Robbie Macpherson

For over 15 years Robbie Macpherson has been designing and delivering innovative, transformational leadership and talent development programs for a diverse range of organisations, sectors and environments. His passion is helping individuals and organisations develop the capacity to solve their own problems and overcome the complex challenges they face, using their ingenuity, skill and innovation. The key to this is the ability to learn and adapt in real time, which requires openness, curiosity, experimentation, and resilience. He believes directly experiencing challenging and uncertain environments fosters new thinking and engagement.

For over a decade Mr Macpherson was an Executive for Australia’s oldest NGO, the Benevolent Society, where he was Director of Australia’s leading NGO social leadership consultancy, Social Leadership Australia.

Mr Macpherson has worked with over a thousand senior leaders at the National Australia Bank over the past 9 years, including co-designing and delivering Accelerate, their senior leadership talent program. He works regularly with senior global counter-terrorist agents both in Australia and overseas on the Leadership in Counter Terrorism Program (LiNCT); delivered a two year program for emerging Indigenous leaders across the Australian continent; and works with numerous government departments and agencies in NSW, QLD, Victoria and NT.

Mr Macpherson teaches executive level Public Servants with ANZSOG on their popular Towards Strategic Leadership program, and is an experienced and effective executive coach. As well as Managing Director of Adaptable Leadership, Mr Macpherson is a Principal of Reos Partners, a global social consultancy driving thinking and practice in solving tough, systemic problems. With his Dutch colleague Prof. Paul ‘t Hart, Mr Macpherson works annually with senior Dutch public servants at the Netherlands School of Government (NSOB). He works with a number of Australia’s major corporations including NAB, Telstra, Australia Post, Medibank, BHP-Billiton and REST Super. For the past five years he has worked with the Australian Institute of Police Management (AIPM) and is lead facilitator of the groundbreaking Police Leadership Strategy (PLS), developing AFP and state Police Commissioners. His work has taken him to South Africa, US, UK, and Netherlands, as well as all state and territories in Australia.

Mr Macpherson is a graduate of the Art of Practice of Leadership Development at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; an accredited facilitator of The Leadership Circle; Team Management Systems; and an accredited facilitator of the Deep Democracy process. Mr Macpherson brings passion, warmth, humour and creativity to his work. When he is not undertaking his work Mr Macpherson enjoys cycling and jogging around Sydney, listening to his eclectic music collection, watching series of outstanding HBO television, and most importantly spending time with his 3 daughters and wife, Jeannie. On a good day he is able to cover all of these pursuits, and rest well.

ANZSOG programs Mr Macpherson teaches in the following ANZSOG courses:

Towards Strategic Leadership (co-facilitator)