applied Positive Psychology. He has written/edited over 60 books including the Handbook of Coaching Psychology, Cognitive Behavioural Coaching in Practice, Developmental Coaching, The Coaching Relationship and Solution Focused Coaching in Practice. He developed the PRACTICE model of coaching. Currently Stephen Palmer is coordinating research projects on the PRACTICE model, the SPACE model and on Health Coaching for Tinnitus.
Stephen's academic posts include being Professor of Practice at the Wales Academy for Professional Practice and Applied Research (WAPPAR), University of Wales Trinity Saint David and Adjunct Professor of Coaching Psychology in the Department of Communication and Psychology, Aalborg University, Denmark. He is Coordinating Director of the ISCP International Centre for Coaching Psychology Research. He is a Member of the Learning Guild.
Europe
Professor Reinhard Stelter
Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences, University of Copenhagen
Prof. Reinhard Stelter holds a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Copenhagen and is Professor of Sport and Coaching Psychology at the University of Copenhagen and head of the Coaching Psychology Unit, Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sport Sciences, and visiting professor at the Copenhagen Business School. He has received further training in psychotherapy, counseling, coaching psychology, social constructionism, narrative theory and practice and applied sport psychology.
He is accredited member of the International Society for Coaching Psychology where he also functions as one of the Honorary Vice-Presidents. He is editorial board member of International Coaching Psychology Review, of Coaching: Theory, Research and Practice, of the International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching, and co-editor of Coaching psykologi – The Danish Journal of Coaching Psychology. He is member of the Scientific Advisory Council of The Institute of Coaching, Harvard University. Furthermore, he is member of the Advisory Board of the Copenhagen Coaching Center, where he also functions as senior coach and external lecturer on the 2-years coaching program.
He is editor and author of ten books and more 150 articles in scientific and research oriented journals or books. His research interest is oriented towards identity issues, narrative-collaborative theory and practice, community psychology, and recently in health prevention and rehabilitation. Currently he leads several research projects with the focus on narrative and collaborative group coaching.
North America
Dr Paul T. Wong
Professor Emeritus Trent University
Paul T. P. Wong, Ph.D., C.Psych is Professor Emeritus of Trent University and Trinity Western University. He is a Fellow of APA, APS, and CPA, and the founding President of the International Network on Personal Meaning (INPM, also known as the International Association of Existential Positive Psychology) and the Meaning-Centered Counselling Institute. As a servant leader, he has been a church planter, pastor, founding director of the graduate program in counselling psychology of Trinity Western University, and head of the Division of Social Sciences of Tyndale University. A prolific writer, he has published eight books and more than 200 journal articles and chapters; he is one of the most cited psychologists in areas related to existential positive psychology. As an internationally acclaimed leader in existential positive psychology (PP2.0), integrative meaning therapy, and meaning research, he has been invited to give keynotes and workshops globally and speak at major universities, such as Harvard University and Carnegie Mellon University.