About GCWAL

The Team

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Simon Boag

Simon Boag is the CEO of Sportsmed.

Simon has a Bachelor of Applied Science (Physiotherapy) and an MBA. He has over 20 years of experience in the health sector, and over 15 years of managing hospitals and health care providers. He has been Chief Executive of SA Heart for 5 years prior to taking up his current position.

He has a vast amount of experience in a fast paced, changing sector, is highly proficient in change management and has deep knowledge of the healthcare field

Dr Carlo D'Ortenzio

Carlo D'Ortenzio is a seasoned C-suite Corporate Executive with over three decades of experience spanning private and public sectors across diverse environments. With expertise in strategic planning, corporate performance, and management, he possesses strong commercial acumen and adept interpersonal skills. His leadership roles encompass finance, risk management, governance, and change management. He has held Chief Executive level positions across various sectors and brings valuable non-executive directorship experience to various organisations.

A trained Chartered Accountant, Carlo also holds a PhD in Management, a Doctor of Business Administration, a Master of Business Administration, a Master of Laws, a Bachelor of Business in Accountancy and is a member of Chartered Accountants Australia New Zealand. 

Emeritus Prof Selva Abraham

Emeritus Profressor Selva Abraham is the Founder Chairman of the Global Centre for Work-Applied Learning (GCWAL). He is also the Founder of and Emeritus Professor at the Australian Institute of Business (AIB) and a Visiting Professor at Leeds Trinity University.

He has a PhD in Management and a Master of Business Administration. Over the last 40 years, his consulting and research focus has been on Work-Based Management Learning, which he has extended into the concept of Work-Applied Learning (WAL for Change) in private, public, and community organisations.

Selva is a Thought Leader in Work-Applied Learning and Work-Based Learning and continues to undertake research and consulting in these areas.

Param Abraham

Param has a Bachelor of Laws, Master of Laws, Doctor of Professional Studies and is also a Chartered Secretary. She has more than 21 years experience in accreditation and quality assurance for the Australian Institute of Business (AIB), working closely with the Senior Executives and Board of AIB. Her doctorate involved the investigation of the Work-Applied Learning model in the context of developing quality assurance processes in higher education.

Colin Bradley
Programme Advisor

Colin has over twenty years’ experience in Human Resource Management (HRM), Organisational Change Management and Organisational Development positions and several more years in line management in areas such as contract administration and general administration in an IT division. He has provided strategic, technical and operational advice and coaching to organisational and industry personnel at local, state and national levels.

Colin has a Master of Arts (Business Research) (MA) from Macquarie University and a Master of Health Administration (MHA) from the University of New South Wales.

His expertise is in the area of Change Management, Action Learning, and Action Research.

Michael Chant
Programme Advisor

Michael is an enthusiastic and accomplished CEO, Board Director and Chair with over thirty years’ experience in leadership development and corporate growth. He has worked in Charity, Education, Media and Publishing, and Social Services. He has extensive skills in Leadership, Strategic Planning, Governance and Change Management, along with a strong business development background. He has served on state, national and global boards in a variety of capacities.  His passions are to empower organisations to fulfil their mission, and see people develop to their full potential.

He has studied in the field of Not-for-Profit governance, and has achieved a Graduate Certificate in Management (Research) and a Master of Business Administration (MBA), along with earlier studies in Business, Leadership, Youth Work and Ministry. 

Andrew Cook
Programme Advisor

Andrew has a Bachelor of Psychology, Bachelor of Business (Insurance and Finance), Masters of Management, Diploma of Sustainability, and Diploma of Insurance Broking. With over 20 years of leadership experience, he is results oriented with a focus upon excellent customer experiences, developing highly motivated teams and constant organisational improvement. 

He is an experienced insurance executive with a proven track record of achieving positive outcomes with a proven competency in strategic thinking. Andrew has facilitated a number of change initiatives within his own organisation using Action Learning, Action Research and Work-Applied Learning. In addition, he has also assisted other practitioners in the development of their own change initiatives. Andrew has presented at a number of conferences on Work-Applied Learning and has also published on Change using ARAL.

Emeritus Prof Rod Oxenberry
Programme Advisor

Rod has a PhD and has taught in MBA programmes in the areas of leadership, strategic management and governance, and has supervised PhD and DBA candidates in these areas. He has been involved with various national and international academic and professional settings and worked with professional bodies in international relationships.

He is an experienced education and management consultant specialising in higher education recognition, leadership mentoring and management development

Meera Verma
Programme Advisor

Meera Verma is a professional director with expertise spanning the global healthcare, biotechnology and renewable energy industries. She is the Principal of Headland Vision, a strategic advisory and consultancy.

She has a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Adelaide and has extensive experience in leading and developing start-ups and SMEs, including Hospira Inc, now a division of the global giant Pfizer, and more recently, at Ellex Medical and TechInSA. She is active in JudoSA and is currently a member of the Advisory Board for Beta Cell Techologies Pty Ltd.

Meera is a strategic thinker who has been involved in corporate turn-around and leading change management. Her management expertise relates to both corporate and not-for-profit sectors and she has a deep understanding of the value of personal and professional development for individual executives.

John Wilkinson
Programme Advisor

Associate Professor John Wilkinson had extensive experience in marketing and sales management in Australia and South Africa before working for nearly three decades in the academic field. He has published in a range of Australasian and international journals, contributed to several books, and presented his research at conferences in Australasia, Europe, and the United States.

He completed BSc and BCom degrees at University of Natal (in Durban, South Africa), an MBA at University of Adelaide and a PhD at University of South Australia. John is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Selling; a Fellow of the Australian Marketing Institute and a Certified Practising Marketer (CPM); an Associate Member of the Research Society (formerly, the Australian Market & Social Research Society) and a member of the Global Sales Science Institute.

Param Abraham
Programme Advisor

Param has a Bachelor of Laws, Master of Laws, Doctor of Professional Studies and is also a Chartered Secretary. She has more than 21 years experience in accreditation and quality assurance for the Australian Institute of Business (AIB), working closely with the Senior Executives and Board of AIB. Her doctorate involved the investigation of the Work-Applied Learning model in the context of developing quality assurance processes in higher education.

Dr Alan Barnes
Research Advisor

Alan is a former senior lecturer within the then School of Education Magill, University of South Australia. He has a PhD in mathematical physics from Adelaide University. He was a senior research fellow in Aboriginal Reseach Institute with a particular focus on research into building indigenous capacities, especially in Information Technology. 

Alan has an extensive background in the research degrees management, quantitative methods and in the development of learning technologies. He led a group of researchers investigating cognitve technologies in learning. At the time that included Mathematica but much more recently includes Artificial Intellgence. He is now consulting for Global Centre for Work Applied Learning in the applications of AI in practioner research and research management with a special emphasis on AI assisted interfaces.

Lisa Mohammed
Research Advisor

Lisa has been involved in the field of Occupational Health Safety and Environment (OHSE) as a consultant for over 15 years. She has conducted consultant services for several companies in varying sectors and areas of operations but more so in the oil and gas sector in Trinidad and Tobago.

Her qualifications include Bachelor of Science in Environmental Management, Bachelor of Science (Hons.) in Occupational Health Safety and Environment, a Masters of Science, and a Doctor of Business Administration. Her doctoral research focused on change management in the field of OHS using a Work Applied Learning approach. 

Emeritus Prof Rod Oxenberry
Research Advisor

Rod has a PhD and has taught in MBA programmes in the areas of leadership, strategic management and governance, and has supervised PhD and DBA candidates in these areas. He has been involved with various national and international academic and professional settings and worked with professional bodies in international relationships.

He is an experienced education and management consultant specialising in higher education recognition, leadership mentoring and management development

Dr Carmel Taddeo
Research Advisor

Carmel holds a PhD in Education, a Master of Educational Computing, Bachelor of Education, and Diploma of Teaching. She is the director of CMT Accessible Research and a senior lecturer at the University of South Australia. Carmel has over three decades of experience as an educator, researcher, and change analyst across the education sector and with multidisciplinary teams. She has extensive expertise with a wide range of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and methods, including survey design, path modelling, codesign workshops, and web analysis.

Carmel’s research has directly informed policy, legislation, and organisational policies and practices. She has published and presented widely on her key areas of research focus and is an invited reviewer for a number of high impact journals. Carmel strongly advocates for, and brings together, research, policy, and practice, together with stakeholders, to enable positive, ethical, sustainable change and to improve processes and outcomes for organisations and individuals.

Dr Juhani E Tuovinen
Research Advisor

Juhani Tuovinen is a former Professor and Dean of Education at Sheridan Institute of Higher Education, Perth. Previously he held Associate Professor positions at Batchelor Institute of Tertiary Education and the University of Sunshine Coast during a career in school teaching and tertiary educational research and practice. 

He has focused his latest studies into learning, especially cognitive aspects of learning. In this area he has numerous publications based on practical tested methods for improving learning. He has extensive experience in practitioner development both in the initial and later phases of educators’ careers. 

Emeritus Prof Jonathan Garnett
Thought Leader

Professor Garnett is a Thought Leader in Work-Based Learning. He also oversees academic standards and research at the Global Centre for Work-Applied Learning.

He was the Director of the Institute for Work-Based Learning and Professor of Work Based Knowledge at Middlesex University. He has over 21 years experience at the leading edge of the development and operation of Work-Based Learning partnerships at higher education level (Certificate to Doctorate) and has worked with public, private and third sector organisations in the UK and internationally.

His current research interests include the development of higher education practice and structures to support employer responsive provision and the use of Work-Based Learning to enhance the intellectual capital of employers.

Param Abraham
Research Advisor

Param has a Bachelor of Laws, Master of Laws, Doctor of Professional Studies and is also a Chartered Secretary. She has more than 21 years experience in accreditation and quality assurance for the Australian Institute of Business (AIB), working closely with the Senior Executives and Board of AIB. Her doctorate involved the investigation of the Work-Applied Learning model in the context of developing quality assurance processes in higher education.

Prof Erwin Loh
Thought Leader

Professor Erwin Loh is President Elect of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators and Chief Medical Officer at Goulburn Valley Health. His previous positions were Chief Medical Officer and Group General Manager Clinical Governance for St Vincent's Health Australia, and  Chief Medical Officer of Monash Health.

He is qualified in both medicine and law and also has an MBA, Master of Health Service Management, and PhD.  He is Professor at Monash University, where he leads the Clinical Leadership and Management Unit at the Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation. He is Honorary Clinical Professor at the Department of Medical Education, University of Melbourne and is Honorary Professor at Macquarie University at the Centre for Health Systems and Safety Research. He teaches and carries out research in health law, health management and clinical leadership. He presents at local and international conferences, publishes on health law, medical management, and health technology.

He received the Distinguished Fellow Award from RACMA in 2017 for “commitment to governance, research and publication”.

Emeritus Prof Ron Passfield
Thought Leader

Professor Ron Passfield is a Thought Leader in the use of Action-Learning and Action Research for organisational change and development.

He has extensive experience as a people and systems manager, a decade of experience as an academic at Griffith University researching and teaching in the area of Human Resource Management and most recently as an organisational consultant and freelance academic working specifically within organisations and directly with managers. 

His areas of academic research have included manager development and action-learning / action research. 

Chad Perry
Thought Leader

Chad Perry is an Emeritus Professor of the Australian Institute of Business (AIB) who was formerly the Professor of Marketing and Management at Southern Cross University, Gold Coast, Queensland.

He was the founding Chairperson of the Academic Board of AIB, leading the development of many of its work-based academic processes from its inception working closely with Emeritus Professor Selva Abraham and Professor Ron Passfield.

His key paper on how to write a thesis is used around the world, and has been translated into Russian and Spanish, and is on several international Web sites. Within Australia, he has been involved in management development programs and consulting projects for organisations as diverse as Telstra, Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations, Marriott and Transfield.

Emeritus Prof Selva Abraham
Thought Leader

Emeritus Profressor Selva Abraham is the Founder Chairman of the Global Centre for Work-Applied Learning (GCWAL). He is also the Founder of and Emeritus Professor at the Australian Institute of Business (AIB) and a Visiting Professor at Leeds Trinity University.

He has a PhD in Management and a Master of Business Administration. Over the last 40 years, his consulting and research focus has been on Work-Based Management Learning, which he has extended into the concept of Work-Applied Learning (WAL for Change) in private, public, and community organisations.

Selva is a Thought Leader in Work-Applied Learning and Work-Based Learning and continues to undertake research and consulting in these areas.