People & Culture • Scale-ups • Organisational Growth

I love the point where a great business starts becoming a great organisation.

I’m Lori Ormandy — a People & Culture leader, executive coach and organisation builder. Emerge caught my attention because this is the kind of business-building moment I love: strong ambition, a product I genuinely like, and a smart growth play. I’m interested enough to want to learn much more — particularly about the Founder and Lead Team mindset, how you want to build the company, and what you believe P&C needs to make possible next.

See what I’ve built Download my CV

Why Emerge has my attention

There’s a personal connection for me before there’s a career one. I was an early adopter of SquareOne and use it with my kids. I love the product — it solves a real problem simply, and it gave me an early view of the thinking behind the wider Emerge play.

Product

A product I genuinely like

Giving parents a tool that helps teach their kids the power of good money management is the neatest thing!

Beachhead

A smart place to start

I like how you have built credibility in a focussed market, solved a real problem super well and created options to disrupt a whole industry from that beachhead.

People

Nailing Founder-Market Fit

The way you have combined deep payments expertise, entrepreneurialism and Founder chemistry into an un-replicatable advantage which is super cool.

Curiosity

Rocketship Rides are Rare

It would take a pretty special opportunity to drag me away from AAI, but you guys have turned my head and I want to learn more!

I’ve done this before

One of the coolest times in my career was when I helped Marcus Tan and Adam Yap scale HealthEngine — a fast-growing two-sided marketplace changing the way Australia accesses healthcare. I joined the executive team when they were 7 years in, had 30 people and needed to transform their workforce to scale and grow. We built a super smart and talented team and a culture that helped bring out their best. By the time I left, we were 160 people strong, were at Series D with Sequoia Capital and had created something amazing. I learned so much but 7 years on and having owned my own business, I now know so much more that I would love to put to good use again!

HealthEngine • Chief People & Capability Officer

It was was "all hands on deck" as the business was growing around us. We had to exit some people and convince others to move half way across the world to join the team. It was a ride to say the least!

2xrevenue growth in 18 months as part of a six-person executive team

80technology hires delivered in eight months

90%reduction in probationary mis-hires after redesigning selection

25%improvement in employee engagement

35%improvement in executive-team cohesion and effectiveness

I led PR, External Relations, and People and Culture through 3 funding rounds, a category shift and IPO discovery. With a really small People Operations team we used growth marketing tactics to attract rare talent, technology to build people systems, analytics to track progress, and embed scale-up appropriate policy, performance, culture and leadership tools that investors could trust. I also led executive hiring, organisational redesign as we grew and the evolution of the company’s values and culture to maintain the secret sauce as our growth accelerated.

The lesson: You can't cross the chasm using typical HR practices designed for steady state. Investor money raises the stakes and speed matters. Founders are expected to find the shortest credible path to return so at this age and stage, people and culture foundations need to accelerate the path, not add friction. Think simple foundations, safely built, designed to adapt and appropriately evolve, even in a highly regulated environment where governance can quickly become friction.

What I’m really good at

I’m not a “HR for HR’s sake” person. I’m most useful when the business is trying to grow, change, simplify, build capability or make better decisions about people. I combine commercial judgement, coaching, organisation design and practical delivery.

Turning strategy into people priorities

I help leaders work out what the business actually needs from its people, structure, capability and leadership — then turn that into a manageable plan.

Building leadership muscle

I coach leaders to become clearer, more accountable and more effective — particularly through growth, ambiguity, performance challenges and change.

Creating just enough structure

I like simple systems, useful rhythms and clear expectations. Enough structure to scale. Not so much process that the organisation loses speed or humanity.

How I think about scaling P&C

I would never arrive with a pre-baked HR playbook. Every business has different growth dynamics, leadership strengths and cultural assets. But these are the questions I tend to work through first.

Understand what must not be lost

What is special about the culture today? What gives the business speed, trust and edge?

Strengthen managers early

Good managers multiply performance. Weak management debt compounds quickly as headcount grows.

Create simple people rhythms

Hiring, onboarding, feedback, goals, performance, talent and communication should become predictable without becoming heavy.

Build for the next stage

Organisation design, workforce planning and role clarity need to stay just ahead of growth — not years ahead of it.

Keep listening

Scaling well means noticing where complexity, friction or cultural drift is emerging before it becomes expensive.

The thing I’d want to understand first

For me, the Founder and Lead Team mindset is critical. A P&C leader can build good systems, but whether they help or hinder the business depends enormously on what the leadership team believes about people, performance, ownership, pace and culture.

01 • FOUNDERS

What are you trying to preserve?

What has made Emerge successful so far? What do the founders never want to lose as the company grows — and where are you willing to evolve?

02 • LEAD TEAM

How do you want to lead?

How does the Lead Team think about accountability, talent, performance, decision-making and leadership? What behaviours will matter most at the next stage?

03 • P&C

What do you actually want P&C to enable?

Is the ambition to build an excellent HR function — or to build a better company? I’m much more interested in the second question.

Why that matters to me

I’ve learned that fit at this level is two-way. I’m genuinely excited by what I can see of Emerge from the outside, but I’d want to spend time understanding the people building it before deciding I absolutely want the role. If the Founder and Lead Team philosophy is aligned with the kind of organisation I love helping build — ambitious, accountable, low-ego, human and willing to keep things simple — then I suspect there could be a very interesting fit.

Career in context

My career has moved between large complex organisations, high-growth businesses, consulting and executive coaching. That combination shapes how I work today: strategic enough to see the system, practical enough to work in the detail.

NOW

AA Insurance

Head of Partnering, Advisory & Wellbeing. Enterprise P&C, workforce, leadership, organisational change and wellbeing.

2019–2025

Ormandy Growth

Founder, executive coach and P&C consultant working with business owners, executives and leadership teams.

2015–2019

HealthEngine

Chief People & Capability Officer in a rapidly scaling Australian health-tech business.

EARLIER

BHP • Resource Equipment • Minara • Hatch

Executive HR, organisational change, workforce planning, employee relations and leadership across resources and engineering.

“I’m at my best where there is something to build — a better leadership rhythm, a clearer organisation, a stronger culture or a people system that makes growth easier rather than harder.”

A bit about me

Work matters to me, but I’m not only my job. I’m curious, direct, warm and energised by people who care about building something meaningful.

On the water — where I’m happiest

Outside work

Sailing keeps me honest.

I’m a racing sailor and Chair of the House at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron (RNZYS). The role is focused on helping strengthen the member experience, belonging and connection across Squadron life. I love sailing for the mix of judgement, teamwork, preparation and adaptability — because the plan always meets reality once you’re on the water.

SailingLeadershipCoachingBuildingSquareOne customer

How I show up

Commercial. Curious. Low ego.

I ask a lot of questions, prefer straight conversations, and care about the difference between a good idea and something people can actually use. I’m comfortable coaching at the executive table and equally comfortable rolling up my sleeves to build the thing.