Stephen Drain's Leadership Blog

Director – Stephen Drain, MBA MHRINZ

Stephen founded the Centre at AUT University and now directs the Centre’s Programmes in his role as Director at PricewaterhouseCooper.  Stephen developed and runs the Centre’s Authentic Leadership & Innovative Strategy programmes, facilitates tailored programmes & senior team learning sessions, and coaches executives. His particular interests are authenticity, strategic thinking, organisational learning and developing people.

Stephen has been admitted to professional membership of the Human Resources Institute of New Zealand, and is a member of the Institute of Directors in NZ, the New Zealand Association of Psychological Type and the Advisor Panel of NZ Manufacturer Magazine.  Stephen has an MBA and a post graduate Diploma in Business (Finance) from The University of Auckland, a Certificate in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors and is a qualified practitioner in a number of personality profiling and leadership feedback instruments (MBTI, FIRO-B, Saville Wave and TMS).

Stephen was until recently a trustee of BLENNZ, the Blind and Low Vision Education Network NZ (Homai) and enjoys distance running, photography, blogging about leadership and the movies.

Visit Stephen’s internationally rated leadership blog

Consulting Psychologist – Tamara Sallis, MSc (Hons), PGD Applied Psychology

Tamara is the Consulting Psychologist at AUT Centre for Innovative Leadership. She is a registered psychologist with 6 years HR consulting experience. Previously Tamara managed a team of consulting psychologists at OPRA Consulting Group Ltd. Specialising in psychometric assessments and emotional intelligence, Tamara enjoys facilitating individuals understanding of these topics. Lecturing postgraduate psychology at the University of Auckland, Tamara endeavours to balance up-to-date research with practical application.

Tamara is accredited in the use of a range of psychometric assessments, including: the Saville Wave suite of assessments, the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, Genos Emotional Intelligence assessments, FutureSelves, and the GeneSys suite of psychometric assessments. She is a member of the NZ Psychological Society and HRINZ. 

Programme Associate – Mahvash Ali, BCom, PGDip Com

Mahvash works on programme design, proposal preparation and marketing. Prior to the arrival of her young daughter, was working towards her Masters, with a thesis in Leadership.

Mahvash has responsibility for database management and liaison with clients for our 2-day public workshops.

Executive Assistant – Lyn Hatrick

Lyn is an experienced administrator who supports the Centre, liaising with clients and managing accounts and important internal relationships within AUT University.

Lyn has a keen interest in classic cars and enjoys spending time with her two young grandchildren.

Career Coach – Felicity Tetley-Jones 

Felicity is the Centre’s Career Coach. Felicity has worked with senior executives in the public and private sectors to help them develop their careers and in recent times as a leadership coach both on and off course.

Leadership Coach – Alison Hood,  BA (Hons)

Alison is enthusiastic about the success and effectiveness of people in the workplace and the need for businesses to look after, invest in and grow their people in order to achieve long lasting results and retain talent. Her passion is to help people on their journey to become their complete and true self through the coaching process.

Qualified with a BA Hons degree in Psychology and Linguistics, Alison has worked in the space of personal, team and organisational development for 18 years. She specialises in leadership, executive coaching and team growth and freelances in NZ for a select few companies. She is qualified in MBTI, 16PF, FIRO B Human Element, Emotional Intelligence and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership model. 

Alison has significant experience of working with international organisations both in the private and public sector, her most recent employment being with Virgin Media and WH Smith in the UK. Holding internal Learning and Development roles within HR, she gained expertise in helping people through the change of merger and restructure, and designed and developed leading-edge leadership programmes for senior exec through to first line management audiences.

She lives with her kiwi husband and two stepchildren outside Christchurch where she is learning to run a lifestyle block.

Leadership Coach – Richard Kerr-Bell, MA, BTheol, PGDTch

Richard is a leadership coach and facilitator with the Centre. He provides management coaching,  strategic thinking, and guidance counselling in his roles with NGO’s, business and within the education sector. 

Leadership Coach – Jasbindar Singh, MA (Hons), Dip Clin Psych

Jasbindar Singh is a coaching psychologist, executive coach, author and inspirational speaker, who applies her holistic approach to areas of leadership development, employee engagement, emotional and spiritual intelligence, career and life direction and integrity and values. Her clients include executives and senior leaders from a broad range of sectors such as media, banking, telecommunications, energy, IT and government. She is a regular contributor of articles to newspapers and magazines and is also the award-winning author of Get Your Groove Back – How Spiritual Intelligence (SQ) can give you the work and life you really want and co-author of No Body’s Perfect.

Jasbindar, a registered psychologist, is accredited in the use of psychometric profiling tools including Myers Briggs Type Indicator, (MBTI), Team Management Systems (TMS), Emotional Capability Profile (EQ), Organisational Savvy Assessment, and Integrity and Values.  She is one of the founding members of the Coaching Psychology Special Interest Group (CPSIG).

Jasbindar is also a member of the following professional organisations: International Coach Federation (ICF), Human Resources Institute of New Zealand (HRINZ), New Zealand Institute of Management (NZIM), National Speakers Association (NSA), New Zealand Association of Psychological Type (NZAPT), and the New Zealand Psychological Society (NZPsS).  Over the last two decades, she has worked extensively with senior managers and leaders from a wide range of industries and organisations. 

Leadership coaching and facilitators

Faculty on the courses are selected to meet client needs. A pool of authentic and qualified coaches and facilitators work with the centre. All our people are experienced, authentic and closely aligned to the values and behaviours of the Centre.