About Us

Where have we come from?

Strive is 100% New Zealand owned and managed. Kristine Lawton and Rebecca Telford have worked together for over 6 years to create a unique solution for New Zealand organisations who want to qualify their people.  

After having implemented the National Certificate of Contact Centre Operations at a Wellington-based call centre, resulting in over 80% of all agents gaining the certificate within twelve months, they decided to offer this solution to other businesses throughout the country.

From discussions with managers in a variety of industries, it was clear that workplace assessments were too time-consuming and admin-heavy for many companies.  Without a team of people solely focussed on conducting assessments, providing training guidance and dealing with the paperwork, managers were finding that they couldn’t cope.  Even with all the best intentions, workplace qualifications were not being completed due to a lack of in-house resources.

Strive allows businesses to outsource the assessment process to a team with the knowledge and experience to be able to manage the entire project from sign-up to certificate presentation.  For an organisation wanting a professional, hassle-free and proven solution to workplace assessments, then Strive guarantees to deliver.

Meet the team!

Rebecca Telford - New Business Director

Rebecca has many years experience in the administration, customer service and sales fields, previously holding the position of Business Development Manager at Access Technology, where she also ran the assessment and training side of the business.  She has an extensive knowledge of NZQA qualifications, and a wide range of industry contacts.  

She is a qualified workplace assessor and has worked closely with a number of clients as both assessor and project manager.  Rebecca has also written a number of assessment materials, for both candidates and assessors. 

Rebecca works closely with key personnel to find the right solution for the particular business need and is able to guide companies towards the most appropriate NZQA qualification for their staff.

With two children, Ella and Joseph, there are never enough hours in the day.  But when she gets the chance she enjoys jogging and also attends the occasional pilates class.

Kristine Lawton - Managing Director

Kristine’s background is in human resource management.  Prior to Strive, she was HR Manager for Access Technology, where she helped grow the company from a team of 5 to over 70.

As Managing Director of Strive, she is responsible for maintaining current clients, assessor relationships and overseeing the daily operations of the company.  She is a qualified workplace assessor, and has worked in both a consultative and assessor capacity for many clients.  She has a special enthusiasm for on-the-job training and is interested in the area of continual learning and employee development.

Kristine writes training material modules, which can be specifically linked to NZQA unit standards, or to an organisation’s own internal requirements.  

Kristine is married, with a 3-year old son named Harrison.  When she’s not working or playing with Harry, she’s trying to landscape the garden and finish a good book.

Fiona Barakat - Workplace Assessor

Fiona has many years of experience as an assessor within the contact centre environment. She is incredibly passionate about helping individuals achieve their qualification and builds a strong rapport with her candidates and their managers. Fiona left the TelstraClear Auckland Contact Centre Manager position to begin an independent consultancy role, and now divides her time between consulting, assessing and family-life. 

Ann Mayer - Workplace Assessor

As one of the founders of Startel Communications, the first inbound/outbound outsourcing centre in the country, Ann is a well-known consultant within the contact centre industry.  With years of experience in all aspects of contact centres, especially sales environments, she was one of four people who developed the first Certificate of Telemarketing and Call Centre Management in New Zealand back in 1996.  She holds both Level 3 and 4 of the NCCCO.

Tara McFarlane - Workplace Assessor

Tara is based in the Auckland region, and holds both the Level 3 and Level 4 Contact Centre qualifications.  She has worked in the contact centre and security industries, in both New Zealand and Canada, most recently as Contact Centre Manager for the International Underwriters Group.  Her interest is around coaching and mentoring in the workplace, and she now consults in this area as well as assessing in workplace qualifications.

Eve Tregerthan - Workplace Assessor and Trainer

Eve has twenty years experience in the New Zealand Education Sector, both within learning institutions and in the workplace.  She is also an experienced line manager, having responsibility for a team of 20 when she was Special Education Coordinator at The Correspondence School.  She is now an NZQA Moderator, Learning State Modern Apprentice Coordinator and a Strive workplace assessor and training facilitator in the areas of communication skills, time management, negotiation skills and group dynamics.

Go to Our Services to find out more about our complete service range, or Assessments to learn more about Strive’s workplace assessment process.