USCMA Connect

Dr. Laura Hefer is a researcher, consultant, and speaker whose PhD from the University of Sydney Business School focuses on the organisational use of AI meeting assistants. Her work uniquely blends information systems, organisational psychology, and identity theory to explore how AI technologies are shaping workplace dynamics.

Originally trained in coaching psychology, Dr. Hefer later became fascinated by how digital tools—especially those that record and summarise meetings—change the way people manage impressions and identities at work. Her PhD investigates not only the technical implementation of AI meeting assistants but also the social and psychological consequences for those who use or are affected by these tools.

She has published papers in top-tier conferences (PACIS and ACIS), exploring the unacknowledged assumptions baked into AI meeting assistant designs and their effects on productivity, fairness, identity construction, and power.

Erin Buttermore is a Hobart-based strategy consultant and executive coach with a rich 20+ year career spanning export trade, climate change, tourism, education, international relations, and skilled migration. She’s held senior roles across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Erin is particularly passionate about leadership, organisational behaviour, decision-making, and behavioural economics.

She holds a Master of Science in Coaching Psychology from the University of Sydney, an MBA in Policy Management, and other business qualifications. Her coaching integrates cutting-edge research, practical leadership experience, and mindfulness (she’s also a certified vinyasa yoga teacher).

Erin is currently pursuing PhD research with Dr. Gordon Spence exploring how perceived organisational support and psychological capital relate to the impostor phenomenon—a topic she has both personally experienced and deeply studied. Her work challenges the notion that impostorism is an individual flaw, instead framing it as a systemic, organisational issue that demands more nuanced and evidence-based coaching interventions.

Dr. Travis Kemp is recognised by both industry and professional peers and clients internationally as being amongst Australia's leading practitioners and thought leaders in the fields of executive coaching, strategic leadership, peak performance, and organisational psychology. His work focusses on identifying, developing, and optimising performance and impact of enterprise leaders, their teams, and their organisations, diagnosing and solving complex leadership and organisational performance challenges and refining, communicating, and executing enterprise strategy through effective leadership and evidence-based practice.

Dr. Martin Richardson is a highly decorated Orthopaedic Surgeon with over three decades of clinical, educational, and military service. His roles have ranged from Director of Orthopaedic Trauma at Royal Melbourne Hospital to Co-Director of the Fundamentals of Clinical Coaching at Monash University. As a Surgeon Commander in the Royal Australian Navy, he’s served in Afghanistan, participated in humanitarian missions across the Pacific, and played a pivotal role in Navy Health Training. In 2024, he completed a Master of Science in Coaching Psychology at the University of Sydney, deepening his commitment to leadership development and organisational coaching across healthcare and defence sectors. Today we talk about why he chose this unusual path, what it gave him and how he is working with the Australian Navy as a leadership advisor. And a little bit on singing…!

Clive Leach had an extensive background in teaching, youth services and University education in the UK. Then, while teaching in Bangkok, he discovered he was spending more time on assisting students with life choice points and decisions than in their education, but he enjoyed it. That led to a search to find a degree that would support his personal education and in 2008 Clive graduated from University of Sydney. Clive collaborated in writing an important paper positioning positive psychology in assisting disaffected youth and youth workers with Dr. Anthony Grant and Dr Suzy Green, when studying in Sydney. He has since built a career in organisational based coaching with a specific interest in positive psychology.

Dr Ingo Susing is a former investment and private equity banker turned Executive coach and leadership succession specialist. During the GFC he decided to study the Masters of Coaching Psychology rather than do an MBA. He says this changed his life. In fact he loved the degree so much he continued on and completed a PhD with Gordon Spence as his supervisor at UOW. He shares his findings on leadership and CEO succession and the role Boards play. We talk about the failure rates of external hires relative to internal candidates and how coaches can help their leader clients think about succession planning more thoroughly.

Katie Hasson is the Global Lead for Team Ignite at Standard Chartered Bank. She built a world-class internal coaching culture — scaling from just 9 coaches to more than 240 across 35 countries, saving millions in coaching investment, and delivering measurable, lasting impact for thousands of employees and leaders.

In this conversation, we'll dive into the reasons the bank started on this journey, why they focused on having coaching report into the Strategy department, the challenges Katie faced, the strategies she and her team crafted, the lessons learned, and the future Katie envisions for coaching inside large organisations.

Dr Suzy Green is the CEO & Founder of The Positivity Institute, a positively deviant organisation dedicated to the research and application of Positive Psychology in workplaces and schools. Whilst she is best known to students of Sydney University for setting up and teaching the Positive Psychology subject in the Masters degree, she is also an Honorary Professor in the School of Psychology at the University of East London. Suzy also holds honorary academic positions at the Centre for Positive Psychology, University of Melbourne and the Black Dog Institute. Suzy is also an affiliate of the Institute for Wellbeing at Cambridge University.

In this episode we discuss the early years of teaching at Sydney University and the changes in the field of positive psychology since then. Suzy shares her own evolution as a practitioner and how that has impacted her life personally and professionally. Finally, we also discuss the future of coaching in a world influenced by AI.

Rebecca is a leadership coach who specialises in supporting neurodivergent professionals and fostering neuro-inclusivity. She helps organisations achieve both wellbeing and performance objectives, for example by creating the right conditions to attract and empower neurodivergent talent.  Rebecca has over 20 years of experience in professional services as a coach and consultant. She currently manages her own private coaching practice and is completing a Master of Science in Coaching Psychology at Sydney University. 

This conversation focused on recent research Rebecca has conducted examining how coaches navigate coaching neurodiverse clients, the intention practise gap incurred and barriers to effective practise. Rebecca is speaking at USCMA on May 8th.

Cat Drury is a graduate from Sydney University and an agile coach with Roche Pharmaceuticals, one of the most successful and largest healthcare organisations globally. In this fascinating conversation Cat shares the recent business transformation Roche has undertaken and the impact this has had internally and for patients.