HG Welcomes Martin Freeman as Commercial Director / Head of Sales.

30 Jun 2026

HG is delighted to announce the appointment of Martin Freeman as our new Commercial Director / Head of Sales.

Martin brings more than two decades of experience helping organisations grow through strategic partnerships, commercial leadership and trusted client relationships. His career has been closely connected with the health and human services sectors across Australia and New Zealand, most notably as Managing Director of Francis Health, a highly respected New Zealand-owned consultancy renowned for its work in health system improvement, service reviews and leadership development.

Now joining HG, Martin brings not only a deep understanding of the challenges facing health and public sector organisations, but also a genuine passion for developing leaders and building enduring relationships. We sat down with him to learn more about what drew him to HG, his views on leadership, and why investing in people remains one of the most powerful drivers of organisational success.

We caught up with Martin to hear his thoughts on leadership, growth, and what excites him most about joining HardyGroup. Here’s what he had to say.

• Health and public sector organisations are facing significant complexity and change. What leadership capabilities do you believe will be most important for executives over the next five years?

As we move deeper into the second quarter of the 21st century, the velocity and quantum of change in all areas of life is increasing.  We are living in a ‘VUCA’ world military strategists would say, one where Volatility, Uncertainty,  Complexity and Ambiguity are the norm.  The rapidly evolving AI landscape and its impact on how we all work, is just one example of this.  In this environment, teams require leaders with the ability to remain emotionally steady, who think adaptively, and embrace continuous learning.  Rather than seeking certainty, effective leaders will need (or learn) to be comfortable with ambiguity, possess the ability to make timely decisions based on the best available evidence, to communicate openly, build trusting relationships, and apply systems thinking to understand complex challenges..  

• What motivates you to do this work, and what keeps you passionate about helping leaders and organisations succeed?

Health and human services organisations exist to help people, to make their lives better.  Throughout my career I’ve seen far too many example of where over time, the systems set up to help us unintentionally get in their own way and suboptimal outcomes result.  An effective, resilient leadership capability is the most powerful antidote to this that organisations have – and therefore intellectually it makes sense to me to work to help these organisations find and grow great leaders.  Personally too, healthcare is one sector which affects us all.  Everyone experiences their own journeys as patients and we share those of our friends and family as life goes on.  The ability to help influence and improve the systems that care of us and those close to us when we need it most, is what keeps me moving forward.

• Throughout your career, you’ve worked at the intersection of growth, partnerships, and organisational performance. What have you learned about the role leadership plays in achieving sustainable growth?

Effective leadership in healthcare is the great enabler of system performance, the key to unlocking growth and improvement.  In every health system I’ve worked with, it’s been very evident to me that the clinicians and staff that care for patients are  talented, highly trained and personally dedicated to achieving better outcomes.  The essential role that system leaders have is to create the environment – aligning the culture, processes and technologies – that guide and support them to do their best work.  It is the organisations which possess a well-developed, mature cohort of leaders which are the ones that are best able to continuously and sustainably, improve and grow.  Conversely, where the leadership capability is limited or lower-functioning – efforts to improve and grow are much more difficult, and any progress made often, does not endure. 

• HG’s purpose is to help organisations grow great leaders. What does great leadership look like to you?

Great leadership I’ve observed, comes in many forms.  I’ve had the privilege to work alongside many experienced, senior executives over the years and always interests me to see how different leaders use the combination of personal skills to lead and inspire their teams. Each have their personal style of course, but at the core it seems to me Peter Drucker nailed it when he stated: “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things”.  And the right things are sometimes the hardest things do.  The great leaders I’ve seen are the ones that consistently bring the best of their character to the fore, and engage with a mix of intelligence humility, humour and personal courage- to lead their people by example.  They are the ones with the vision to take difficult decisions, ones which may be unpopular at the time – and which are often only be proven correct in hindsight.  In other words, to most often choose the ‘harder right’ than the ‘easier wrong’.