Our people.

Chief People Officer

An effervescent presence on Janison’s executive leadership team, for nearly three decades Denise has been shaking up traditional HR with an approach that empowers, rather than shackles, high-performance teams.

With a CV that is an adventure to read in itself, her unconventional approach has seen her lead change in high-growth environments across technology, finance, telco, the public sector and non-government organisations, and earn respect from her Australian industry peers.

She led staff as their company grew from 220 employees to 2,500+ within two years (Vocus), consolidated a telco from five entities into one by mobilising its people (CommsChoice Group) and merged eight entities into one national employer (Environmental Defenders Office). Her own consultancy Hanlon HR has carved out a niche specialisation in M&As which adds tangible value to the headline company by bringing people along with change.

Denise believes in frequent internal communication, minimising over-engineered “fun police” aspects of HR, and views the employee population as “fully-fledged adults who are awesome unless they prove otherwise”.

She holds an MBA and a Masters of Finance and can currently be seen grinning from the sides of Sydney buses for the latest Cancer Council campaign – and occasionally a cabaret stage or two.