Our Experience

For more information about Frank Handy, Steve Lancken, and Paul Gibson, the individual principals of The Trillium Group, see the Principals page of the website.  This page gives general information about the history, work and clients of Trillium and its principals.

Frank Handy and his colleagues established the Trillium Group in 1998, while he was an owner of the Stitt Feld Handy Group, one of Canada’s leading ADR practise and training organisations.   Frank and his colleagues first came to Australia from Canada to conduct a number of public workshops in joint venture with the Melbourne University Faculty of Law; this relationship had been facilitated through contacts between Michael Tilbury and Jeff Berryman, then professors at Melbourne and the University of Windsor in Canada, respectively. The ADR and Mediation Training program was one of the first of its kind in Australia, and fed into the growing interest in mediation and ADR in Australia.  At this time, the Trillium Group was centred in Melbourne, but soon was conducting work in a number of other Australian centres, including Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth.  In addition to public training programs, Trillium Group began to conduct training and consulting programs for private and public organisations.

Steve Lancken joined the Trillium Group in 2001; the main office moved to Sydney, where Steve’s practise was already well established, and new relationships with other universities were set up. Steve was already a practising mediator, and worked on training programs with principals of Stitt Feld Handy in Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, and Asia to expand his expertise.  He has since 2001 conducted a significant amount of training under the Trillium banner.

Paul Gibson comes from a business management and consulting background; he has worked with Frank and Steve for a number of years, and officially became a principal as of August 1, 2010.  Paul has enormous experience in a wide variety of industries, and has been responsible for extensive training and adult education programs. He has been instrumental in renewing the training programs with Frank and Steve.

Either with Stitt Feld Handy or the Trillium Group, the principals of Trillium have conducted training across Australia, the UK, Canada, the USA, the Caribbean, and in Africa and Asia.  

• Australia Post
• QANTAS
• Delta Electricity
• BBC Australia
• Cambridge Integrated Services
• Elton Consulting
• Gilbert & Tobin
• Deakin University
• Australian Graduate School of Management
• Ambulance Victoria
  
  

Outside of Australia, clients have included such entities as

• Mars, Inc.
• BDO Accountants (US and Canada)
• Ethiopian Mediation and Arbitration Centre
• General Dynamics
• CapGemini (Ontario)
• 4 Pump Court (UK Law firm)

• Australian National Native Title Tribunal
• Canada Pension Plan-Disability Programs
• Department of Justice, Canada
• Queensland Water Commission
• Royal Canadian Mounted Police
• Sydney Harbour Federation Trust
• Ontario Hydro (now HydroOne)
• Ministry of Correctional Services
• Human Rights Commissions in a number of jurisdictions
• Workplace Safety and insurance agencies in a number of jurisdictions
• Agriculture, Tax, Defence, Environment, or equivalent agencies in a number of jurisdictions
• A variety of Municipal Councils and their officials
• Officers for a variety of administrative boards and tribunals

Outside of the consulting and training work, the principals of Trillium are also practising mediators and arbitrators. All are accredited to the National Standard in Australia, and Frank also holds the Chartered Mediator Designation in Ontario, Canada.  They also have arbitration experience and have arbitrated a number of matters. Frank has been a tribunal member for the Employment Insurance Board, and was a Vice-Chair of the Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs Appeal Tribunal and the Board of Negotiation.  Steve and Paul are both Graded accredited arbitrators.  Most of this work is conducted on a confidential basis.  Their experience in this area goes back many years, as both Steve and Frank were practising litigators prior to moving to mediation, and Paul’s management work also encompassed industrial relations.