Until recently, understanding the personal wellbeing of staff was immensely difficult, involving assumption and hearsay.
But now organisations have the opportunity to gain unprecedented insight into the personal wellbeing of their staff via clinically validated anonymised data from chnnl.
chnnl was conceived in 2015 by medical student Elizabeth Berryman. Having heard, witnessed and experienced bullying herself, Elizabeth had a hunch bullying was more prevalent than anyone imagined, so she initiated a national survey of wellbeing across fourth, fifth and sixth-year medical students via the NZMSA. The results were astounding: the survey found that 54% of students had experienced what they perceived as bullying when on clinical placements and 76% had witnessed another student being bullied.
From these results, it became clear to Elizabeth that positive intervention was urgently required. In August of the same year, she partnered with the Dean of the Dunedin Medical School, Professor Barry Taylor and Associate Professor Ralph Pinnock in developing a tool to measure medical student wellbeing. After two successful pilots under the original name Particip8, chnnl was finally ready to extend its support beyond the University and healthcare environments.
Elizabeth was an integral part of an anti-bullying research team at the University of Otago. The project entitled, CAPLE (Creating a Positive Learning Environment) was founded in 2015 in response to concerns about student bullying in clinical areas. The University of Otago charged the CAPLE group to better understand this issue and research ways to combat it. The CAPLE group tested these methods in a number of clinical areas and has 5 publications, listed here.
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Founder and director of chnnl, Liz is a governance guru, with roles on both industry and community-based boards. She has a wealth of experience in the health sector, starting her career as a Registered Nurse in community Maori Health, before becoming a Medical Doctor.
Liz is focused on solutions that help workplaces combat issues such as employee burnout, depression, anxiety and suicide, and is an active researcher in this space. After founding a peer-mentoring program for medical students and seeing its success, she is now wildly passionate about supporting people’s mental wellbeing through digital tools.
Liz has been past President of the Otago University Medical Students' Association, New Zealand Medical Students' Association, Chair of the New Zealand Medical Benevolent Fund, and currently sits on the Ministry of Health's Professional Behaviour Taskforce Group and Health Informatics New Zealand Board.
An executive by nature with a passion for business, a dash of entrepreneurial spirit, and a serendipitous meeting, are what led me to chnnl.
After growing up in rural New Zealand, I attended Auckland University of Technology (AUT) where I completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Economics and Graduate Diploma in Accounting/Finance. I am a full member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA).
Before life with chnnl, I was with the New Zealand arm of a global consulting firm where I worked closely with a diverse range of clients across various commercial industries and high net worth individuals/families.
In addition to my passion for chnnl, I also co-manage a real estate investment business with a focus on motel, multi-unit, and build-to-rent assets.
I have a passion for aviation and hold a Private Pilot Licence (PPL).
With a background in HR and Organisational Psychology, Michelle has a proven track record overseeing a wide spectrum of Human Resources, software development, acquisition and implementation projects for organisations throughout a wide range of industries.
Her experience spans from conceptualisation, budget & goal setting, partnering with key stakeholders to identify and execute cross-functional goals, coordinating RFP processes, project management, technical communication, and end-user training.
With a strong UI/UX focus, she works across the chnnl team, from sales and account management, to product development and general business activities.
Pip gets a kick out of using data to help people. With a background in data and analytics consultancy, project management, process improvement and marketing, Pip gets stuck in wherever we need it. She’s the voice for our clients, ensuring their needs inform our product development, and is focused on improving the way we do things so we can help as many organisations as possible support better mental health and wellbeing in their workplace.
With almost 2 decades of experience across customer success and consultative sales, Monique knows a thing or two about how to take care of her customers and her team. She also knows how important it is to truly understand her client's world to be able to deliver meaningful solutions. Having founded her own company in the natural health & well-being space she is no stranger to what it takes to be a part of an ever-evolving, solutions-based startup. Prior to joining chnnl Monique put her passion for equity into practice as Programme Director for Wahine Connect, a mentoring programme that supports women across the health sector. When not on the chnnl mission to build psychologically safe workplaces you’ll find her wrangling her 2 young boys, Leo & Teddy somewhere in nature.
As a Senior Full Stack React Native Developer, Denis is a well-established professional with a track record of delivering value at varying levels of responsibility. Bringing a high level of technical expertise, Denis is adept with Agile, DevOps and Continuous Improvement practices.
Brad has enjoyed a rewarding career specialising in Account Management and Customer Success around the world. Growing up in Victoria, Brad’s passion for anything sports and health related, has translated into a successful career including founding his own wellness and fitness studio in Sydney.
Brad holds a passion and focus for health and wellbeing which has brought him to chnnl and the motivation to help other businesses increase their awareness of mental health safety within their organisation.Outside of work, Brad enjoys the outdoors such as dirt bike and mountain bike riding including bringing the kids along for a ride in the bush.
With a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and Communications, Lucy is passionate about people, mental health and making a real change in the world.
A current student at the University of Auckland, Emma has a passion for customer-led marketing & products that genuinely help their users. With a background in digital marketing, project management & content creation - Emma's wide range of skills are put to good use with her strong customer focus.
In her spare time, Emma enjoys sailing, wind-surfing and working within her local community to help young girls break barriers to technology-based industries.
Jess' role at chnnl is diverse and centred around all things Customer Success - Sales, Marketing, Implementation Management and Customer Engagement. She’s passionate about customer-centric product development and creating products people can’t live without!
Jess is proud to work for chnnl because of two reasons:
1. chnnl promotes self-awareness around mental-wellbeing, enabling people to take a proactive approach before things become really tough.
2. The app provides organisations with incredible data trends so that they can create optimal working environments for employees!
In her spare time, you can find Jess renovating her house, enjoying a political podcast, spending time with family and soaking up the beach with friends!
Kelz lives for breaking down the walls of discipline and thriving at the intersection of curiosity, innovation, and playfulness.
A Creative Technologist with a background in event management, textiles and sound design, she also has experience in organisational development and creating new opportunities for growth and professional advancement. They are passionate about initiatives that support the wellbeing of intersectional communities, honour Te Tiriti and build a safe and equitable workplace. Currently supporting the CX function at chnnl and using technology to facilitate meaningful cultural change through the power of psychological safety, Kelz gets a kick out of finding creative solutions to make the world a little bit better every day.
Outside of chnnl, she has more interests than one person reasonably should - including fashion, rollerskating, video games, and the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Michael is a helper at heart and loves to see the positive impact of a quality product that has the customer and user needs at its core.
As a “scientist”, Nicole wears two main hats at work: the “exploratory hat”, for ideating on how data and AI technology can be applied for internal projects, and the “implementation hat” for making those projects come to life. Nicole recently finished her Master’s in Data Science degree with first-class honours at The University of Auckland. Before studying computer code, she studied biological code through a genetics undergrad degree.
When not coding away on a personal project, Nicole loves to exercise, find the best food spots in town, watch documentaries and play board games with friends. Nicole feels privileged to work in this area and aims to give back through her work with chnnl.
With a Bachelor of media design, Emily has a passion for human-based and intuitive design solutions. Her background focuses on both graphic and interactive design as she focuses on the values of UI/UX across all her workflows. A strong belief in the importance of people in any industry means Emily is passionate about putting wellbeing at the heart of every business and works across the chnnl team to help deliver the most successful and human-focused design solutions for our clients.
Currently studying the Bachelor of Media Design at Media Design School, Zainal is passionate about contributing to a socially conscious space and actively wants to make a positive impact.
Bianca is currently studying a Bachelor of Business at Massey University, Majoring in Marketing. She is passionate about channelling her creativity and combining it with her marketing qualification and existing social media knowledge to achieve innovation.
With an interest in creative writing, digital marketing, and social media, she researches and creates content for our various platforms. Bianca injects enthusiasm as her values align with chnnl’s vision. She is dedicated to promoting self-awareness around mental wellbeing, enabling people to take a proactive approach.
In her spare time, Bianca enjoys painting, travelling, and spending time with her dog Mojo.
Lee has more than 20 years’ experience internationally in the financial services and technology industries and has held senior executive roles in marketing, strategy and risk in large scale customer-facing businesses.
Lee is based in Sydney and is an Executive of Afterpay as well as being a Non-Executive Director of Xero.
Since starting his first business at the ripe age of 20, Mark Berryman has gone from strength to strength.
His company, So Renovate, has a staff of over 50 people and has featured on the Deloitte Fast 50 index twice. Additionally, he has contributed resources to Habitat for Humanity since he was 15, and is now Chair of the Auckland branch.
With an MBA from the University of Otago, Mark has also been a runner up in the Young New Zealander of the Year Awards and a prior winner of the Upstart business award. Mark is a business coach with a passion for developing young entrepreneurs.
With over 15 years of Digital Marketing experience, Cornelius co-founded Catchi, a partner of choice for clients that want to achieve maximum results from their digital assets. Catchi is Australasia’s leading specialist in Digital Conversion Optimisation.
Catchi's team consists of global experts with vast experience in Digital Marketing and Strategy, customer journey mapping, behavioural economics, digital insights, personalization, growing online sales, effective copywriting, website Systems and (in particular) the fast-growing discipline of Conversion Rate Optimisation.
Due to the success the business has achieved for its clients, Catchi was acquired by the Havas Group in May 2018, one of the largest communication companies in the world with its HQ in Paris.
An accomplished senior manager with 19 years of experience providing innovative and customer-focused solutions across ICT Service delivery, ICT Operations and Procurement with a proven track record of delivering results.
I have managed and lead large and diverse IT operations, IT Service Delivery, and Commercial teams in New Zealand and overseas. I have proven experience in building, training and motivating diverse teams with an innate ability to break down complex information into workable operational tasks.
As a leader, I put a strong emphasis on people and strategic knowledge management, I believe it is important to get the fundamentals right to be able to effectively deliver successful business outcomes. I have always taken an interest in service improvement programmes and initiatives that apply innovation in quality management principles.
My team would describe me as a dynamic, passionate and driven leader with the ability to identify talent and grow people, as well as build strong long-lasting relationships with C-level customers and internal stakeholders.
A network of researchers across the University of Auckland and the University of Otago provides the analysis of data captured by chnnl, including oversight and analysis of the narrative themes from journal entry data.