Keynotes & Speakers
Keynote: Dr Ellen Joan Ford
Dr Ellen Joan Ford is terrifyingly ambitious about changing the working world for the betterment of people and organisational performance. When you see her track record for tackling the seemingly impossible and bringing people along with her, you will find it difficult to fault her logic.
Ellen helps organisations to improve staff wellbeing, retention, leadership, productivity, innovation, and business performance. Deeply passionate about improving the working world, Ellen provides a fresh perspective on how leadership can be done differently.
She draws on her practical experience across leadership, gender, wellbeing, and the future of work. The New Zealand Army veteran - whose volunteer team evacuated 563 people from Afghanistan to New Zealand - holds an MBA and PhD in leadership and has led national-scale leadership projects.
Keynote: Sonia McDonald
When Sonia speaks, everyone in the room feels like she is having a conversation with them as her audience will feel as if they are the only one in the room. She speaks from the heart. She is an impactful and motivational leadership expert and speaker that creates a life-changing experience. People call Sonia sassy, inspirational, real and a speaker who leaves a lasting impression. Her high-energy, authenticity and humour combined with actionable and practical advice, empowers her audience and provides them with great drive and confidence to take courageous action sand inspire great leadership in all aspects of their lives.
She is also a renowned and award-winning author, having written several of her own books, Leadership Attitude, Just Rock It! and First Comes Courage as well as being a regular contributor in The Australian, HRD Magazine, Smart Healthy Women and Women’s Business Media. She was named as one of the Top 250 Influential Women in the world as well as Top 100 Australian Entrepreneurs by Richtopia.
Through her leadership advisory and coaching work at LeadershipHQ, and founding the Outstanding Leadership Awards, Sonia is internationally recognised as an expert in leadership and culture, organisational development, neuroscience, kindness, and courage.
She is also a full-time single parent and has a passion for women in business and teenage mental health. Sonia travels and speaks across Australia and Globe, and she is on a mission to building a world of great leaders and leadership.
Dinner Keynote: Tracy Bartram
Comedian, broadcaster, and the creator of The Laughaholics podcast, Tracy Bartram is best known for her extraordinarily popular radio shows on Fox FM, Mix FM, and ABC Melbourne.
The global performer, nominated for Best Newcomer for her one-woman show at the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival, has appeared at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the Adelaide Fringe, the Perth ArtRage festival, and as far afield as London, Singapore, and Los Angeles.
She has long been in demand as a keynote speaker where she focuses her lived experience on recovery from addiction, family of origin trauma, and mental health issues, all sprinkled with her own hilarious anecdotes.
Beck Henshall
Director & Psychologist, Beck Henshall Collaborations
Beck Henshall is a consulting psychologist, facilitator, and coach with over 20 years in leadership development with a focus on leadership presence, influence, and wellbeing. Beck helps organisations develop their leaders and teams, with a special interest in assisting teams to create the right environment to foster team success.
Beck is sought after for executive, leadership, and team development due to her ability to help leaders build strong relationships that yield high performance. She cultivates psychological safety and trust, brings insight and awareness, and facilitates conversations that lead to improved team and organisational outcomes.
Beck holds qualifications in business administration, educational psychology, and organisation dynamics. A member of the Australian Psychological Society, she is a certified Level IV Workplace Assessor and Trainer and is accredited in various profiling tools, coaching methodologies, and the Global Leadership Wellbeing Survey.
Jemi Jeng
Founder, Penny
Jemi Jeng is the founder of Penny, a finance platform and community dedicated to empowering Gen Z and millennial women to achieve financial independence.
Leveraging her background in social policy and digital transformation, Jemi created Penny to address the unique financial challenges women face, particularly when it comes to home ownership. Jemi and the platform offer advice for women at all stages of their careers.
Founded in January 2021, Penny strives to create a more equitable financial world for women and girls. Jemi offers guidance on building a money mindset, growing confidence with money, and developing financial literacy.
Anna Lee
Founder, Hacks for Her
A seasoned career navigation and executive coach, Anna Lee started her first business 15 years ago when her firstborn was six weeks old. Her mission: to support women to navigate their careers with courage and clarity in professional landscapes designed for and by men.
Anna’s vision is a world in which career trajectories are determined not by professional networks, political savvy, or confidence, but by an individual’s skills, knowledge, and contribution.
Anna has spoken to thousands of people across hundreds of organisations including local governments over 16 years. Anna sparks career courage, clarity, and conversations as a speaker and facilitator.
Sonya Lovell
Sonya experienced induced menopause from treatment for breast cancer at 47. Overwhelmed, unsupported, and undereducated about menopause, Sonya struggled to understand what was happening to her rapidly changing health.
Facing anxiety and depression while weathering a storm of physical symptoms, Sonya set off on a mission to understand everything she could about perimenopause and menopause. The initial goal of helping herself feel healthy, stable, and happy again quickly led to a career using her lived experience to support, educate, and raise awareness for those transitioning through menopause.
Sonya now works with Menopause Friendly, an advocate for challenging societal stigmas and taboos around menopause. She has applied this insight to over 100 episodes of the popular podcast Dear Menopause, interviewing leading local and global experts in menopausal health, mental health, and government.
Megumi Miki
Author
Megumi Miki is a Japanese-Australian speaker, author, and consultant in leadership, culture, and diversity and inclusion with a background in strategy, economics, and finance.
Her award-winning book, Quietly Powerful: How Your Quiet Nature is Your Hidden Leadership Strength, challenges conventional assumptions about what it takes to be a successful leader. The book received the Australian Career Book Award for 2020 from RSA Oceania and Best Leadership Book of 2020 from the Australian Business Book Awards.
Megumi supports clients to unleash their hidden talent and collective potential by examining their thinking and beliefs as well as providing practical strategies.
Div Pillay
Chief Executive Officer, MindTribes
A leader in diversity and inclusion practice, Div Pillay is a researcher and advocate with over 20 years of experience in gender, race, and cultural inclusion. Born, raised, and educated in South Africa, Div brings lived experience of racial segregation to her work.
Div has spent over a decade researching the covert nature of negative behaviours at work as experienced by women, migrants, refugees, and asylum seeker professionals. Backed by her behavioural science and economics background, Div has worked with boards and executive teams to realise long lasting change.
The leader of award-winning diversity and inclusion consultancy MindTribes and social enterprise Culturally Diverse Women, Div has been named in the Australian Financial Review’s 100 Women of Influence, listed as one of 25 Global Influencers in Social Impact by the world’s largest business-education alliance, and was selected as a Top Linkedin Voice for Gender Equity in Australia.
Jenny Scicluna
After building a career in leadership within the local government and community sectors and earning a reputation for fostering others' success, Jenny has embarked on a new journey as a facilitator. Her focus remains on making a positive impact on people's lives, now through facilitation and support roles.
Jenny deeply values teamwork, collaboration, helpfulness, and kindness, and is passionate about transparent governance and empowering leaders to excel in their service. The majority of her career has been in service to the community through leadership roles in local government, and most recently as an executive in both the community and corporate services streams at different councils across greater Melbourne. She has led landmark projects throughout her career including digital transformation programs, Council Plan development and deliberative engagement, development of a financial sustainability strategy and significant community recovery programs after emergency events.
Jenny has held Board positions with the Eastern Community Legal Centre, Your Library, Casey Cardinia Library Corporation and the Heidelberg West School Regeneration Project. Jenny was awarded a place in the top 50 Public sector women in 2020 in ‘recognition of inspiring accomplishments and pioneering leadership of Victoria’s women'.
Fiona McAllister
General Manager, Steople
Fiona is a Psychologist with over 15 years consulting experience and qualifications in applied psychology, knowledge management and governance.
Fiona has held leadership roles in the hospitality and government sectors and is an experienced board member with NFP and industry association board positions. She has worked extensively across sectors supporting clients through the development and delivery of OD strategy, culture change, talent strategy, career planning, capability and knowledge management frameworks, leadership development, team effectiveness, assessment and executive coaching. Many clients have a long term relationship with Fiona in their personal or organisational transformation journeys.
Fiona began her consulting career with Coyne Didsbury (PDI) before moving into a senior consulting role with McArthur Management Services. She then moved to the Municipal Association of Victoria to lead their Professional Development and Governance Support team before establishing her own consulting practice in 2006. After a successful decade in her own consultancy, Fiona joined the Steople team as Principal Consultant and moved into the role of General Manager VIC in 2019.
Anne Lingafelter
Principal - Workplace Advisory ANZ, Gallup
Prior to joining Gallup in this capacity, she founded and led her own consulting business, ACML Consulting, which focused primarily on education, faith based and not-for-profit organisations.
Anne is a Gallup boomerang, having driven the tertiary & secondary education agenda in ANZ for almost eight years. During that time, her focus was strengths-based development and organizational engagement primarily within education, faith based and not-for-profit sectors. Anne led the Gallup Student Poll initiative in Australia and New Zealand.
Prior to joining Gallup, Anne worked in business development for a start-up company and in project management for a nonprofit cancer research organisation. She has also worked as a broadcast journalist in the USA.
Anne received her bachelor’s degree in Arts from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, USA. She is a Gallup Certified coach and holds an Executive Coaching Certificate from Coaching Australia. She is a mother of 4, a wife and an avid sportswoman.
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