About us
Our story & people
Our story
Over the years, we’ve trained more than 30,000 enterprise employees to change how they communicate, think and lead at work.
But that’s not where we began.
Before founding Magneto in 2005, we ran a copywriting agency for 10 years. We wrote speeches, ads, direct-marketing campaigns, white papers, tenders – pretty much anything you could pay someone to write.
We distilled that experience into the Magneto Method – a set of principles for applying copywriting psychology to workplace communication. Whether you’re writing, presenting or influencing, this approach can dramatically lift your results.
Our mission is to create communicators who are:
- Clear
- Concise
- Commercial.
Our clients are large enterprises with mostly technical teams – finance, engineering, insurance, resources, consulting, construction. Smart people whose brains are often wired more for numbers than words.
We help them bring clarity to their often complex subjects. To stop and think before communicating. To consider their audience, their objective, their strategy. To not tell everything they know. But to distill their message so it hits the mark.
Not easy. But vital in a fast-moving, multi-stakeholder environment.
Why the name ‘Magneto’?
It has nothing to do with Marvel’s levitating super villain. But everything to do with engines.
In some engines, a magneto is a crucial component that generates a spark.
That’s our goal for you: To generate a high-energy spark of interest in your audiences’ minds, helping you engage and persuade them.
So that’s our story. We’d love to be part of yours 🙂
Our vision
Our mission
Our Team
Petrina Buckley
Co-Founder, Managing Director
Petrina has over 20 years experience in business development, project management, product development and marketing in creative and commercial industries. Her expertise is in helping subject-matter experts transform their thinking into rich learning opportunities—the type that add deep value in an organisation. Petrina co-founded Magneto Communications in 2005 with Paul. In 2014 she led the development of Credosity, driven by a deep belief in just-in-time learning.
Fave things? Ocean swims, exquisite stationery, quirky comedy and dark, dark chocolate.
Paul Jones
Co-Founder | Trainer | Speaker
For 18 years, Paul’s principles and frameworks have helped blue-chip CXO teams through to graduates change how they communicate, think and lead at work. He’s a highly engaging keynote speaker and corporate communications expert who’s passionate about the intersection of psychology, behavioural change and communication. A copywriter by trade, Paul co-founded Magneto Communications in 2005 with Petrina. Magneto has grown to be a leading enterprise offering for communication skills globally.
Fave things? Audiobooks by the dozen, fitness hacks, navigating the waves from Maroubra to Bondi on his ocean ski, anything gluten free.
Jon Maxim
Trainer | Communications Evangelist
Jon is an award-winning copywriter and highly experienced facilitator. For 30 years, he’s helped thousands of clients in the UK and Asia Pacific—from huge global corporates to tiny boutique brands—develop compelling messages. As well as running workshops with Magneto, Jon runs advanced copywriting and marketing courses for the Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA), New Zealand Marketing Association, Australia Post, and more. His teaching style is fun, yet informative. Engaging, yet practical. A walking Wikipedia of comms knowledge, Jon is a master at sharing insider tricks to getting your message heard.
Alice Gruzman
Client Success & Learning Events Lead
Alice has spent the past 20 years making complex event operations look effortless. She’s the person who untangles the messy, streamlines the moving parts, and ensures every system and process is working in harmony with our core focus – learning & people.
From coordinating large-scale events to building brands from the ground up, she brings sharp organisational instincts and a genuine love of getting the details right. Detail-oriented and deeply client-focused, she’s happiest when every touchpoint lands perfectly and trainees get rich learning experiences.
Fave things? It’s a dangerously long list so we’ve boiled it down to hockey, pilates, time in the ocean and with friends … all while consuming podcast after podcast.
Jocelyn Damian
Client Success Engineer
Jocelyn is a tech enthusiast with a degree in electronics engineering. Though she hasn’t wielded a soldering iron lately, her 14 years navigating the digital world keep her tech knowledge sharp. A lifelong learner, she’s always curious about the latest advancements and loves the thrill of reverse engineering.
Jocelyn uses this magic mix of skills every day at Magneto – solving client challenges and building systems that help our clients get what they need.
When she’s not exploring the frontiers of tech, Jocelyn is a self-proclaimed foodie who loves spending time with her nephews and nieces.
Tere Mendoza
Team Admin Support
Tere is the anchor for us all, expertly managing day-to-day operations with quiet efficiency. She’s our silent powerhouse – highly organised, detail-oriented, and always ready with a heart emoji to keep things calm, positive and client-focused. Her diverse experience in finance, content management, research, office administration, and sales support ensure our core systems run smoothly every day.
Outside of work, she enjoys experimenting with new recipes, catching sunsets, and keeping up with her energetic sons.
Damian Maclennan
Technical Lead - Credosity
Virginia Edwards
Design & Product Lead
Virginia (‘VV’) is a consummate all-rounder across marketing, technical, design and client delight. She has a broad background in publishing, education and product development. A self-confessed tech enthusiast, she’s famous in these parts for brilliant design thinking. And a mum to three cool (and not so small anymore) humans! Her talent? Making the extraordinary happen online and in real life for the Magneto crowd. Fave things? Learning new things, reading, ocean swims, live music and good, strong coffee.
Mike Dijkstra
Technical Lead - Magneto Mentor AI
Mike has over 15 years of experience designing and building digital products. He works across the entire product lifecycle — from ideation and design through to full-stack development. His strength is connecting business goals, user needs and engineering realities. He’s currently leading the technical transformation of Magneto Mentor AI, architecting the shift from prototype to an enterprise-ready platform. When not at the keyboard, Mike can be found in the surf with his young boys or in the kitchen baking sourdough bread and enjoying a filter coffee.
Stuart Edwards
UX/UI Lead - Magneto Mentor AI
Our big WHY: Raising the global literacy rate
When you engage us, you become part of our ongoing work to advance global literacy, starting in our own backyard with the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation (ALNF).
Only 1 in 5 Australian children in remote Indigenous communities can read at the national standard. Being able to read and write is a basic human right. It solves many of our greatest social challenges.
You book training: we sponsor a mentor
For every enterprise team that completes our training, we sponsor one Indigenous high-school student to mentor a group of young children. It helps little ones fall in love with the magic of words and reading. And imagine what it does to boost the teenage mentors’ self-esteem and sense of purpose!
You can see the progress we’re making with our ALNF ‘Wall of Hands’ here.
