Cassandra Gaisford

Founding Director, Coach and Mentor

Cassandra is a regular Dominion Post Columnist and experienced HR practitioner with over fifteen years experience in the career management and personal development field. She has a background in change management, recruitment, executive coaching and in the delivery of Employee Assistance Programmes. Her diverse experience in management, leadership coaching, and human resources gives her the wealth of knowledge and skills vital to retaining to helping people and organisations succeed in today’s competitive labour market


	“Cassandra was wonderful to talk to, really good at drawing out my thoughts, feelings and doubts and so positive. She’s passionate about what she does and she has developed a very focused and valuable programme full of well honed tools and insightful bite sized topics. It was very worthwhile.”
	-- Anna Ford - Graphic Designer

Her experience as a recruitment consultant gives her invaluable insight into the selection and retention issues that both organisations and individuals face. She has been on both sides of the fence giving her a rare ability to bring a fair and objective perspective to employment issues.

Her specialist areas are transformational change, career management, life coaching and talent management strategies. Cassandra is passionate about helping others to thrive and survive in the wake of change, work to their strengths, pursue their passions, and fulfil their potential. Put simply, she is passionate about what she does and does it well.

Cassandra's qualifications and professional credentials

BCA from Victoria University where she majored in Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour
Diploma of Counselling*
Professional Member of The New Zealand Association for Psychological Type. (Cassandra is qualified to administer and interpret the Myers Briggs Personality Indicator (MBTI)
Professional member of the International Association of Business Communciators (IABC )
She is currently studying toward a Masters degree in Psychology

*final assessment to be completed

...and yes she does still manage to maintain worklife balance! In her spare time she travels, nurtures her daughter's passions, paints, sculpts and writes travel memoirs and romance novels!

She is a well known writer in the area of “passion at work” and write a regular column in The Dominion Post. She has contributed to publications such as ““Marie Claire” Employment Today”, and “Career Edge”

She is highly regarded internationally as a expert in the career and personal development field. She believes in continually staying updated with best practice techniques and learning from and sharing these with others

In Nov 2003 she presented her unique Passion Driven Work model to a world forum of career professionals at the International Career Practitioners conference in San Fransciso. And in May 2004 she attended a symposium of career professionals in Venice, Italy - updating her knowledge of best-practise career management techniques, particularly those related to mature job seekers and 3rd age careers.

Cassandra has personally assisted individuals from a variety of career paths and organisations such as:

Organisations
ANZ Contact Energy Department of Labour (OSH) PowerCo Ministry of Defence The Department for Conservation Ministry of Education Te Papa EDS Hewlett Packard IBM Mental Health Commission Tower (NZ) Department of Internal Affairs		Citi Bank The Department for Internal Affairs KPMG Accor Hotels Inland Revenue Ministry of Fisheries Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade Buddle Findlay Telecom National Library Air New Zealand Country Road Ministry for Courts Fujitsu

Individuals
Lawyers and Barristers Accountants Web Designers and other creative people IT Professionals Nursing and health care professionals Secretaries and Administrative Staff Teachers Engineers Marketing and PR Professionals		Hotel Managers Students Policy Analysts Recruitment Consultants HR Managers Vets Sales Professionals Self-employed entrepreneurs Account Managers CFO's CEO's