Strategic Thinking

Meet the facilitators

Dr Scott Gardner

PhD (Murdoch)

Dr Scott Gardner has a PhD in strategic management from Murdoch University and an Honours degree in management and sociology from the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. He has 18 years’ professional experience in management consultancy and academia.

His professional affiliations include membership of the Australian Human Resources Institute and the Institute of Public Administration Australia. He also serves on the regional committee for the Association for Tertiary Education Management, Australia and the technical advisory committee for Carbon Neutral Australia.

His professional and academic experience includes: Three years as Director of Postgraduate and Professional Education at Murdoch University; Five years as foundation director of the MasterClass leadership and professional development program for the top ten percent of undergraduates within the University; Eleven years as a Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor working in Australian, UK and partner institutions in Malaysia and Singapore.

Scott specialises in strategy and change management and has published extensively in academic and professional journals in these areas and supervised related Masters and PhD research. He has delivered strategic management, HR, change management and change communications consultancy services for a range of major clients in the public and private sectors in Perth, Sydney and Indonesia. He also has extensive experience as a strategic planning facilitator and professional development educator, primarily in the public sector.

Dr Lynn Allen

MA (UWA), Ph.D (Murdoch), HonDLitt (Curtin), FIPAA, FRS

Lynn Allen has extensive experience in senior management roles in universities, the public and private sectors. This includes 12 years as a State Government CEO. She has led major projects that included complex consultation with Local and State governments on technology, governance, legislative and service changes. There were many successful outcomes, several being recognized with awards such as being a finalist in the Premier’s Awards and winning Gold Awards in National IT Productivity Awards. Lynn developed a reputation for the innovative use of technology, including bringing public access to the internet across Western Australia, a national first.

From 1983 to 2001 she was a member of whole of government information policy bodies, including the Science, Industry and Technology Council in the 1980s that reported to the then Deputy Premier, Hon. Mal Bryce. She was a member of the Council of Curtin University of Technology for 9 years, including two as Pro-Chancellor.

Since leaving the public sector, Lynn has worked in executive education. She has developed, taught and used a planning framework designed to deal with situations where there are multiple, diverse perspectives on potential futures. Lynn specialises in facilitating learning about situations using systems thinking, futures methods and dialogue to create holistic approaches to planning and problem solving. She is an expert in the Soft Systems Methodology and has used this in many complex projects as well as developing and delivering a course for Masters level students. She is currently assisting a major government department and a community sector organisation in their future directions setting.

Lynn has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours), a Master of Arts and a Ph.D. She has been State and National President of the peak body for Australian Librarians and Information Professionals. In 2001 she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Curtin University for her contribution to the information and university sectors. In 2010 she was awarded a National Fellow from the Institute of Public Administration Australia for services to policy and public administration.