Scyne Advisory showcases Olympian consultants ahead of Olympics

Ahead of the Olympic Games in Paris kicking off tomorrow, public sector consultancy Scyne Advisory is highlighting a number of its professionals who have successfully made the leap from elite sports to a career in the consulting industry.

Jenna Strauch, Brodie Summers, and Monique Murphy have all competed at the Olympic and Paralympic Games, while promising paddelist Mackenzie Duffy joined Scyne Advisory after an early sporting retirement.

“We recognise and celebrate the unique skills and attributes these outstanding athletes contribute to our professional environment, including as to teamwork, motivation, commitment, performance focus, and strategy and execution,” Scyne Advisory said in a statement.

One of the team, Brisbane-based associate Jenna Strauch, will be backing up on her Tokyo appearance as member of the Dolphins squad, set to compete from Sunday in the women’s 100m and 200m breaststroke. She joined PwC in 2022 while studying a masters of bioethics with the University of Sydney, and switched to Scyne Advisory alongside her public sector colleagues late last year.

Speaking on her Paris aspirations, Strauch said, “Scyne has enabled me to continue my second Olympics pursuit. I always felt that my sporting career would restrict a professional life, but for someone like myself, who is driven by growth, the flexibility and adaptability of my employment has fostered my productivity, empowerment, and drive to succeed both in the pool and at work.”

Now a senior associate at Scyne in Brisbane, Brodie Summers joined PwC in 2022 following an earlier appearance in the freestyle skiing moguls at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, where he finished just a fraction shy of qualifying for the semi-finals. Since then, he has earned a place in the 2018 PyeongChang and Beijing 2022 squads, while completing a business degree at Monash.

“Commencing as a casual associate during my transition out of sport gave me the opportunity to experience different parts of the business while I was figuring out what post-sport life was going to look like,” Summers said. “I really valued being able to set my hours around training and other personal commitments, and also the network of current and retired athletes who work at Scyne.”

Summers also noted that the current and former athletes at Scyne meet monthly to discuss any sport-related work or opportunities, with presumably Rio Paralympic silver-medal winning swimmer Monique Murphy among that mix. Joining PwC as an intern in late 2022 and now a governance, risk & compliance consultant based out of Brisbane, her story is an inspiring one.

A suspected victim of drink-spiking, Murphy awoke from an induced coma in 2014 with horrific injuries after falling from a fifth-floor balcony during a party, to find her right foot had been amputated. But just one year later, she was representing Australia in the International Paralympic World Championships in Glasgow, before then claiming silver in the 400m freestyle S10 at Rio.

“The support I’ve had at Scyne has greatly assisted my transition when I retired in 2023,” Murphy said. “What can be a turbulent time for some, was far more straightforward for myself, mentally and emotionally. I have been able to work on a wide range of engagements, and my pathway into Scyne was the perfect opportunity to widen my views of possible post-sport opportunities.”

A healthcare sector strategy & transformation consultant in Brisbane, Mackenzie Duffy has also had a challenging sporting career, with medical issues forcing her to give up her canoe sprint dreams after promising early results, including representing Australia at the junior world championships in 2017 and 2018. She first joined PwC as an intern in late 2022.

“A high performer in all facets, Mackenzie’s journey from full time athlete to full time consultant has been the culmination of everything we strove for in athlete employment,” said Sycne director Braiden Camm, a former elite-level swimmer and Olympic hopeful himself. “Mackenzie has navigated injury and retirement since joining us and done so with strength and humility.”

Camm, who joined PwC in 2018, continued; “This story is one of many we are proud to tell, and showcases in many respects the vision we had when opening up employment pathways, in this case for athletes, for those needing flexibility in their work around other priorities in their life. We're incredibly proud to see this story come to life, and excited to see where Mackenzie takes her career.”