Our Team

Garie Dooley

Chief Executive Officer

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Garie is the CEO at Leading Teams and his talent for creating a simple, powerful code of behaviour and trademark for our team has enhanced our own trademark – “Go the Extra Yard”.

Garie started his working life as a teacher working with disadvantaged adolescents. Prior to opening his own consulting business, Garie had a varied business career that included Senior Management roles with Port Adelaide Football Club, Optus, Kelly Services and VIP Homes Services.

Garie has also had a senior soccer career that has spanned 15 years in Adelaide where he has been part of the local sports media. He has a passion for organisational development and supporting organisations in their efforts to maximise the potential of their people.

Garie has a Bachelor of Education, Graduate Diploma of Teaching and a Graduate Diploma in Business.

"A key learning for me in recent years has been the realisation that whilst I may have been a good manager, I was in fact an indifferent leader during my early corporate life.

I was certainly good at delivering on the mechanics, but I now wonder how much better my teams could have been – and for longer, had I spent just as much time on the dynamics of the team.

I am now totally convinced that as leaders we have a responsibility to ensure that we do everything we can to bring the mechanics and the dynamics together. Great businesses do not dismiss one at the expense of the other, and in fact, if you can get the dynamics right and develop a supportive, productive and focused environment, the mechanics will often fall into place." - Garie Dooley

Ray McLean

Director

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Ray McLean is a founding Director of Leading Teams Australia and has 15 years’ experience as a leadership and management consultant. Ray began his working life as a teacher, working for 10 years in schools in regional Victoria, and holds a Bachelor of Education.

From 1989 to 1994 Ray worked with the RAAF as a training and leadership officer and was responsible for the design and delivery of leadership and team training for the Airmen Aircrew Training Unit. During this time he worked extensively in the areas or leadership and team development, particularly with the Maritime Patrol Group for six years.

Ray made the observation early on in his career that if a company needs to have a huge sign espousing their value to their clients, then the staff are probably not displaying those values with their actions. As Ray’s focus has always been on action not words he set about developing a model that would help teams to align the behaviours and actions with their espoused values.

In 1993, Ray ran a pilot program involving the Central Districts Football Club. Their performance improved and as some of their corporate partners also took up the program, Ray found that as he had suspected the model could be applied to a range of teams. It was from these experiences that Leading Teams was born.

Ray has also used his experience to write two books. The first book "Any Given Team" provides an insight into Leading Teams' philosophy on leadership and teamwork. Throughout the book Ray explains the Leading Teams model with a variety of accounts and case studies from his work with a range of teams.

The second book “Team Work” is a collaborative effort. Team Work utilises the experiences and journeys of the facilitators at Leading Teams to give a more in depth account of the Performance Improvement Programs run by Leading Teams. The case studies used in “Team Work” are useful resource that challenges readers to take a deeper look at their team and think more objectively about how they are functioning.

“I am extremely passionate about the responsibility of the facilitator in managing the journey for teams and individuals as they strive for high level performance. In particular, as people engage in the more difficult conversations around performance, within the team, the facilitator must ensure the environment is safe.” – Ray McLean

Leading Teams as an organisation is dedicated to taking the principals and model developed and facilitating team development, alignment and leadership. In his position at Leading Teams, Ray conducts team performance and leadership programs for a number of AFL, NRL and NBL clubs coaches and mentors a number of senior sporting executives. Specifically Ray is now working with Carlton and Adelaide football clubs in the AFL but has previously worked with:

• Sydney Swans (7 years under Paul Roos)
• St Kilda (1994 -98 under Stan Alves)
• Collingwood (1999 -2002 under Tony Shaw and Mick Malthouse)
• The Australian Cricket Team (2005 -2007)
• Boomers and Opals (National Basketball Teams)
• Sydney Kings NBL (under Brian Goorjian)
• St George Illawarra in the NRL and
• The NSW Waratahs in Rugby Union

With over 70% of Leading Teams Australia's business now in the corporate field Ray also works with a wide range of corporate, educational and community organisations. These clients include:

• M&C Saatchi
• Goulburn Valley Water
• AFL Operations and Umpires
• The Costa Group
• CPA Australia

Kraig Grime

Director

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Spent 20 years with the Dept of Defence culminating in a role as Officer in Charge of management Services SA/WA providing specialist advice on the Human Aspects of Organisational Development to regional managers.

Started his own consulting firm in 1996 that eventually led him to accepting an offer to merge with Leading Teams Australia.

Kraig is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and in addition to his role at Leading Teams Kraig is also a Director of Highlands Support Services, a company specialising in training and employment for people with disabilities, and Scope, a not for profit that designs and delivers school based educational programs.

Kraig is currently delivering Leading Teams Performance Improvement Program to:

•     Hawthorn Football Club
•     Grand Hyatt Melbourne
•     Victorian Police Dept Division 3
•     New Zealand Cricket Team – BlackCaps
•     Waikato Chiefs Rugby Union team
•     Nth Queensland Cowboys Rugby League team
•     Nillumbik Shire Council
•     SportsmedSA

Justin Peckett

Program Manager

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Justin retired from AFL Football in October 2006 after 252 games with the St Kilda Football Club (1989 - 2006).

Throughout his playing career Justin has gained extensive facilitating experience delivering various life skills and leadership programs within Schools, Indigenous Communities, Juvenile & Adult Prison Systems, Elite Sport and the corporate environment.

Corporate clients have included; Deakin University ITSD, City of Casey, Nike, Quiksilver, NSW Police, BMW Group Australia, Tennis Australia, Costa Logistics, RipCurl, Tempur and the Bendigo & Adelaide Bank

Justin is currently in his final year of studying a Masters of Business Management Practice – Specialising in Organisational Change and Development at Victoria University, Melbourne.

Justin’s other passions in life are his wife Teresa and their seven children, football, surfing, skateboarding and music.

Craig Biddiscombe

Program Manager

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Originally from Traralgon, Gippsland, Craig moved to Geelong after being drafted to play in the AFL with the Geelong Football Club.  After 4 years with Geelong and studying teaching, Craig relocated to Melbourne to play with the Richmond Football Club. Whilst with Richomnd Craig studied Exercise Science at the Australian Catholic University.  

Craig now resides in Geelong with wife Natasha and 2 sons, Liam and Caden.  Natasha is a Physiotherapist and partner in a Physiotherapy and Pilates clinic on the waterfront in Geelong.  On completing his time in the AFL Craig went on to study a Masters of Business Management degree that specialised in Organisation Development and Change Management. 

Craig is passionate about helping teams improve and in particular, assisting them to develop and maintain an environment which is strong enough to cope with the difficult conversations.  In 9 years as a facilitator with Leading Teams, Craig has delivered leadership and team development programs that have improved the performance of a range of corporate and elite sport teams.  These include recently:

•     Bendigo & Adelaide Bank (Executive Team)
•     Triple M & B105 Brisbane (Senior Management & On – Air Crew)
•     Patrick Ports (Management and Supervisors)
•     Fosters Wine (Senior Leadership Team)
•     Western Bulldogs FC (Playing List, Board, Staff and Senior Management)
•     WHK Group (Chief Executives + 12 Firms across Aus & NZ)
•     Gordon Institute of Tafe (Executive, Management & Staff)
•     City of Casey (Executive & Management teams)
•     Adroit Insurance Group (Management and Staff at all branches)
•     Lemnos Foods (Management & Staff)
•     Financial Index Australia (Management & Staff)
•     Leaders for Geelong Program
•     City of Whittlesea (Management)
•     Spence Construction (Management & Staff)
•     Deakin University Logistics Division (Management & Supervisors)

Jim Plunkett

Program Manager

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As a Facilitator within Leading Teams, Jim presents a wide and varied range of leadership and team alignment programs to elite sport, corporate organisations, school and community organisations throughout Australia.

Jim has a background in elite sports, playing AFL with Western Bulldogs (1997 - 2000) and Carlton (2001 - 2003). Whilst Jim played AFL he completed a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Teaching at the Australian Catholic University and he is currently completing his Masters of Management at Monash University.

Some of Jim’s clients include:

• ANZ
• SP AusNet
• Interactive
• Tennis Australia
• NAB
• MLC
• Greater Shepparton City Council
• Jemena
• Melbourne FC

Jim strongly believes in the importance of building and maintaining strong relationships in both his professional and personal life. Jim, his wife Bianca, and their daughter Audrey love to spend their time enjoying the company of their family and friends.

"I am passionate about bringing together my experiences within elite sport and corporate organisations to develop safe working environments that strive for excellence and build and maintain strong professional relationships." - Jim Plunkett

You can contact Jim via email on jim.plunkett@leadingteams.net.au

You can also connect with Jim on LinkedIn

Martine Harkin

Program Manager

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Martine has a background in education, teaching for 9 years in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne. As the only female Program Manager at Leading Teams, Martine has in interest in developing leadership in females in a number of corporate organisations. 

Also with a passion for working with emerging leaders, Martine has set up numerous leadership programs, incorporating multiple day programs, one day workshops and intensive courses.

Martine enjoys the benefit of working with a range of people from different backgrounds all learning from each other and developing their own leadership skills, whilst also benefitting their respective teams.

She manages the Education programs at Leading Teams, including Principal networks and staff teams at primary and secondary schools across the State. Currently, Martine is working in the Melton education network, delivering the Aligning Teams program to all Government schools in this region.

Some of Martine’s other clients include:

• Fernwood Gyms
• Vibropile
• Piling Contractors
• GP Glass
• Belconnen FC
• Oakleigh Centre
• The Gordon TAFE

"Since joining Leading Teams I have gained two significant insights.  Firstly, as someone who has previously led numerous teams, I never took the time to reflect on the type of leader I wanted to be. I just got in and got the job done, and always did a good job.  At Leading Teams we strongly believes that every person in a team is a leader and that taking time to reflect and decide what type of leader (and person) you want to be is vital to the performance of your team.

The other part of the model that has really struck a cord,  is the value of building of strong professional relationships.  In teams that I worked in and led before, I would have thought I had strong professional relationships, but I have since learnt that these relationships were about being liked, not rocking the boat and definitely not causing conflict.  What this meant was that I was avoiding the genuine conversations, whether it was to challenge someone’s behaviour or to reward a really good job.  The result of this was a significant impact on the level of trust and therefore productivity of the team." - Martine Harkin

If you would like to contact Martine you can email martine.harkin@leadingteams.net.au

You can also connect with Martine on LinkedIn

John Prentice

Program Manager

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John Prentice has 14 years of corporate experience prior to joining Leading Teams Australia. With Fairfax and Optus, his roles covered sales and service, product development and IT system deployments.

John joined Leading Teams to make a difference and to establish a permanent presence in New South Wales. He is passionate about working with front line sales and service teams, leadership teams and developing emerging leaders to be the best that they can be.

John holds a Bachelor of Economics and a Certificate of Professional Development from the Wharton School, UPENN. He enjoys a competitive sport, particularly Sailing.

"When you engage me to work with your team you should expect nothing less than an appetite for excellence" - John Prentice

You can contact John via email at John.Prentice@leadingteams.net.au

You can also connect with John on Twitter or LinkedIn

Don't forget to follow JP's click of the Week! on the Leading Teams Australia blog, Twitter, Facebook and Yammer!

Dain Fay

Program Manager

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Prior to joining Leading Teams Australia Dain spent many years as a Community Engagement Facilitator with the Reach Foundation, a not for profit where he remains a volunteer and as a Program Coordinator of Leadership and Development Management with the National Australia Bank.

With over 9 years’ experience in the fields of leadership and engagement, Dain Fay brings a perspective and wisdom that enables him to see things at a much greater depth that what may appear on the surface. Coupling these attribute with being a creative and original thinker, Dain has the ability to work effectively with a diverse range of client groups to achieve positive outcomes.

Dain's education is extensive and he has completed a wide variety of training programs including Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Neuro Linguistic Programming, Vocal Intelligence, Jungian Psychology, Psychodrama, Positive Psychology and Positive Education as well as a Certificate IV Celebrancy. He is also currently completing Certificate IV Training and Assessment and a Bachelor of Behavioural Studies.

"At a very young age, the first basketball coach I ever had (who happened to be my dad) passed on some sage advice which has stuck with me the rest of my life; 'you learn a lot more from losing than you do from winning. Thus, there are no real 'negative' experiences, as long as we are willing to search for the lessons and challenge ourselves to grow" - Dain Fay

Contact Dain Fay via email Dain.Fay@leadingteams.net.au or follow him on twitter @DainFay

Shelley Ryan

Media and Finance Manager

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Shelley Ryan thrives off learning and the challenges of balancing multiple responsibilities within roles. After completing a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Psychology; instead of responding to her Dad’s laments to “get a real job”; she set off for 3 years seeking international experience around the world. A role in London at a secure lock down facility for young detainees aged 11 to 14years, fostered her skills in Forensic Psychology. However, nights spent by choice, working the floors on such restaurants as the prestigious “Restaurant at Montes” in Knightsbridge under Jaime Oliver and Ben Donoghue, maintained her passion for superior food and wine.

On returning to Australia Shelley took up a position at the iconic Lake House in Daylesford originally as the Assistant Restaurant Manager within the 2 hatted restaurant. On-going promotion through the business and the mentorship of Alla Wolf-Tasker led to her promotion to General Manager in 2004 at the age of 26- she “got her real job”. Shelley was General Manager at Lake House for 6 years, overseeing its growth into one of Australia’s most recognised and awarded boutique hotels and gourmet retreats while fostering its’ 75 staff of hospitality professionals.

Shelley has been with us here at Leading Teams since July 2010. Her exposure to the principles of an accepted framework of behaviours and the ability to always have the genuine conversations is something she wished she had mastered as a young leader of so many. Originally responsible for the financial management of the business; this time while undertaking a Masters of Accounting at Victoria University, her role now spans the two disciplines of Finance and Media Strategy.

 All media requests can be sent direct to Shelley at shelley.ryan@leadingteams.net.au.

Follow me on twitter @shellryan77