Profile
Phil Lambert, founder and director of Phil Lambert Consulting (PLC), attributes his success to a guiding thread running through a career spanning the classroom as a teacher to the principal's office, then state and national bureaucracy, and now consultancy: staying relevant.
This longevity is evident as he has contributed to major policy reforms and international policy agendas and played a national role in areas including eliminating violence against women and girls, combating racism and prejudice, and supporting vulnerable communities. “Given the complexities of the world and what this means for school, I feel that remaining relevant is an achievement in itself,” he says.
Lambert also characterises his career as shaped by a pursuit of opportunities. “I feel decisions I have made, steps that I have taken, have been based more on seeking a new challenge and growth, rather than a targeted, sought-after position or status,” he adds.
As a leader and changemaker, Lambert credits four principles with sustaining him and shaping the reforms and transformation agendas he has led – principles acquired not from professional training but organically through years of observing other leaders and learning directly.
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Phil Lambert
Founder and Director
Phil Lambert Consulting
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Bio
Milestones
2002–2004
2004–2012
2013–2016
Present
2025–present
Assistant Director General, NSW Department of Education
2002–2004
2004–2012: Regional Director (Sydney), NSW Department of Education
2012: Public Service Medal (Australian Honours - Queens Birthday Awards)
2004–2012
General Manager, Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority
2013–2016
Founder and Director at Phil Lambert Consulting since 2016
Present
Headmaster and CEO of Ormiston College
2025–present
Milestones
“What rises above all that is that if we want young people to not just survive but thrive, they need to acquire a range of high-impact skills and dispositions – my work is focused on this”
Phil Lambert,
Phil Lambert Consulting
“Given the complexities of the world and what this means for schools, I feel that remaining relevant is an achievement in itself”
Phil Lambert,
Phil Lambert Consulting
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The first is a refusal to settle for a single source. “I never rely on evidence sourced from one perspective alone.” Lambert seeks to understand the full range of evidence available, not just what may be the favoured view, before reaching his own conclusion.
The second is a preference for options over fixed choices: rather than starting from a preferred position, Lambert favours setting out a genuine set of options and letting the preferred path emerge once the implications are fully considered.
The third principle is patience with decisions. “I buy 24 hours if I can,” he explains, where circumstances allow, taking an overnight period to reflect before committing, weighing not just the options themselves but also their implications for others and for the organisation.
The fourth is deliberate recruitment. He says, “I look for those who add new value.” Lambert takes care to only bring in people whose skills and dispositions complement those already in place, rather than simply filling a role.
That same breadth – across the operational, policy and governance sides of education – underpins the impact Lambert believes has earned him this recognition rather than any single area of focus. He has drawn on it when advising governments, ministers and schooling systems and hopes his work leaves students with durable capabilities beyond the classroom: respect, collaboration, resilience, critical thinking and agency, alongside literacy and numeracy. “Imagine if all young people had this set of competencies … how powerful the nation, the globe, would be for their future,” he says.
Educational ideologies come in and out of fashion, while there are popular theories that are prominent today but not tomorrow, and terminology becomes redundant. Lambert says, “What rises above all that is that if we want young people to not just survive but thrive, they need to acquire a range of high-impact skills and dispositions – my work is focused on this.”