Mentoring Unlocked

Maud Lindley speaks with Blair Wark, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer for RBC Asia Pacific, and Chief Country Officer for Australia, about the career moves, mentors, and leadership lessons that have shaped over two decades in global banking. Blair reflects on the pivotal, often unplanned moments that shaped his path, from an unexpected start at Price Waterhouse to a sudden return home from New York, and the mentors, including his wife, who helped him navigate them.
Blair also shares how leading a genuinely cognitively diverse team, spanning Sydney, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan, has shaped his approach to leadership. He explains why real value comes not just from cultural diversity, but from bringing together people with different life experiences and ways of thinking, and how trust is built by learning to draw out the best in every individual.
The conversation explores what makes mentoring genuinely effective, from resisting the urge to give advice, to building confidence in others through thoughtful questions rather than answers. Blair also discusses how leaders can prepare their teams for the scale of change AI is bringing to the finance industry. A candid and practical conversation for mentors, mentees, and senior leaders navigating growth and change.

Maud Lindley speaks with Mersina Mouhtaris, Head of Compliance Australia at RBC Capital Markets.
Mersina reflects on the mentors, both formal and informal, who shaped her along the way, including a manager who helped her rethink perfectionism and taught her that not everyone needs to deliver at 110% to do great work. She shares how vulnerability, something that didn't come naturally in a demanding, male-dominated industry, became one of her most powerful leadership tools.
The conversation explores what effective mentoring really looks like in practice: understanding a mentee's values, holding up a mirror rather than handing out answers, and creating the safety for people to reach their own realisations. Mersina also unpacks why authenticity is non-negotiable for the next generation of leaders, and why mentoring, at its core, comes down to one skill: listening.
A candid, generous conversation for anyone building leadership capability, culture, or confidence in high-pressure environments.

What if the conflict your team is avoiding is actually the key to better decisions and stronger performance? In this conversation, Maud Lindley speaks with Pip Murphy, Principal Consultant at Serendis Leadership, about one of the most critical challenges in today's workplace: how to navigate conflict and disagreement constructively. Drawing on her career across trading floors, top-tier consulting, and executive leadership, Pip reframes conflict not as a threat, but as a diversification of ideas. Just as portfolio diversification lowers financial risk, diversity of thought leads to better decisions. The challenge is that our human instincts work against us.
Pip explores the fight, flight, and fawn responses that drive workplace conflict, from open aggression to invisible patterns like groupthink, white-anting, and political manoeuvring. She shares a practical framework for diagnosing the root cause of conflict and introduces the concept of above and below the line thinking to help leaders guide others through high-stakes conversations. For mentors, her advice is clear: pause, diagnose, and focus on the person in front of you, not the ghost of the difficult colleague. If your organisation is serious about performance, this conversation will change the way you think about disagreement.

In this episode of Mentoring Unlocked, Maud Lindley speaks with Gerard Perrignon, Managing Director of Debt Capital Markets at RBC Capital Markets, about what drives a leader to keep showing up as a mentor year after year.
Gerard's path into investment banking was anything but conventional. Starting with an English Literature degree, he found his way into finance through persistence and a hiring manager who saw potential in him before he saw it in himself. That moment became the foundation of how he leads and develops others today.
Now five years into the Women in Banking and Finance mentoring program, Gerard reflects on what makes mentoring truly effective. He shares his views on the importance of listening over advising, the role of vulnerability in building trust between strangers, and how consistency creates the conditions for real growth.
For HR leaders and organisations looking to build mentoring cultures that go beyond good intent, Gerard's insights offer honest, practical perspective from someone who has lived it from both sides of the conversation.

In this episode of Mentoring Unlocked, Maud Lindley sits down with Urs Koenig, former UN peacekeeper, NATO commander, and leadership expert, to explore what leadership really looks like in high-performance environments.
Urs shares powerful insights on building trust, balancing accountability with care, and why vulnerability is a practical leadership skill, not a weakness. From real-world military experiences to executive leadership, this conversation challenges traditional views of authority and offers simple, actionable ways to lead and mentor more effectively.
If you’re a leader, mentor, or HR professional focused on developing high-performing teams, this episode is packed with practical takeaways you can apply immediately.

In this episode of Mentoring Unlocked, Maud Lindley speaks with board director and technology leader Jo Mikleus about what mentoring really looks like in practice. Jo shares how mentoring has supported her through key career moments, helping her navigate complexity, build confidence, and make clearer decisions. She highlights the role of mentors in asking thoughtful questions and creating space for reflection, rather than simply providing answers.
They also explore what makes mentoring impactful for both mentors and mentees. Jo emphasises the importance of continuous learning at every career stage, and why the best mentors remain open to being mentees themselves. The conversation also touches on practical approaches like gap analysis and the importance of building a culture of mentoring that supports growth, curiosity, and development across an organisation.

In this episode of Mentoring Unlocked, Maud Lindley sits down with Michaela Wortley, Oceania Inclusiveness Business Partnering Lead at EY, to explore how coaching can become a powerful lever for leadership and culture.
After nearly three decades at EY, Michaela shares the story of how an informal initiative evolved into a formal internal coaching practice. One that now includes more than 30 trained internal coaches delivering over a thousand coaching hours each year.
By embedding coaching within leadership development and talent programs, EY has created a powerful mechanism for helping leaders navigate transitions, reflect on their leadership identity, and bring organisational values to life.
Maud and Michaela also explore what mentors can learn from coaching. Rather than simply offering advice, the most effective mentors combine experience with curiosity, asking thoughtful questions that help others develop their own insights.
Together, they unpack how coaching skills like listening, curiosity, and reflection not only strengthen mentoring relationships but also foster more inclusive leadership by encouraging diverse perspectives and deeper understanding.
For HR leaders, mentors, and organisational culture builders, this conversation offers practical insights into how coaching and mentoring can elevate leadership capability and create more thoughtful, inclusive workplaces.

In this episode of Mentoring Unlocked, Maud Lindley speaks with Heath McPherson, COO of InCorp Advisory Australia, about the career experiences and mentors that shaped his leadership across insurance, construction, education, and professional services. Heath reflects on the strong link between leadership quality, workplace culture, and safety, and how genuine care for people drives better outcomes for individuals and organisations alike.
The conversation explores what effective mentoring really looks like. Heath challenges the idea that mentors need to have all the answers, arguing that the greatest impact comes from asking the right questions, listening deeply, and helping people clarify their purpose and values before offering guidance. Packed with practical insights, the episode offers valuable takeaways for mentors, mentees, and leaders focused on building meaningful careers and inclusive, high-performing cultures.

Maud Lindley speaks with Renée Law, COO Professional Services at Atomic Group, about the leadership lessons which shaped her global career, and the mentoring moments that have had the greatest impact. Renée shares how her instinct for seeking out uncertainty has shaped her courage, adaptability, and approach to leading teams through complexity. She reflects on the shift from directive leadership to creating space for others to think, learn, and grow.
A standout moment in the conversation is Renée's approach to helping mentees move past what’s holding them back. She explains that fear often comes from carrying old experiences — a mistake, a difficult relationship, or a past setback — long after the moment has passed. Through thoughtful questions and calm presence, she helps people name what they haven’t let go of and release it, clearing the way for confidence and forward momentum. It’s a powerful look at how mentoring unlocks self-belief, resilience, and genuine transformation.

Beyond the Anecdotes: Measuring Mentoring Program Impact
What turns mentoring from a feel-good initiative into real, measurable growth? In this episode of Mentoring Unlocked, Maud Lindley speaks with Dr. Abby Jandro - Organisational Psychologist and Principal Consultant at Serendis Leadership, and the research expert behind Serendis’ first statistically validated evaluation of mentoring program impact. Abby shares what the data now proves: a structured mentoring program delivers significant outcomes, including measurable shifts in career confidence and meaningful uplift in capability. Abby explains why reflective conversations, clarity of goals, and a strong match create the conditions for genuine change. She breaks down why mentors must resist the urge to give advice and instead ask better questions, helping mentees find their own answers.
For HR leaders and organisations considering mentoring, Abby’s insights offer a sharp, evidence-based guide to designing programs that truly shift confidence, clarity, and capability.