Meet the FRI Team

Ree-Anna ChatmanConsultant

Ree-Anna has an honours degree in psychology and is completing her final supervision requirements to become a registered psychologist. She works on most of our consulting projects, and is liked and respected by clients for her friendly, straight-forward approach. If you are using our services, Ree-Anna will usually be the person to ensure we properly undertand your needs and make sure that we have all the bases covered.

Speaking of bases, Ree-Anna is a keen softball and touch football player.

Debb LoweSENIOR ASSOCIATE

Like many top franchise professionals Debb started her franchising career 18 years ago with McDonalds, where she held Operations and Training roles. In February 2000, she was awarded the role as Olympic Operations Manager for the Mc Donald’s Olympic Project. This included hiring and training 100 managers and 1000 team members to operate the 7 sites at Olympic Park, including 2 in the Athletes Village. She was also instrumental in developing the people and systems for Master Franchisees in the Pacific Island countries and had the prestigious role of Professor, at the famous McDonald's Hamburger University in Sydney. Debb has held senior people development roles with Krispy Kreme and Foodco (the franchisor for Muffin Break and Jamaica Blue) where she worked predominantly as a change agent, developing culture, people and systems.

When not facilitating or training Debb loves to dance and go dirt bike riding.

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. Ann thinks there is a real opportunity for franchise companies to be more environmentally conscious.

Ann has the dubious honour of being the partner of our Managing Director.

Moshe the Golden RetrieverDirector of Security

Moshe has a pe-degree in security management. He is responsible for securing the outside perimeter of our offices and will sometimes take it upon himself to sniff out the credentials of visitors. He also runs in-house stress management programs by allowing staff to pat him on the head. While not the smartest guy in the office, he is in the 98th percentile on social intelligence (the ability to get along with others). We could all perhaps learn something from his easy going accepting approach!

Dr Chris JacksonResearch and Development Consultant

Chris is Professor of Psychology at the Australian School of Business, University of NSW, and is an expert in the design and use of psychological tests. He 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 visits to our office 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).

James AllenResearch and Development Associate

James is completing a PhD in psychology at Queensland University on people’s reactions to organisational change. He is an extraordinary number cruncher and an integral part of our Research and Development team helping us find significant trends in our franchisee satisfaction surveys and other measurement tools. When he is doing his research thing he might be found backpacking in the mountains or playing his bass guitar.

When it all gets too much James likes to escape into the mountains.

Anita VuckovicResearch Assistant

Anita is our talented research assistant who is also completing her honours degree in psychology at the University of Queensland. She has a quick mind and a good sense of humour (which comes in handy working in our business). Clients who use the Nathan Profiler are likely to have Anita set up their administration site and conduct their initial training. While Anita is good at her work and all that, the real reason she got the job is that she plays a mean guitar, which quite impressed our Managing Director.

When not playing guitar or studying, Anita loves her soccer.

Susan InglisTraining Consultant

Susan is our Melbourne based trainer who has spent 12 years in executive recruitment, organisational development, policy development, mentoring and training. She holds a Masters Degree in Business Leadership where she investigated how to maximise people’s passion at work. She is currently completing a PhD in leadership and complexity theory (useful when working with us). Susan is also a mean tapdancer and has one of the most infectious laughs on the planet.

Gail GeronimosBusiness Advisor

Gail sits on our Advisory Board, assisting with strategy development and implementation. Gail’s company, Achaeus, runs fantastic educational programs for entrepreneurs. The following quote by Charles Mingus from her website sums up the enormous value she adds:

“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”

Greg NathanManaging Director

Greg is a corporate psychologist and international expert on the franchise relationship. He has a Masters Degree in Psychology and Education from Monash University and is a prolific writer on managing the people issues in franchising. He developed the popular Franchise E-Factor model and is regularly invited to deliver keynote addresses at franchising conferences all over the world. Greg’s introduction to franchising started in 1979 with the Brumby’s Bakery group where he was a multi-site franchisee and later became the group’s National Marketing and Operations Manager. 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.

The Franchise Times recently named Greg as one of the “Top 20” thought leaders to watch in the USA.