Shape Consulting

Our People

Alliance Partnerships

Bernard Thorpe - Managing Partner

Bernard is one of the founders and Managing Partner of Shape Consulting formally known as Plus Human Resources. Bernard has a Bachelor of Business (Human Resources Management and Accounting) and Graduate Certificate – Human Resource Management and is a member of the Australian Institute of Management, Australian Human Resource Institute and Institute of Management Consulting, Australia. Bernard is an accrediated practioner for the LSI tool from Human Synergistics.

Bernard has a strong background in management consulting, business analysis, human resources, management education, team building and change management consulting. He has presented over 500 days of professional development and has consulted to over 80 different organisations. His research interests include succession planning, talent management and the implementation of successful programs to align 'how we work around here' with 'what we want to achieve'. Bernard is the lead for the Shape Consulting product - Talent Streaming (TM) and focusses on the Energy, Government and Water industries.

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Martin Lombard - Partner

Martin has an extensive background in consulting, in strategic choices and mapping scorecards, business reengineering and leading change, restructuring, strategic alignment, Merger & Acquistion activities, Shared Services development and implementation and cultural interventions. His previous role was that of General Manager Organisation with Anglo Coal Australia as part of the Anglo American Group. Prior to this role he was the Vice President Human Resources and the Executive sponsor for Culture and Change Leadership in a Global Business Process Reengineering project with a global humanitarian organisation, World Vision.

He has served in various other Senior Executive roles to lead large OD / organisational change initiatives across various industries and diverse environments while working inside industrial, manufacturing and chemical organisations as well as in a consulting business. Following his commercial under graduate and post graduate studies, he held responsibilities in the FMCG, Automotive, Service, Hospitality, and entertainment industry (with a strong emphasise on creating a culture of customer service), Chemical industry, and in the Beverage, Packaging and Distribution / Supply chain / Retail and technology as well as Mining and the Humanitarian Aid industries. His area of research is in group and organisational dynamics, with a special interest in governance, decision rights and accountability as well as culture and strategic alignment in diverse cultures across global contexts. Martin is an accrediated practioner through Human Synergistics. He leads the business in areas including Mining, Local Government, Rail, Banking and NGO sectors.

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Nicole Thorpe - Managing Director

Nicole is one of the founders of Shape Consulting (formally Plus Human Resources) and is Managing Partner of its parent company Thorpe Corporation Pty Ltd. Nicole has worked in both administrative and management roles in the hospitality, community, construction, youth and business services sectors. She has worked as both a practitioner and manager who is professional with a proven track record of exceptional customer service.

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Mark Lawlor - Senior Management Consultant

Mark is a Senior Management Consultant with Shape Consulting and has been with the company since 2004. He is an Organisational Psychologist, with over 10 years of experience working in the field of Human Resources & Organisational Development, Shared Services Development and Implementation, Project Management, Change Management, Management Consulting, Learning & Development, Management Development, Continuous Improvement, Business Process Reengineering, Organisation Structure & Job Design, Industrial Relations, and Recruitment & Selection. Mark leads the development and implementation of the Organisational Change Management framework product.

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Sean Rhodes - Senior Management Consultant

Sean joined Shape Consulting in 2007, and is an award-winning consultant with over ten years experience as a project change and training specialist with a background in operations management and organisational development. He has a proven track-record of delivering high-quality outcomes for clients across a range of industries and contexts. Sean has specific expertise with business improvement projects and facilitating successful outcomes within complex environments undergoing extensive change. Sean leads the Learning and Development stream within Shape Consulting.

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Ross Schneider - Management Consultant

Ross commenced as Management Consultant in 2005 and has 22 years experience in management and change management. He has worked in the building, distribution and energy industries gaining experience in roles ranging from sales, management, operations and logistics, training and development and consulting.

His experience and demonstrated success in change management, training and consulting has allowed him to develop expertise in each of the following areas; Business Analysis, Training and Development, Managing Change, Business Process Analysis, Design and Documentation, Training Needs Analysis and Change Impact Analysis.

Ross also specialises in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) - change management, training and implementation. He has successful undertaken the role of Change management consultant on 4 ERP projects in Queensland (Mincom - Ellipse, JD Edwards).

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John Other-Gee - Management Consultant

John has extensive practical experience in change management consulting, team building, continuous improvement, employee relations, human resources and management development. He joined Shape Consulting in 2007 as Management Consultant.

He has worked at both the strategic level in the creation of organisational strategy and the development of change and improvement strategies and also at the practical level in the implementation of organisational change.

John has experience in a range of industry sectors including manufacturing, fast moving consumer goods, Local Government, IT, health care, oil and gas and State Government.

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Michelle Hyde - Associate Consultant

Michelle graduated with a Masters in Organisational Psychology and joined Shape Consulting in March 2008. She has very strong research skills and is very capable of producing research instruments as well as conducting a wide range of statistical analyses. These skills are underpinned by a very strong academic record in both undergraduate and postgraduate training.

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Vina Wilson - Business Manager

Vina joined Shape Consulting in February 2007. She has a very strong background in Administration with over 10 years experience as well as experience assisting Executive level managers over the last 5 years. Vina handles all of the Business and office Management for Shape Consulting and is the first point of contact for our customers. Her industry experience includes Media, Advertising, Banking, Energy, recruitment and government.

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Alliance Partnerships

Nikki Swann

Swann Consulting - Management Consultant

Nikki’s background includes experience in Australia and the Middle East, with positions in the recruitment, media and airline industries. Her interests include Human Resource Development, Change Management, Management and Leadership Training, Performance Management Systems and Succession Planning. Nikki works with Shape Consulting through her independent company - Swann Consulting.

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Mel Cowan

Accredited Human Synergistics Consultant - Enterprise Partners

Mel has been working in cultural change and leadership roles for the last 17 years as an external consultant, line management executive and HR Director. Since 1998 Mel has been running his own successful consulting businesses servicing Caterpillar, David Jones, CSC, Warner Brothers, Fujitsu, ENERGEX, Ergon Energy, SMS Consulting, Suncorp and GBST (a global software business). He has also had significant experience in working in the public sector and has provided coaching and facilitation to the executive teams of eight Queensland Government Departments.

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Shape Consulting also partners with the following organisations:-