2023 Purpose Conference Presenters
Shantel Wetherall
DE&I Leader, Writer & Host
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Holding nuanced conversations about culture and change.
Shantel Wetherall is British/Australian writer, host and expert at starting important conversations. Her words, featured in the likes of The Guardian, SBS Voices and the Sydney Morning Herald, and heard on the airwaves via her podcast Hey Aunty! and as a presenter on 3RRR, are all geared towards creating space for nuanced conversations about women, culture and change. Shantel co-edited the book RARE for Google in 2020.
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Chris Grant
Co-CEO & Co-Founder, Unyoked
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We believe in a world where people see and use nature like they do the gym.
Chris Grant co-founded Unyoked with his twin brother Cam, on a mission to connect people with high-quality nature experiences. Chris sees his role as solving modern problems with ancient remedies by making the wilderness more accessible to everyday people.
Paul Girrawah House
Custodian, Waluwin Foundation, Indigenous-designed capital
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Waluwin aims to shift the balance of power so First Nations people can exercise control over land-ownership and re-establish the First Nations agrarian economy to create inter-generational wealth.
Paul is Board Director, Ngambri Local Aboriginal Land Council, Member Indigenous Reference Group, National Museum of Australia and Australian Government Voice Referendum Engagement Group. Paul works on country with the ANU, First Nations Portfolio as a Senior Community Engagement Officer.
Deb Collins
Collaborator, Wicked Elephants
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Working for eco-social change & regenerative futures
Deb Collins is a Wicked Elephant. One of a group of modern elders, in a contemporary co-op, inspired to serve both people and planet Earth. WE bring people together in novel and collaborative ways to face into the complex and wicked challenges we’re increasingly facing. WE love working with real people struggling with real issues to produce real change.
Prof. Andrew Scholey
Chief Scientific Officer, Arepa
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Understanding acute cognitive enhancement & develop interventions to treat neurocognitive decline and mental health conditions.
Andrew is a Professor of Human Psychopharmacology based in Melbourne, Australian and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK. He has affiliations with Monash and Swinburne Universities.
Abigail Thomas
Head of Sustainability & Product Strategy, SBS
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Using digital tools and approaches to solve global environmental and social challenges.
Abigail Thomas is a purpose driven sustainability and digital leader with a vision to create positive environmental and social change through innovative solutions. She has more than twenty years’ experience in digital strategy, transformation, sustainability, innovation and product development, having led teams at SBS, Commonwealth Bank, Deloitte, ABC and in the UK Government.
Hannah Diviney
Author, I’ll Let Myself In & Editor In Chief, Missing Perspectives
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Breaking down doors, claiming space and finding your wheels.
Hannah Diviney is one of the most impressive new young faces and voices in the public eye. The multi hyphenate is a writer and a disability advocate (her biggest work includes the wildly successful change.org petition encouraging Disney to create a disabled Disney Princess and making international news headlines after successfully getting both Lizzo and Beyonce to change ableist lyrics).
Kieran Pender
Writer, Lawyer, Academic & Founder of The Whistleblower Project
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Working to strengthen protections for people who speak up about wrongdoing.
Kieran Pender is a senior lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, where he works to protect and empower Australian whistleblowers through the Whistleblower Project. The Project is an Australia-first initiative to provide pro bono legal representation to whistleblowers, together with advocacy and law reform work to strengthen protections for people who speak up about wrongdoing.
Phoebe Saintilan-Stocks
Founder, Missing Perspectives
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Filling the gap in young female storytelling across news and entertainment.
Phoebe Saintilan-Stocks is a gender equality advocate and the Founder of Missing Perspectives, a media company challenging the under-representation of young women in the news industry worldwide. Established in June 2021, Missing Perspectives currently reaches over 1M people across 120+ countries. With the support of Google, the company is about to launch an app that will connect newsrooms with young female journalists.
Andy Marks
Independent Change-Maker, Strategic Advisor, Artist
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Expert in leadership to create positive change.
Andy Marks is an independent change-maker, strategic advisor and artist. Moving to Australia in 2014 Andy’s many roles include Strategic Advisor for the Purpose conference, Responsible Cafes and Pixiu Podcasts, ABC’s first impact advisor (the War on Waste), originator of the Fix and Make festival and multiple advisory roles for NSW Government (Energy, Climate Change and Sustainability division).
Jess Miller
A New Normal Sydney Director, Finding Infinity
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Creating regenerative urban systems.
Jess is an urban leader and thinker who works at the intersection of creativity, culture and regenerative urban systems. With a background in sustainability and behaviour change communications, she has served as the Deputy Lord Mayor of Sydney, is on the Board of TEDxSydney and worked across culture, business, local and State Government.
Garry Williams
Director of Engagement, Tractor Ventures
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Helping tech companies scale.
Garry Williams has extensive experience navigating Australia’s technology & creative ecosystem, having worked on innovation projects for scale-ups & startups, global agencies, government, local councils, social enterprises, universities, cultural institutions and creative project houses.
Dan Fitzgerald
Managing Partner, ReGen Ventures
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Reimagining the world from the atom up.
Dan Fitzgerald is the Managing Partner of ReGen Ventures, a global early-stage venture capital fund that partners with founders courageous enough to reimagine the world from the atom up. He has been investing in climate-tech for over 10 years across early-stage, growth and real assets and across a range of other asset classes for over 15 years. Dan was previously the co-founder of a quant hedge fund and an Options Trader at UBS and Macquarie Bank.
Vanessa Vongsouthi
Research Founder & Head of Protein Engineering, Samsara Eco
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Delivering climate repair through infinite recycling.
Vanessa Vongsouthi is a Ph.D. candidate within the Research School of Chemistry at the Australian National University (ANU). Vanessa earned a Bachelor of Science (Advanced) with First Class Honours from the ANU in 2017, majoring in Chemistry and Biology.
Vanessa's research focuses on protein engineering and ranges from the design of fluorescent biosensors used to study neurological disease, to…
Sasha Titchkosky
CEO & Co-founder, Koskela
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A commitment to local manufacturing, environmental awareness and a decade long impact program.
Sasha Titchkosky is the co-founder and CEO of Koskela, one of Australia's most innovative and well-respected furniture and homewares design businesses. Sasha, in conjunction with co-founder Russel Koskela, has for close to 23 years championed a commitment to local manufacturing, environmental awareness and a decade long Impact program.
Madeline George
Marketing Director, Arepa
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Building world class brands.
Experienced strategic marketer with 15 years' experience in brand and digital marketing for driving effective and efficient growth. Deep knowledge of global corporations (e.g., boohoo, ASOS, Vodafone, Heathrow) and a track record of building from scratch.
Sean Doherty
Head of Editorial, Patagonia
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A leading voice for the protection of the Australian coast.
Sean is Head of Editorial at Patagonia Australia. He is also Chair of the Surfrider Foundation, and owner-publisher of Surfing World magazine.
Steph Curley
Activism Manager, Ben & Jerry’s
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Climate justice activism in business.
Steph is a passionate ocean woman, environmentalist, and social justice advocate. She holds degrees in law and arts, with her work spanning the business world and NGO's - finally settling somewhere in between by using business as a force for good.
Amethyst Downing-McLeod
Multidisciplinary Artist
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Amethyst Downing-McLeod is a Wandi Wandian woman, her kinship and ancestral ties are woven throughout the Sydney basin and South Coast NSW. She is an emerging multidisciplinary artist, a mother, a carer and is passionate about conservation.
Warren Roberts
Founder, Yarn Australia
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Warren is a proud Thunghutti and Bundjalung man who founded YARN Australia in 2007. He has extensive experience working with Original Sovereign Nations of Australia having worked for NGO's, universities, as well as local, state and federal government.
Tegan Murdock
CEO, Ngumpie Weaving
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Tegan Murdock is a proud Barkindtji, Yorta Yorta woman. She has been weaving for two years, taught by her mum which she now passes on to others. Tegan uses weaving as healing and medicine, to connect to culture and to share this special craft with the world.
Alexandra Heaven
Head of ESG, JCDecauz
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Building more sustainable economies through business
Dedicated to working for a more sustainable economic system, through business transformation and the policies and finance that support it. I am an experienced sustainability and public affairs leader with an international background.
Jonathan Williams
Head of Marketing, Polestar
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Uniting sustainability, design and break-through technology.
Originally from London, Jonathan is a creative marketer with a passion for disruptive technology. He spent the early part of his career driving growth for PayPal, followed by six years at Google, where he led key product launches for Google Ads, Google Maps and Android.
Judy Anderson-Firth
CEO, Euphemia
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Advocating for investment in women founders & funders across the Aussie startup ecosystem.
Judy is the Group CEO of Euphemia, the family office for Australian entrepreneur and technologist, Dom Pym. Judy leads Euphemia’s ~$65m global investment portfolio including private & public equities, venture capital and property portfolios, as well as the Euphemia Foundation to support people in need.
Johanna Scott
Founder, Make Do Co.
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Equipping people with the skills, confidence and community to do meaningful work.
Johanna Scott is the founder of Make Do Co., a coaching business that sits at the intersection of happiness and work.
Johanna’s focus is to help people find fulfilment in their work, foster thriving workplace cultures where great work happens; and help entrepreneurs create the kinds of businesses the world needs — which also happens to be work they love.
Dr Tyson Yunkaporta
Senior Research Fellow, Deakin University
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Indigenous thinking can save the world
Dr Tyson Yunkaporta is an Aboriginal scholar, founder of the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Lab at Deakin University in Melbourne, and author of Sand Talk - How Indigenous Thinking Can Save The World.
His work focuses on applying Indigenous methods of inquiry to resolve complex issues and explore global crises. He is an art critic, poet and researcher, and belongs to the Apalech Clan in Queensland.
Raisera McCulloch
Leader, we are the mainstream
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Addressing conversations about power imbalances
Raisera McCulloch lives on Bundjalung Country in the lands we now call Australia. Her journey lately has been leaning into following the Jesus way, while deconstructing and unlearning colonial misreadings of the Bible.
She is a proud Pasifika woman and works to bring attention to her homeland of Tuvalu, which is under threat of rising sea levels. She is the founder of Indigenous Giving Circle, a philanthropic initiative created to decolonise wealth, working towards a reparations model of giving.
Larissa Minniecon
Cultural Advisor, we are the mainstream
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Building empowered communities.
Larissa, a Kabi Kabi, Gureng Gureng, Ambryn and a Zenadth Kes woman who lives, works and studies on Gadigal Land.
She is currently undertaking a Masters degree in Narrative Therapy and Community Work through the University of Melbourne.
Larissa is a respected emerging Christian leader who has a rich ministry heritage with over 20 years of experience, working in Community Development and Indigenous Health in remote, rural and urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities nationally….
Mele-Ane Havea
Co-Chair of B Lab Australia & Aotearoa NZ
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Specialising in establishing and growing social impact organisations.
Mele-Ane’s professional background spans the areas of corporate law, human rights and community law, leadership development, strategy, operations, investment management and media. She has worked in Australia (predominantly based in Melbourne and the Kimberley) and overseas (the Netherlands, the UK and the UAE).
Prior to taking time to care for her young children, Mele-Ane was the founding CEO of Small Giants Academy for 2 years during its establishment. Prior to that, Mele-Ane held various positions across the Small Giants impact investment family office including co-CEO, strategy and portfolio manager, and general manager of Dumbo Feather.
Brooke Roberts (NZ)
Founder & Director, Sharesies
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A vision to give someone with $5 and $5million the same money opportunities.
Brooke Roberts is the co-founder, director and 3EO (co-CEO) of Sharesies and mother of two.
Sharesies is an empowering money app with over half a million investors who’ve collectively invested over $2 billion. At Sharesies, their vision is to give someone with $5 and $5m the same money opportunities.
Brooke is passionate about creating equal opportunities and business being a force for good—she puts a lot of focus on making sure Sharesies has a positive impact on people, customers, communities, and the environment.
Melissa Gilbert
Artist, Educator & Founder, UnitePlayPerform
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A wellbeing universe.
Missy founded UnitePlayPerform as a transformational therapeutic practice underpinned by applied neuroscience. UnitePlayPerform pioneers new pathways born at the intersection of art, health, science and wellbeing, aiming to bring healing and creativity to the forefront of our everyday lives, in both spectacular and simple ways.
Andy Miller
Co-Founder, Heaps Normal
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On a mission to change Aussie drinking culture.
Andy is the co-founder and CEO of Heaps Normal. With a background in strategy, communications and marketing, Andy came to Heaps Normal armed with 15 years of experience working in industries including FMCG, health, liquor, automotive, marketplaces and arts & music.
Kaylene Langford
Author & Founder, Startup Creative
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Grit, determination and authenticity to help people achieve their startup goals.
Kaylene Langford is a passionate entrepreneur, coach, writer and speaker, and the founder and owner of StartUp Creative, a hugely popular online platform, podcast, and print magazine that educates, inspires and supports creative entrepreneurs and future innovators. Kaylene has over a decade of experience coaching, educating and supporting individuals to identify and achieve their goals.
Louise Tran
Head of OzHarvest Ventures, OzHarvest
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Launching unique food rescue models.
Louise has spent around 15 years in the social impact space with a leading profile in the food and environmental sustainability sector.
Paull Young
Host, Climate Dads Podcast, ex Meta
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Building online movements for social impact.
Born in Sydney, Paull has spent the past 17 years in the US building online movements for social impact. Paull led digital at non-profit charity: water as it raised its first $50M online, was the first charity to have 1M Twitter followers. He since went onto roles at Instagram and Facebook, eventually leading climate at Meta.
Tamsin Jones
Head of Programs, Small Giants
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Scaling impact organisations and innovation.
Tamsin Leads programs and community for Small Giants and Academy including the Mastery of Business and Empathy to equip people to become the business, social and political leaders we need in the Next Economy.
Ben Hart
Founder, Fireside Agency & The Story
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Celebrating the art and craft of storytelling.
Ben Hart has 25 years experience working as an award-winning journalist, political advisor and leader in progressive communications. He has held roles a the ABC and has led the communications functions at national organisations including headspace and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
Sharnee Rawson
Head of Commercial Content, The Guardian
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Cutting through the spin to align on values.
Sharnee Rawson helps brands to craft stories that people care about. She spent more than a decade as an editor and journalist in Australia’s top newsrooms before joining the Guardian Australia in 2019, where she now heads up the content arm of Guardian Lab As head of commercial content, Sharnee works to create impactful strategies that cut through the spin, and align with the Guardian’s strong editorial value system.
Lachie McKernan
Founder, Huckleberry
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Having a huge impact on some of the most important brands Australia has to offer.
Lachie McKernan is co-founder and CEO of Huckleberry, a creative company founded on the belief that the world needs better businesses. Lachie is passionate about having a huge impact on some of the most important brands that Australia has to offer. He has led creative teams and organisations, guiding brands and communications for some of the countries biggest brandnames.
Chris Andrew
Invited Advisor, Waluwin Foundation,
Indigenous-designed Capital
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The Yindyamarra funding model - offering First Nations farmers capital.
Chris Andrew is social enterprise mechanic and business troubadour currently working with First Nations enterprises committed to nation building. An early career in the global investment banking and oil sectors underpin his focus on supporting people and businesses dedicated to accelerating community development outcomes. Chris holds degrees in Chemical Engineering and Teaching.
Ronni Kahn AO
Founder, OzHarvest
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Fighting food waste, nourishing Australia.
Ronni Kahn AO is an Australian social entrepreneur who founded the food rescue charity OzHarvest. She is a passionate leader, author, businesswoman, advocate, and activist, renowned for disrupting the food waste landscape in Australia. She is the recipient of numerous awards in leadership, vision, style and as a distinguished citizen of Australia.
Brooke Wallington
Customer Success Consultant, Streamtime
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Healthy profit and happy people.
Brooke has been helping creatives to run efficient, profitable businesses for years. In her past lives, she managed agencies and brands, working with organisations like World Vision, VicScreen, Melbourne Music Week and University of Tasmania. At Streamtime, she specialises in consulting with business leaders – developing strategies that help them take care of their people, too.
Eliza Reilly
Author, Sheilas: Badass Women of Australian History
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Well-behaved women seldom make history.
Eliza Reilly is a writer, director, performer and author. In 2018, together with her sister Hannah, she created the comedy web series Sheilas about the amazing and forgotten women of Australian. This was the precursor to her first novel ‘Sheilas: Badass Women of Australian History’, released in 2022.
Andrew Walker
CEO, AirSeed
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Planting one hundred million trees by 2024.
Andrew Walker is the CEO and founding partner at AirSeed Technologies, a company who is tackling reforestation through drone technology, artificial and data-driven intelligence.
Ingrid Albert
Executive Director, Alberts
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Supporting impact ventures across culture, equality, health & sustainability.
Ingrid is an executive director and member of the 5th generation at Alberts. She is actively involved in the impact ventures team investing in early stage impact start-ups across four theme areas: vibrant culture, equality, healthy minds & sustainable environments.
Richard Boele
Chief Purpose Officer, KPMG
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Navigating the inherent social risks associated with increasingly global and diverse operating contexts.
To say Richard is passionate about human rights is something of an understatement. Richard has spent most of his work life championing the causes of the vulnerable and under-represented in a way that few do, most aptly demonstrated in almost 15 years running his own human rights consultancy, Banarra.
Geraldine Chin Moody
Executive Director, One Blue Dot
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A fundamental belief in business as a force for good.
Geraldine is a Non-Executive Director at Future Super and Relationships Australia (QLD) and the Chair of the ANU Centre for Asian-Australian Leadership. As Executive Director of One Blue Dot, she works as an executive coach, impact investor and strategic adviser, specialising in purpose-driven business, leadership development and people and culture frameworks.
Matt Vitale
Co-Founder, Birchal
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A recognised expert in the regulation of financial services, and crowdfunding.
Matt is Co-Founder & Managing Director of Birchal, Australia's leading equity crowdfunding platform. He is an experienced financial services lawyer and entrepreneur having worked in private practice at a top tier law firm, and founded several successful businesses.
Cat Long
CEO & Co-founder, trace
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Empowering businesses to start their net-zero journey.
Cat is an Oxford University graduate and the CEO and Co-Founder at Trace, a platform that empowers businesses to start their net zero journey through reliable, transparent carbon carbon accounting.
Rupal Ismin
Director, Sydney Knowledge Hub
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Bridging researchers and industry.
For more than a decade, Rupal Ismin has worked in an operational and marketing capacity for purpose-led, innovative initiatives geared towards improving people's relationships with each other and the things they interact with.
June Cheung
Head of JAPAC, Scope3
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Paving the way for a smarter, more sustainable future
June Cheung leads the JAPAC business for Scope3, the source of truth for supply chain emissions data in media and advertising. She champions industry collaboration to create win-win solutions for advertisers, publishers and our planet.
Rory Warnock
Performance & Wellness Coach
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Working with holistic modalities to improve health.
Rory is a Performance & Wellness Coach, UltraMarathon Runner, Keynote Speaker and Lululemon Ambassador. He specialises in breathwork and nervous system regulation to improve mental health & well-being.
Kiera Peacock
Partner, Marque Lawyers
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Improving democratic participation.
Kiera Peacock joined boutique BCorp law firm Marque Lawyers in 2012, and rose quickly from paralegal to partner within their litigation team. She is fascinated by the intersection of the law with human rights, politics and the commercial world, understanding that each can make the others function better.
Nyk Loates
Director & Purpose Practice Lead, KPMG
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Working with individuals, teams and organisations to help them explore, define, grow and embed their purpose to enable greater impact where it matters.
Nyk Loates is a Management Consultant with over 20 years’ experience in facilitating and designing collaborative workshops to help shape strategy and drive transformation and change.
Gauri van Gulik (Germany)
Co-founder, Multitudes Foundation
& Executive Coach
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We support political changemakers who are building more inclusive, human and hopeful politics in Europe.
Gauri is the co-Founder and Chair of Multitudes Foundation, which was created to support political changemakers building more inclusive, human and hopeful politics in Europe. She is currently on a sabbatical exploring new ventures and works as an executive coach and advisor, specialising in innovation towards impact, healthy leadership development and burnout prevention.
Roya Azadi
Strategy Director, Paper Giant
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Turning personal research towards speculative dystopia’s so that my work can focus on designing a future that is more equitable and sustainable.
Roya Azadi is an Iranian New Zealander, currently working as Strategy Director at Paper Giant, an award-winning strategic design agency in Asia-Pacific. Roya has worked across the private, commercial, not-for-profit, philanthropic and government sectors and worked with organisations including World Vision, United Nations and Google…
Toby Parkes (UK)
Founder & CEO, Rhizocore, Mycorrhizal Fungi Expert
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Sequestering gigatons of carbon to protect the future of the Earth for generations to come.
Toby has a Bsc in Biology and a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Bath. During his PhD, Toby worked on developing an understanding of how plants communicate with microbes where he used this knowledge to develop a new technique for producing disease resistant plants. Toby also spent time as a researcher at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew working on the Millenium Seed Bank Project to develop cryopreservation and tissue culture…
Sophia Hamblin Wang
Chief Operating Officer, MCi Carbon
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We can capture our CO2 emissions, but turning them into profit will be the key to decarbonizing our industries and meeting our climate goals.
Sophia Hamblin Wang is Chief Operating Officer of MCi Carbon, an Australian clean technology platform transforming carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into building materials and other valuable industrial products for the circular economy. A circular economy expert, Sophia is recognised as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, is a member of the Asia 21 Young Leaders Class of 2022, and is a graduate of the Harvard University Executive Education program.
Dr. Jason Fox
Wizard & Leadership Advisor, The Cleverness
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Overthinking the future of leadership, motivation and work.
Dr. Jason Fox is wizard-philosopher masquerading as a leadership advisor and bestselling author of 'How to Lead A Quest'. He works with enterprising teams questing amidst complexity and the unprecedented.
His bestselling book—“How to Lead a Quest”—posits the question: what is meaningful progress? In the context of our climate crisis—few questions are more pertinent. Yet how do surmount the myriad incentives and multipolar traps that keep us ensnared in our delusions of progress? How might we effectively coordinate amidst complexity, at scale?
Digby Hall
Founder, Climatewise Villages
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Mitigating climate risk by applying design thinking to business, buildings and brand
Digby Hall is an architect, advisor, PhD scholar and entrepreneur working at the forefront of positive climate adaptation, helping organisations plot their trajectory into a climate-changed future.
Through 30 years of working in the sustainable development field and seeking the key levers for meaningful climate action, Digby’s work, research and teaching now centre on the rich opportunities that are evident when we DNA-edit organisations, communities, and cities for climate resilience – which he defines as no-regrets adaptations that also deliver authentic sustainability outcomes.
Ed Coper
Author, Facts & Other Lies
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Working on disinformation and fractured democracy.
Ed Coopers 2022 book Facts and Other Lies: Welcome to the Disinformation Age is a timely look at how we arrived in the era of ‘fake news’. Ed’s work puts fake news in its historical context and explains how disinformation has fractured society, even threatening democracy itself.
Dr Glenn Albrecht
Author, Earth Emotions
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Entering into the Symbiocene.
Glenn A. Albrecht is an Honorary Associate in the School of Geo-sciences, The University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He retired as Professor of Sustainability, Murdoch University, in mid-2014. He continues to work as an environmental philosopher and published a book, Earth Emotions, with Cornell University Press in 2019. Earth Emotions was published in French and Spanish in 2020.
Ben Miles
Co-Founder, We Are Warriors & VP ECD, R/GA Australia
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Transforming brands and company culture.
Ben Miles is a design leader known globally for his transformative work with brands and company culture. In 2020, he launched R/GA APAC’s Brand Design & Consulting Practice (BDC), a unit set up to develop, design and deliver meaningful brands for business and organisations.
Sarah Nguyen
Head of Product, Streamtime
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Re-imagining the creative industries.
Sarah began her career working across varied design disciplines including branding, campaign and environmental projects at agencies such as eskimo, Collider and Houston. After spending time on a financial capability startup in 2017, during which she pitched as a top 20 finalist at Techstars New York, she now leads product design at Streamtime.
Jeanette Cheah
CEO & Founder, HEX Ed
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Preparing students for the fast-changing global workforce.
Jeanette Cheah is an award-winning tech and business leader based in Melbourne, and raised across the US, Japan and Australia. As CEO & founder of HEX, she’s dedicated to transforming young people into the innovators the world needs tomorrow.
Kate Hurst
Creative Director, Purpose Conference
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Kate Hurst is an accomplished Creative Director with a wealth of experience spanning more than two decades. She brings to the table a rare blend of creativity and business acumen, having built start-ups, developed brands and delivered exceptional events across diverse industries.
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Adam Milgrom
Partner, Giant Leap
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Working on projects that accelerate us towards a better future.
Adam Milgrom is a Partner at Giant Leap, a venture capital fund that invests in companies harnessing technology and innovation to reimagine industries and create transformational change across climate, health and empowerment & education.
Vidit Agarwal
Investment Lead, Ecotone Ventures & Host, The High Flyers Podcast.
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Using capital to move the needle toward a more equitable, sustainable and prosperous future.
Vidit Agarwal is a wearer of many hats. He is the Investment Lead at Ecotone Ventures, investing primarily in ClimateTech startups, he’s the host of the globally top ranked podcast The High Flyers, a member of Techstars Selection Committee, and founder of the Curiosity Center which is a leading on-demand intelligence network for founders, investors, executives and students with an audience of over 200,000.
Alison Fort (UK)
CEO Katapult Foundation, Katapult Group
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Systems change investing and AI ethics in impact investing.
Alison is the CEO of the Katapult Foundation and Impact Partner of Katapult VC, where she sits on the Investment Committees for Katapult Climate, Katapult Ocean and Katapult Africa. Katapult VC invests in and scales impact technology startups. The Katapult Foundation is the non-profit arm of the family founded to support investors and technology startups to move their businesses and capital for positive impact. Alison has been working with international impact investors for the past 13 years.
Mick Liubinskas
Co-founder, Climate Salad
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Helping Aussie companies build climate solutions.
Mick Liubinskas founded Climate Salad in 2021 to help Australian companies build climate solutions. The network works to boost climate tech companies by providing and facilitating tools, programs and community support.
Louise Laing
General Manager Marketing ANZ, Intrepid
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Small group travel that’s good all over.
Louise Laing is a purpose led, award winning marketing professional and General Marketing Manager ANZ at Intrepid Travel, a certified B Corp.
Angus Brown (NZ)
Founder & CEO, Arepa
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Creating the brain drink.
Angus is the Co-founder of New Zealand’s #1 Brainfood Technology company, Ārepa. Angus spent five years working for the New Zealand government in foot technology and strategy, and become increasingly aware of the importance of mental health after losing a friend in his teenage years, then two grandparents, to brain-related illnesses.
Timothy O’Brien
Founder, Purpose Made
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Using knowledge to create new ventures and services that change the world.
Timothy is the founder of Purpose Made — an impact services and technology group that includes Hatched, Rooy, and a strategic partnership with Conspiracy of Love.
Dr Sasha Courville
Chief Impact Officer, Bank Australia
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Delivering the bank’s commitment to creative positive impact for people and planet.
Dr. Sasha Courville is Bank Australia's first Chief Impact Officer and leads in delivering the bank's commitment to create positive impact for people and the planet.
Lee Schofield
Founder, Future For Now
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Prioritising the integration of ethics in product design.
Lee is a strategic designer with over 15 years experience. She started her career in finance, but her curiosity quickly led her through various roles, from research to innovation and strategy.
Lisa Miller
CEO & Founder, Wedgetail
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Biodiversity is better business.
As CEO and Founder of Wedgetail, Lisa Kate Miller has set herself a pretty big target: tackling the $4.1 trillion biodiversity financing gap.
Lisa began her career as a scientist, specialising in zoology and evolutionary biology and working at the Australian Museum, before transitioning into the tech space, developing products and scaling leaders and teams at some of Australia's most impressive and fastest-growing companies including Canva where she was Head of Product, and General Assembly.
Fionnuala Quin
Seaweed Bioplastic Innovator & Founder, Kelpy
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Kelpy offers a regenerative solution that not only prevents harmful plastic from entering the ocean, but regenerates our oceans.
Fionnuala (or Fin like a dolphin) is a purpose driven founder intent on creating a more equitable world and regenerating our planet. Her dedication to ocean innovation stems from a childhood raised in a fishing community in Western Australia. She witnessed first-hand the decline of marine species from over-fishing and the demise of the commercial fishing industry in her hometown.
Rob Caslick
Founder, Two Good Co
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Everything we do is designed to rebuild self worth and independence, in order to break free from the cycle of disadvantage.
Rob's grandmother introduced him to soup kitchens when he was 12 and throughout his career he has always spent significant time volunteering.
In 2010 he founded an organic soup kitchen in Sydney's Kings Cross and 2016 he founded social enterprise Two Good Co initially as a way to scale the soup kitchen.
He went part time on his engineering career to focus on Two Good Co and failed at both!
Many more to be announced over the coming weeks…