In the last sixteen (16) years Stephen has operated his management consulting company, Blackadder Associates (now Mason Blackadder), and provided expert executive recruitment services to local government Councils and not for profit organisations across Australia, in particular, NSW, Queensland, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. He has recruited over 150 CEOs into local government.

Gaining considerable knowledge of interstate, New Zealand, California and UK local government through scholarship and Council sponsored study tours, Stephen has an acute understanding of local and international trends.

Stephen served as National Registrar of the Local Government Chief Officers Group from 1998 to 2007 when he left local government to establish his management consulting business. He was a Board member of the Southern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils, the Shore Regional Organisation of Councils, the Premsure Insurance Group and MetroPool Insurance Group.

In 2011 Stephen was privileged to be appointed by the then Minister for Local Government in NSW, the Hon Don Page MP, to the Local Government Acts Taskforce, and as a member of the 4 person Taskforce developed a comprehensive review of the 1993 Local Government Act.

He is a former Board Member of Concord Golf Club and as a management and leadership consultant since 2007 Stephen has been involved in over 1,000 assignments assisting NSW, Victorian, Queensland, Western Australian, Tasmanian and Northern Territory local governments.

Blackadder Associates employs some distinguished local government practitioners who undertake projects involving executive recruitment, organisation structure reviews, culture improvement programmes, organisation strategic planning, community strategic planning, policy development, executive staff training and development, leadership development and executive coaching, Councillor training and priority setting.

An accredited Hogan Personality Assessor Stephen has gained an expertise in evaluating the leadership potential of candidates for executive positions, as well as in conducting leadership development programmes for executive and middle management teams and coaching individuals using Hogan assessments and Hogan 360 degree evaluations.