ROW HR Crew Lead & Consultant - BestfitHR

Matt Dolan

Matt jointly leads the ROW HR Crew at ROW with Anne-Marie Dolan.

Matt’s experience spans human resources management, transformation and change leadership within multinationals, the likes of BHP Billiton and Veolia, as well as other organisations across the transport and logistics, natural resources and environmental services sectors.

Matt has worked in global, regional and locally focussed roles and projects in a generalist and specialist capacity making him a true ‘allrounder’ when it comes to people at work.

Matt and Anne-Marie’s consulting company, bestfitHR  (one of ROW’s Partners) offers diagnosis and implementation of people solutions, from HR leadership through change and transformation.

ROW HR Crew Lead & Consultant - BestfitHR

Anne-Marie Dolan

Anne-Marie jointly leads the ROW HR Crew at ROW with Matt Dolan.

Anne-Marie worked with the Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI) leading research, competency and curriculum projects in Australia and globally.  As well as writing and presenting on people matters, Anne-Marie also played a generalist HR role at AHRI as it grew from a small to medium sized organisation, facing and addressing the challenges and opportunities which come with a growing workforce.

More recently, since starting a family, Anne-Marie has worked remotely to deliver all manner of content, curriculum and capability projects for clients both within AHRI and in Australian State Government agencies. She also works alongside Matt at their consulting company, bestfitHR  (one of our ROW Partners).

Founder/CEO - The Kite Program

Hannah Hardy-Jones

BA (Psych), PGDIP HRM 

CEO/Founder – The Kite Program

Hannah has an extensive background in HR, specialising in leadership development and employee relations. She developed the concept of Kite as a result of her experience with postpartum bipolar disorder after the birth of her first child, coupled with the lack of support and tools for employees she saw in the workplace to manage their mental health, focus on their wellbeing, and to improve themselves both professionally and personally. 

Using the principles of microlearning, Hannah created Kite to be the beautiful app that it is now. It launched globally in Feb 2019 as a tool for mothers (Kite for mums), and is now available as a template for any client or group to mould and shape, so that it is applicable and relevant to their audience- under the arm of Kite for Business. Hannah has a team of 20 consultants rolling this solution out across Latin America, USA, UK/Ireland, Europe, Australia and NZ.

Hannah speaks openly about her mental health, and has been featured in Forbes, appeared on TV1 Seven Sharp and TV3 The Project, the front page of The Press- as well as numerous magazines, radio, articles and podcasts. She is an active mental health advocate- with a passion for maternal and paternal mental health in particular.

Revolutionaries of Wellbeing is a distributor of Kite Program products.

See products in ROW Store | Learn about The Kite Program

Wellbeing & Safety Specialist - CoachWell

Andy Hearn

Andy is an experienced Wellbeing & Safety Specialist – currently working as a Wellbeing Coach, Facilitator and Workplace Wellbeing & Safety Consultant.

After initially working as a physiotherapist in the UK and NZ, Andy worked for 10 years as a Senior Academic Staff Member and Head of Science at CPIT (now Ara Institute of Canterbury). He then moved to the Canterbury DHB in 2012 to lead the DHB’s staff wellbeing response following the Canterbury earthquakes. After four years at the CDHB Andy moved to Emerge Aotearoa as their National Health, Safety and Wellbeing Manager. In 2018 he returned to Ara on a two-year contract as Manager – Health & Wellbeing. The purpose of this role was to develop and embed an evidence based, system wide focus on staff wellbeing – a challenging time as it coincided with the Christchurch mosque attacks and the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

In addition to his work experience, Andy draws on his own ‘lived’ experiences of depression and significant physical injury (broken neck). This mix of academic, practical and lived experience allows him to bring a pragmatic evidence-based approach to his work. An approach that has previously been recognised nationally (Winner NZ Workplace Wellbeing Award, 2013; Finalist NZ Workplace H&S Awards, 2015, 2016). Andy holds a Master’s Degree in Physiotherapy, a Graduate Diploma in Occupational Health & Safety, and is a ICF Certified Coach.

Clinical psychologist, international speaker and author

Dr Amy Silver

Dr Amy Silver is an Australian clinical psychologist, international speaker and author. Her expertise lies in enabling individuals to feel safe enough to take on growth, raising the collective intelligence of organisations. She has spent three decades as a psychologist focused on interpersonal safety, and understanding how fear and habit restrict our achievement and communication. She now works with a wide range of organisations, creating interpersonal and intrapersonal insight on how behaviours impact success.

Amy has a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, Masters in Forensic Psychiatry, Masters in Performance and a BSc Hons in Psychology. She worked as a practicing Clinical Psychologist and an Academic Tutor and researcher at Oxford University, UK. After her career in Clinical Psychology, she has worked in corporate for 15 years using psychological knowledge, trust and collaboration to improve growth.

Hear our interview with Amy:

Learn more about Dr Amy Silver

Learning & development coach - careerbalance

Kathryn Jackson

FRSA, FCIPD, EIA EMCC, MA 

Kathryn is a Christchurch based Learning & Development Coach with over 20 years of HR consulting and coaching experience, Kathryn’s employment in corporate UK included Andersen’s, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Bank of Scotland. Kathryn is also the Content Lead for Kite Support.

Kathryn’s business careerbalance Ltd has been providing coaching, facilitation, career transition and outplacement services to New Zealand businesses for over 10 years, with most of her work based on long-term partnerships to deliver significant and sustainable change. She specializes in supporting professionals and leaders to enhance their leadership style and the wellbeing and culture of their teams.

Kathryn has a first-class honours degree specialising in HR – with a subsequent master’s exploring motivation at work.  She trained with the Oxford School of Coaching and Mentoring in 2005 and since then has completed additional training as a Career Coach.  She was accepted as a Fellow with the CIPD in 2015 and awarded a Senior Practitioner Accreditation with the EMCC in 2017

Her latest book, Resilience at Work; Practical Tools for Career Success (Routledge, 2018), was a finalist in the Top Six Best International Business Book at the Business Book Awards (London) and the Australian Career Book Awards 2019. She has also authored Essential Questions to GROW Your Team, a practical leadership coaching resource which is used by organisations and business schools around the world.

Hear from Kathryn on building resilience in a Covid-19 world:

Learn more about careerbalance.

Leadership, Professional Transformation + Strengths Coach, Facilitator + Consultant - Deehan Leadership Collaborative

Fiona Deehan

Energy, curiosity and enthusiasm are probably the words that are most often used to describe Fiona.  She believes that everyone has what they need within them to succeed and that with the right questions and support, they are capable of realising their full potential, improving their wellbeing and performance and leading others to do the same.

“To be conscious is to take 100% responsibility for our thoughts, feelings and actions and the impact of these on ourselves and the people, organisations and businesses we lead and influence.

To be conscious is an intentional choice and conscious people and leaders thrive and bring their best to their work.

Thriving people are well, engaged, motivated, innovative, effective and efficient – thriving people make for well workplaces and thriving organisations and businesses.”

Fiona has a range of experience in both central and local government, customer service, health, safety and wellbeing and learning and development, as well as volunteer roles in community organisations and Lifeline Aotearoa.  Through her coaching and workshops, she creates meaningful, self-reflective learning experiences that result in the people she works with growing a deep level of self-awareness enabling sustainable, long-term change. She is also a CliftonStrengths accredited coach.

Learn more about Deehan Leadership Collaborative.

Director & Co-Founder - Hummingly

Jolie Wills

Jolie is a cognitive scientist (Masters degree in cognitive psychology) specialising in mass disruption and disaster recovery. She has studied how the mind works under prolonged pressure, how we make decisions and how our reactions and behaviours are impacted by stress. Jolie developed and led the psychosocial recovery programming following the Christchurch earthquakes for New Zealand Red Cross before becoming the National Psychosocial Advisor and led the support for the bereaved families in Christchurch.

Jolie has lived experience of the challenges and opportunities of recovery from a community perspective as a survivor of the Christchurch earthquake herself, living disaster recovery with her family first-hand. She has been collating lessons learned from disasters around the world and supporting recovery capacity building and recovery in action. Jolie was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship to study how best to support the workforce resilience of those working in prolonged stress (www.supportingthesupporters.org).

She is co-author of Leading in Disaster Recovery: A Companion Through the Chaos, primary author of the New Zealand Psychological First Aid guide, and is a 2019 Edmund Hillary Fellow.

Director & Co-Founder of Hummingly

Elizabeth McNaughton

Elizabeth was the Executive Director of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Learning and Legacy Programme for New Zealand’s Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Prior to this role, she held senior leadership positions at New Zealand Red Cross including National Recovery Manager for the Christchurch earthquakes and General Manager of Strategy and Government Relations.

Elizabeth was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship to study the leadership challenges faced by those in post-disaster recovery decision-making roles. She was also awarded a scholarship to undertake a Leadership New Zealand programme. She has worked with the New Zealand Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management, where she was seconded for six months to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet’s Recovery Policy team in the wake of the Christchurch earthquakes. She has also worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on the Pacific regional programme.

Her international experience includes working for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies based in South Asia. Elizabeth is co-author of Leading in Disaster Recovery: A Companion Through the Chaos and a 2019 Edmund Hillary Fellow.

Wellbeing Consultant - Wright Mind

Daniel Wright

Daniel helps senior leaders to strengthen organisations through well-being to positively improve engagement, productivity, and customer satisfaction through his well-being consultancy.

He also helps busy professionals take care so they can work well, live well, and get the most out of life. He does this through workshops and published resources, grounded in the science of well-being.

He understands the necessary steps for success, drawing on his 20-year career in the corporate sector as a workplace well-being champion.

He has completed courses from Yale University – The Science of Well-being, Leiden University – De-Mystifying Mindfulness and Princeton University – Buddhism and Modern Psychology.

He is a Certified Counsellor, Life Coach, and Mindfulness Practitioner and holds a Diploma in Psychology.

He became a facilitator of the Action for Happiness course – Exploring What Matters after attending the first 8-week course held in New Zealand. Daniel’s unique life purpose is to live in the present moment, doing so his life is filled with joy and happiness, He strives to be a loving and supportive husband and a role model father to his children. His core values are to enhance the lives of his family, friends and community.

Authorised Financial Adviser (AFA), Chartered Accountant (CA)

Kieran Sutherland

Kieran is a financial adviser and coach who is passionate about financial planning and advice, showing people that money doesn’t have to be hard, and how money fits into the broader wellbeing conversation. It’s the area of our wellbeing that we want to spend the least time on, but can be extremely destructive if it is creating stress.

Kieran’s purpose is to help people make better money decisions, and have the life they want to live. Kieran works 1 on 1, and in group settings to help people to get clarity and confidence over their money, and help them get this aligned with how they want to live their life.

Kieran enjoys getting to have wide and varied conversations with clients, and loves working with people to help them define where they are heading, and what they need to do to get there. All of the advice given is in the context of personal wellbeing, and how our financial, mental and physical states all link to achieve happiness in our lives.

Kieran is in the process of launching Cents of Worth, a video platform for employers to offer their staff to increase their financial wellbeing.

Outside of work, Kieran is married to Kristy, and loves getting out in the large playground called Canterbury whenever he can – whether that be on foot, by bike, swimming in the beautiful bays/lakes or getting out on the river in a kayak. 

Principal Consultant - The Wellbeing Venture

Alan Clark

I’m the guy who tries to make you smile. I tell really good bad jokes. I happy cry at Mr Holland’s Opus and my favourite film is The Princess Bride. If a meeting lasts more than an hour I’ll pretend I need to go to the toilet and leave for 20 minutes. Originally a PE teacher, I have developed a 25 year career in the field of health and wellbeing.

The Wellbeing Venture works with clients in the corporate and education sectors to offer employees simple, accessible wellbeing solutions they can integrate into their everyday lives. 

My personal mantra is simple:

When you get wellbeing right everything else is easy

We see huge inequality in our education system. The gap between the most deprived and most affluent continues to grow and that, for me, is an unacceptable situation. As a result I have committed that any time we work with a client, we’ll donate our education resource to a school of their choosing.

Founder & Wellbeing Provocateur - Wellbeing Tick

Phillippa Powell

I am a self-confessed wellbeing junkie!   

As the negative impacts from my carefree youth caught up on me, I started to realise the toxic load an unhealthy lifestyle had placed on my health and wellbeing.  In 2011 I dove deep into research to find out how I could become well again, which has led to an ongoing pursuit of feeling consistently awesome. 

My professional experience expands over 17 years working in various People & Culture roles.  In 2015, I started to merge my passion with my profession by taking an amazing opportunity to design and lead the Wellbeing, Diversity and Inclusion Programmes at Chorus.  

As the Chorus Wellbeing Programme started to reach a level of maturity, it was time share the story and the positive impacts nationally.  In 2021 we were proud to be awarded with a trifecta of awards and nationally recognised for Best Wellbeing Programme at the NZ HR Awards, HRD Awards and Gold Awards.

Alongside my passion for workplace wellbeing and interest in food as medicine, I studied to become a Nutritionist.  By 2019 I’d changed to a four-day week and launched The Wellbeing Junkie  – a nutrition and wellbeing coaching business. 

In 2021 I took a leap of faith to share my wellbeing passion and expertise with as many kiwi businesses as possible.  Very soon I’ll be launching Aotearoa’s first Wellbeing Tick – a workplace accreditation programme based on an award-winning and globally researched wellbeing framework.  Purposefully designed to raise the bar and set the standard for best practice in Aotearoa!

I’ve been an active member of ROW Gold since 2019 and what I love about Sarah and the ROW approach is the passion and inclusivity.  Sarah is extremely generous with her time and so willing to share her knowledge.  She’s leading the revolution and influencing many wellbeing leaders and champions to drive change in the corporate wellbeing space and create healthier workplaces around the globe. 

Outside of work, I’m a meditator, podcast binge listener, yogi, runner, amateur mountain biker, hiker, nature lover, snowboarder and real food enthusiast to name some of my healthy addictions.

Director of Workplace Wellbeing - Healthy Life Media Limited

Tim Mehrtens

Tim has lived experience of the challenges associated with recovery from trauma, and understands the opportunities for personal growth. His passion for helping others on their journey to wellbeing comes from the struggle he had with poor mental health resulting from PTSD, and lessons learnt along the way. His journey has taught him how interconnected all elements of wellbeing are and how positive wellbeing takes daily practice.

Ask him who benefits from positive workplace wellbeing, and he will say everyone. Workers, organisations and the community all benefit from supporting staff wellbeing. Employees benefit from greater support and improved mental, emotional, social and physical health. The community benefits from the flow-on effects of increased confidence, happiness and wellbeing, as employee health and wellbeing improve. Organisations benefit from increased productivity, less absenteeism, greater innovation, reduced compensation costs and improved organisational culture.

Get wellbeing right and everything else falls into place. It’s the foundation of an effective organisation and an engaged, high-performing team.

HFG Workplace Wellbeing is an incredible, comprehensive and cost-effective digital wellbeing portal that’s perfect for staff wellbeing programmes. Whether used as the foundation of your wellbeing programme or to help you take it to the next level, it offers meaningful wellbeing support to organisations of all sizes and can help support you achieve your wellbeing objectives.

It will also help your people (and their families) make better, healthier choices from day to day and empower them to make sustainable improvements to their health. It is a platform that covers anything and everything that contributes to building and maintaining a healthy lifestyle and gives staff all the daily tools self-manage their health, and build their physical/mental resilience. In fact, it’s one of the tools Tim has in his toolkit to keep him on track!

It’s a brilliant way for your organisation to help staff focus on their health and wellbeing which, in turn, can improve the overall health of your business.

Founder - LifeWork

Emily Rust

Emily’s mission is to bring the best of people and organisations together to create something beautiful.

Through her consultancy, LifeWork, Emily helps her clients thrive in the areas of Organisational Culture and Wellbeing, partnering with businesses to provide outsourced support and advice to Boards, senior leaders and HR teams.  Her holistic, human-centred approach integrates specialist knowledge, skills and experience with insights from valid diagnostic tools to deliver bespoke people development strategies and wellbeing programmes that lead to growth, satisfaction, engagement and improved overall performance.

Working one-on-one with key individuals, or in group settings, Emily’s coaching and development programmes support people to develop a clearer view of ‘self’, enabling them to find purpose, restore balance and overcome the inertia of needing change but not knowing where to start. 

Emily has a wide range of experience creating positive change across private enterprises and government organisations. She is a registered Organisational Psychologist with a Master’s degree in Psychology, has completed The Science of Well-being course from Yale University, is a certified Health Coach with the IIN and holds accreditations in multiple psychometric tools assessing personality traits, cognitive ability, personal and workplace values and wellbeing.

Emily consults to organisations in the following areas:

• Wellbeing assessment and enhancement – for individuals through to whole organisations
• Executive coaching & leadership development
• Professional development workshops
• Team development
• Career planning
• Talent identification, analysis, development and succession planning
• Outplacement & transitioning services
• Outbound insights and exit interviewing
• Organisational culture transformation 

Learn more about LifeWork

Founder and Workshop Facilitator - PhoneSmart

Taino Bendz

February-April 2020 showed a 300% increase in people searching “how to get your brain to focus.”, and 87% of people struggle to switch off from technology. We operate constantly stressed, busy, but with low productivity and scattered focus. Taino’s interactive presentations teach you how to implement practical habits to improve wellbeing, increase focus and productivity, give space for creativity, and even have a bit of fun along the way!

During 10 years in the corporate technology sector Taino saw how powerful  technology can be. Being very interested in how technology can be used for good he spent several years in the cleantech sector, supporting clients across Europe, China and the US within the renewable energy sector.  He later moved to management consultancy and worked with billion dollar IT projects improving the healthcare sector. He has also worked with digital transformation helping organisations in New Zealand improve their operations and staff workloads with robotic process automation and artificial intelligence. Throughout this journey he has noted how digital technology has the power to improve our lives, but if used in an unbalanced way, can have huge detrimental effects. 

He saw colleagues being burnt out from the “always on culture” with constant availability, distractions and stress from technology. He had a phone free wedding as a result of seeing how smartphones became the main focus instead of the event itself. He is now on a mission to support us to have a healthier relationship with technology, in particular smartphones, to secure mental health & resilience, productivity, innovation and focus. 

Taino was born and raised in Sweden and has lived in New Zealand since 2018. He has a M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and Management and is a published research collaborator with Auckland University of Technology.He has competed in two very different sports on an international level: chess and basketball. He loves exploring nature and playing with his two young sons. 

Taino works with leadership teams, wider staff teams, universities, schools and groups.Clients choose Taino when they want to give staff practical tools for using technology in a smart way, and start moving away from an “always on” culture towards a culture where unplugging is accepted and encouraged.  
Participants walk away with a number of healthy technology habits already implemented, with the outcome being better focus, less reactiveness, and improved wellbeing.

Richard, a CTO in a cloud engineering company says “A culture with self-control is a must today and in the future. I would like this workshop to be a part of our recruitment process.”

Teacher & Facilitator

Kristina Beauchesne

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou’s words are sentiments that Kristina lives by as she personally and professionally strives to build on people’s strengths and help them to live their best selves.

Kristina is an enthusiastic, passionate, dedicated and dynamic educator with two decades of experience in the Canadian education system as a teacher, school administrator and facilitator. Her commitment to fostering excellence in education has led to mentoring student teachers and engaging in innovative team teaching approaches with colleagues. As a skilled professional, Kristina also possesses leadership qualities that embody warmth, compassion, empathy, and vulnerability. A powerful motivator, she uses her organizational and facilitating skills to help her connect meaningfully with her audience; students and adults alike. She believes wholeheartedly in the power of trust and connection in helping to create engaged, productive healthy learning environments and work cultures.

Kristina offers a rich, interactive two- part workshop called, ‘A Culture of Connection and Caring.’ This evidence-based program embodies the belief that, when aligned, individual and organizational core values work in tandem with other related facets such as trust, connection, empathy and play, in helping to create psychologically safe work cultures that thrive and that can attain enhanced levels of greatness.

Kristina is blessed with a caring and committed husband and two active boys! Outside of work, she values time spent connecting with family and friends. An avid runner and exercise enthusiast, she spends many hours pounding the pavement, and this regular routine helps promote her best thinking. A devoted hockey mom, her second home is cold arenas, near and far, where she is blessed to watch her boys passionately play the game they love! A lover of movies, Good Will Hunting with actor Robin Williams, is among one of her favourites as the film illustrates the beauty of human vulnerability, resilience and connection.

Kristina has a Bachelor of Arts (concentration in Psychology) from Trent University and a Bachelor of Education from the University of Ottawa. She embraces a commitment to on-going personal and professional growth and believes in collaboration as a catalyst to move forward collectively.

Founder - Lift Your Wellbeing

Kevin McAlister

Lift Your Wellbeing 

Kevin is a Fitness and Wellbeing Coach, Certified Workplace Wellbeing Strategist and Chartered Accountant (CA ANZ). Kevin blended these three unique experiences to establish the workplace wellbeing business, Lift Your Wellbeing, in London in 2017.

Kevin’s experience working in the fast-paced corporate environment as well as witnessing the negative impact that difficult workplaces have had on the health and wellbeing of his parents, continues to be his driving motivations to partner with businesses to develop a strategic approach to reducing the risks associated with poor mental and physical health whilst giving employees the tools and knowledge to practice regular self-care.

Now back living at home in Australia, Kevin is currently a member of the Global Wellness Institutes (GWI) Workplace Wellbeing Initiative; this is an incredible honour that allows him to learn from global thought leaders in the workplace wellbeing industry as well as play his role in shaping the future guidance given to leaders globally who look to the initiative for support.

Lift Your Wellbeing, with the support of an amazing team, are a fully digital solution that involves live stream classes, a huge library of on demand experiences, wellbeing challenges & health education. Their digital platform allows them to serve businesses of any size and in any location around the world.

Lift Your Wellbeing is on a mission to support employees to experience flourishing mental health and wellbeing by getting active everyday and developing self care habits that fit into their lifestyle.

Outside of work, you’re likely to find Kev hanging out with his little Spoodle called Red, watching soccer or out for a long run whilst listening to a great podcast (the ROW podcast of course ).