Our consulting team

Tom Ristoski

Director, Strategic Partnerships and Executive Education
BA Econ, GradDipMgmt, MTerEd(Mgt), MBA

Tom Ristoski is responsible for oversight of the university’s most valuable partnerships and leads the Executive Education team at ACU. He has over 25 years’ experience designing and delivering leadership and executive development programs both domestically and internationally.

Tom works across corporate, government, health care, not-for-profit and education sectors. His areas of expertise are in strategy, sales, digital transformation, management and leadership development.

He has delivered executive leadership programs for a large range of companies including KMPG, Mallesons Stephens Jacques, Telstra, Optus, AXA, IAG, Essential Energy, Employers Mutual, Woolworths, Baxter Healthcare, TAFE NSW, Australian Defence Force, Attorney General and Justice; to name a few.

Maree Najem

Associate Director
BEd, MEd Education Management

Maree Najem manages the design, implementation and operation of programs that assist clients achieve their strategic objectives across private, public and third sectors.

Maree has worked in both executive and senior leadership roles in all three sectors as an educator, executive coach and senior management consultant. In these roles she managed areas of education and curriculum, program, policy, sales performance, general management, people, organisational culture, professional development and social service.

Her experiences have demonstrated the abilities to communicate effectively in cross-cultural settings with advanced problem-solving skills, creativity and a flexible working approach. Maree has an ability to coordinate a diversity of opinions, methods by which to seek those opinions, and skills in how to integrate that knowledge to achieve higher performance outcomes. Maree’s work is primarily concerned with the development of organisations requiring strategic and operational planning, program analysis, people development, education, training, administrative planning, legal and policy support – hence the value of her diverse and extensive experience in the public, private and third sectors.

Gary Sanderfield

Senior Consultant
GradCertPsychRisk, BS Business Management, MBA

Gary Sanderfield is highly accountable and goal oriented. He has more than 20 years’ experience driving increased market reach and more than 50 percent revenue growth for private and public organisations, globally.

With proven success transforming legacy underperformance and creating international revenue streams, he blends strong competence in strategic business development and the establishment of winning sales teams with an ‘operational’ leaning.

Anita Prabhu

Senior Consultant
GAICD, EMBA

Anita Prabhu is an experienced senior manager who has worked in education, IT, banking, retail and travel sectors. Anita’s experience includes professional consulting, strategic planning, governance, general management, sales and marketing, business development, operations management, risk management, project management, information systems, quality management, change management and business process re-engineering. She is able to view a business holistically and deliver to meet strategic goals.

Dave Woodlock

Senior Consultant
BComm Marketing & Management, GAICD

Dave Woodlock’s experience is within the commercial, government and not-for-profit sectors. He has extensive experience diagnosing organisational development gaps and designing suitable education programs that develop executives and build organisational capability. With advanced skills in digital marketing transformations, B2B demand generation, customer marketing and sales strategies across the IT/Tech space – he is well placed to help you develop your team to ensure they have the capabilities to perform at a higher level.