Our team
We are a team of strategists who relish a challenge. Our sharp-minded team utilises innovation, customer-centricity and business model strategies to help support you and deliver value to your organisation. Founded by Dr. Jeffrey Tobias, our team has a combined total of more than 100 years of industry experience. Read on to discover our combined experience or visit our careers page to learn how you can join our expert team.
Dr. Jeffrey Tobias
Managing Director
Jeffrey is an accomplished innovation thought leader and strategist, drawing expertise from the academic, government, entrepreneurial and corporate worlds. Jeffrey’s experience includes growing and leading major Australian corporation, seven years spearheading innovation globally in Cisco’s thought-leadership team and leading The Strategy Group since 2003. Jeffrey is one of Australia’s most prominent experts in the field of Innovation, customer-centricity and business model transformation, regularly presenting to boards and leadership teams across the country.
Jeffrey is also Adjunct Professor and Fellow at the Australian Graduate School of Business at the University of New South Wales. An active angel investor, Jeffrey Tobias is on the boards of various well-known startups.
Jeffrey’s corporate background includes engaging strategically with large corporates such as ANZ bank, Westpac, Telstra, Woolworths, Baker McKenzie, Mirvac, Stryker and Perpetual. He has extensive experience with both state and federal governments in Australia and overseas.
Jeffrey holds a B.Sc (Hons), University Medal and Ph.D from the University of New South Wales.
Pierre Schaupp
Director
Pierre is a senior strategy, CX & innovation strategist. His main area of expertise lies in leveraging customer & market insights to help build better products, services and experiences for organisations. He has in-depth experience creating and embedding customer experience and innovation capabilities within organisations, including new frameworks, tools, talent, governance & funding mechanisms.
Pierre has more than 10 years of experience in business strategy, customer experience and innovation working for major Australian and international organisations in financial services, utilities, the public sector and media.
Pierre is passionate about managing cross-functional teams of people with different backgrounds (researchers, UX/UI designers, engineers, strategists, business consultants, etc.) and reconciling customer desirability with technical feasibility and commercial viability.
Marcus Naoum
Manager
Marcus has a background in Strategy, Service Design, Employee Experience and Experience Design having worked within both the technology sector and financial services. He also has an entrepreneurial flair having co-founded a clothing brand.
Marcus has a deep passion for strategic thinking, exploring customer goals and needs, and working with others to solve complex problems through the adoption of a human-centred approach, ensuring all stakeholders involved have a voice in order to create easy, effortless experiences.
With a diverse educational background, having graduated from the University of New South Wales with both an Architecture and Commerce degree, he is well-placed to develop creative solutions whilst maintaining a deeper business acumen by integrating an empathetic and deconstructive approach to problem solving.
Liam Hoffman
Senior Design Strategist
Liam has an adaptive, analytical and creative skillset. He excels at solving complex problems and creatively communicating strategies that output useful, usable, and desirable experiences for customers and more efficient and effective processes for organisations. Liam has worked with several diverse organisations of varying size and has always produced the highest quality of work for clients.
Specialised in human-centred design, and with an expertise in innovation, design and strategy, Liam leverages his deep understanding of human behaviour to deliver lasting value through evidence-based, empathy-driven research, an immersive and iterative approach to data analysis and insight generation, a strong focus on creatively conveying ideas, and a co-creative approach to deliver complex projects.
As a designer and systems thinker, Liam’s motivation is to deliver valuable experiences and innovative strategies that align customer needs with organisational aspirations in a way that’s easily translatable, sustainable, scalable, and memorable for all parties.
Liam has an academic background in Psychology and also holds a Certificate in Service Design, and a Certificate in Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies.
Jessica Wu
Senior Design Strategist
Jess is an up-and-coming service designer who provides a specialised value-add to the Strategy Group using her knowledge in service design methodologies and a generalist background in public sector consulting. She is proficient at navigating through ambiguous and complex problems, where she has supported clients with her research and analysis skills to produce concise and actionable insights while liaising with internal and external stakeholders. Jess has worked with a range of clients across numerous subject matter domains.
Jess is a highly adaptable and capable consultant who will fit into any space she is placed into to create value. She leverages her T-shaped combination of specialist human-centered design expertise and her varied base of client experience to tailor highly contextualised solutions so that they are fit-for-purpose, evidence-based and innovative. As a designer, she is driven by her deep curiosity to discover the unknown and to explore outside the confinements of traditional thinking and ways of working. She strongly believes in bringing her clients along through this highly engaging experience to enable them in achieving their desired objectives.
Jess possesses a double major in Finance and Management and holds a Certificate in Service Design.
Ellie Wierum
Design Strategist
Ellie has a background in UX and product design, with a highly practical skillset. She is passionate about user-centred design and innovative problem solving, utilising strong skills in research and development. Her approach to design and development is research-led, considering the whole customer journey. Ellie has worked within the innovation space for a range of industries, including start-ups, not-for-profits, and large corporations.
Ellie has expertise in developing an idea into a final solution, taking the design brief and transforming it through applying creative methods. She analyses the needs of the client empathetically, utilising design thinking to drive personalised solutions.
Her educational background in Product Design and Creative Intelligence and Innovation positions her to break down a problem, think strategically and imaginatively, and present ideas professionally.
Marta Salgado
Design Strategist
Marta is Passionate about strategic innovation projects with a flair for creativity. She has relevant and cross industry experience in digital solutions, customer experience, project management, and gamification strategy. Her past experience and education allow Marta to hold a combination of strong analytical, communication and storytelling skills. Marta is also a an easy-adapter and fast learner, acquiring knowledge about new industries easily. She enjoys fast-paced environments and to be constantly challenged.
Marta started her professional experience in a multi-national consulting company in Europe, participating in projects in Portugal, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom. She participated in engagements with sector leading companies across, banking, resource, telecom and ONGs. During her masters Marta also did a work placement in a Blockchain Start-up allowing her to deepen her knowledge in the Web3 segment.
Marta is driven by her curiosity of discovering new industries and business areas as well as understanding the needs and drives of different customer segments. She tends to think out of the box in order to come up with innovative solutions. Marta is also obsessed with keeping up with market trends and is constantly searching for market best practices in different industries.
Alycia Wolf
Junior Strategist
Alycia has experience in business management and consulting, bringing a creative and pragmatic approach to her role. Having studied design thinking throughout her academic life, her human-centric focus allows her to immerse herself in problem solving and to find value in diverse contexts. Alycia has a strong skillset in data analysis and transformation and a passion for innovation and consulting.
Alycia is experienced in navigating problem areas and creating actionable and feasible solutions, using human centred design methods to reinforce her approach. Her academic background in Business and Creative Intelligence and Innovation has given her unique experience in co-design and solution implementation.
Gidon Goodman
Junior Strategist
Gidon has a deep passion for both tactical and strategic problem solving, with a unique ability to provide an ‘outside-in’ perspective into organisations. He brings to bear a deep understanding of customer experience, employee experience and innovation principles and he excels at crafting innovative and creative solutions to unique problems.
Gidon has a diverse background in not-for-profits, health advocacy and working with Federal and State Governments in those capacities. These endeavours have showcased his ability to solve problems and bring on board and persuade a large swathe of stakeholders, including at the highest levels of Government. His broad educational background studying Bachelors of Laws and Economics allows for unique insights into the challenges facing organisations and the path to long-term improvement.
Karen Goodman
Chief Financial Officer
Karen is a Chartered Accountant with over 25 years of experience in tax & management accounting. She brings a wealth of experience from both a commercial and tax perspective, providing strategic leadership in all aspects of financial and business management.
Karen’s strength comes from her ability to apply provide insight, driving key strategies and decisions that maximise company values. She operates as a collaborative partner with the executive team in planning, refining & implementing corporate growth strategies & policies.
Karen has a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting) from the University of New South Wales.
Stacey Morava
Operations Manager
Stacey comes from a family of entrepreneurs and has been involved in the start-up and the successful selling of many businesses she has created in different industries together with assisting a number of businesses reach their full potential.
Stacey’s strength lies within growth and development and building solid relationships with all her clients together with her ability to manage strategic partnerships whilst building a strong and credible reputation within the industry and amongst her peers.
Stacey holds her Cert IV in Small Business Management, Diploma in Business Real Estate Management and a Certificate IV in Marketing Essentials and Public Relations.
Contact us so we can assist you
Have any questions? Perhaps you'd like to know how we can help you and your organisation? please feel free to reach out to us below with any questions that you might have: