Dr. Cate Borness
Cate Borness

Dr. Cate Borness

Senior Client Principal

Overview

Cate Borness is a senior client principal in Heidrick & Struggles’ Sydney office and a member of Heidrick Consulting, where she advises senior leadership teams on individual, team, and organizational effectiveness. As a registered organizational psychologist, she has more than 25 years of experience designing and implementing capability development initiatives for leaders across a range of sectors.

Experience

Cate is recognized across Australia for her expertise in assessment which underpins her delivery of programs relating to succession planning, leadership, team dynamics, diversity and inclusion, well-being, culture, and engagement. During her career, Cate has worked in both corporate and consulting roles. Her consulting engagements in local, regional, and global businesses feature a customized of approach to meet the unique and varied needs of her clients.

Most recently, Cate worked for Deloitte Australia as a director in the human capital practice in Sydney where she delivered large-scale leadership development projects and diversity and inclusion programs for global corporations. Prior to Deloitte, Cate was a director with an Australian consultancy that specialized in assessment diagnostics. While in this role, she was instrumental in the ongoing development and validation of the Hogan Assessment Suite and a range of talent surveys, as well as conducting research into the application and effectiveness of these diagnostics in leadership development programs.

Cate’s Ph.D., "Boosting the Mental Wealth of Working Australians," investigated how cognitive training could help improve a person’s executive functioning, well-being, and productivity.

She is a member of the Australian Psychological Society and a fellow with the Australian College of Organisational Psychologists. She is also a certified Organizational Coach with the Institute of Executive Coaching & Leadership (IECL).

Education

University of NSW, Australia , PhD

University of NSW, Australia , Master’s Degree in Organisational Psychology

Registered Psychologist, Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency