OUR PEOPLE

Director

Dave Crowley

Dave is an experienced leader who sets the direction for the team at Fernhill Solutions and supports us to deliver. He is a sound decision-maker and can be relied upon to provide frank advice, manage expectations and report with precision. Dave has developed a thorough understanding of the complexities and nuances of service delivery, with in-depth experience of commercial strategies and the development of better business cases.

Dave keeps himself very busy, with three girls, two horses (+ six more on the property), five chickens, two cats, a wife, oh and a very successful small business with a passionate team that is always challenging the status quo. Dave balances this by supporting local charities and also sponsoring the Wellington Saints Basketball team.

Senior Consultant

Kate Peters

Kate is our go-to evaluator and outcome measures guru. She loves engaging with services to ensure whatever we create for clients matches the reality of on-the-ground service delivery. Kate was employed as our first Senior Consultant at Fernhill with over fifteen years’ experience in marketing, research and evaluation. This includes three years as a senior marketer in corporate IT (Australia), and ten years marketing, research and evaluation across tertiary, NGO and government settings (UK and NZ). She enjoys working on complex problems and delivering innovative, on-time solutions. She is passionate about evaluation that enables organisations to understand the what, how and why of their service delivery.

We at Fernhill Solutions believe we are lucky to have captured one of the finest from across the ditch!

Senior Consultant

Jenny Robertson

Jenny has nearly 20 years’ experience in commercial environments across a broad range of sectors including IT, transport and infrastructure, manufacturing and health. This includes 10 years working across a range of complex health and rehabilitation Services, managing them through the commissioning cycle including service design, procurement, continuous improvement and service evaluation. Jenny is able to identify opportunities to streamline services and processes and is motivated by the opportunities this presents for an organisation to provide a better customer experience. Jenny puts the customer at the centre of the thought process to better understand the change required and work towards the optimum solution for both the customer and the business. It takes a special skill set to walk the line to ensure an organisation’s strategic and operational needs are met.

Jenny keeps the office on its toes when it comes to sustainability and animal welfare!

Consulting Practice Manager

John Payne

John is Fernhill’s Consulting Practice Manager with more than twenty five years’ experience in leadership roles in the health and disability sector. He has strong interpersonal skills, a natural empathy and curiosity, and a proven ability to achieve challenging outcomes. He is a believer in working collaboratively and walking alongside teams to develop and utilise their collective strengths to tackle complex issues. John has a proven record for delivering strategic and operational change that achieves successful client outcomes. With a sound background in service design and portfolio management, he is able to quickly understand organisational requirements and deliver pragmatic solutions to improve operational performance.

Consultant

Belles Harley

Belles has a diverse university research and project coordinator background and quickly adapts to new environments. New to Fernhill, Belles has hit the ground running undertaking project coordination for central agencies and community organisations. She works well as part of a fast-paced team, in a systematic and transparent manner, and is not afraid to challenge perspectives in order to deliver quality products.

Senior Associate

Belinda Hill

Belinda has a well-established reputation across the public sector as an editor and a business and technical writer. She has been the trusted editor for several review and inquiry reports, including He Ara Oranga (the report of the Government Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction) and Pūrongo mō Tēnei Wā (the interim report for the Health and Disability System Review). Belinda is experienced at writing ministerial and senior management briefings as well as business cases and programme documentation. Her background is in economic and social policy and research in the public sector, and legal publishing in the private sector.

Senior Associate

Sarah Hutchings

Sarah has over 10 years’ experience in design strategy and applying human-centred design thinking skills to implementing transformative change for customers. Sarah uses in-depth analysis and actionable strategic insights for service delivery, organisational and operational improvement. Sarah has managed complex programmes and projects from scoping to completion with a key focus on relationships and stakeholder engagement. She actively encourages the use of customer insights and authentic design in improving business processes and service delivery.

Sarah is our internal quiz master – ensuring we deliver exceptional results on-time and on-target every day at 2pm.