Meet our team of consultants.

Profits are not the trade-off for individual wellbeing.

In 2004 Brent Sheridan read a recruitment advertisement for a position with Zaffyre International and immediately sensed that he had found his ideal job in his ideal company. For 7 years Brent had worked in the banking and finance industries specialising in leadership, learning and development and organisational systems design. Despite holding senior positions with some of Australia's most respected institutions, Brent's career had left him jaded and believing there had to be a better way to empower and develop people whilst implementing organisational change.

Working with executive, middle and frontline management in banking and finance had proved to be particularly demanding, because organisational change in these industries is rapid and frequently challenging. In all his previous roles, Brent had found traditional organisational change and leadership models used in large corporations to be soul destroying and prescriptive, and that they imposed a personal cost on employees and management alike.

Brent's instinctive response to the Zaffyre advertisement was accurate; the sense of fit immediate. Working for the last three years as a Senior Consultant for Zaffyre International has allowed Brent to utilize his eclectic set of qualifications, experience, beliefs and values in a holistic way.

As soon as he came on board, Brent realised that Zaffyre's methodology was indeed the non-judgemental, non-prescriptive model that he had been searching for. He further realised that although the Zaffyre model exhibits true humanity, it doesn't ask corporations to compromise their commercial outcomes. Profits are not the trade-off for individual wellbeing.

Nowhere has this been truer than in Brent's critical role in the Zinifex Unlimited (ZU) program. Zaffyre's work on the project commenced in August 2004 and the impact that ZU has had on the corporate culture of Zinifex has been profound. As Senior Consultant for ZU, Brent worked with executive, head office and operational site management teams. His role also included supporting the ongoing transformations in Zinifex.

Brent led group workshops for teams across the organisation, including operating sites in Australia and USA, as well as executive and corporate teams in Australia. Additionally, he conducted one-on-one mentoring with leaders to support their growth in insight and skill, improving relationships, effectiveness and performance.

Each of the groups involved in ZU have developed and are delivering on breakthroughs in their thinking, interaction and performance. Greig Gailey, Zinifex CEO, was interviewed in AFR Boss Magazine (June 2005) commending the work of Zaffyre and the value added to his business.

Brent believes that for most companies in Australia there is still a polarity between the personal development of individuals and the commercial imperatives of the organisation. Yet the truly remarkable results achieved by Zaffyre with companies like Zinifex proves that this does not need to be the case.

Brent says that in some ways the world is catching up with the beliefs that underpin Zaffyre's methodologies. Today there is a heightened awareness of how large organisations can impact the wider community, something Zaffyre's Chairman and visionary, Margot Cairnes recognised decades ago. More and more, shareholders and employees are holding organisations accountable for much more than the bottom line, which means Zaffyre's work is becoming increasingly powerful and valuable.

In the face of disasters such as the collapse of Enron, corporate greed is no longer something that responsible corporations aspire to, especially not if it has negative social and ecological ramifications. But Brent is quick to reinforce the point that while Zaffyre's work improves the morale and personal satisfaction of its clients' workforce, it also results in increased profits for its clients, not less.

Brent's journey with Zaffyre continues to be inspirational. He believes that the methodology that Margot Cairnes and the Zaffyre team have constructed is a unique way of approaching corporate transformation that is relevant globally, and his is looking forward to playing an important role in Zaffyre's overseas expansion.