Debbie Marks – Director, Trainer, Coach and Facilitator
Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Debbie Marks is a business coach, trainer, facilitator, mum and owner of TheEdge Coachingand Training, whose mission is to empower individuals to create the lifestyle that works for them and their employer. With a passion for people and communication, Debbie provides people wanting a holistic lifestyle and workplace flexibility with the support, tools and time to get ahead in their professional and personal lives.
Debbie’s remarkable ability to connect with women of various career and life backgrounds comes from an enriched professional path across diverse continents, industries and roles. After completing a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Melbourne, she served as a Graduate in Human Resources at Colonial Financial Services. Debbie then moved to IBM, where her promotion to Program Manager across Asia Pacific projects bolstered her invaluable skills in project management and cross-cultural workplace relations. Debbie’s five-year relocation to the UK greatly enhanced her communication and cross-cultural teaming skills through work in the Financial Services, Government and IT industries. She also started a family whilst there, which led to the discovery that mums were generally not well-supported once their children were no longer babies and they were attempting to re-join the workforce. Upon returning to Australia in 2008, Debbie decided she was ready to pursue other interests, which included spending more time being a mum and training to become a qualified Business Coach.
In 2009, Debbie completed her Certificate IV in Workplace and Business Coaching and founded The Edge Coachingand Training, which has since grown into an extraordinary service that provides personalised coaching for parents based on industry standard coaching tools and models. Clients can count on Debbie for an open-minded, energetic approach to coaching based on their personal needs, aspirations and strengths.
Debbie has also completed her Certificate IV in Training and Assessment and Level I in Partnership Brokering so she can ensure her program participants are receiving a higher level of facilitation when they undertake a program with The Edge Coaching and Training.
To support her core values as a coach and facilitator, Debbie offers an effective workshop program called "The Working Parent Resilience” Program that empowers parents with five key modules to help them maintain their personal and professional momentum. She also supports organisations to adjust their work environment culture to flexible and activity based working through a variety of programs aimed at senior executives, managers and all employees.
In an effort to give back to the community alongside her corporate work, Debbie has facilitated training for job seekers through Maximus Solutions and Max Employment, acted as a Mentor for disadvantaged women through Fitted For Work and is an active member of School Council.
Amy Elleway - Senior Consultant and Program Designer
Amy has degrees in Commerce and Law and moved from her first career as a Principal Lawyer in the Federal Government to corporate governance, budget development and coordination and program improvement, with a particular focus on regulatory reform and program redesign. Her interest in flexible work theory, and practical implementation, stemmed from the eternal search for the efficiency dividend and continuous business process improvement. She runs two (relatively unrelated) businesses, loves mountain biking, and has lived experience of flexible working outcomes.