Hi I’m Angela Atkins. I co-founded Elephant back in 2006 (which now feels like medieval times!!). Back then I’d been working in HR and learning for 10 years and had seen some pretty bad training (you know, when you’re sitting in a presentation and it’s so bad you want to gnaw your own arm off).
So we decided that we would start a company that offered FUN, PRACTICAL and UNFORGETTABLE training. And we called it Elephant, because elephants never forget.
We started with employment law and HR consulting. Over the next few years we expanded to workshops on all different aspects of HR. Then we launched L&D training, and OD, and payroll and talent acquisition. We ran conferences around the world, and in 2016 launched the company in Australia, and the UK. I now live between Spain, France and the UK. I still consult to Elephant, designing learning, marking and reviewing the final assignments for our Certificate programmes to make sure they are delivering.
My other passion is writing. In 2009 my first book Management Bites was published by HarperCollins. It covered how to manage a team and we then launched training based on the book. In 2010 I followed it up with Employment Bites about delivering great HR, and have now written two further Bites books. I also run writing groups and writing training in Spain and the UK, will shortly finish Writing Bites, a book about how to be a writer. And my novel Britpop Summer came out last year. I’m currently working on the sequel Live Forever. You can check out more about my books and writing at angela-atkins.com.
Our team
Over the years we’ve had awesome people work with us, as facilitators, presenters at conferences, consultant and to keep our operations running. Here are some of our core team, and our guest presenters:
Nikki Peck
Nikki has over 20 years of generalist HR experience working in diverse sectors such as health, engineering, utilities, retail and not-for-profit. Nikki has a Post Graduate Diploma in HR and works as an HR consultant for various businesses as well as running Elephant workshops. She always gets fantastic reviews as a facilitator and is passionate about providing practical and useful answers. Nikki was named one of the best HR people in NZ in 2018.
Melanie Brewer
Melanie is an experienced and passionate HR Practitioner with 14+ years’ experience who has worked in the public and private sectors across the full range of HR disciplines ranging from ER to HR Strategy. She started her career in law, which included 4 years as an employment lawyer, before she made the leap into HR, and she’s hasn’t looked back! She’s particularly enthusiastic about building peoples’ capability in workshops in practical and engaging ways.
Laura Trethewey
Laura has an HR career that includes roles with Wilson Hellaby, Walter and Wild and Auckland Meat Processors. She founded People Ninja’s in 2020 to provide innovative and adaptive HR solutions to businesses. Laura has expertise in HR, Health and Safety and Learning and Development. She prides herself in being pragmatic, creative and transparent in the way she works and has a Bachelor of Business in HR and Employment Relations.
Ilze Walton
Ilze is a Senior People and Culture Consultant and has a Bachelor of Business, majoring in Human Resources Management. She has a blend of experience working within and consulting to different types of organisations and as an accredited coach and practitioner, Ilze has experience diagnosing organisational effectiveness, and implementing culture and behavioural change solutions, using different tools and techniques.
Vanessa Webb
Vanessa’s HR roles include in health, law enforcement and social services. She has also worked as a Labour Inspector with the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, where she honed her skills in investigation work and Holidays Act compliance. Vanessa has a Post Graduate Diploma in HR with Massey University, has a Private Investigator license and enjoys helping resolve conflicts and tease out complex HR situations.
Angela Evans
Angela Evans is a partner at BE Employment Law, a newly established specialist firm she co-founded. She has over 15 years as an employment lawyer providing clear, practical advice in all areas of HR. Angela has presented at elephant conferences and workshops for several years and gets rave reviews for her presentations and advice.
Elephant Group 