Our Team
John Pennington
Managing Director
As founder and Managing Director of Accela John is dedicated to helping sales people and teams be the best they can be. Since 2006 he has led ground-breaking Australian and International sales transformation projects for companies including GE, Wells Fargo, Westpac, AMP, ANZ, Macquarie Bank, Xerox, and Sotheby's and is renowned for his exceptional skills in sales management and leadership.
Working with cutting-edge initiatives, John continues to develop the potential of sales teams and individuals at every level of the market, including wholesale, retail, web, face-to-face and telephone based. This sustains his unwavering commitment to driving each client's ongoing success. This has included multiple languages and cultures from Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok to London, Frankfurt, Milan and Paris implementing diverse sales solutions.
John is dedicated to developing sales teams because he loves it. Operating as an integral resource in such a diverse range of environmentsfor over 20 years has afforded John the opportunity to look inside their workings and really develop a feel for people, processes and management styles. With an in-depth knowledge of traditional improvement programs, John has recently implemented a cross-section of the latest learning development methodologies in several multinational companies in Asia and Europe.
John possesses an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management from the University of New South Wales, a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and a Bachelor of Commerce.
Outside of work John played for North Melbourne in the AFL, is a 1 goal polo player and enjoys hunting, kayaking, sailing and American politics. Most of all, he spends time enthralled by his wife Kylie and their girls, Madeleine and Samantha.
Joan Ballantine
Director Leadership and Management
Joan is an independent Organisation Development Consultant and Facilitator with 20+ years experience gained both nationally and internationally (particularly across the Asia Pacific region).
Her experience as both an internal and external consultant was gained in a variety of industries including: Telecommunications, Retail, Information Technology, Financial Services, Government, Mining & Resources, Pharmaceutical, Customer Service, Energy and Large Call Centre environments. Joan has travelled the world extensively and has delivered workshops and consulting services in countries including: China, Japan, Thailand, India, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, The Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, USA, UK and Germany.
How areas of expertise include: Leadership and management development - facilitation, coaching and instructional design Cross cultural leadership and communication - facilitation, coaching and instructional design Broader OD consulting - including change management, OD/L&D strategy development, talent management, assessment centres, competency frameworks and 360 feedback
Through her consultancy practice Joan has designed the highly regarded TalentSmart series of 20+ half day workshops - ChangeSmart, ManageSmart, LeadSmart and CultureSmart. These are now also available through the Accela HUB.
Nigel Newman
Director Psychometric Assessment
Nigel is a teaching graduate with a background in business management where he became experienced in the use of psychometric assessment in the recruitment and development of effective staff.
Qualified in many recruitment and selection tools and with over 30 years experience in the business, he has also helped create the PeopleClues suite of online assessments. These latest generation tests are accurate, cost-effective and easy-to-use by line managers, resource's and recruiters alike. Their popularity has grown globally since their introduction in 2004.
Nigel is a regular conference speaker and delivers workshops on a wide range of effective recruitment methods. He has developed major development programmes for corporate clients around the world.
Nigel is also highly experienced facilitator and a Global Master Practitioner in Dr. Edward de Bono's Thinking Methods. His cognitive work extends to a wide variety of international organisations and includes: International Youth Foundation, Masters in Youth programme at University of Oporto, The Higher Colleges in UAE and Manchester Metropolitan University in UK.
Sydney Howe
Director Research & Instructional Design
Sydney is one of Accela's go-to researchers and writers working behind the scenes to create the quality instructional design and ancillary materials Accela uses in its workshops. Her clear writing combined with a rich background in communication and human resources have made her an integral part of the team.
Sydney is also an instructor of intercultural communication, teaching students ranging from low-income teenagers in rural India to staff scientists at Caltech to German business professionals. She has been writing curriculum, teaching, and training internationally for eight years. She has also worked as a recruiter and HR professional throughout the European market, with a focus on technology, and specializes in teaching public speaking, film, and theatrical improvisation to people who think they are terrible at these things. Sydney holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, USA, and is currently working towards her M.Sc. in Cultural Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam.
When she's not writing, you will likely find her swimming, hiking, skiing, on a bike, on a train, in a car, or on a plane—she seems to spend an awful lot of her life in transit these days, but the mode varies a lot, both in pleasantness and speed.
Scott Steyn
Director Professional Skills
Scott has been a leading sales professional for the past 12 years working in retail, manufacturing and IT. Prior to Accela, Scott was widely recognised as one of Xerox's leading salespeople winning several awards. His creativity and vision for new sales initiatives meant Scott was a leader in this field.
Scott is a powerful advocate of training and development to enable a high performing sales force. He continually attends the latest sales seminars to keep abreast of emerging sales development tools and strategies. This places Scott at the cutting edge of new and exciting sales technologies.
Scott is fascinated by the world of economics and business and while in secondary school showed early entrepreneurial promise. At 15, Scott was probably one of the youngest subscribers to BRW magazine. He continuously reads books on business and economic modelling and is currently completing a double degree in commerce and economics. Travel, history and geography are amongst Scott's favourite topics. He thrives on travel, different cultures and discussion of new ideas and concepts. Scott is an all round sportsman and is involved in league, union, soccer, cricket, cross training, golf, tennis, swimming and hockey. He enjoys taking advantage of a beach lifestyle, surfing, sand running, kayaking, ski paddling, water skiing and boating as well as being an active member of the Surf Life Saving movement.
Katie Wikinson
Manager Client Relationships & International Marketing
Has a passion for developing and implementing strategic international marketing plans and keeping at the forefront of changes in the learning environment to best serve the objectives of our clients.
Katie, employs a fanatical desire to deliver the best client service possible from selecting workshops and facilitators, through to the completion of a first class, results driven, smoothly run workshop.
Adam Crutchfield
Virtual Workshops
Media and eLearning Designer and Developer. Flash guru. Captivate and Articulate Storyline Expert. HTML 4/5 Programmer.Video Designer/Editor.Experienced Project Manager.Senior Technical Writer. Adam helps design and developAccela's e-learning projects applying expert design and creative development solutions.
Adam has worked in software and media development since graduating with his undergraduate in 1999. He has developed and managed over 300 e-learning courses and managed dozens of projects for a global audience in the fields of manufacturing, software, internet security, sales, and healthcare. He is also a certified technical trainer and has hundreds of training hours in both virtual and physical classrooms. As an experienced writer, developer, and trainer, Adam is detail-oriented and dedicated to meeting deadlines. Adam holds a BA in Technical Communication / Business from Auburn University and an MBA in Management from Kennesaw State University.
Adam loves to hike, camp, snowboard, take road trips, attend concerts, go to festivals, and generally enjoy the outdoors. He is a huge fan of the Auburn Tigers and the Netherlands national football team. He loves fire pits, Guinness, good coffee, and Thai food. Pretty normal really!
Gail Keary
Instructional Design
Gail is one of Accela's go-to writers working behind the scenes to create the quality online training and ancillary materials Accela uses online. Her clear writing combined with a rich background in business and psychology have made her an integral part of the team.
Gail has a background in education at the university level, first as a professor and then as dean of students and director of international programs at Capilano University and Canadian International College in Vancouver, Canada. She has been writing curriculum, teaching and training internationally for 25 years. Gail holds a masters of arts degree from Antioch University in Yellow Springs, Ohio, U.S.A.
When she's not writing, and sometimes when she is, she is trying to train her dogs not to bark at every moving object, animal or human.
They love to garden together and they get to stay out "helping" until they start digging holes, when it's inside for them.
Kylie Murray
Process
Kylie has over fifteenyears experience in sales and sales management creating and building successful sales teams and importantly producing outstanding sales results. Her speciality is solving the sales problems of large Multi-Nationals and in particular the Pharmaceutical industry.
Kylie is wasa six sigma black belt and has an enviable record of solving process inefficiencies to save money and increase effectiveness.
Kylie plays hockey for University of NSW, is a keen snow boarder and has completed the Sydney marathon.
Kirsten Dierolf
Director Europe
Kirsten is a Sales and Leadership trainer and coach. She also manages sales talent development projects and trains trainers and coaches in new programs. Clients appreciate her keen intelligence and personable and friendly nature.
Kirsten has been working in talent development, sales and executive coaching for 20 years. She has worked internationally for the finance industry. Clients include: Deutsche Bank, SocieteGenerale, AXA Investment Managers, Generali, Helaba, National Bank of Kyrgysztan. Kirsten holds an M.A. in Theology from Berkeley, CA and German M.A. equivalents in Linguistics (German and English).
Kirsten spent the last 20 years learning patience and is very slowly getting good at it. Proud mother of 4 boys and 2 tomcats. Loves languages and speaks around 7 of them (with more or less success - Japanese proved tricky). When not on the road, Kirsten loves singing and torturing her family with attempts at reproducing the international cuisine she experienced while travelling. Favourite quote: All generalizations are false, even this one.
Oana Rafaila
Graphic Design
I love doing graphic design. I put a lot of passion in my work and every job I do, it has a little part of me in it. I like things which are done as they should be and I always like to be a pleasant surprise for my employers, getting the jobs done perfectly and in a short time.
Starting off as a programmer for a Publishing house, I fell in love with the design work done by the layout designers and decided to switch. From there on it was a long journey which included work for clients like: BMW, L'OREAL PARIS, Legrand, Mini, Raiffesein Bank, Coface, Veolia Eau, Millennium Bank, Mercedes, Pepsi Americas. I hold a BSc in IT and an Online Marketing Master Degree.
I will never know if I chose graphic design, or if graphic design chose me. Or maybe we have chosen each other, but I know it's the perfect relationship. It is still going on with hot passion after more than 10 years. For me, it's more than a job, it's my way of living. Graphic design it's an important part of my life. I love the process of starting with an empty page and seeing layouts coming to life.
