Our Australia & New Zealand Executive Team

James Mcilvena

Managing Director

James is a father to Zoe, a husband to Nicole and when he’s not spending time with the family he is an avid surfer and snowboarder who is also passionate about using his time to help build better careers, better leaders and better businesses.

 

James has significant experience as a strategic leader of large teams primarily through a career in Talent Acquisition with experience of in-house recruitment and RPO models across a wide range of industries and ASX100 companies.  His specific strength is in developing solutions to complex problems and addressing these through mobilising and managing talented people.  His experience covers the delivery of solutions through innovative talent development, career transitions, coaching, sourcing, redeployment, recruitment project management, supplier management and graduate initiatives.

 

James is degree qualified in Psychology/Psychophysiology with Post Graduate qualifications in Human Resources and Industrial Relations.

Sake Hitman

Country Manager - New Zealand

Sake is a globally experienced executive in the areas Business Transformation and Change Management, Organisational Restructuring and Business Process Outsourcing. He has a successful track record leading the execution of various HR Transformation projects. Sake operates with a strong focus on the customer experience and partnership integrity, whilst creating a work environment that empowers team members to achieve their professional and personal goals. 

As Country Manager for Lee Hecht Harrison in New Zealand, Sake works with Managing Directors, senior HR managers and other key stakeholders to plan, negotiate and implement large scale restructures, downsizes and career management projects spanning the public and private sectors, covering all industries. He is constantly seeking new and innovative ways to improve the customer experience, whether that is through leading edge reporting solutions or new innovations which enhance the employee experience.

Before joining Lee Hecht Harrison as Country Manager, Sake worked for American Express Advisory Services, providing a mix of management consultancy and e-commerce solutions. In his 9 years with American Express, Sake worked for the business both in EMEA as well as the Asia-Pacific area.   

During his time with LHH Sake has worked with a large number of organisations including Fonterra, BNZ, Hewlett Packard, Unilever, SAP, PepsiCo and Sanford. His partnership with the HR community has ensured that the best possible outcome was delivered to both the organisation and the employee, whether it be for a small or large scale project.

Sake is a Graduate from the Maastricht School of Management in Maastricht, the Netherlands. 

Carmel Batticciotto

Head of Solutions - APAC

Carmel has over 15 years’ experience partnering with organisations to provide workforce transformation/change, leadership development, organisational development and career and talent management solutions. Her expertise incorporates the design, development and implementation of tailored corporate psychological strategies and services.

Carmel is a student of Psychology who is passionate about converting the latest research into practical, outcomes focused tools to improve organisational effectiveness.

 

Helen Burton

Executive Director QLD

Helen is the Executive Director of Lee Hecht Harrison Queensland with over 30 years business experience, the last 20 in leadership roles in the corporate sector, international management consulting and with Lee Hecht Harrison. She has led many large scale workforce transformations incorporating change management; leadership development; workforce planning; redeployment and career transition for blue chip companies and public sector organisations. A trusted advisor in these areas to senior executives, she is an accomplished facilitator and well respected coach. Her qualifications include an MBA majoring in organizational development, a Bachelor of Business and Chartered Accountant. She has authored a book and written several well respected articles on career management as well as presenting at international conferences and via a regular segment on ABC radio.

Lyndsay Potts

General Manager WA

Lyndsay is an Organisational Psychologist who develops and coaches leaders to build a culture of engagement and commitment amongst their teams. He has coached hundreds of senior executives who have transitioned to greater effectiveness in their roles. He is culturally-sensitive coach for executives wanting to improve their strategic and global leadership, people skills and cultural understanding in a global multi-cultural environment.

His experience covers leadership effectiveness, team effectiveness, and organizational change.  His focus and expertise is on building mindset agility to ensure a foundation for an expanded range of effective behaviors and leadership competency mastery, this is based on his deep understanding of Neuroscience and Mind science.  He is an engaging and dynamic facilitator who believes executives learn most through guided on-job experiences supported with timely training interventions and transformational coaching.

Fiona Kreltszheim

Finance Director - APAC

As Financial Director for LHH Australia and New Zealand, Fiona is responsible for financial reporting, leading compliance and driving operational efficiencies across the ANZ and APAC business.

Fiona joined LHH in 2015, moving from her role in the Adecco Group as Accountant for Ajilon Consulting.Fiona is originally from Ireland, is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Commerce from University College Dublin.

Pauline Nolte

Head of Sales - APAC

Pauline has over 20 years experience in talent management consulting encompassing workforce transformation, leadership development, succession planning, assessment, and talent acquisition.

 

A member of the global Chief Revenue Office Leadership Team and Accelerated Growth Markets Executive Leadership Team, she is accountable for leading Sales and our Project Management Office across the APAC region. Her expertise lies in:


  • Understanding business challenges and formulating bespoke solutions
  • Establishing go-to-market strategies
  • Building teams and capabilities
  • Collaborating in a complex matrix environment
  • Leading major deals.

David Pearson

Head of Operations - APAC

As the Head of Operations, David manages the Operations and Engagement functions at Lee Hecht Harrison across Asia Pacific . He has a proven track record in successfully developing and implementing strategic business plans, process improvement initiatives and driving optimal business performance across large scale business.

 

Before joining Lee Hecht Harrison, David worked for Insurance Australia Group (IAG) for 14 years where he held a number of senior leadership positions and was responsible for building a high-performance culture through driving customer-centric continuous improvement initiatives and workplace efficiencies.

 

David is a Graduate from Teesside University with an honours degree in Marketing and is also a qualified Freelance Journalist.

Michael Wilson

Operations & Engagement Manager

Michael leads the Operations, Engagement and Centralised Branding functions at LHH Australia. With experience working in both Asia Pacific and EMEA across both the professional services and telecommunications sectors, he has a track record leading high performing, geographically diverse teams across multiple functions.

Michael drives operational excellence with a focus on continuous improvement at both organisational and individual levels. He uses his ability to analyse change and direct positively to enable improved efficiency, better service and quality outcomes for both candidates and customers.  

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