John Ferris

John Ferris is an Organisational Psychologist and Management Consultant with over 20 years consulting experience in industry and commerce in Australia and overseas. He is an Honours graduate in Organisational Psychology from The University of Queensland. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants in Australia and a former President of the Queensland Chapter. In 1991 John established Ferris Management Consultants Pty Ltd to provide consulting support on organisation and management issues and on the assessment and selection of key people.

John has experience working with boards and senior management in established organisations and in the development of new projects. Specific work has included definition of goals and organisation culture, strategy development, organisation review, executive recruitment including advertising and search, performance development and psychological appraisal.

His areas of specialisation have been applied across a range of industries in both private and public sectors. Specific industry experience includes mining, energy, transport and logistics, port operations, hospitality, food and beverage, architecture, construction and professional services.

John has worked on consulting projects for organisations throughout Australia, and has successfully completed search and selection assignments for senior positions in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, India, Hong Kong, Mauritania and Italy. He has a broad range of experience in management consulting and has developed long-standing commercial relationships with clients. His experience includes his own consulting assignments as well as the management of consulting teams engaged in development of organisation culture, industrial relations strategy, training and development of managerial and supervisory teams and recruitment of senior managerial and technical staff.

Typical projects include:

Nerida Hillberg

Nerida Hillberg, Director – Organisational Psychology, joined Ferris Management Consultants in 2002. In addition to her Australian and international executive recruitment and selection work, Nerida is involved in employee assistance programs, outplacement, organisational diagnosis and review, implementation of management team development strategies, and facilitation of cultural change.

Following her First Class Honours Degree in Psychology, Nerida was awarded a PhD in Organisational Psychology for her international research program that examined employee coping, strain and tension during mergers and acquisitions. This work has provided her with an advanced understanding of the broader commercial issues facing small, medium and large organisations. She is a Member of both the Australian Psychological Society and the Australian Human Resources Institute.

Previously, she worked in Human Resources for four years, first as an Employment Consultant and later as a Training Coordinator. Specific work included:

Kelley Turner

Kelley Turner recently joined Ferris Management Consultants. She is also in the latter stages of her PhD in Organisational Psychology, following the completion of her Honours degree in 2002.

A major component of Kelley’s current work involves training and group facilitation. Kelley has been responsible for the design, development and implementation of a number of programs and processes ranging from facilitation of small groups to presenting to large audiences of 250 participants.

In addition to this work, Kelley is focussed on Ferris’ pre-employment psychological assessments for our key clients. This includes technical report writing examining candidates’ person-environment fit with respect to personality attributes and intellectual capacity.

Prior to joining Ferris, Kelley worked in recruitment roles in both the private and public sectors. This included nation-wide bulk recruitment campaigns. During these roles, Kelley was particularly focussed on evaluating, benchmarking and validating the recruitment and selection assessment processes.

In her role with Ferris, Kelley is particularly interested in the Organisational Development arm of our business to build upon her previous experience with staff surveying, workforce analysis and planning, and corporate culture.

Beatrice Andrews

Beatrice Andrews is a registered Psychologist with a broad range of experience in occupational consultancy, staff training, group facilitation and injury management. Beatrice moved to Australia in early 2006 following the completion of her Diplom-Psychologin Univ. at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany, and has gained accreditation as a Member of the Australian Psychological Society. She has also been trained in the areas of cognitive behaviour therapy and rational-emotive therapy.

Prior to joining Ferris, Beatrice worked as a Senior Consultant providing occupational rehabilitation services. In this role she consulted to major Australian organisations in respect of the early intervention and management of psychological injuries in the workplace. A key component of this work involved facilitating vocational redirection and outplacement programs, including the provision of vocational assessments, aptitude testing and psychological pre-employment assessments.

Beatrice is experienced in the development and facilitation of group training programs in stress management, communication skills and work-life balance. She is trained in the provision of Employee Assistant Programs and adjustment counselling. In addition, she has been involved in the training, mentoring and performance management of personnel. At the Department of Psychology at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany, Beatrice provided professional supervision and coaching in the area of psychological assessments.

In her role with Ferris, Beatrice has a keen interest in the areas of psychological assessments for selection purposes and the facilitation of training workshops. This work includes the provision of written reports for key clients assessing the degree of fit between candidate characteristics and role requirements.