Vantage Point Consulting is a wholly independent Australian-owned company which was established in 1988 by its principals. In addition, through strong alliances with a number of sole practitioners with specialist skills, we have formed a ‘virtual’ organisation which is flexible, focussed and effective. All our associates have extensive direct experience in private and public sector management, teaching and training initiatives and are acknowledged presenters in their respective spheres. Vantage Point also has collaborative relationships with a number of Australian and international consulting firms. (See Our Strategic Relationships)
Vantage Point’s principal consultants, Maxime Fern and Michael Johnstone, have between them over thirty years experience in working with organisations in the areas of leadership, strategic thinking, change and coaching. They are both consulting and organisational psychologists with experience in line management, community development, university teaching, research and human systems development.
Maxime Fern
(BA, MEd, MAPsS, CMC, Registered Psychologist)
Maxime Fern, an Executive Director of Vantage Point Consulting, is recognised as one Australia’s leading facilitators of complex systems change, a leader and innovator in management development and advanced level communication. She is an expert facilitator whose ability to work with executive level and senior teams is widely sought.
Maxime is a registered psychologist, with training and professional experience in community health, family therapy and human resource management. She has previously worked in the public and community sectors, developed an internal counselling and consulting service for a large national organisation and been an independent trainer.
Maxime has over twenty years' experience in management consulting and organisational development. Her experience includes providing coaching, training and strategic advice to executive teams and CEOs across a wide variety of public sector, business, and not-for-profit organisations in Australia, South East Asia and North America. She is visiting faculty at the JF Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; and is the current Director of Studies for the Senior Women in Management (SWIM) program, a leading edge national development program for high potential executive level women. Maxime has also previously taught at the Institute of Management (University of New South Wales).
Michael Johnstone
(BA, MSocSci, PhD, MAPsS, CMC, Registered Psychologist)
Michael Johnstone, an Executive Director of Vantage Point Consulting, is one of Australia’s foremost leadership educators with twenty years’ experience in individual, organisational and management development.
He is recognised as an innovator in experiential learning; facilitates several national and international executive leadership programs and is sought after for his expertise in strategic thinking, communication, executive coaching and human systems.
Michael is visiting faculty at Harvard University (JF Kennedy School of Government) executive leadership programs; is a reviewer for the University of South Australia’s MBA; a coach to many CEOs and senior executives; and a frequent contributor to leadership forums and conferences.
Michael is a registered psychologist with training and professional experience in university teaching and research, community development, town planning and the housing industry. He has previously held a variety of professional roles in local and federal government; has been an executive level manager; a freelance researcher and a family therapist.
He currently calls Australia home though has lived, worked and trained in New Zealand, Israel, the USA, Malaysia, and England and brings an international perspective to his work. Drawing on his multi-disciplinary training and varied experience, Michael is known for his ability to draw on ideas from divergent fields to meet the needs of his client groups and for the energetic approach to his work.
