CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF TRANSFORMING CONFLICT INTO COLLABORATION.
Meet the team behind ProActive ReSolutions
Our experts are passionate about delivering the benefits of ProActive’s solutions to our clients. Our team members draw on their extensive collective training, qualifications, and experience in multiple disciplines, such as employee relations, human resources management, law, leadership development, adult education, communications, psychology, restorative justice, social policy, academia, and policing.
JOHN McDONALD
Founder and CEO of ProActive Australia
As a father and grandfather, CEO and founding member of ProActive Resolutions, and as someone with an insatiable curiosity about the human experience, John has a clear commitment to working with individuals and organisations wanting to build a better world. His background includes ten years in education, time as a manager in a large Community Centre, a decade with the NSW Police Service, a coordinating role with the Australian Federal Police and the Australian National University in Australia’s first Randomised Controlled Trial in the social sciences, and now twenty years in a leadership role at ProActive ReSolutions.
The multiple-award winning feature film Face to Face, is based on John's work in restorative justice. In working with clients in the government, corporate, academic, community and faith-based sectors in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia, John has a unique capacity to listen-in to people’s concerns and aspirations and help transform them into reality. When not working, John is an aging triathlete, surfer and avid reader.
RICHARD HART
Founder and Chief Conflict Specialist
Richard plays keys roles in ProActive’s corporate strategy, product development, corporate legal issues, business development and continuing to build and sustain our corporate culture. Richard is a lawyer, a mediator and an arbitrator with over 25 years in conflict management and dispute resolution. He is actively involved in the delivery of ProActive’s products and services to prevent difficulties between people, increase collaboration, and build/maintain respectful workgroups and communities and has a sensational track record of working with groups in high-conflict, especially those challenged by bullying, harassment, threats and violence. Richard continues to present internationally on topics such as bullying, harassment, threats and violence, as well as ProActive’s expertise, evidence-based approaches to restoring cooperation among people experiencing difficult workplace dynamics.
Outside of work Richard has an abiding interest in the martial arts, an ongoing fascination with Japan, and is a gifted artist and a voracious reader.
ANNABEL CHAN
Forensic Psychologist/Threat Assessment Expert
Dr. Chan is a clinical and forensic psychologist with over 16 years of global experience in threat assessment, case consultation, and leadership across prisons, hospitals, universities, and private practice. As the current President of the Asia Pacific Association of Threat Assessment Specialists (APATAS), she leads the region’s premier professional network dedicated to advancing best practices in threat assessment and violence prevention.
Annabel specialises in helping organisations identify, assess, and manage risk, with a focus on fostering psychologically safe and inclusive environments. Her work combines evidence-based practice with trauma-informed and restorative approaches, supporting universities, corporations, and government agencies to navigate complex cases and build sustainable systems for early intervention.
Committed to amplifying the voices of minority groups, Annabel’s psychotherapy practice provides a safe and affirming space for LGBTQIA+, QTBIPOC, and neurodivergent communities. Drawing on both her professional expertise and lived experience as a queer, neurodivergent Chinese migrant, she brings cultural awareness, compassion, and strategic insight to her work, helping teams repair relationships, strengthen trust, and align their actions with shared values.
ASHLEY MOORE
Strategic Project Advisor
Ashley guides organizations through complex conflict by focusing on opportunities for transformative change. With over 15 years of experience in the field, her work focuses on opportunities that arise at the intersection of complex conflict and the principles of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Ashley's practical expertise spans program development, facilitation, and restorative justice processes. Ashley is dedicated to helping people and systems thrive.
An avid outdoor enthusiast, Ashley spends her free time in the mountains and rivers of British Columbia.
CLIFFORD SHEARING
VP, Strategy and Design
Clifford entered adulthood as a cowboy where he realised the pivotal role that power has in altering the future when he was kicked off the farm he was working on. He is a sociologist by training and criminologist by profession. He continues to work widely in academic environments in Australia, Canada and South Africa where he applies his knowledge in risks and regulation from the traditional criminological context and bringing it forward into the 21st century to risks such as climate change and cyber security. His current research focus centres on the impacts of evolving global risks posed to critical infrastructure. He is an avid indoor rower and has a keen interest in understanding and supporting sustainable ecosystems. His present topics of interest are mycelium and regenerative farming.
HIN WAH LI
Client Engagement and Research Specialist
Hin Wah runs ProActive’s operations in Australia. She is fascinated by what motivates and drives changes in people’s behaviours. From her time as an organic chemist, she has a PhD in Chemistry from the Australian National University, to her time as a science communicator at the Australian Academy of Science and as an environmental education consultant for schools in Cape Town, South Africa; she is always on the lookout for opportunities to apply her skills in new contexts. Prior to joining ProActive in 2018, she co-ran a not-for-profit environmental organisation in South Africa. Hin Wah is a career learner who enjoys reading the New Scientist. Her current interests are drumming and vegan & gluten free cooking.
LAURA MACK
Conflict Engagement Specialist
Laura’s grounded and calm facilitation style often creates an immediate sense of trust for a team. This trust enables the openness needed to tackle and process real issues while participating in ProActive’s various conflict engagement and respectful workplace training services. Laura specializes in virtual facilitation. In addition to her other work, Laura consulted with the BC Health Authorities, coaching leaders and providing leadership development.
Laura completed an Executive MBA at the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University. Laura is very passionate about non-profit work. She has facilitated #BESTYOUth, an emotional and social intelligence program for youth in several British Columbia high schools. Laura has also volunteered with the North Shore Restorative Justice Society for many years, co-facilitating restorative justice files as an alternative to criminal court proceedings.
MADELEINE DIGNAM
Conflict Engagement Specialist
Maddy has a social science background and over 20 years of experience as a stakeholder and community engagement manager, across federal and state government. Maddy has spent most of her professional life supporting organisations to manage complex projects and resolve conflicts between various parties. She has extensive experience facilitating conversations and supporting people to hear one another’s perspectives to restore and rebuild positive working relationships. She has experience across natural resource management, communities and justice, not for profits, the arts, community development, natural disasters, health, aged care and emergency management.
Maddy has extensive experience supporting organisations with conflict between and within teams and also with external parties. Her insight into systemic issues and organisational and human systems is combined with her empathy, compassion and ability to build trust and engagement with our clients. Maddy has a particular passion for improving workplace culture with inclusive, culturally aware practices, building psychologically safe workplaces and improving the outcomes for First Nations people.
MARC PAULEZ
VP, Finance
Marc joined ProActive ReSolutions in late 2018 as the Vice-President, Finance (Global). Marc started his career with a Big Four firm in London, England where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant. After working for a multinational bank in the City of London, he returned to Vancouver where he continued to work in financial services. He brings experience in finance, treasury, accounting, corporate governance, and regulatory compliance. Marc also teaches MBA students at Simon Fraser University.
Outside of work, Marc is a fan of sports documentaries and classic Motown music. Marc also caught the “travel bug” while living in London, travelling to different cities in Europe and Africa. His bucket list travel destinations include the Dalmatian Coast and going back to his favourite parrilla in the Once neighbourhood in Buenos Aires.
MAX KIMBER
Senior Manager, Conflict Transformation
Max commenced as a practising barrister in 1979 after completing postgraduate studies in the USA on a Fulbright Scholarship. He was appointed Senior Counsel in 1999.
The focus of his work as a barrister has been on the resolution of workplace issues and employment contract disputes via litigation in Federal and State courts.
Following the training as a Mediator in 1992, Max has also developed a broad based practice in dispute resolution involving the mediation of contractual and other commercial disputes, wills and estates, employment and personal injury matters.
Max sees himself as a “resolutionary” – committed to prevention and early intervention strategies to minimise and deescalate conflict with a focus on fostering better communication and listening skills and on the utilisation of restorative processes.
SHIRLEY NAKATA
Strategic Project Advisor
Shirley is a key Strategic Project Advisor at ProActive. She brings deep and broad experience across a variety of fields as an Ombudsperson in the university sector, a lawyer at a large firm, a human rights investigator at the Canadian Human Rights Commission and as a Director of Professional Conduct for the self-regulatory body for teachers in BC.
Shirley’s professional and volunteer work has been centred in advancing justice, equity, diversity and inclusion through an anti-racism and decolonization lens. When not at work, she’s an avid reader, foodie and cookbook collector.
SUZANNE STEWART
VP, Client Services
As VP of Client Services, Suzanne has been supporting ProActive’s clients through high-emotion, high-profile engagements for over five years. Balancing client desires against a range of potential risks – legal, brand, safety, etc. – has been key to her success. Suzanne handles implementation in all ProActive’s practice areas, directly managing large-scale projects and coaching leaders to show up well during interventions.
Prior to joining ProActive, Suzanne spent over ten years managing a meeting facilitation company in Toronto. Before that, Suzanne studied political philosophy at Simon Fraser University, University of Victoria, and University of Toronto.
When off the clock, Suzanne walks her kid's dog and trades recipes and cooking tips with members of her foodie network.
OUR "WHY"
Conflict well-managed unlocks true safety,
deep collaboration, and resilience.
CORE PRINCIPLES:
No blame
No blame does not mean no accountability. Consider that blame is in our DNA as a legacy of the criminal justice system. We are our favourite topic of conversation, and we talk about each other incessantly, often blaming everyone except ourselves for what isn’t going well. What could an escape from a framework and narrative that assigns blame open up for all of us?
Normalize, don’t pathologize
First, conflict happens everywhere, all the time. It’s not a sign that a person is “broken” or “bad” or even “wrong” when they are in conflict with us. Second, acknowledging the False Attribution Error is the first step in seeking to understand.
Listen-in
Listen-in asks that we stop our train of thought and try to hook into the other’s experience. It invites curiosity. By listening-in we begin to access local knowledge and capacity, a key principle to deliver on performance. And, yes, genuine listening-in can be difficult - especially when we are in conflict.