Leadership team

As deep and holistic thinkers, the Ensemble leadership team are consistently able to synthesise different ideas into an ever more encompassing and complex business world.

David Hodes

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Founder - Australia
BSc Mech. Eng ACGI

David Hodes is one of Australia’s most renowned management consultants and a qualified System Thinker and Practitioner.

He was awarded a National Engineering Scholarship in the UK and attended Imperial College of Science and Technology in London, where he graduated with a BSc Mechanical Engineering in 1983.

David’s vast and detailed experience includes employment and project work in Africa, Asia, North America, Europe and Australia.

In leading Ensemble, his intention is no less than perfection in the delivery of business and social systems that add extraordinary value by adopting both robust scientific methods and a profound understanding of human endeavour. In this vein, David has orchestrated highly successful consulting and improvement projects in the Manufacturing, Engineering, Mining, Retail and Supply Chain industries.

Since establishing the Theory of Constraints Centre of Australia in the year 2000 (now known as Ensemble) David and his group of consulting gurus have worked with clients including BHP Billiton, Cadbury Schweppes, Coles Group, Sunbeam, Smorgon Steel, Dexion, RACV, Coca Cola Amatil, Freedom, Breville, Phillips and Sensis.

David's analysis and thought patterns are strong and he is a good strategic thinker and analyst.

Geoff McIntosh, Freedom Furniture

Francois Faure

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CEO - Australia
Masters in Engineering and Management

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François works with organisations on both technical and social dimensions, to create effective value production processes and positive cultures using innovative and engaging methodologies and tools. He has specific expertise in leadership development and supports senior leaders in building cohesive and effective organisations through facilitation of meetings with key stakeholders, coaching of senior managers and executives, and strategic focus.

Prior to his work in Australia and Asia-Pacific, he was General Manager of an international coaching organisation in Europe with branches in 7 countries, and has coached and mentored executives from large corporations (L'Oréal, Renault, Schlumberger) as well as entrepreneurs, artists and professional athletes. His international career also includes major project management roles with large engineering organisations, such as the Areva Group and Asea Brown Boveri, as well as senior management roles in not-for-profit organisations.

His recent clients include Australia's premier Law Firm, global industrial manufacturing corporations, boutique consultancy firms, and both Federal and State Government Departments.

François holds Master Degrees in Engineering (Robotics) and in Management (Human Resources).

Peter Crossley

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Managing Partner - Asia
PMP, BA (Hons), HNC Business and Finance

Singapore Office: +65 9272 7485

Born and bred in the UK, Peter is the second in charge of Ensemble and one of Australia’s best practitioners of project management consulting.

In a career path not dissimilar to David Hodes, Peter has worked at a senior consulting level in UK, Europe, Asia and North America before arriving in Australia in 2004. He has more than 10 years experience in global IT and systems integration, beginning in the Asia Pacific during a six-year period based in Hong Kong.

Peter's integration experience includes consulting throughout Asia for a major fast food franchise, delivery of mixed platform job costing systems to construction JVs, and business systems infrastructure development, throughout a very broad range of industry sectors including retail, hospitality and banking. During a five-year assignment in North America, Peter managed key system development and integration projects for a leading North American company working on multi-million dollar international defence sector projects.

Since 2006, Peter has been responsible for the deployment of the Critical Chain multi-project management solution, "Concerto", at BHP Billiton, HPM Industries, Sunbeam and Skye Group.

Geoff Markley

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Business Innovation Architect

Masters International Business, B. Elec Eng, B. Comp Sci, B. Eco, PMP

Geoff brings over 17 years of Project Management and Enterprise Architecture expertise working in a global IT services organisation across industries as varied as manufacturing, telecommunications, banking and government across Australia, Asia Pacific and globally.

Prior to joining Ensemble Partners, Geoff was leading the Asia Pacific transformation programme for a global IT services company, architecting and delivering complex business transformation programmes across infrastructure and application realms. Transformation programmes affect all aspects of a business organisation and Geoff’s insights highlighted and included the full impact of the transformation programme to achieve successful business outcomes.

Geoff lives in Melbourne with his wife and two young sons. In his spare time, Geoff likes to participate in fun runs and keeping fit.

Adail Retamal

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Business Innovation Architect - Singapore
Electronic/Computer/Software Engineering

Singapore Office: +65 9385 6477

Adail is a well known and respected consultant in Brazil and a leader in the TOC/CCPM and Agile Software Development communities. With more than twenty years of experience with Software Engineering and Project Management.He has held technical and management positions in industries as diverse as telecommunications, health, education, call/contact center, insurance, finance, and wholesale/logistics just to name a few.

Adail was a consultant, instructor, Sales Engineer and Solution Architect with Borland (acquired by Micro Focus in 2009) at its Brazilian office for 4.5 years, where he was the main person behind the processes and methodologies engagements, including CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) training, consulting and appraisals. In 2004 he worked in India as a Delphi architect for Infosys.

He was lately the CIIO (Chief Intelligence & Information Officer) for a Contact Center in São Paulo, Brazil, where he was responsible for Sofware Engineering and Sustaining, Database Management, Process & Project Management, Quality Assurance and Corporate Training.

An educator by choice and passion, Adail draws from different disciplines, backgrounds and experiences to give the students the best fundamentals, tools and thinking processes to learn and practice. He has taught at public and private universities, both for undergraduate and graduate/MBA courses, at public events and in-company classes. He is regularly invited to lecture at important events in TOC, Agile and Project Management communities, like TOCICO conferences, Agile congresses and PMI events.

After being introduced to TOC in 2003, Adail devoted his best efforts to learn all he could about it and to apply it to his professional and personal lives, teaching others to do so as well.

Adail is married and the father of three beautiful and smart children (13, 15 and 17 years old). Besides studying, teaching and browsing bookstores, Adail loves traveling and meeting people, learning new languages and cultures, watching movies, and enjoying life the best as he can.

Nord Samuelson

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Managing Partner - North America
BA Economics and Mathematics

North American Office:
54 Stevens Farm Road, Freeport, ME 04032

USA Office: +1 617 475 5282

Nord's experience in consulting comes from years in senior roles at 170 Systems and Monitor Company. Nord also founded Decision Architects where he delivered world class strategic decision support software solutions and software technology consulting services.

Nord's knowledge of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and experience in leading teams to re-engineer key strategic business processes make his contribution to the Ensemble team invaluable as their clients increasingly depend on business transformation strategy that depends on the successful implementation of IT infrastructure.

Nord graduated with a B.A. in Economics and Mathematics, Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He is a scholar of James Bowdoin College. Nord is married and has four beautiful children. Nord enjoys putting on his sneakers of a morning and feeling his lungs burn as he jogs in the countryside. A man who passionately enjoys partaking in a marathon, his energy and drive in the team mirror his energetic choice of hobby.

Matt Gelbwaks

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Managing Partner - North America
BA/MA Theoretical Mathematics

USA Office: +1 617 475 5282

Matt is a world reknowned Methodology Expert focused on helping companies reduce their time to market and increase organizational productivity. He specializes in optimizing organizational throughput, helping teams better meet expectations and achieve objectives set forth by senior management. Through the application of agile methods and the principals of integrity and collaboration, Matt enables teams to become self-realized and hyper-performing. He is qualified or certified in Scrum & Agile Methods, Theory of Constraints, CMMI, and ISO 9000.

Matt has help lead transformations at global companies like Axway, Borland, Capital One, CGU, Giesecke & Devrient, Globant, Sabre, Segway, SourceForge, and The Travelers. In addition, he works with ReosPartners, an international organization dedicated to supporting and building capacity for innovative collective action in complex social systems. As an associate, Matt helps them design and facilitate results-oriented multi-stakeholder change processes across corporate, government and civil organizations.

Matt’s academic pursuits resulted in a combined BA/MA in Theoretical Mathematics from SUNY. He married his college sweetheart and now lives in New Hampshire in an empty nest they share with a pair of peacocks.

David Levick

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Complexity Navigator
B.App.Sc, B.App.Sc (Hons), PhD (current)

B.App.Sc (Social Ecology) with Merit, B.App.Sc (Honours Class I) with major studies in Social Ecology, PhD (current): exploration of a new paradigm for a globalised world.

David utilises Complexity Science to empower people in organisations to gain clarity about complex problems that arise when day-to-day effort is frustrated by internal and external 'surprises' in the pursuit of organisational goals and the implementation of strategy. This clarity – along with the application of a suite of tools – delivers mechanisms for the ongoing stimulation of new insights into the complex dynamics when people, processes and the environment of organisations interrelate. Creative responses to these ever-changing dynamics are continually surfaced in order to develop agility to navigate and harness their energy, rather than be at the mercy of their currents and turbulence.

David's methods and insights are drawn from the experience of working with a global NGO, representing a complexity of 2100 indigenous tribes, races and ethnic groups, with national administration established in 180 countries, as well as from living in such diverse cultures as Australia, Asia and the Middle East. This experience has been enriched and clarified through involvement in academia and the application of newly developed complexity methods and tools in research projects involving networks of community organisations through to multinational corporations.

Richard Fowler

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Marketing Manager
BA, MCom (Marketing)

Richard joined Ensemble in 2008 whilst completing his Masters of Commerce at the University of NSW.

Richard lead the rebrand of the company in 2008. Having specialised in marketing, he was immediately attracted to the thinking behind the Ensemble. Ensemble was not just a nice name, it represents a new way of organising work which is both more productive and sustainable. This life affirming philosophy can be applied to building the best companies.

Richard worked in a number of fields before joining Ensemble, including education, travel and politics. He is interested in almost everything, but takes great pride in charting the success of the Ensemble offering when applied to clients' organisations.