About Leverage Mentoring

Mentoring works. The research is clear. But in small and mid-sized businesses, mentoring usually doesn't happen, or it happens informally and fades. Leverage Mentoring is built to change that, without a program, a coordinator, or an HR team.

About the founder

I'm Christine Kulatunga, founder of Leverage Mentoring. Launched in 2026, based in Sydney, Australia.

I've spent more than 20 years leading customer experience and people development across childcare, vocational education, hospitality, retail, and local government. Senior roles where the work has always been about helping teams grow, simplifying what's complex, and building relationships. I've designed and run workplace mentoring programs. I've also been a mentor and a mentee across that time, which is part of why I built Leverage Mentoring.

It's what I wish had existed when I was 28 and navigating decisions alone.

I share an office with Moose. A good listener and enthusiastic supporter of snack breaks.

The why

The story starts in 2004 in North Sydney where you would have seen me slogging it out for 12 hours a day in my own restaurant, struggling with leading a much larger team than I was used to, and making impulsive business decisions without seeking insight and advice from someone who was more experienced. Looking back, the right mentor at the right moment would have changed the outcome.

That experience stayed with me. Throughout my career in different roles and business sizes, I kept seeing the same pattern. Capable people without anyone to think out loud with, people feeling overlooked for a promotion, or navigating a new position or career change. Many others trying to bridge gaps in capability or confidence. Sometimes they figured it out. Often they didn't, or it took longer than it needed to.

When I designed and led a workplace mentoring program, I saw what changed when the right structure was in place. People grew, mostly in self-belief, purpose, and confidence. Conversations turned into outcomes.

Running that program also made something else clear. Most small and mid-sized businesses can't do what large organisations do. They don't have the HR team, the budget, or the time. Yet their people deserve the same chance to develop.

So I built Leverage Mentoring to make that possible.

What we believe

Mentoring is a relationship, not a program. Privacy is non-negotiable. Structure should serve the conversation, not replace it.

We've also paid attention to what the research and the lived experience both show. People grow more from mentors they've chosen themselves than from mentors assigned to them, regardless of how clever the matching algorithm is. The trust is in the relationship, not in the system that paired them.

So we don't try to match. We help you bring your own mentor in. Someone you already trust, internal or external. Or you can work through things on your own. Both are real ways to grow.

For organisations, we make it possible to give every team member their own mentoring infrastructure without building a program around it. The tool meets people where they are.

Why this matters now

As AI changes how we work, what stays human matters more, not less. Strategic thinking, judgement, the ability to navigate ambiguity, knowing when to push and when to wait. These don't come from a tool or a course. They come from being challenged honestly by someone who's been further along the path than you have.

We're building Leverage Mentoring so that having that kind of honest conversation, with someone you trust, can become an ordinary part of working life instead of a rare exception.