Lynne Melis
Lynne obtained a BA from the University of Stellenbosch in 1974, majoring in Psychology and English, followed by a Secondary Teaching Diploma from the University of Cape Town in 1975 and an MBA from the University of Stellenbosch Business School in 1986.
She has a Certificate in Coaching Skills (2007) from The Coaching Centre, Cape Town and has Assessor (2002) and Moderator (2003) accreditation from the Assessment College of South Africa.
Her first position was as a Hansard translator at Parliament, and subsequently was appointed as Personnel Officer at the National Accelerator Centre of the CSIR. This, together with her background in Psychology, led her to enrol for an MBA in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations.
After starting a family in 1984, she worked part-time with the learning methodology of Prof Sylvia Downs, using this approach both to design material to enhance learning in organisations and to develop others to facilitate this material to the full advantage.
Lynne has a wide range of experience of consulting in commerce and industry where she has developed learner-centred material for different applications. Clients range from the insurance and banking industries, to the oil industry, manufacturing industries and NGO’s. Materials developed cover technical training, induction programmes, supervisory and management skills, leadership competences and self-development as well as facilitation skills.
As part of the Coaching Café, Lynne is able to utilise all her professional experience in designing, facilitating and coaching, while continuing to grow and develop her skills.
She is married to Louis, who runs a geotechnical engineering consulting practice in Somerset West. They have three adult children and a constantly evolving collection of pets.
Francois Retief
Francois Retief was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa. He obtained a degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Stellenbosch.
Francois has always been interested in leadership, team dynamics and project execution and had the opportunity to be elected Junior Mayor of Bloemfontein, chairman of the Student Engineering Council of Stellenbosch, as well as general secretary of the South African branch of the International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience (IAESTE). He is one of the founding members of the Western Cape Branch of the South African Chapter of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE-SA).
His professional experience includes:
- Systems & Project Engineer, as well as Company Director for Prostaflo (Pty) Ltd. (part of Moulded Medical Supplies Ltd.)
- Field, Test and later Senior Systems Engineer for RACAL TRACS South Africa
- Production Engineer for C2I2 Systems (Pty) Ltd.
- Senior Systems Engineer for Thales Telematics
- Systems Engineering Manager for ASTRATA Systems (Pty) Ltd.
- Project Manager & Systems Engineer for Control Instruments OmniBridge
Francois became a Principal Associate Consultant with CTI in 2010.