We inspire leaders to be courageous and compassionate lifelong learners. Open-minded and critical thinkers who are well equipped to face the challenges of today and tomorrow and seize opportunities to drive positive change.
CEO’s Welcome
As CEO of Tonka Learning, I feel privileged every day to lead a business that is at the forefront of empowering extraordinary leaders and helping organisations grow. I take great pride in how we create a differentiated experience that is personal, pragmatic and that extends the finishing line of learning to make a real impact.
At Tonka Learning we co-create learning and development solutions with our clients to elevate leadership capability and culture. Working across single and multiple capabilities from emerging to executive level, we facilitate evidence-based group workshops, provide one-on-one coaching and lead strategic consulting projects to advance leadership.
While we started in 2020, our team of in-house practitioners and highly-qualified external consultants have been doing this work for a long time, and through experience we know what works (and what doesn’t work). For example, we know asynchronous learning on its own is not enough, relationships are everything, and capability building in an organisation with a poor culture will most likely yield unsatisfactory outcomes. To drive an extraordinary outcome, all the pieces need to fit together.
And that’s the challenge. Consulting is demanding, it’s relentless, so for us at Tonka Learning it’s about finding joy in the work we do, learning from every interaction, being genuine in all our relationships and celebrating along the way. And this comes largely from working with great clients. And do we have great clients! We are fortunate to be able to select our clients, just like they select us. Clients with similar values to ours, who have aspirational goals, love what they do and are prepared to ‘play the long game’.
I look forward to continuing our legacy of being one of the prominent development consultancies both nationally and internationally.
Speak soon.
Michael Tonkin
Chief Executive Officer
Tonka Learning
About Our CEO
As Chief Executive Officer, Michael frames his responsibilities in terms of Chief Educator, Learner, Strategist, Coach and Ambassador. For almost three decades Michael has passionately led a wide range of transformational leadership projects across 50+ countries and 50+ industries.
Prior to starting Tonka Learning in 2020, Michael was the CEO of Maura Fay Learning, a global leadership development consultancy. Before that, Head of Global Learning for the Cotton On Group, and in the early days Michael led his own consulting firm.
Michael’s extensive experience has led to organisations significantly improving their bottom line, winning global learning awards, launching Australis’ largest corporate academy and regularly leading teams of 40+ individuals.
During all this time, Michael has remained steadfast in his beliefs … ‘learning must be connected to a higher purpose’, ‘hire humble people that can read the room’, ‘people don’t learn from experience, they learn from reflecting on experience.’
Accredited in over 10 leadership diagnostics, Michael relishes every opportunity to contemplate the psychology of great leadership and teams. These contemplations, Japanese food, exercise and planning the next family holiday are Michael’s favourite indulgences.