Future Ready Council: Attracting & Retaining Young Talent

Marie-Lou Almeida is a Senior Consultant with Gallup based in Sydney Australia. In this role, she works closely with her clients to build high performing cultures within their organisations. Marie-Lou has extensive experience in developing managers and leaders to find their true potential. She does this in both her role as an executive coach as well as a course leader. As a coach, she uses Gallup’s strengths-based approach to help individuals thrive in work and life by focusing on what they do best. As a course leader, she aims to inspire leaders and managers to enjoy leading teams in way that is engaging for them and without losing sight of the performance of the team. She believes that managing people is about being genuine, trustworthy, strengths focused and being the best coach for each person on the team. Marie-Lou works with clients to build their own internal expertise. She has worked in Gallup for over 24 years working across both the private and public sector. She also works across several countries and regions. She is driven to making the lives of all people in those client organisations she touches, a more rewarding one.

As the Executive Manager Organisational Development & Culture at Fraser Coast Regional Council (FCRC), Holly's purpose is to empower people to be their best by creating employee experience’s that enable organisations to thrive. Having a career in Local Government that spans over 10 years, Holly is passionate about strengths-based leadership and recognises the impact creating an engaged values-based workforce has on delivering positive community outcomes. Holly uses the Q12 and Clifton Strengths to grow engagement, lift leadership capability and re-invent performance management processes. Holly truly believes that employee engagement and a focus on strengths is key to individual and team success and will support FCRC to continue to grow as a regional leader. Holly is a certified Clifton Strengths Coach. Holly's top five CliftonStrengths are: Arranger, Relator, Adaptability, Futuristic and Positivity.

Craig is the General Manager at Woollahra Municipal Council in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, a role he commenced in July 2020. Prior to this, Craig was the General Manager of Port Macquarie-Hastings Council on the mid north coast of NSW, from early 2014 to June 2020. Craig has spent close to 20 years in NSW local government in a range of roles across three Councils and prior to his time in the public sector, Craig had a twenty-five-year career in the private sector in a range of roles and industries. Craig is dedicated to giving back to the local government sector and as part of that, has been a Director of Local Government Professionals Australia, NSW since 2018. Craig is a solutions-focused leader who enjoys coaching people for success by inspiring them to get to know their own strengths and how to work with them, by building trust with people and by acting with authenticity and integrity at all times.

Cherry McNicol is the Executive Manager Human Resources of the Town of Port Hedland, a Western Australian regional local government in the Pilbara Region. Cherry has over 20 years international human resources experience and has been lucky enough to lead HR, OD and Recruitment teams for well-respected global organisations in mining, hospitality, not for profits and higher education sectors. Cherry joined local government in early 2020 and leads a team of HR Business Partners, WHS Advisors and OD professionals to deliver on the Town’s strategic workforce plan. Some of Cherry’s recent achievements include leading an HR function during the global pandemic in regional WA, improving the workplace health and safety culture with the organisation being awarded the Gold Certificate of Achievement by WorkSafe in 2022. Successfully transitioning to the state IR framework and re-negotiating a new Industrial Agreement with the Union and employees for the first time in April 2023. Cherry is passionate about employee engagement and wellness and introduced Gallup’s Q12 survey for a 3 year term in 2022, to support leaders to continuously improve the culture at the Town of Port Hedland to enable our employees to come to work each day and be set-up to achieve their best work which in turn benefits our customers and our thriving community. Cherry has held a number of Board positions throughout her career, most recently she was a Board Member of the Pilbara Universities Centre. Cherry is an accredited coach, has attended many executive leadership programs throughout her career and holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management. Cherry became one of the youngest female tennis coaches in Scotland at the age of 17 and represented Scotland at a national level as a junior.

Frank is an experienced HR leader who has held senior roles in public sector organisations in both Australia and New Zealand. Currently Manager People and Capability at the Maribyrnong City Council located in Melbourne’s vibrant inner west Frank is a Fellow of the UK Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (FCIPD) and the Australian Human Resources Institute (FAHRI) Frank enjoys live music, travel, golf and following Collingwood, Manchester United and Celtic football teams.