Experience

BodyGuide

• Health, Wellness & Fitness

• Advisor and Investor

  • 2019 - Present



Words and Beyond Pty Ltd

• Owner

  • Jan 1999 - Present

  We help your organisation develop a culture that values and delivers clear communication. Words & Beyond is founded on the belief that clear communication enhances the way you, and your organisation, interact with readers. Those readers might be your customers or clients, your investors, your staff, or anyone. This founding belief has been the driving force behind our business since it began in 1999. One of the key things we do is help your people write in a refreshingly clear style. A style that ensures – perhaps, for the first time – that your documents reflect and enhance your organisation’s brand. As we see it, an organisation’s documents help form “the voice of its brand”. If that “voice” is easy to read, to understand, and to use, then the organisation’s documents enhance its brand every time someone reads them. This is true for law firms, for companies, and for government. Services We help your organisation develop a culture that values and delivers clear communication. We do that by: -- training and coaching your people in plain-language writing, grammar, email etiquette, punctuation and other courses; -- rewriting and editing your documents; -- providing clear-communication cultural-change services; and -- preparing engaging and persuasive style guides that people want to use. Clients and Experience Clients include more than 20 government bodies, more than 30 public listed companies, 8 major national law firms (and other law firms), the Labour Organization of the United Nations, and the European Central Bank. Our team has a combined 50 years of experience in plain-language training, professional services and the law. We are recognised both locally and internationally as leading plain-language advocates and providers. Christopher is the former president of Clarity, see http://www.clarity-international.net/



Birds of King Island “BOKI”

• Steering Committee Member

  • 2014 - 2020

  BOKI aims to research and protect the Island’s birds, and to encourage bird-related tourism to the Island. 2014-ongoing. BOKI aims to research and protect the Island’s birds, and to encourage bird-related tourism to the Island. 2014-ongoing.



Yarra Riverkeeper Association

• Australia
• Environmental Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• President

  • Aug 2015 - 2019

  Formed in 2004, the Yarra Riverkeeper Association has become the primary ‘voice of the river’. We monitor the Yarra’s health, and keep track of the many activities affecting it. We run river tours and give presentations to educate students, community groups, government and businesses about the need for us all to protect this vital asset. We tell the river’s stories, highlighting its heritage and wonders, as well as its challenges. See http://yarrariver.org.au/ We are a member of the growing and successful international Waterkeeper movement of community groups around the world caring for their local waterways. See http://waterkeeper.org/



Robyn Boyd Foundation

• Australia
• Research Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Director

  • 2013 - 2019

  The Robin Boyd Foundation continues the work and spirit of Robin Boyd through an active, innovative and ongoing series of public learning programs developed to increase individual and community awareness, understanding and participation in design. Through the Foundation’s extensive program of open house days, design studios, musical performances, lectures and seminars it actively provides a valuable opportunity for critical discussion on all areas of architecture, art, design and craft. The Foundation connects people from diverse design fields, invigorates creative practice in Melbourne, and exposes the wider community to design ideas. The Foundation operates from Walsh Street, the house Boyd designed for his own family in 1957. 'Walsh Street' , is his most well-known work. It has been extensively published both nationally and internationally as an exemplar of modernist Australian architecture and a house that continues to influence architectural thinking. The Foundation is a ‘not-for-profit’ Company Limited by Guarantee and is a registered Tax Deductible Gift Recipient. Donations over $2.00 are tax deductible.



Professional Standards Committee of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia

• Member

  • 2009 - 2013

  Legal representative on the Professional Standards Committee of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia, 2009-13. Led major rewrite of the Institute’s policies for standards. Legal representative on the Professional Standards Committee of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia, 2009-13. Led major rewrite of the Institute’s policies for standards.



Cleardocs Pty Ltd

• Founder, Owner and Managing Director

  • Mar 2000 - Jun 2011

  Cleardocs is an online provider of Australian legal documents, see www.cleardocs.com. Christopher founded Cleardocs in 2000. In 2011, Cleardocs was acquired by ThomsonReuters for an undisclosed sum. Christopher continued to work part-time for Cleardocs until June 1012. Cleardocs is an online provider of Australian legal documents, see www.cleardocs.com. Christopher founded Cleardocs in 2000. In 2011, Cleardocs was acquired by ThomsonReuters for an undisclosed sum. Christopher continued to work part-time for Cleardocs until June 1012.



Wollangarra Outdoor Education Center

• Chair, and Council Member

  • 1988 - 2011

  Wollangarra is an independent, non-profit organisation situated beside the Macalister River south of Licola, Victoria. Through outdoor education, Wollangarra aims to provide a small but vital step towards a healthier environment, a stronger community and happier young people. We believe that by doing rather than talking, and fixing rather than complaining, we can help young people to see environmental issues as exciting and demanding challenges to the way we live, rather than as endlessly depressing and negative threats to our future. Wollangarra is a unique and simple place. There is no electricity and access is via flying fox across the river. Everything is in the old style, including wood fired stoves and boilers, open fire places and old gas lights. All of the materials used to build Wollangarra came in over the flying fox, were hauled through the river, or were cut from the surrounding bush and shaped using traditional bush tools and skills. 1256 sleepers from the old Ghan Railway were used in the construction of the drop slab style homestead and the various outbuildings, as well as a mountain of other materials salvaged from 14 old houses that were demolished around Victoria. Hundreds of volunteers came from all over the state to take on the task of helping a project they believed in. The pioneer style homestead accommodates up to 24 young people in a simple but comfortable way. There are no timetables or bells, watches or mobile phones. Wollangarra offers young people the chance get away from all that and discover the heart of Victoria's high country in small, well supervised hiking groups. They are then given the opportunity to return on follow-up programs and become part of an ongoing program of practical conservation in the nearby mountains.



Phillips Fox (now DLA Piper)

• Head of Plain English Department

  • 1992 - 1999

  Christopher joined the Melbourne office of Phillips Fox in late 1992 — a time when law firms had traditionally rejected plain language and the value it adds to business. Christopher helped the firm to become, and to be known as, a leader in clear legal communication. He did that: • by advocating plain language in the firm, at conferences, and in the media; • by training the firm’s partners and staff in Australia and New Zealand; • by helping to rewrite the firm’s precedents in plain language; and • by rewriting documents for clients. In 2000, Phillips Fox conducted a brand audit that showed that the clarity of the firm's advice and documents, and its plain-language rewriting services, were highly recognised and valued by clients and potential clients.



AMP Limited

• United Kingdom
• Textile Manufacturing
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Consultant (on secondment from Phillips Fox)

  • 1996 - 1998

  After a tendering process, AMP appointed Phillips Fox to provide plain-language services throughout 1996. Christopher moved to Sydney to provide those services. The contract was renewed for 1997 and again until 30 June 1998. For those 2.5 years, Christopher worked full-time in-house for AMP in Sydney. Christopher was a key part of AMP’s ongoing plain-language project that aimed: • to review, rethink, and rewrite every document used to communicate with customers and shareholders; • to transfer plain-language skills to AMP staff. Christopher ran 100 x 1.5 day plain-language training courses for AMP people throughout Australia and New Zealand; and • to develop and implement AMP’s Customer Communication Strategy. The Strategy aimed to commit all staff to plain language and to enable them to write documents that were so clear that they enhanced AMP’s brand in the eyes of readers. The key to the strategy involved creating a group of specialist clear communicators and distributing a kit to all staff. The clear communicators act as change-agents and writing coaches for their colleagues. The kit provides techniques and solutions relevant to clear communication -- including a user-friendly style guide that staff actually use.



Law Reform Commission of Victoria

• Research Solicitor

  • 1990 - 1991

  Reassigned as Director of the Commission’s plain-language business, 1992. Reassigned as Director of the Commission’s plain-language business, 1992.



Baker & McKenzie

• United States
• Law Practice
• 700 & Above Employee

• Articled Clerk and Associate

  • 1987 - 1989

  Solicitor in the property law department at the world's first international law firm. Solicitor in the property law department at the world's first international law firm.