About Gabriel Edwards

How often do you take time to reflect on the impact executive life is having on your personal well-being; On your personal and professional relationships; Or your ability to sustain high performance?
Fourteen years ago, as People Strategy Lead for a major business transformation, I realised I neglected this. My health and relationships suffered. I observed that many of my senior leadership colleagues were faced with the same challenge. Talent and motivation was in abundance but the sustained pressures associated with leading change, intense competition and shifting priorities took its toll on our ability to reflect, learn, connect and regroup.

As an expert in organisation development and people strategy,
I knew I had to lead on this.
Drawing on my counselling background, I reflected on emerging business and technological trends and on the emotional patterns I was observing across many different industry sectors and business environments.
It was time to put into action, a long-held belief:
‘real transformation only comes when people are fully engaged, and this engagement must happen before people and businesses start to effect change!’

Engaging People

In 2005 I used these insights to create Engaging People, a niche People Strategy consultancy supporting the efforts of CEOs, HR GMs and CFOs leading major business transformation. Engaging People has developed complex bespoke People Strategies that successfully enable and drive business culture, brand identity and business transformation.
Engaging People has worked with Rio Tinto, World Vision Australia, RMIT, Flight Centre, World Directories (Europe), REA Group, Port of Brisbane Authority, Qld Main Roads, Southern Health, Spectrum Migrant Resource Centre, Circus Oz and many individual Board Directors, HR Executives and CEOs as private counselling clients.

Breathing Space

In January 2017, I established Breathing Space to provide confidential counselling and highly-skilled facilitation services for Business Leaders, Performing Artists and their teams.
At Breathing Space, I bring 25 years business experience and strong counselling skills to provide a much needed service for business leaders, performing artists and their teams.
Breathing Space is a safe confidential space for high performing professionals to drop their ‘game face’.
A space to observe; reflect; and navigate their way through life’s challenges without losing professional momentum or compromising their relationships and their own health and well-being.

Gabriel Edwards Professional Profile

Gabriel Edwards is the Managing Director of Engaging People, a successful People Strategy Consultancy established in 2005. She is also a trained counsellor and the founder of Breathing Space a unique counselling and facilitation service for business leaders and performing artists, established in January 2017.

Gabriel is a respected people strategist with an enviable reputation for delivering quality People Strategies addressing complex business issues and enabling major business transformation in Australia and Europe.

For the past 17 years she has designed unique People Strategies that support rebranding activities, mergers and acquisitions, business culture change, employee engagement strategies, head office relocations, leadership change and global restructures for large organisations across all industry sectors.

As Managing Director of Engaging People she has worked with World Vision Australia, RMIT, Rio Tinto, Flight Centre, World Directories (Europe), Seek, REA Group, VicRoads, VicSuper, QLD Main Roads, Port of Brisbane Authority, Southern Health and Circus Oz.

Gabriel is an experienced Board Director, a member of Women on Boards and a member of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia.

Experienced Facilitator

Gabriel is also a highly skilled and sought after facilitator with 25 years’ experience facilitating complex business processes for leadership teams. She specialises in facilitating conflict resolution, business strategy transformation, ‘live’ survey and business crisis debriefing processes. She is an expert in Open Space Facilitation, team-conflict resolution and Appreciative Inquiry facilitation processes.

Gabriel’s employee engagement and internal brand strategies have been recognised with four Australian Human Resource Industry Awards. Boards and a member of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia.

Public Speaker

Gabriel is a skilled public speaker with a rare ability to ‘cut through the noise’ and provide authentic – and often entertaining – insights into the human dynamics that drive or de-rail business performance.

Some of Gabriel’s recent conference presentations include:

  • Managing Yourself and Others Through Change.
  • Engagement, Retention and the Bottom Line.
  • The Truth About Employee Engagement.
  • Whats an EVP anyway?
  • Rules of Engagement – What I learnt from the ‘bad boys’.
  • Generations of Learning – What’s all the noise about?
  • he Truth about Teams, Engagement and Leadership.

Gabriel’s compelling presentations and interactive workshops are guaranteed to provide valuable personal and professional insights for leaders and their employees.

Principal Counsellor and Facilitator at Breathing Space

At Breathing Space, Gabriel provides a unique counselling service for business leaders and performing artists who face similar personal and professional challenges sustaining high performance under immense pressure.

Having worked on executive teams and advised many CEOs, Executives and Board Directors across many industries and sectors, Gabriel has a deep understanding of the complexities, day-to-day and long term pressures faced by business leaders today, as well as the impacts this is having on leaders’ health and well-being.

A growing number of Board Directors, HR Executives, CEOs and Performing Artists are seeking her counselling and facilitation