Built on institutional leadership
Founded by Benjie-Etta Norman on twenty years of executive experience across higher education, edtech, health, biotech, NGOs and institutional transformation.
We work with universities, government agencies, peak bodies, and the public-purpose institutions that hold civic life together, across Australia, the Asia-Pacific and the United Kingdom. Strategy. Governance. Growth. Our network is small by design: senior voices in education, health, policy and public leadership across Australia and New Zealand, chosen one engagement at a time.
We take on a small number of engagements at any time. Every engagement is shaped and delivered by senior practitioners who have led institutions and shaped national policy from the inside. The people in the room at the start are the people in the room at the end. We design for the decade after the engagement, not the quarter after the report.
Three practices
- Strategy & Growth. Strategy and growth for universities and public-purpose institutions: transnational education, precinct development, innovation-ecosystem design and partnership architecture, from the diagnostic through to the Council paper.
- Investment & Market Entry. High-stakes feasibility studies and business cases, analytically robust and fiscally sound, written to survive Board, Council and Ministerial scrutiny.
- Leadership & Executive Facilitation. Leadership intensives and executive facilitation. Our flagship Leadership Evolution program builds shared purpose, sharpens decisions and steadies senior leaders.
Leadership Evolution
Our flagship leadership intensive, designed and led with Ray Lind ONZM, The Hon. Dame Annette King, and Professor Emeritus Margaret Hay. The room learns to make harder decisions, faster. It works across four themes: identity-informed leadership, operational trust, succession and mentoring, and governance under pressure.
Our philosophy and methods
Strategy is a discipline of judgement. The best institutions are built, not branded: shaped by clear thinking, honest evidence, and the courage to make consequential decisions in public. We work with four proprietary instruments:
- Governance Tension Framework. A diagnostic for public-purpose decisions, with trust at the centre and three forces in tension around it: external environment, community voice and best practice.
- Twenty-Year Horizon. A purpose-articulation discipline: what the institution exists to make true in the world by 2046, used to reframe everything happening now.
- Sustainability Frame. A multi-dimensional reframe of the financial case across eight dimensions (financial, mission, reputational, capability, partnership, social licence, regulatory, workforce), returning a four-mode verdict.
- First Nations Stewardship. Co-stewardship at the levels of governance, delivery and place.
Recent work
Recent engagements include the strategic renewal of a university-Commonwealth joint initiative, the strategic and partnership case for a new national research centre on social policy, a federated operating model for a group of health research institutes, a clinical trials network business case, a women's health equity plan for a major university health institute, and international market-entry feasibility across the Asia-Pacific and South Asia.
The bench: seven advisors
- Benjie-Etta Norman, Founder & Managing Principal
- Professor Emeritus Margaret Hay, Senior Advisor, Education, Health & Innovation Strategy
- Belinda Harries, Senior Advisor, Strategy, Partnerships & Business Development
- Dr Bronwyn Hinz, Senior Advisor, Policy, Research & Strategy
- Jacob Thomas, Senior Advisor, Research, Inclusion & Global Partnerships
- Ray Lind ONZM, Lead Facilitator, Leadership Evolution
- The Hon. Dame Annette King, Lead Facilitator, Leadership Evolution
Australian University Intelligence
CoreBridge publishes a free public data tool benchmarking all 36 of Australia's public universities on open government data: students, staff, finance, research, equity and catchments, each benchmarked against the sector, mission group and state medians and tracked over time. Built on more than 23 million rows of open government data across over 3,000 public files. Open the University Intelligence tool.
Perspectives
Long-form papers on higher-education strategy and the Australian university sector. Read our perspectives.
Contact
Tell us what's actually on the table: transformation, strategy, leadership, governance under pressure, or a problem you can't yet name. Email benjie@corebridgeadvisory.com.au.