Your Trainers
As a council, you can get exclusive access to our comprehensive list of training modules to meet the new LGA Training Standards.
Our panel of expert trainers and facilitators are ready and well equipped to deliver your Council Member Mandatory Training.
Your experts will guide your mandatory training through an engaging program – bringing content to life through interaction, case studies and shared learning. Each brings years of industry experience and knowledge of the sector, as well as unique skills to enable your council members to best serve your community.
Rest assured that with LGA Training, you’re getting all the mandated information through active learning and engaging sessions.
Contact us to set your council members up for success.
Meet your expert facilitators and trainers (A – Z)
Michael Arman
Director Public Advisory, BRM Advisory
Michael is an experienced public sector executive, facilitator, and consultant with 15 years’ experience delivering award-winning projects for local and state governments.
With a background in lecturing and tutoring in ethics, he offers a nuance understanding of ethics and leadership together with practical experience in leading behavioural change. Michael also holds strong skills in leading difficult conversations and negotiation and provides leadership development expertise.
Michael has led strategic management planning and performance processes and is well versed in both the technical and practical aspects of strategic risk management. He offers technical skills in facilitation grounded in an extensive career facilitating community-based consultation.
Mark Davies
Financial management expert, advisor, and trainer to state and local government
Mark is a Chartered Accountant with over 30 years’ experience spanning across both the private and public sectors. His career includes experience as a Senior Audit Manager and Principal Consultant with PWC to serving as Chief Financial Officer, General Manager Corporate Services and Chief Executive Officer in councils.
Mark has co-designed and delivered strategic and financial management training to Elected Members for the Municipal Association of Victoria and has worked on the integrated strategic management framework in South Australia. He has a long history of providing accessible financial management training to elected members and officers and enjoys demystifying financial terminology and building confidence.
James Koch
Co-Founder & CEO, CulturAlchemy
With CulturAlchemy, James has helped over 60 companies deliver results through culture change, leadership, and team development, coaching and facilitation. He weaves his leadership experience in the education, finance, social and manufacturing sectors together with an advanced practice of facilitation and coaching.
Using research and expertise, James demystifies culture, builds leaders, and facilitates discussions that can create enduring change. James is known for creating a space where insights are shared to positively impact on individuals, organisations and ultimately the communities they serve.
James has facilitated multiple Mayor and Elected Member sessions and has a knack in building connections between people for a shared purpose.
Michael Richardson
Specialist Local Government Consultant and Financial Management Expert
Michael Richardson is a Chartered Accountant, has a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and has spent the past eight years consulting almost exclusively to the South Australian Local Government Sector. While Michael’s education and training is very much focussed on numbers, he doesn’t see himself as a typical accountant.
With an outgoing personality, and an ability to develop strong rapport with Elected Members and Council officers, Michael’s approach to training is to combine his strong technical knowledge with a sense of fun and practical experiences to support your Elected Members in working through the complexities of strategic and financial management in a local government context.
Michael is a current independent member of the City of Victor Harbor Audit and Risk Committee and is a member of the South Australian Local Government Finance Managers Group.
Adrian Skull
Executive Director, Elbrook Group
Adrian is an in-demand facilitator, leadership trainer and executive coach with a diverse career in Australia and overseas. He has a background in both the public and private sectors with experience in leadership development and change management.
A former local government Chief Executive Officer in regional and metropolitan Councils, Adrian has a solid grounding in our sector, and is skilled in leading change in a complex environment and in building a can-do culture.
Adrian assists senior leaders and Boards to design lasting interventions, coaches senior leaders, and runs leadership development and strategy-setting programs. He brings practical, real senior leadership experience.
Steph Tramontin
Consultant & CulturAlchemist, CulturAlchemy
For more than 12 years, Steph has successfully led the design and delivery of corporate change, leadership and culture programs within organisations, including Local Government, and in consulting roles. She is passionate about people and helping leaders and teams explore their purpose, define the context they exist in and uncover the stories that define culture. Her energy and values keep her focussed on helping others be the best they can be.
Steph loves being able to facilitate connection with teams at all levels so they can realise their common goals and deliver for their customers. Steph is warm, genuine and thrives on the opportunity to influence how teams work together. Her energy and values keep her focussed on helping individuals and organisations be the best they can be.
Specialising in engaging and energetic facilitation, Steph is authentic in her approach and starts meaningful conversations leading to impactful change. She holds qualifications in Human Resource Management, Project and Event Management and accreditations in HBDI and Denison Culture Measurement tools and Coaching.
LGA Legal Partners - Norman Waterhouse Lawyers
LGA Training is working in partnership with Norman Waterhouse to deliver the Mid-term Legal Refresher module 8.2 and Council Meetings and Procedures Refresher module 8.3.
Quality learning experiences presented by:
Sathish Dasan
Principal – Governance and Regulatory Services, Norman Waterhouse Lawyers
Sathish is the Principal in charge of the Norman Waterhouse Employment & Industrial Relations, Insurance, and Governance & Regulatory teams.
For well over twenty years, Sathish has navigated complex legal issues and has earned a reputation as one of South Australia’s pre-eminent specialists in the respective fields of industrial relations, public and administrative law.
Sathish has been named as one of Australia’s leading lawyers in Doyle’s Legal Guide for the last fifteen years, having advised and trained Councils on applying the Local Government Act 1999 in a variety of situations. Sathish remains one of the leaders in the provision of strategic industrial relations advice in the sector.
He frequently shares his knowledge through training sessions and speaking engagements on numerous topics within his areas of expertise and specialisation. Sathish has delivered post-election training for council members for the past fifteen years.
Felice D'Agostino
Principal – Governance and Regulatory Services, Norman Waterhouse Lawyers
As a legal professional, Felice D’Agostino has over twenty years’ experience assisting and providing advice to councils and other public authorities. She also has considerable experience guiding local authorities on statutory interpretation, administrative law, public law, governance, public integrity, freedom of information, regulation, and enforcement.
Felice’s area of expertise includes all areas of local government governance and probity issues, with a particular focus on the legal, cultural and organisational issues that lie at the heart of the relationship between elected members, Chief Executive Officers and other Council staff, and has delivered post-election training for council members for the past eight years.
Dale Mazzachi
Principal – Governance and Regulatory Services, Norman Waterhouse Lawyers
With a passion for public sector governance and regulatory control, Dale specialises in code of conduct, conflict of interest, public officer duties, authorisations, meeting procedures, confidentiality, rates imposition and recovery, elections and freedom of information.
He has been helping councils and local authorities to govern, protect, and enhance their local communities for over ten years. He provides high-level legal, practical and strategic advice to councils and public authorities on their administrative, regulatory, governance and employment obligations and requirements.
Dale also assists public sector clients in a broad range of employment matters including work health and safety, employment obligations and statutory controls and has delivered post-election training to council members for the past eight years.
Chris Alexandrides
Senior Associate, Norman Waterhouse Lawyers
Chris acts for and advises government authorities, not-for-profit organisations, commercial entities, and individuals in various areas of law. These areas include administrative and public law, constitutional law, native title, and industrial relations.
Chris regularly assists Norman Waterhouse in the conduct of litigation in Federal and South Australian courts and tribunals. Chris has a particular interest in complicated and unusual legal issues, including novel areas of law and matters involving multiple parties and authorities.
