Ken McDonald

Ken established his organization consulting business Mastering Management in 1999 and became an Associate of MAC at that time. He has consulted to a large number of organizations in Australia and Canada since. Prior to consulting, Ken was mostly in a wide range of leadership roles in mining and mineral processing organizations for over 25 years. Ken is a Mining Engineer, graduating with Honours from University of Queensland in 1972. He first worked for Utah Development Company as a mine planning engineer and a shift supervisor at the Goonyella coal mine in Central Queensland. He then moved to the Weipa bauxite operations in the Cape York where he was the Mine Planning Superintendent, then the Mine Manager for Comalco. He moved to Canada to work as a long term planning engineer in the Syncrude open-cut tarsand operations at Fort McMurray, Alberta. He returned to Weipa as the Mine Manager with extended accountabilities for maintenance, mine planning as well as the mine, railway and regeneration operations. The role included a significant amount of work with the local indigenous people. In 1987 he moved to Canberra for one year to work for the Department of Industrial Relations, monitoring industrial disputes, advising and contributing to work reform strategies with other Federal Government Departments. From 1988, he worked in a number of General Manager roles with Comalco/Rio Tinto in Brisbane. These included business analysis, project management, technical effectiveness and organisational effectiveness. This role involved advice on major change management programs and work on HR systems. Since March 1999 he has established his own consulting business working on projects for Comalco, Caltex Australia, Commonwealth Bank, Pacific National, Queensland Alumina, Rio Tinto Coal, Uniting Church, CVRD INCO in Canada and many others. He has worked in a wide range of areas, from strategic planning to skills development for team leaders. Project Management and Systems design are areas of special interest. Outside of work, Ken has a wide range of interests in sport, public affairs and music. He is married to Heather and has three married children Murray, Janet and Fraser. Ken and Heather live in Brisbane.