Development Partners was created in 1997 when Amy Powell of Powell Human Resource Development joined forces with Tony Mathers (TMWorks) and Barbara Harrison (Coral Sea Consulting) to focus on executive growth through coaching.

Together we help you focus on what to change and how to change. You’ll receive the tools and support to achieve your objectives and sustain your new behaviour.

Our coaches are highly skilled, each with many years of business experience and training.  When you decide that you want a coach, we match the right person with you based on the coaches’:

• technical knowledge and abilities
• experience in adult learning
• developmentally-oriented style
• compatibility with you.

Each of the Development Partners coaches is accredited in:

• Benchmarks (Centre for Creative Leadership)
• LSI (Human Synergistics)
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
• DiSC

Meet our fabulous team:

Amy Powell, founder of Development Partners, has been consulting to corporate Australia since 1989. She has trained and worked with hundreds of managers over the years, teaching skills to individuals and teams so they become more effective in corporate environments.

She coaches senior managers, general managers, executives and CEOs, helping them improve their influencing skills, communication skills, interpersonal relationships, delegating, networking and leadership presence.  Her clients include high-profile organisations in Banking & Finance, Telecommunications, and Information Technology.

Amy characterises her coaching style as not being afraid to use the “tough love” approach.  “I don’t shy away from giving my clients difficult feedback when they need it.  They know that I really care about them and want them to succeed.  They feel supported from the assessment health check onwards, and they know I am truly committed to partnering them on their journey of growth.”

Amy holds a BA in Communications and an MBA from California State University.  A finalist in the Sydney Business Review’s 1999 Business Woman of the Year, Amy is currently writing the first book in her “My Executive Coach” series - Executive Self-Awareness.

Barbara Harrison is a member of the Development Partners Executive Coaching team, and Director of Coral Sea Consulting Pty Ltd.  Barbara brings substantial experience working with leaders to develop breakthrough strategies for the delivery of organisational results through people. 

Barbara is a leading exponent of leadership and cultural change techniques.  She works with senior leaders to improve their facilitation and people engagement skills.    Clients will develop the intuitive, organisational, ethical, and the interpersonal skills needed to maximise their contribution to the business.  Focus is also given in how to build trusted relationships across the business.

Barbara has always been a business entrepreneur, and has built a business career that includes seven years spent as the proprietor of a highly successful furniture manufacturing business.  Her business acumen now provides benefit to Australian leaders and businesses dealing with issues related to company and leadership strategy, performance, people engagement, business development and growth.

Tony Mathers has 25 years experience in banking, with 20 years being devoted to the wholesale institutional markets in the UK, Asia, and Australia. This encompassed both global, regional and division bottom-line accountability.

With the full breadth of senior level management experience, Tony is able to help managers understand the critical behavioural and directional elements of leadership -the skills they will need to take a broader leadership role in their organisation.  Tony is particularly effective at helping managers take a wider view, develop strategy, delegate and hold others accountable, and establish priorities so that they are working on the things that will genuinely make a difference.