Amy Hubbard

Co-founder and director Amy Hubbard is one of Australia’s most recognised stakeholder and community engagement specialists. She has worked extensively with state and local governments on significant infrastructure, urban renewal and public policy projects in Australia and overseas. Amy delivers community engagement training, undertakes formal evaluations and is a highly regarded facilitator. Amy is a current director of IAP2 Australasia.

C / Social equity, the four boys in my life, exploring new cities, running and more running! /

Sandra Jerkovic

Sandra is a passionate engagement leader who brings over 15 years’ experience delivering improved engagement outcomes for people and projects throughout Australia, the UK and the Pacific. Her extensive knowledge in community engagement and passion for organisational development supports companies to develop purposeful and effective engagement strategies. Sandra specialises in facilitating community participation in planning approval processes and project design, providing strategic engagement advice on major projects to clients across both private and public sectors.

C / People planning projects, hanging with the fam, Melbourne by bike. /

Chris Robinson

Co-founder and director, Chris Robinson, has over 20 years technical experience in developing business and development strategies that creatively re-position projects to incorporate cultural, social, economic, governance and environmental aspects for maximum performance. Chris has specific skills in team stakeholder engagement and execution, partnership development, bid management and planning/management for complex infrastructure and community projects.

C / Participation in the planning process, raising the next generation, DIY, surviving outdoor adventures. /

Mollie Rashleigh

Mollie is an experienced consultant with a focus on engagement and collaboration. Specifically, Mollie’s experiences have provided her with the skills to work across different tiers of government, and alongside communities and stakeholders to build local capacities to undertake community-based planning, strategic planning and policy development.

C / Empowering people with tools for development, celebrating equality and diversity, the outdoors. /

Denise Francisco

Denise Francisco is an Associate with extensive experience in social planning, policy, project delivery and programs for a wide range of government and non-government organisations. She is adept in both community and urban development sectors at undertaking social infrastructure planning, engagement, research, analysis and communications. Her desire is to see an inclusive planning landscape for our future communities, to involve all voices in their environment.

C / Hanging at the market, Melbourne’s cuisines, learning from people’s stories, scraping the underbelly of foreign places. /

Matthew Gordon

Matthew’s experience in the public service and start-up technology enterprise has taught him how to build teams, projects and organisational culture to solve complex social and environmental challenges. His career in public policy, communications and engagement and start-up entrepreneurship has spanned twelve years. The last eight focused on founding an online community engagement and advisory company driving public sector performance. Since 2013 Matthew has delivered over 2000 public sector engagements working across three tiers of government. His work has led to radical increases in positive reputation for government agencies and created new opportunities for collaborative policy development and design with communities, customers and stakeholders.

C / Straight talking, family guy, great in the kitchen, prefers running over walking. /

Shannon Cheal

Shannon chooses to work in roles and organisations which are aligned to her primary value of recognising and responding to the inherent dignity in every person. This has primarily been in the not-for-profit and public sectors, including prominent disability and youth organisations. Shannon’s focus on organisational planning and management support excellence in operations, compliance and creating great workplaces.

C / Compassion and dignity, walking the dog, flat whites and fruit toast /

Eleanor Howe

Eleanor is an engagement specialist with wide-ranging experience working with decision makers to connect with their communities. She brings a warm and genuine approach to community, stakeholder and client relationships. Eleanor enjoys challenging the traditional approaches, encouraging colleagues and clients to think differently and recognise that every project is unique and requires a bespoke engagement approach.

C / Ideas as open knowledge, progressing the engagement practice, coffee and sunshine, my small person. /

Eliza Knox

Eliza has a Bachelor of Urban and Regional Planning with first class honours at RMIT. Eliza exhibits valuable community engagement skills and contributes urban planning knowledge to a variety of large-scale projects. She has great attention to detail and is a communicative team player whilst displaying a trustworthy work ethic. Eliza continues to gain invaluable community engagement experience such as providing online and face-to-face engagement support, data analysis and project promotion.

C / Exploring and understanding different cultures and places, giving people ownership of their neighbourhood, bringing out my competitive side, enjoying live sport and theatre. 

Niamh Moynihan

Niamh is an experienced community and stakeholder consultant. Niamh works on planning and infrastructure projects ranging from state significant to locally important in nature. Niamh designs engagement strategies and activities that ensure broad participation whilst allowing clients to obtain meaningful feedback to inform their strategic and project objectives.

C / Giving community a voice, exercise and carb loading, spending time in Ireland and with my family. /

Clare Murrell

With over 15+ years working across local and state government, Clare joins Capire Consulting Group in a newly created role to support the local government sector to engage well. This role is an opportunity to bring together her extensive knowledge of effective community engagement processes and the role of local government in creating and maintaining thriving communities. Clare is passionate and knowledgeable about democratic innovations to support meaningful and inclusive engagement. Seeing how a collective voice - representing the values of their community – is given the time, information and agency to make good decisions.

C / Curious about the opportunity of change, music in all forms, practitioner networks, nature and Bea. /

Ben Neil

Ben Neil came to Capire from senior roles in the private, community and public sectors, with significant experience sitting on volunteer boards. Ben’s unique skills translate strategic thinking in to operational reality and brings a rare perspective to any conversation. He always ensures that the stakeholder’s voice is at the centre of any process or decision. Ben passionately believes community engagement should be genuine and that ALL stakeholders are of equal value. He has worked with groups as diverse as Indigenous young people, urban public housing communities, disability clients and migrant women. In every setting Ben is committed to finding the social, economic and cultural partnerships that achieve the best outcomes.

C / Disrupting the process, discovering new short cuts on my bike, standing on the Northern Terrace watching Melbourne Victory. /

Astrid Ruban

Astrid is an engagement and social sustainability consultant with over 13 years’ experience providing social assessments and designing and delivering engagement programs. She has worked on infrastructure projects in the transport, power and water sectors including project of state and federal significance. Astrid applies a social research lens to her engagement practice to support rigorous analysis, evaluation and reporting. Astrid’s focus on evidence-based decision making delivers tailored, practical approaches to enhance benefits for her clients and their communities.

C / The census, blue skies, pickles, cities in transition. /

Tiffany Tang

Tiffany is a Senior Consultant with extensive experience in placemaking and urban development within rapidly growing neighbourhoods in Hong Kong, Myanmar and Thailand. Tiffany has led various scales of stakeholder engagement programs and delivered cultural mapping and placemaking projects to promote place identity and sense of place. She is skilled in engaging stakeholders with diverse cultural and ethnical backgrounds.

C / Wonton noodles, flat white and sea breeze, empowering locals, identity, cultural heritage. /

Kathleen Webster

Kathleen is a community engagement consultant. Joining the team with experience working across consulting and tertiary education sectors on energy infrastructure, social research and policy analysis projects. Recently she has worked on multiple large-scale energy infrastructure projects. Delivery has included community engagement for projects undergoing a Victorian environment effects statement, a review of project design options from a stakeholder engagement perspective and developing a communications toolkit for the government and industry to share complex technological information with the broader community. Her passion is to find creative ways to give communities a voice that can help transform the places, policies and issues important to them.

C / Amplifying the unheard, cities and places for people, sunshine, being outdoors. /

Christian Demetriou

Christian has a Master of Urban Planning from the University of Melbourne. He approaches community engagement with a multidisciplinary approach, informed by a belief that locally and culturally sensitive knowledge tied to place can foster vibrant living environments and communities. Christian’s interests include post-COVID urban adaptation and transformation, working with culturally and linguistically diverse residents, and empowering grassroots movements to create positive community outcomes. Christian’s experience continues to be fortified through maintaining an inquisitive and open mind, having worked across face-to-face and online settings. His technical experience is underpinned by confidence in qualitative and quantitative analysis and methods, data analysis and concise report writing.

Randi Wagner

Randi is a community engagement and communications practitioner with a range of experience including social enterprise business development, community mental health service delivery and coordination, design and visual communication. She has been involved in business development, start-ups, and community-based projects and service delivery in Australia and Myanmar. Randi brings a design led approach to projects using collaboration and creativity to bring people and ideas together.

Bernard Chong

Bernard is a graduate urban planner with a passion for community engagement, urban history, transport, and land use planning. As a new member of the Capire team, he is interested in providing safe spaces for diverse communities to engage with governments and the social sector. He provides technical and workforce support for a diverse range of projects. These projects span different clients, from local and state governments, the private sector and not-for-profits.

C / Giving international students a voice, trainspotting, and walking around well-planned cities /

Olivia Simon

Olivia is a savvy communications professional with a passion for storytelling. A skilled copy writer, communicator, and marketeer, Olivia is an all-rounder with a successful track record. Olivia studied a Bachelor of Communications and a Bachelor of Creative Arts before copy writing for AAP. She has since worked at respected consultancy EdUnity where she managed projects for Western Water, Department of Health, Australian Council Of Trade Unions and Origin Energy. Her experience also includes Australia's most influential community radio station Triple R FM, Melbourne cultural icon Cinema Nova, and leading public health agency Dental Health Services Victoria. Her work has provided her skills across many areas including communications and PR, content marketing, writing and editing, social media, strategy development and digital. Accustomed to working in fast paced environments, highly oganised and always ready with a “can-do” attitude.

C / Fun family time, good books and movies, crosswords, home cooked food, Autumn walks, puzzles, new yoga moves. /

Juliette Roberts

Juliette is a graphic designer with experience in branding, advertising, and digital design. An expert in visual communication, she supports projects by designing collateral, publications, and innovative engagement tools and resources. Juliette is an observer first and foremost. Inspired by the nuances of communities and stakeholder groups, she transforms ideas into impactful designs that resonate with their audiences. In previous work partnering with industries from energy to infrastructure, health and construction, Juliette has developed a strong capacity to communicate complex information in simple ways, making it easier for diverse user groups to understand. Having sharpened her own graphic style over the years, Juliette applies care and an eye for detail to all aspects of her role to create engaging and digestible visual stories.  

C / Simplifying the complicated, Helen Garner books, and Hector's Deli toasties. /

Lauren Nicholson

Lauren is an Administrator with over fifteen years experience supporting others in an array of fields, most recently Legal. She is a strong all rounder who enjoys learning, problem solving and assisting with a wide range of tasks. Lauren completed a Bachelor of Illustration at Melbourne Polytechnic in 2012 and has been a practicing artist for the past decade, exhibiting around Melbourne.

C / Long bike rides, islands, colour and texture, live music /