Meet the FRI Team

Karli FurmageCEO

Karli is our multi-talented boss. Her career spans operations and training roles across a broad base of industries including retail food, apparel, FMCG, telecommunications and pharmaceuticals. After working in six countries, Karli returned to Australia to join Gloria Jean’s Coffees where she progressed through to the role of Global Capability Manager, overseeing the company’s global Operations, Training and Human Resource functions. Prior to joining FRI she established her own consultancy, GoGlobal, to support Australian franchisors with their global expansion plans and collaborated with us on several projects. This worked so well we merged the two companies! Karli is an innovative, hands on CEO who loves to work both on and in the business. She’s super organised (a great balance to our Founder who is super disorganised), a gun facilitator, excellent public speaker and a great strategic planner.

Inside that tough business exterior lies a strong social conscience. For instance Karli recently saved her now best mate Bella the Boxer from extinction at the RSPCA pound and she regularly gets involved in local charity and community projects.

Greg NathanFounder

Greg is the creative genius behind FRI and is widely recognised as an international thought leader on managing the people issues in franchising. He is a registered corporate psychologist and is regularly invited to deliver keynote addresses at franchise sector conferences around the globe. Greg started life in franchising as a multi-unit franchisee with Brumby’s and later became National Marketing and Operations Manager for the franchisor. He has authored several best selling books and developed a number of ground breaking tools and models for the franchising sector such as The Franchise E-Factor and the Nathan Profiler. In 2003 the Franchise Council of Australia presented him with the inaugural National “Contribution to Franchising” Award in recognition of his pioneering work in franchise education and research.

Greg is a passionate blues musician and often goes missing in action while travelling in search of unusual stringed instruments to add to his collection.

Ree-Anna ChatmanOperations Manager

Ree-Anna is one of FRI’s longest standing team members. She is a registered psychologist and a fantastic facilitator, presenter and trainer. Ree is loved and respected by our clients for her friendly, straight-forward approach. She also does an amazing job of managing our Operations team, ensuring that the needs of our clients are properly understood and making sure we have all bases covered. Speaking of bases, Ree is also a State Level Softball Coach with a keen interest in applying the principles of sports psychology to business success.

Don’t worry, Ree-Anna won’t turn up to your franchise conference like this. But here she is decked out in her full softball regalia. Knock it out of the park Ree!

Rob CammLearning Strategist and events manager

Rob is one of the elder statesmen of franchising having worked in the sector for over 18 years. After developing his own unique fast service restaurant chain in the early days of Australian franchising, he co-founded and ran a well known national franchise consultancy firm, providing executive recruitment and training to franchise systems. He sold this as part of a move to the USA where he took up a Vice-President role with a national service–based franchise network. We are delighted Rob recently returned to Australia and has joined FRI as a learning strategist and our Events Manager. As a learning strategist he listens to what clients are wanting to achieve with their teams and how this supports the organisation's business goals. He then applies his amazing design skills to develop a suitable program that will deliver the goods. As Events Manager he pulls together our Forums and Summits to ensure they are world class in content and organisation. Not only is Rob passionate about good learning design, he is also an accomplished presenter, facilitator and coach in his own right.

Despite having not cooked fish n' chips for over 15 years, Rob still remembers the secret ingredients it takes to make the crispiest beer-batter you've ever tasted. And he can still make a mean burger too apparently!

Jason TravisLearning Strategist

Jason has an amazing depth of experience in franchise operations and training, having worked across 25 countries supporting franchisees and local franchisors in the Gloria Jeans Coffees brand. In his role as a learning strategist for FRI he designs customised learning and coaching programs that align with the organisation’s business objectives and meet the real learning needs of participants. He then delivers these programs with impact and pizazz, connecting with people at all levels of a franchise network including franchisees, multi-unit franchisees, franchisor executives and field managers. As well as being an accomplished facilitator, presenter and coach, Jason’s quick wit and lively personality make him an outstanding and engaging conference MC for franchise conferences of all sizes.

Prior to his frenetic work in franchising Jason was a marine biologist studying the lifecycle of turtles on the beaches of North Queensland. Things were a lot slower back then!

Joanna ConnelleyConsultant

Jo is a registered psychologist with a Masters of Organisational Psychology from the University of Queensland. She competently manages our franchisee selection tool, the Nathan Profiler, supporting and training clients in best practice franchisee selection skills. She also works as part of our R&D department helping with the ongoing development of existing and new products. Jo has been a valued member of FRI since 2008 and is the tidiest and most organised member on the team!

Lucky for us, Jo loves to cook and often takes time out to make delicious treats for the team. You've got to taste her poppy seed cake with lemon frosting mmmmm.

Nicole SimpsonConsultant

Nic has an Honours Degree in Psychology from the University of Queensland and has a vision to become a medical doctor. (She is very smart and was ranked at the 98th percentile in her recent medicine entrance exams, which made us all very proud). Nic is amazingly flexible and involved across a range of projects at FRI. If you are having a Franchise Effectiveness Survey completed chances are she will be working with you on it. In addition to her her passion for helping people Nic is a talented musician who plays the french horn in both traditional brass and rock bands.

When Nicole isn’t rocking out at FRI, you’ll find her rocking out in her Indie band, “Cascadeer”.

Ann NathanPublications Director

Ann has a degree in English literature and for many years worked as a Research Fellow at Monash University’s Department of Higher Education. She loves to read and is addicted to Sudoku. Ann looks after our publications division, so if you are ordering books by phone or through our web site, chances are she will be looking after you. She has the dubious honour of being the partner of our Founder and thinks there is a real opportunity for franchise companies to be more environmentally conscious.

Rebecca MurrellConsultant

Bec has an honours degree in psychology and focuses mainly on our Franchise Effectiveness Surveys. If you have the pleasure of working with Bec you will find her to be incredibly friendly, attentive and reliable. She is the Operations Manager’s left hand lady and knows the ins and outs of all our projects.

So you think you can dance? Rebecca happens to be a state-level ballroom dancer, specialising in latin!

Ilana NathanResearch Assistant

Ilana has a first class Honours Degree in Psychology at the University of Queensland and is completing her Masters in Organisational Psychology. Before joining FRI she worked as a barista at a famous Brisbane restaurant and boy, does she know how to make a beautiful, creamy cappuccino. Ilana has great writing skills and has become an integral part of FRI’s research and report writing team. She is reliable, well organised and incredibly focused in keeping the operations team on track with its deadlines.

Ilana can often be found sweating it out at the gym. We’ve also heard on the grapevine that she has a great singing voice!

Carmen Woollardbookkeeper

Carmen quietly works away in the background looking after our finances and running off a never ending stream of financial reports which give us the illusion that everything is under control. She is a qualified chartered accountant and a whiz on Excel, creating the most elegant spreadsheets you’ve ever seen.

Carmen has a very cute baby, Maddy, which she occasionally brings in so the team can coo and cuddle her.

Professor Chris JacksonResearch and Development Consultant

Chris is Head of the School of Management and Professor of Psychology at the Australian School of Business, University of NSW (phew, that’s a mouthful). He is an expert in the design and use of psychological tests and works with our R&D team on the development and validation of our products. Chris’s energy and enthusiasm for psychology is infectious and his discussions with our team always result in new and valuable insights.

Chris has developed one of the world’s most respected learning styles questionnaires, “The Learning Styles Profiler”, (see www.cymeon.com).