In 2017, international education specialists, Janee Heffernan and Jeffrey Smart, were on respective career breaks. Both had held leadership roles in education services, but from different perspectives: Jeffrey had spent decades in senior roles in universities, while Janee had spent just as long leading an organisation that provided outsourced student recruitment solutions and insights to higher education institutions.

 

One day over lunch the friends had a lightbulb moment. They had both seen from their respective vantage points the way that institutions within the higher education sector were being let down by one-size-fits-all big consultancies who were selling themselves as experts of the sector, but were then delivering poorly-developed advice that often did more harm than good. 

 

Heffernan and Smart saw a gap for a consultancy with real expertise, fresh thinking and the kind of integrity that was needed to provide advice and insights that truly enabled providers within the sector to overcome the huge commercial and strategic challenges they face every day. Their mission was to do this whilst bringing humanity and a sense of empathy to everything they did. 

 

The Lygon Group was born. Named after Melbourne’s famous street in the inner-city suburb of Carlton, where a local cafe became the company’s unofficial first office. Clients began coming on board immediately, excited by the prospect of a consultancy created by self-described international education ‘nerds’; one that really knew its stuff and cared passionately about the success of its clients.

 

Fast forward five years and The Lygon Group has grown in size and reach, and now counts a number of high-profile overseas universities among its clients. As it has expanded, TLG has maintained the same values and culture it had at the start and has achieved this by recruiting people who share its humanity, empathy and bloody-minded determination to resolve client challenges. They are attracted not only by TLG’s commitment to helping providers grow and prosper, but also by its reputation as a place where staff can bring their real selves to work, and where they know they will be supported as they go through life’s challenges.