Scyne Advisory makes series of senior promotions and recruits
Scyne Advisory has made several new appointments and managing director promotions across Australia.
Based out of Sydney, Fiona Glendinning joins Scyne Advisory as the firm’s new chief people officer, arriving from the NSW Department of Education, having previously served as chief experience officer and MinterEllison and as an APAC people & client director at PwC across her three-decade career.
Former WA premier & cabinet director general Emily Roper has also joined Scyne as a managing director in Perth, while Didier Desperles, Brigid Brown, and Leo Choudhary have all been promoted to the top level after moving with the firm from PwC.
Fiona Glendinning
In somewhat of a return to the firm, Glendinning previously spent seven and a half years at PwC from 2007, ultimately leading its people & client experience team for the Asia Pacific prior to switching to MinterEllison as chief experience officer for a similar-length stint and later serving as regional head of people & culture for leadership development organisation CoachHub.
Most recently serving as executive director of talent, capability & performance for the NSW Department of Education, Glendinning replaces Melissa Wong as chief people officer after eighteen months, the latter who has returned to the healthcare sector. Earlier in her career, Glendinning held senior HR roles at Gartner, Sun Microsystems and Westpac, dating back to 1995.
“Fi brings deep HR and transformation experience across professional services, government, legal, financial services and technology,” Scyne stated. “She has pioneered global programs, led award-winning inclusion initiatives, and built HR foundations from start-ups to enterprise scale. These critical capabilities will help us continue shaping a people-centred, high-performance culture.”
Emily Roper
Roper meanwhile joins Scyne’s newly-launched Perth office from the WA Department of the Premier & Cabinet, where she has most recently served as director general and led initiatives across a broad range of social and economic portfolios. Her two-and-a-half-decade public sector career across various agencies has a strong focus on justice, intelligence, and national security.
“Emily’s leadership has shaped some of the most significant reforms in recent years, from health and education transformation to energy transition, domestic violence prevention and national security,” said CEO John Ball. “Her decision to join Scyne is a testament to our shared commitment to public purpose, ethical leadership, and delivering meaningful outcomes for communities.”
Promotions
In addition to its new recruits, Scyne has promoted Didier Desperles and Brigid Brown to managing director in Melbourne alongside Leo Choudhary in Canberra, with each having originally joined PwC between 2015 and 2019 before crossing to Scyne two years ago; Desperles from Deloitte, and Brown and Choudhary from Ernst & Young and the Commonwealth Treasury.
With a grounding in cloud architecture and software development, Choudhary and Desperles both work in the area of tech strategy and digital transformation, respectively for defence and federal and state governments clients, while Brown is a program delivery and risk & assurance expert who has overseen public sector health, education and environment projects among others.
