Ascencia Group

Who We Are

Wray Carvelas

Wray is an authentic people-oriented leader who transforms organizations and gets bottom line results. His focus and energy enable leadership teams find their true sense of purpose and deliver exceptional results.

Wray has 25 years of leadership experience. He has managed complex projects and grown businesses across multiple jurisdictions both organically and through M&A transactions. With his people focused approach, Wray is able to unleash talent and potential in teams so that they can deliver their business objectives.

As the CEO of a global engineering firm, Wray, together with his team, developed and successfully implemented a strategy to globalize the business and double its enterprise value, growing share value by 130% and revenue by 70%. They optimized the business to achieve both organic growth as well as expansion through M&A deals. He transformed the business from an inward focused private company to one which is poised for an IPO. He led 4,500 employees on five continents creating a strong values-based corporate culture.

Wray improves business profitability through:

  • turning vision into strategy implementation;
  • empowering people to transform organizations;
  • unearthing talent and developing leaders;
  • identifying M&A opportunities and integrating companies;
  • leading projects;
  • optimizing operations; and
  • creating and implementing safety programs.

Aiden Carey

Aiden is a dynamic people-centered leader who has helped people be their best, and organizations to improve performance through these changes.

Aiden has 20 years of leadership experience. He has managed both small and large/complex operations in a variety of commodities. Through authentic people-centered leadership and adept use and improvement of operating systems, Aiden has delivered excellent results in safety, productivity, and costs.

Aiden has worked in operations start-ups as well as established organizations in sizes from Junior companies to multi-nationals and has a proven ability to create meaningful change in any environment. In particular, the start-up projects were executed safely as well as timely and cost-effectively. Aiden achieves results by focusing on people, and has successfully helped lead labour relations initiatives to successful conclusions on multiple occasions. Aiden has assisted leaders in crafting a vision for organizations at multiple levels, and make that vision real and practical, and gets people engaged in the realization and achievement of that vision.

Aiden, together with Wray now lead the “The Professional Supervisor” leadership development program. This is an industry-best program that has proven to be effective in helping organizations improve performance through the development of their people. from the Front-Line Supervisor to Management. Aiden maintains an active technical consulting presence, and often combines technical consulting with Leadership Development bringing added effectiveness for organizations.

Aiden’s Expertise includes:

  • Leadership Development
  • Safety Leadership, safety system evaluation and improvement
  • Business improvement systems and execution
  • Adept change agent, change management systems
  • Project Leadership
  • Study management
  • Operations Optimization & Leadership
  • Culture status evaluation, culture change programs
  • Technical advisory services for Management and Boards

Richard Morland

Richard is a mining engineer of 40 years’ experience whose career in the Australian and Canadian resource industry includes 26 years as an operations leader and executive, specializing in operational and business transformation.

He has led large and small-scale mining (open pit and underground), minerals processing and hot metal plant operations, across different commodities, in organizations ranging from 200 to 2,000 people. Richard has an action and high-performance orientation, guided by a philosophy of deep, authentic care for people. Richard is uncompromising in creating workplaces where people can trust that they will never be harmed in the pursuit of production or financial results.

Richard believes that leading people is a privilege to be honored and respected by those who occupy positions of responsibility and trust, regardless of their organizational level. Richard combines this leadership focus with a strong technical and operations background, a deep knowledge of risk management and a commitment to using systematic, integrated, standardized processes to cut waste and rework, creating space for innovation and creativity

Richard enjoys collaborating with people;

  • to awaken to their passions, talents, abilities, and value;
  • to be excited by and enrolled in the possibility and shared purpose of their organization;
  • to know they are respected and acknowledged for their contribution to the enterprise;
  • to care for themselves and their colleagues;
  • to be certain in the knowledge they are cared for by their leaders;
  • to own and display the standards of personal behaviour and performance expected of them as members of a high performing team.

Since leaving full time executive work, Richard has continued extending his knowledge of leadership effectiveness, while supplying leadership development, coaching, strategic planning, operational planning, and due diligence consultancy services to a variety of clients in the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors in Canada and Australia.

Colomba Vani

Colomba is a talented executive leadership coach and seasoned business consultant.

Colomba is an experienced coach and seasoned HR senior executive, with over 25 years’ experience in the Aerospace, Automotive and Mining industries. She has North American and International experience, Canada, US, and Latin America. Her HR career included local, regional, and international director level roles, with a strong focus on supporting businesses and individuals through change management, working across diverse geographical regions/cultures, and overseeing the human aspects of acquisitions and divestments.
Colomba has a passion for supporting people through change, building resilience, developing successful careers, and promoting cultural adaptability. This includes building successful teams, coaching leaders and motivating and inspiring people whose perspectives may vary from their own.
Colleagues have described Colomba as calm in a crisis, resourceful, consultative, and supportive. Teams she has led see her as approachable, engaging, keen to champion the team while developing their skills and empowering them to achieve their potential.

Colomba’s dedication and values include:

  • enabling leaders to strategically and significantly extend their capacity to ignite performance and creativity in ever-changing environments.
  • to partner with leaders to effect sustainable shifts in performance.
  • Her commitment to performance improvement, whether that is in helping organizations achieve organizational excellence, in helping programs to improve their business processes or ensure their programs deliver results and most importantly helping individuals and teams achieve their goals.
  • She believes organizational excellence requires both great strategy and great people to execute that strategy. She believes that one of the most important decisions that leaders have is about their people. Through coaching, leaders can build capacity in their people and create collaborative cultures that support innovation and business success.