Nik Samuelson
Owner / Managing Director

Nik has worked with many organisations of varying size and industries to help them attain better business outcomes through successful project management. Nik’s main focus is working with Executives to achieve results.

With 20 years business experience and his involvement in large portfolios, programs and projects, Nik specialises in helping organisations build and execute strategies in a project environment with significant success. He is able to offer a complementary mix of structured, practical, and cost effective solutions to business problems.

His proven methods have assisted companies achieve better focus, a higher project success rate, improved staff engagement and better business results.

Pete Swan
Owner / Strategic Director

Pete is the Director of strategy and advisory and one of the founders of the PM-Partners group. He has 28 years’ experience in the delivery and advisory of projects and programmes, has worked internationally and is currently working with executives from a number of global companies to help them quickly and pragmatically prioritise and deliver the most strategically important corporate initiatives.

For the past 18 years Pete has led clients through transformational change with the strategy and implementation of PMO, programme and project capabilities to improve execution and accelerate business results.

Steve Hewitson
Owner / Sales Director

Steve’s professional passion is helping organisations improve business results by providing consistent and high quality project management and business analysis services. This can be via improved capability in these areas, or by helping clients deliver their projects, in turn helping organisations and their people progress to new levels of efficiency.

We have a unique way of running projects and providing training and advice, so you get better results with less cost and risk.

Ken Sheargold
CEO

Ken joined PM-Partners as a Transformation Consultant in February 2016 and will be taking on the role of CEO on May 8th 2017. Ken is responsible for delivering major transformational change where there is complexity, risk, many inter-dependencies and conflicting priorities.

Prior to joining PM-Partners group he held a number of executive appointments in the NSW Government and Telstra Corporation.

His most recent appointment in government was the Executive Director, Premiers Implementation Unit directly responsible for supporting the Premier in the delivery of his key priorities across NSW. Prior to working in the Department of Premier and Cabinet he was the Executive Director of ServiceFirst, the shared services organisation responsible for the provision of shared services to the central agencies of government.

He was the Program Director and commercial lead for the outsourcing of ServiceFirst that successfully executed contracts with Unisys and Infosys in June 2015 with a total contract value of $235 million dollars.

Prior to joining the NSW Government, he held a number of senior appointments in Telstra Corporation. Those appointments included Executive Director Corporate Strategy and Customer Experience and Executive Director Service Advantage.

Derek Quayle
COO

As the newly appointed COO of PM-Partners group, Derek is a natural leader and will execute the core strategy with the CEO and the Senior Leadership Team. He has spent the last 15 years of his career in driving business growth, delivering programs and operational efficiencies with a particular focus in the world of program and project management across global, regional and local organisations.

With a determination and drive to make continuous improvements, Derek utilises his natural collaborative style and people management skills to drive the benefits of team work and implement appropriate solutions, in line with the strategy. As a real people-person, he has the ability to develop and forge strong relationships with employees, customers, vendors and he can quickly become a trusted advisor or confidant.

Ray Wall
Head of Client Solutions & Business Development

Ray has over 20 years’ experience working with organisational change and technology transformation programmes / projects in Financial Services, Management Consulting and Transport & Logistics.
A highly experienced and qualified PMO Manager, Project Manager and Management Consultant; with extensive experience in; portfolio, programme and project management. He adopts a pragmatic approach to achieving results; combined with a proven ability to deliver in challenging environments.

Ray specialises in PMO design and build as well as the development and implementation of frameworks and methodologies that support effective and efficient programme and project delivery.

Mike Boutel
Head of Capability

Mike is globally recognised as an expert in modern portfolio, programme and project management practices. He has a passion for Best Practice governance and has worked in UK, Sydney and Melbourne. He is a sought after trusted advisor and consultant on portfolio, programme and project management and related PMOs. He is also one of Australia’s leading expert facilitators and recognised as a public speaker keynoting many business events.

Mike is an APMG qualified trainer & consultant and specialises in Portfolio, Programme & Project consultancy & management; Programme & Project assurance and rescue; Portfolio, Programme & Project governance; PMO maturity assessment and capability uplift; Benefits Management and Realisation; Agile Project Management readiness.

Leanne Griffiths
People & Operations Manager

Leanne’s extensive qualifications and experience encompass leadership roles in business and technology as well as customer facing and operational leadership roles. Leanne’s experience spans National Call Centres, Bank Branches, Banking Operations, Insurance, Consumer Lending, Credit analysis, Superannuation, Human Resources, Learning and Development, Management Consulting, Business Analysis, Change Management and ICT Management with her most recent position being an Executive General Manager of an Enterprise PMO.

Throughout her distinguished career Leanne has always adopted a consultative and pragmatic approach and has utilised this and her extensive Portfolio, Programme, Project and PMO Management skills to improve and transform businesses and their technology departments.

Andre Herbst
Account Director

Andre has spent the last 18+ years helping organisations achieve their goals via project and programme management. Working across a broad range of industry sectors including Financial Services, Public Sector, ICT and Capital Works he has facilitated and assisted organisations with Complex Transformations, Delivery Capability and improving the way projects are run.

Andre has a passion for the application of a pragmatic approach when leveraging the art and science of Portfolio, Programme and Project Management to achieve the desired results.

Tracey Copland
Head of Best Practice

Tracey has been involved in management, finance and business consulting including Portfolio, Programme & Project management for 20+ years. Together with her skills and experience, Tracey is a flexible professional seeking to achieve a high work standard, focussing on value-add.

Having been with PM-Partners group for 15 years, Tracey has held roles including Consultant/Trainer, Head of Training and currently, Head of Best Practice. Tracey has provided training and consultation services to clients in both the public and private sectors, across various disciplines and at all levels including Project, Programme, Portfolio and Change Management, and Agile practices.

Qualifications and Certifications
Management of Portfolios (MoP®) Lead Trainer (Practitioner); Portfolio, Programme and Project Office (P3O®) Lead Trainer (Practitioner) – over 5 years; Managing Successful Programmes (MSP®) Lead Trainer (Advanced Practitioner); Managing Benefits Lead Trainer (Practitioner); Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt Lead Trainer; Facilitation Lead Trainer (Practitioner); PRINCE2 Agile® Lead Trainer; PRINCE2® Lead Trainer (Practitioner); Project Management Professional (PMP®) with the Project Management Institute (PMI®); ITIL® Foundation; Agile PM® Practitioner; AgilePgM™ Foundation; AgileBA® Practitioner; CompTIA Project+ Certification; M. Com (Information Systems), UNSW; B. Com (Accounting and Information Systems), UNSW

Paul Donald
Advisory Manager

Paul has 20 years of experience in IT as well as Project Management consultancy and education. Over his career Paul has applied his expertise in best practices to client organisational challenges.

Working with executive management to deliver projects or execute strategy to achieve results are particular strengths and over time he has developed the following key qualities:
» Management consulting
» Analytical and problem solving skills
» Leadership and communication skills
» Facilitation, coaching and mentoring skills

Chris Hills
CFO

Chris is an experienced CFO with over 15 years’ industry experience of which the last 8 years has been with PM-Partners group. Chris is a FCA and has previously worked in the UK and New Zealand and heads up the Finance, Administration and IT functions at PM-Partners.

Chris is an integral member of the Senior Leadership team working closely with the other executives to provide quality outcomes for our clients.