JOHN Cleary is big on courage.
It's a word he uses often and a quality he drew on when, as the former registrar of Newcastle Anglican diocese, he blew the whistle to help uncover the institutional sex abuse within the church - a move that saw him named Lake Macquarie Citizen of the Year.
Courage has now helped him found Virtus Corporate Solutions, drawing on his 15 years of executive leadership and management to help companies perform better.
And it is courage he coaxes from those he mentors, and views as the point of difference of Virtus, a virtue in ancient Rome signifying character and, yes, courage.
"How many times have we come up with great ideas in our corporate world but shied away from implementing them, whether that's because they were seen to be too hard or people doubted themselves?" he notes.
"I draw on my experience in my corporate world in demonstrating that courage in saying what's right and actually acting on it rather than fearing the consequence."
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The son of a nurse and property valuer, Mr Cleary's moral compass was probably first engaged at his first job in banking compliance: "It was a black and white environment and uncovering financial misdemeanours, accidental or otherwise, by customers and staff."
Mr Cleary, who has a science degree, a master of commerce, finance and accounting and quaifications from Harvard, was most recently CEO of an aged care facility in Maitland.
At Virtus he partners with performance coach Samantha D'Angelo to offer tailor-made services - from "bite-size" training to multi-day workshops - to help companies transform from an operational and financial perspective.
"We are highly experienced in analysing a situation - from difficult employees to clunky systems and non-functioning boards - creating the right mix of creative custom solutions and executing them with precision to deliver measurable, sustainable results," he says.
The father of four says Virtus is also big on calling a spade a spade.
"I am not big on corporate babble. It produces vacuous leaders rather than courageous leaders, because there is often nothing behind that babble," he says. "I'm trying to help organisations rehumanise their workplaces and one of the problems with workplaces not being human and people friendly is because of this babble. If people can connect better with their staff, their organisations will prosper."
Virtus will launch on Tuesday at Surfhouse with one of Mr Cleary's childhood heroes, former Australian cricketer Greg Matthews, speaking about his career.
And there again comes that word.
"I think he was courageous when he faced Joel Garner and the West Indian fast bowlers...It was hugely intimating," he chuckles.
