The Team at Neural Networks

John is one of Australia’s leading authorities in Leadership, Culture Transformation, Sales Effectiveness & Workforce Performance. His organisation has served as business strategists, consultants and coaches to some of Australia’s leading organisations, including American Express, CBA, O’Brien Glass, Medibank, NSW Government and KPMG.

He brings 25 years broad sector experience servicing clients across banking and finance, professional services, mining and manufacturing, retail and consumer products, ICT, executive search, education, health, not for profit and public service.

John’s unique array of qualifications, including a PhD in Psychology, NLP Master Practitioner, Emotional Intelligence Facilitator and Martial Arts Instructor, have enabled him to develop a number of personal and business-related technologies designed to inspire people and organisations to achieve.

John values courage, boldness and vitality and is passionate about building the confidence, character and capability of people and that of the organisations they work for. He is highly engaging, insightful and respectfully challenges the status quo.

He has extensive experience working with Boards, CEOs and their executive teams to develop their capability, and embed large scale strategies for the unmistakable purpose of improving growth, operating margins, asset efficiency and shareholder value.

He works best with leaders who are responsible for providing leadership, strategic direction and upholding organisation’s values and behaviours; charged with setting high standards, ensuring a systematic, efficient and effective operation; fostering a thirst for new opportunity and growth; have a determination for excellence and market-position; and an eagerness to innovate and change.

Rosalinda Batson is a Director at Neural Networks Concepts and a globally recognised expert in emotional intelligence and its application to leadership. An Accredited EQ-i 2.0 Trainer and Distributor, she has spent more than 25 years helping leaders and organisations understand how emotional intelligence shapes the way people show up, lead, and perform under pressure.

Rosalinda leads NNC's EQ-i 2.0 certification programs and works with clients to embed emotionally intelligent leadership through certification, leadership development, coaching, and recruitment. Certified in three separate emotional intelligence assessments and an NLP Master Practitioner, she brings both depth of expertise and a genuine fascination with human behaviour to every engagement.

Her career spans the private and public sectors, including operational management and strategic roles across Human Resources, Customer Relations, Information Technology, and Organisation Development. This breadth allows her to bridge the gap that often exists between people development and operational reality, translating emotional intelligence from concept into practical, measurable capability.

Most recently, Rosalinda has extended this work into the world of sport through NNC's Performance Mindset programs, helping athletes train the mind the way they train the body. Drawing on emotional intelligence, neuroscience, and Neuro-Linguistic Programming, and informed by her own experience as a coach and administrator, including guiding a premiership-winning junior team, she gives athletes practical tools to stay composed under pressure, recover from setbacks, and consistently access their best when it matters most.

A particular passion is mapping the EQ-i 2.0 model against organisational capability frameworks, including recent work aligning it with common psychosocial hazards to help organisations build genuinely psychologically safe workplaces. A confident and collaborative facilitator who is always learning and seeking out the latest thinking, Rosalinda offers clients an invaluable and grounded resource for developing emotionally intelligent leaders and high-performing athletes.

Here's what people are saying about Ros...

"I was unsure about completing two full days of training online. Rosalinda made it easy by building connections within the group through interactive activities and personal anecdotes. I learnt a lot very quickly in this course very impressed with the facilitator and course materials. The preparation and pre-work for the course was all so well organised and managed."

"Well done Ros! Amazing session and Ros ensured a safe space for us to learn and practice."

"Ros was an excellent facilitator and shared so much useful  content with us that built confidence to conduct the reports & debrief sessions."

"A great program, Ros was super, the two days spent together was a great environment, lucky to have such a supportive lead and group."

"Ros was a thorough, engaging facilitator. The time flew!"

"Very pleased with the certification. Ros from Neural Networks is a seasoned professional who instructs authentically and practically. Thank you, Ros, and thank you to my fellow participants."

"Ros was fantastic, prepared, knowledgeable and very supportive."

"Ros delivered an extremely engaging and interactive session, heightening the learning experience for every one of us attending the program. I would gladly attend a session delivered by Ros in the future! She possesses and incredible command and passion for her subject!"

“Ros Batson is an EI guru who delivered a highly informative and engaging online EI Seminar that I would highly recommend to anyone looking to become a more effective, engaged and interesting human.”

“Ros was very knowledgeable and provided some additional resources to help us continue learning about Emotional Intelligence moving forward.“

“Ros really knows her stuff and was a great session to further build on EQ knowledge.”

“Ros was very engaging, excellent instructional delivery with great slide pack good flow and content was spot on. This course has set me on a path to learn and practice EI.”

“This was a great session. I feel that we touched on really important points on EI and how it can be implemented. Ros was a great presenter and kept me engaged for the entirety of the session.”

Andrew is a thought leader in the field of Human Peak Performance in Business and Influencing Skills. His experience in Behavioural Science has led to him being an accomplished change facilitator, coach and consultant in the area People Performance, Influence and Peak Leadership Capability.

His extensive work, research and development in this area ensures people working in corporate to SME size business achieve outstanding bottom-line results for your organisation. Andrew works with your organisation to build a culture where people can excel, and with individuals to achieve their personal, professional goals and overcome their personal metal and emotional obstacles. He delivers practical and outcome focused events that enable individuals to apply their new skills and knowledge; and succeed when they leave the training and coaching environment.

©Photo by Fancy Boy Photography

With Director level roles in top tier consultancies (Deloitte) and senior leadership roles driving large-scale, complex business transformation, Wendy combines strong business acumen with deep knowledge of building top performance and empowering culture.

Her enthusiasm, authenticity, easy way of engaging and mobilising others, and dedication to outcomes leads to great successes for the business leaders, employees and stakeholders she works with.

Working in Australia, United Kingdom and Europe, Wendy has designed and facilitated leadership alignment workshops for the top 100+ Executives to support M&As of global conglomerates and countless leadership development programs. She has provided coaching to all levels from Executives to operational teams within global corporations and S.M.E across finance, resources, manufacturing, travel, FMCG, health, agriculture, government, not-for-profit, and infrastructure sectors.  

In Change Director roles driving business transformation, she partners, mentors and coaches those Executives and senior leaders tasked with the critical role to sponsor, drive or implement large-scale, complex transformation. Wendy supports them to understand the connection between critical change levers and achievement of organisational and change strategies and to deliver outcomes through connecting with and inspiring their people to share ownership for change and performance.

Whether coaching in a group or individual setting, Wendy skilfully encourages leaders to examine their ways of operating, through respectfully challenging systems, behaviours and mindsets, to identify points of leverage and barriers to success and motivating and supporting growth and change.

Organisations she has worked with and for: Deloitte, Australia Post, Alcoa World Alumina, Cadbury Schweppes, Australian Wheat Board, QBE Insurance, Victorian Ambulance, VicTrack, Tui Group (UK/Europe), Austin Hospital, Victorian Fire Brigade, Police Credit Union, Bunnings, A.S.I.C, Newcrest Mining, Built, National Australia Bank, Opal Australia/New Zealand, Federal and State integrity and compliance agencies, NSW Office of the Secretary, NSW Inner West Council, Monash University.

Here's what people are saying about Wendy...

"It has been so incredibly helpful to me to do the one-on-one coaching with you and I feel all sorts of unexpected things shifting and changing, personally and professionally. You are very good at what you do and your expertise, mixed with warmth and kindness, is a winning combination."

"Thank you for all your help, insights and positive feedback, which has been very empowering."

"I gleaned so much from our discussion, all positive and so very helpful. I can’t thank you enough and I do not have the words to express how grateful I am to you."

"I have given what we shared great thought over the weekend, and when I did think about it and tried one or two of your techniques, I found a beautiful peacefulness that I have not had in a long while. The whole experience, your advice/intuitiveness and understanding of my very emotional state of being, your advice and useful tips below will definitely help me on the road to a healing that I know is long overdue."

"I continue to apply a few of the techniques you shared with me and have found them to be quite life altering for me, so thank you so much."

Gina Ralli has 10 years’ experience working in the financial services industry including leadership positions. She has a Diploma of Business (HR) and is also certified in Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People program. Gina moved into Learning & Development before becoming a facilitator for NNC. She has an in-depth knowledge of our clients, programs and the logistics associated with delivery. She builds the program plans and takes ownership of the logistics, working closely with our clients to ensure all the moving parts are implemented as planned.

A keen program manager, Gina understands all the implications of program components from the outset so there are no surprises as we move through delivery. A brilliant communicator, Gina keeps everyone informed during the program and follows up key deliverables to ensure timelines are met.

Gina is an NLP Practitioner and certified in the EQ-i 2.0 emotional intelligence assessment. She demonstrates her expertise in the development of skills clinics, experiential activities and the development of Train-the-Trainer materials. She works closely with all the members of the NNC team as a lynchpin for the business.

Gill La Ponder is the first port of call for all enquiries and client needs. Gill enjoys conversations with our clients having strong relationships with them built on mutual rapport. Highly organised, nothing is too much trouble for her and she tends to be ahead of the game with her finger on the pulse of the business.

Gill is certified in the EQ-i 2.0 emotional intelligence assessment and has expertise in the OMG Sales Profile providing support to our clients who use these tools. She also utilises her expertise in recruitment to assist our clients find the perfect fit for their sales roles.

Lucy Irons is an Instructional Designer with a passion for creating engaging learning experiences that drive results and a keen interest in the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to revolutionise learning design.  She is skilled in bringing learning to life both for face to face and online delivery. Her ability to develop experiential activities which translate the learning into practical applications is a cornerstone in the important role of embedding learning within organisations.

Prior to working with NNC, Lucy had lead roles in Learning & Development within a number of organisations. Her passion for design and developing content that could reach a wider audience prompted her to take on this critical role with NNC.

Her work can be seen across all elements of NNC programs as she translates, oftentimes, difficult concepts into practical and pragmatic material.