About Us

Yan solves problems. Throughout his 15+ year journey, he has always believed in leaving a place in better shape than he found it.

Wearing multiple hats – Coach, Consultant, Business Advisor, Mediator and HR expert, he has an established track record of helping leaders and organisations succeed. Yan has worked across the full remit of human capital and brings a unique blend of experience as a Consultant as well as internal employee and leader.

Yan has had the privilege of partnering with leaders and businesses across the Asia Pacific region including industries & sectors within Tech, Financial Services, Education, Aviation & Logistics, FMCG, Utilities and Not-for-Profit. At the same time, his direct experience in senior internal roles allows him to bring commercial acumen and first-hand understanding of leadership challenges to his consulting and coaching work.

Yan’s internal roles have included heading HR Business Partnering & Operations in APAC for a leading Global Market Maker and numerous HR Business Partnering roles at one of Australia’s big four banks. Prior to starting Growth Wave, he also worked at a number of leading global and local Consulting firms.

In addition to his professionally paid work, Yan has also contributed his skills to the community by participating in various initiatives:

When he’s not helping clients succeed, Yan can typically be found out and about with his son and wife in the Inner West of Sydney or scuba diving with his camera off the shores of the East Coast of Australia.

John is all about two things. How to grow your business and how to create efficiencies in current operations to improve profitability.

John has enjoyed over 20 years of experience in senior management and leadership roles across industries including Professional services, Healthcare, Banking & Finance, Not-for-Profit, Community Investment, International Trade, Technology, Franchising and Government.

In addition to his corporate experience, John was admitted as a legal practitioner to the Supreme Court of NSW and High Court practising law in Sydney and London for a number of years.

After leaving the field of law he went on to assist small- to medium-sized companies prosper, and learnt through establishing his own business that he took national and then exited through acquisition. This included stints advising in International Trade, HR, WHS, Marketing and online product development. Prior to Growth Wave, John was Head of Strategy & Engagement at a major bank, responsible for rolling out a national transformational program in the Micro Business Banking sector. This was following on from a role as a key leader, overseeing a national franchise model in the banking and financial services sector supporting, growing and advising public company franchisees as a representative of the franchisor.

John’s experience, natural curiosity, engaging manner and commercial acumen see him deliver professional consulting services in strategic planning and practical execution, facilitation, strategic partnerships, business development, stakeholder management and engagement. He knows how to get the best out of your people and businesses you connect with, internally and externally! If that is not enough, John can also facilitate resolving disputes through mediation.

John looks forward to using his experience to add value to your business, no matter how large or small – all done in an engaging, consultative manner backed up by a commercial approach.

When not advising, John is an avid traveller (well, before covid!) or can be seen taxiing his kids between violin, karate, dance, swimming, touch football, netball, tennis and soccer (did he miss anything?).

Danielle Venter is a qualified, experienced and engaging Organisational Coach, Mediator, Facilitator and Sales Coach. With significant experience in corporate Healthcare, MedTech, SME and the Arts, Danielle has a solid understanding of good business practice and, substantial experience developing individuals and teams. Danielle has worked in managerial roles and independent practice as a Performance Coach, HR Coach, Facilitator and training consultant.

Danielle empowers and facilitates personal, professional and organisational growth through the application of cognitive behavioural strategies underpinned by evidence-based theories of Positive Psychology, Resilience and Well-being.

Danielle’s personal style is sincere, engaging, supportive and committed, and underpinned by her extensive career experience and proficiency in Applied Coaching Psychology.

As an accomplished and self-motivated woman, she is known for her ability to deliver results in complex and challenging environments. Danielle has achieved tertiary education in Applied Performance Coaching Psychology and is currently studying towards her Masters in Clinical Psychology. She balances this theory with significant amounts of real-world experience. Danielle ‘walks her talk’, is not afraid to take (calculated) risks, and is entirely committed to supporting her clients in achieving their objectives.

As an outstanding communicator and highly effective Performance Coach, Danielle cuts through jargon with her innate ability to connect with people, whilst her natural curiosity deepens her ability to understand others. Tapping into people potential with a dynamic and engaging style, her action-orientated and evidence based results-focused coaching produces transformational outcomes.

With over thirty-five years’ experience in corporate HR roles and management and human capital consulting across four continents and deep expertise in talent management, leadership development, coaching, assessment, and organisational design. Pat brings unique and innovative insight to partnering with clients to solve complex people issues.

Pat focuses on partnering with clients to identify and develop the critical leadership talent and bench-strength required to deliver the business strategy – today and tomorrow. Pat has extensive experience working with senior executives to help them understand and drive strategic talent management and address their personal leadership development. Pat works with individual executives as well as executive teams to generate high performance through increased awareness of the choices they make and the impact of those choices on others.

Pat has held roles in South Africa, Canada, Indonesia, Australia and Saudi Arabia and brings a depth of experience and cultural knowledge from her work with an extensive range of organizations, executives and executive teams across all four continents. Pat has worked with multinational clients across many industries and has a speciality in the financial services and resources sectors.

She is driven by her passion for challenging individuals, teams and organizations to achieve their full potential, and her belief that everyone should be afforded the opportunity to achieve their potential.

Pat is resident in Johannesburg, South Africa, and, when not working with clients to identify and achieve their potential, you will find her using her camera to tell stories, connecting with nature or reading.

Susan is passionate about the importance of employee engagement and productivity through effective leadership and organisational culture. Susan brings over two decades of experience as a people leader with demonstrated ability to design and execute results-driven human capital initiatives.

Susan adds value partnering with our clients organisation’s in the areas of leadership coaching and development, performance improvement, business transformation, organisational design and structure, recruitment and on-boarding, culture change, talent management, and retention strategy.

When not supporting clients, Susan enjoys spending time with family and friends, relaxing at the beach and being jolted from sleep of an evening with endless pickup requests from the kids… roll on the “P” plates!

Jonas is passionate about development work and in helping people and organisations grow. He is a highly experienced organisation development specialist and international development practitioner with 25 years of experience managing international development programs. He has been involved the Philippines In-Country Manager of the Australian Volunteers Programs from 2006 to 2017.

Jonas has worked as a Consultant and Adviser to numerous people-to-people programs and has mentored multicultural cohorts in international development, capacity building, cross-cultural collaboration and organisational development. He loves bringing out synergistic relationships amongst people and finding mutually beneficial connections.

Jonas has expertise in leadership and management, organisational development, strategic communication and training, amongst many others. He is also highly experienced in project management, process improvement and innovation, and is a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt who has been involved in many complex projects.

Jonas is happily married with two sons. Both his wife and he are avid cyclist and on weekends you are likely to find them riding their bikes in the outskirts of Metro Manila. Jonas is also a lifelong student of Filipino Martial Arts and practices the indigenous fighting art of Pekiti Tirsia Kali.

François (Frank) has more than 27 years of consulting experience in organisational development, succession planning, career pathing, competency-based management, leadership assessment and development, facilitation, and coaching. François has spoken at conferences and in public fora organized by clients on the topic of competencies, assessments, resilience and leadership. Prior to founding Cognita Talent Inc., François worked for over 22 years at Hay Group, now Korn Ferry, and held the positions of VP and Senior Partner for over 10 years. Before Hay Group., he worked at Ernst & Young and the Public Service Commission of Canada. François is located in Ottawa and is perfectly bilingual (French and English).

François has worked with numerous clients across a variety of industries in the public and private sectors, in North America and Europe, to assess the strength of their leadership cadre. An expert in psychometric and 360 assessments, François has assessed over 2,500 executives and leaders. He has advised, developed and coached more than 175 leaders, including CEOs, COOs, Deputy Ministers, and Presidents of a myriad of organisations, as well as their teams.

About Cognita Talent
Cognita Talent is a consulting firm located in Ottawa, Canada. We are in the business of helping clients identify and grow their employees and leaders to be agile and capable of thriving in the ever-shifting world of work. Experts in coaching and in psychometric, competency and 360-degree assessments, we uncover your employees and leaders’ strengths and opportunities for development, and use this information to better synchronise their talents to your business needs, maximise their contribution, and grow future-ready leaders.