Fifth Frame recruits Angela Harris as first non-founding partner
Sydney-based management consulting firm Fifth Frame has extended its partnership beyond its founders with the addition of people expert Angela Harris, the appointment coinciding with the company’s fifth anniversary.
Having last week celebrated its fifth anniversary in business, management consultancy Fifth Frame has now recruited its first partner in Angela Harris to join founders and former PwC colleagues Jon Williams and Laura Applebee-Jones.
A self-described people strategist, Harris crosses after spending the past three and a half years with NBN – pushing the firm’s overall headcount to around 20 professionals.
“As we have grown over the past five years we have added amazing team members along the way,” Williams stated. “Laura and I felt like the time was now right to add a third partner to our business to continue our growth, and luckily the one person we always had in mind has agreed to join us. Angela is a friend as well as a former colleague and client and also one of the very best advisors and partners in the people space in the country.”
Most recently serving as executive general manager for people strategy and culture & capability at NBN, Harris previously spent more than a decade as a director at PwC between 2008 and 2020, a period closely corresponding with Applebee-Jones and Williams, the latter who served as national and global leader for People & Organisation. Prior to joining PwC, Harris also worked in investment banking in Australia and the United Kingdom.
“I am thrilled to have joined my friends and former colleagues in partnership at Fifth Frame, and look forward to continuing to grow the business,” Harris stated in a post to LinkedIn. “Best of all, I get to continue doing the work I love with an exceptional team – ensuring people are at the heart of purpose and strategy, delivered with the quality and care that comes from a small, yet mighty firm committed to building genuine relationships.”
The fresh partnership announcement follows in the wake of the firm’s celebration event for its fifth anniversary at the Eternity Playhouse, with Accenture senior advisor Sunita Gloster and Commonwealth Bank chief behavioural scientist William Mailer (both PwC alum) among the guest speakers. Applebee-Jones described the occasion as a genuine “pinch me” moment, with a room “full of curiosity, community and connection.”
Fifth Frame in part takes its name from the five interrelated factors which guide the firm’s people-centric approach to organisational improvement, roughly grouped around the key pillars of purpose and values, strategy, culture, operating model, and execution. The firm believes that while any one of these elements may be the most important at a given time, all five remain continually connected at almost every stage of the business cycle.
