Meet The Australian Delegation Heading To The Social Enterprise World Forum In Ethiopia
Rona Glynn-McDonald working in the Northern Territory, Australia.
A strong delegation of 60 Australians is soon to head to the Social Enterprise World Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for what is set to be an amazing opportunity to develop the sector globally.
The theme of this year’s Forum is local traditions, fresh perspectives and it’s the first SEWF to be held in a developing economy.
The broad range of practitioners, government representatives, academia, philanthropists and students who make up the Australian delegation are united in their joint aspiration of developing the Australian social enterprise sector and SEWF presents the great opportunity for international exchange and dialogue. Delegates will be forming new connections with global leaders and doers from the sector and will be sharing their learnings from the forum both on social media and at a range of Australian events later this year.
The strong Australian presence at SEWF is an indication of the vibrant and growing social enterprise practitioner movement in Australia. This is coming off the back of greater government and private sector engagement in social enterprise. In the last 12 months alone, a range of state-based social enterprise networks have formed across Australia, with momentum building towards the creation of a national strategy.
The week will kick off with the Ambassador of Australia HE Mr Peter Doyle welcoming delegates at a special event. Throughout the forum, 12 of the Australians will be speaking on a wide variety of topics including growing awareness of social enterprise globally, storytelling for impact, models for growth, rethinking the role of education, social procurement, food-based social enterprises and the future of the movement.
19 of the Australian delegates received SEWF 2019 bursary funding, thanks to a fruitful partnership between the English Family Foundation, Philanthropy Australia and Social Traders.
As the third largest delegation behind Ethiopia and Taiwan, the Australians are hungry to learn, connect and share and are looking forward to meeting other participants from around the globe.
Find out more about the dynamic & diverse mix of Australian participants below. they will look forward to meeting you in Addis Ababa.
Sarah Alexander, Jacobs
Sarah Alexander recently rejoined large professional services firm, Jacobs, to create a new practice focusing on social innovation and value in major infrastructure design and delivery. She spent the last 4 years working as Director of YLab, a social enterprise incubated by the Foundation for Young Australians. YLab is experimenting with what an ethical and user-designed ‘gig economy’ platform for the future could look like. YLab aims to flip power dynamics by putting young people in the driver’s seat of this work, and since 2016 has recruited, trained, and employed over 100 YLab Associates, who bring multidisciplinary skills, future-focused ideas and different lived experiences to take on the biggest challenges of our time. Sarah has also worked for the Asia Foundation in Southeast Asia on women’s entrepreneurship and regional economic development and trade.
Matthew Allen, Social Impact Hub & NACRO incorporating Zero Waste Network
Matt has been involved in non-profits and social enterprises for over 10 years, with a particular interest in collaboration, collective impact, business planning and impact measurement. He is currently the Program and Sustainability Manager at NACRO incorporating Zero Waste Network, and a Professional Impact Network Member at the Social Impact Hub. His previous roles include General Manager at Resource Work Cooperative (Hobart) and Social Enterprise Officer at Quidan Kaisahan (Philippines). He is a current MBA (Social Impact) candidate at UNSW.
Tom Allen, Impact Boom
Tom is Founder and CEO of Impact Boom and is passionate about working with purpose-driven organisations and entrepreneurs to deliver strong social and environmental impact. Tom helps social entrepreneurs and their regions to thrive, building critical skills and design-led mindsets capable of tackling complex challenges via programs such as the Elevate+ Social Enterprise Accelerator.
He also works with leading universities, governments and clients internationally to develop and deliver world-class programs across social entrepreneurship and innovation and is the recipient of two Australian Good Design Awards. Tom is highly active in building the social enterprise ecosystem in Australia and is a Board Member of the Queensland Social Enterprise Council and Social Enterprise Network Logan, a Fellow at the Yunus Centre (Griffith University) and an Advisory Panel Member of QUT ImpaQt.
Jacinta Alliung, FamilIES As First Teachers
Jacinta is an Aboriginal health worker and currently works at Families As First Teachers (0-3). She is married with five children. Two of her boys go to school in Bright where she is also co-owner of a social enterprise, Dumu Café. Her role at Dumu is to make things culturally safe and make sure kids are understanding what they need to do. Dumu teaches young people how to cook, make coffee, clean, customer service, hygiene, confidence and practice their English. Jacinta hopes this will lead to better opportunities for them in the future.
Susanna Bevilacqua, Moral Fairground
In 2009, after witnessing first hand the detrimental impact of mass consumerism in South-East Asia, Susanna established Moral Fairground with the aim to foster awareness, encourage collaboration and educate on developing ethical and environmentally aware businesses.
Susanna creates opportunities for people from diverse demographics to access engaging education that gives insight into how purchasing power can contribute towards a more sustainable and transparent society.
Susanna Bevilacqua’s career spans over twenty-five years in the banking industry, such as with Bendigo Bank in the Community space. Susanna is on the Board of a not-for profit Moreland Early Years Management organisation.
Jay Boolkin, Social Change Central
Jay is driven by a desire to help others, and is passionate about positive social change and the power of social entrepreneurship to tackle some of the world’s biggest problems. He gets inspired by small actions that have the power to bring about big change and loves engaging with like-minded people who give more to the world than they take. Jay is an expert connector and proponent for how technology can be used to scale impact in the social enterprise and broader NFP space.
Recognising the need to better connect the sector, Jay co-founder Social Change Central - Australia’s first online opportunities portal for social enterprise reaching over 10,000 people a month. Previously a Strategy Advisor at Spark Strategy and now co-lead of Social Impact & Partnerships at Seventh Street Ventures, Jay brings a wealth of digital communications and growth marketing expertise to the sector. Through his social enterprise Promise or Pay, he created a technology platform that motivates people to make smaller positive behaviour changes by putting their money on the line for charity. Jay has been an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development and was selected as a 2015 Myer Innovation Fellow, one of Australia’s top 50 young social entrepreneurs by the Foundation for Young Australians, the Young Entrepreneur Finalist in the Sydney SHINE Awards and SE100 Innovations and Social Entrepreneurs. He blogs at Social Good Stuff.
David Brookes, Social Traders and SEWF
Appointed Managing Director of Social Traders in 2009, David is an Executive Director on Social Traders’ Board and has responsibility for development and implementation of the organisation’s strategy, staff recruitment and engagement with key government, philanthropic, business and research partners.
David has been closely involved in the development of social enterprise development initiatives in Australia, including the annual Social Enterprise Conference, the Victorian Social Enterprise Strategy and social procurement advocacy across the public and private sectors. He is also a Director of the Social Enterprise World Forum. David brings extensive experience leading strategic business-community partnerships at Rio Tinto, Toyota and Amcor; as well as industry and government policy development and key stakeholder engagement experience.
Linda Brown, Torrens University
Linda Brown is the President of Torrens University. As Australia’s fastest-growing university, Linda’s ultimate vision is for Torrens University to have a significant and positive impact on education across the globe. As CEO of Laureate Australia & NZ, Linda oversees Torrens University, Think Education in Australia and the Media Design School in New Zealand.
Linda has more than 23 years of management experience in the education sector in Australia and the United Kingdom, including as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Director TAFE at Swinburne University, and as Senior Executive Director at the QLD Government Department of Education, Training and the Arts.
Sabrina Chakori, Brisbane Tool Library
In 2017, Sabrina founded the Brisbane Tool Library, a social enterprise that aims to reduce household consumption, allowing people to borrow various items. This venture contributes to a new economy, building a post-growth society.
After a BSc in Biology and a MSc in Environmental Economics, Sabrina started a PhD research. She’s currently researching how to transition to zero-packaging food systems in a post-growth economy.
For more than a decade, Sabrina worked for a more sustainable society in different countries around the world. Her experience includes working for the United Nations, as well as with Indigenous communities. In Queensland, she worked with the Environment Minister to introduce the law to ban single-use plastic bags.
Founder, TEDx speaker, author, researcher and activist, Sabrina is fully invested in creating systemic change that would build a new social just and ecological sustainable economy.
Rachel Chapman
Rachel Chapman is a campaigner and facilitator, currently working as the Senior Campaigner for an Australian Senator.
She coordinated the successful campaign to remove the tax on sanitary products in Australia and works on various campaigns for social and environmental justice.
She also coordinates a community campaigning fellowship which trains and invests in the development of emerging campaigners in her home state of Victoria.
Prior to her work in politics, she delivered workshops on gender equality and served as the People and Culture Director at a youth-led NGO.
Danielle Chettleburgh, Dumu Cafe
Dani has worked at Dumu Cafe for the past two years as the catering and cafe co-ordinator. During this time she has gone on interstate trips with trainees to work at hatted restaurants, assisted in delivering a food hygiene course to women in the Solomon Islands and held a cooking demonstration in Federation Square in Melbourne. She has a strong interest in Indigenous bush foods and tries to incorporate as many native flavours as possible into the menu. She loves working with the trainees at Dumu and is trying to learn as much of their language, Murrinh-patha, as possible.
Rebecca Crawley, Thamarrurr Youth Indigenous Corporation
Rebecca’s interest in Aboriginal cultures, and the value she places on learning and sharing, has enabled her to combine her education and business skills and her beliefs on a daily basis, as she contributes to Dumu Café, a 50% Aboriginal-owned social enterprise in Bright, and Thamarrurr Youth Indigenous Corporation, in Wadeye. Rebecca and her husband Justin, together with their three boys, spent many years in the remote Aboriginal community of Wadeye in the NT and share a desire to ensure all people, especially young people, are provided with support and the opportunity to make the most of their lives.
Carlie Daly, Mumma Got Skills & Impact Boom
Carlie Daly is an Arts Teacher, Elevate+ Alumni and founder of Social Enterprise, Mumma Got Skills. Carlie is passionate about supporting post-natal mental health through hands-on, creative workshops with measurable impact. Carlie is Impact Boom’s Marketing and Engagement Manager, with a passion for nurturing our global purpose-led community.
Tom Dawkins, StartSomeGood
Tom Dawkins is Co-Founder and CEO of StartSomeGood.com, a global crowdfunding platform and education provider for social good projects.
He previously founded Australian youth non-profit Vibewire, worked for Ashoka in Washington DC and for HopeLab in Silicon Valley, and was founding director of the Changemakers Festival with The Australian Centre for Social Innovation in 2013. Tom has consulted with numerous non-profits, associations and governments on how to better engage their communities using social technologies and spoken at conferences including SEWF, SXSW, SOCAP, Purpose, The World Summit on the Information Society and Nexus Summit.
Sisay Dinku, Multicultural Consulting Services
Sisay Dinku a founder and Director at Multicultural Consulting Services, a social enterprise which has significantly working to make a difference in finding jobs and changing a life of many disadvantaged community members. Sisay has been widely engaged in Employment services, community development in the broader multicultural community in Victoria. He is also a founding member of the Celebrate African Australians awards program, an AFL Multicultural Community Ambassador and board of the charity Australian Books for Children of Africa. He also sitting on a committee of Advisory Member for Deakin University Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies (CRIS). Sisay has managed and worked on several programs to assist migrants to compete in the local labour market – especially in industries experiencing skills shortages – through job search plans, Australian work culture orientations and employability skills training. Sisay is working in collaboration and partnership with government institutions, private sectors, service providers and different community groups including organisation participated on major infrastructure projects.
Sisay is currently a Commissioner at Victorian Multicultural Commission and Chairperson for SJAPH, a Task force support for Job seekers of African and Pasifika Heritage at Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions.
Pete Dowson, Digital Storytellers
Creativity, production magic and passion are the three traits that makes Pete the beating heart of the Digital Storytellers team. With three green thumbs and a cool head in high-pressure production scenarios, Pete is a core member of the Digital Storyteller community, and oversees all post-production work at Digital Storytellers. With a strong emphasis on environment, sustainability and community resilience, Pete has an already established track record in the corporate space, having worked with some of Australia’s largest production companies and events. Today he brings an extraordinary bag of tricks to the Digital Storytellers team.
Kat Dunn, Grameen Australia
Kat Dunn is the CEO of Grameen Australia, a social business inspired by the work of Nobel Peace Prize Winner Professor Muhammad Yunus. Kat started her career as a lawyer and before working at Perpetual Limited where, in 2016, she was the youngest executive to serve on the senior leadership team. She has the advised the Financial Services Council and Commonwealth Treasury on regulatory reform. Kat is on the board of food innovation catalyst, Food Frontier and created F-OFF: Fear of Failure Forum a movement to say "F-OFF to your fear of failure and grow your potential".
Laura Egan, Enterprise Learning Projects
Laura is the Founder/CEO of Enterprise Learning Projects, an organisation that works in partnership with remote Aboriginal communities to explore enterprise as a way to share cultural assets and generate meaningful income. Over the last 12 years, she has worked alongside more than 15 remote communities and supported over 500 people living in remote Australia to engage in grassroots enterprise. She is co-founder of two social enterprises: Magpie Goose, a clothing label showcasing designs by Aboriginal artists, and Gulbarn, a business that brings a traditional bush medicine to the market as an herbal tea.
Cinnamon Evans, CERES
Cinnamon Evans is the CEO of CERES, a Melbourne icon, known around the world for embodying what is possible when communities come together to support more sustainable and just ways of living. Through Cinnamon’s leadership, CERES has developed an integrated suite of 13 social enterprises that enable customers to engage with and inhabit a more sustainable and just world. CERES is now 95% self-funded through their social enterprises, and remains a collaborative community organisation.
Cinnamon is the current Chairperson of SENVIC (Social Enterprise Network Victoria), an emerging network of social enterprise practitioners and supporters. Cinnamon is particularly passionate about the role of social enterprise in delivering environmental and social change, having experienced first-hand the transformative power of this movement.
Zeshi Fisher, Birthing Kit Foundation Australia
Zeshi leads the Impact and Design Team at the Birthing Kit Foundation Australia (BKFA). She is a midwife with experience in maternal and reproductive health as a clinician, educator, advisor, program designer and manager across the Eastern Africa and Asia Pacific regions. She works to enable learning and innovation within the organisation as well as throughout BKFA’s work globally. She values relationships, critical thinking, and optimism.
Tony Fox
Tony has spent a lifetime involved in the environmental, social need and community growth sector and his skill base crosses over many disciplines. Tony is a well-known identity in his community from his work managing non-for-profit music venues, his work as a musician and his ongoing involvement in community. Tony founded ForeignPrisoners.com a support service for individuals incarcerated in foreign countries and has recently moved out of the IT sector after selling a multi-million dollar online retail platform. At the core of all of Tony’s work is his community and their connectivity and empowerment.
Rona Glynn-McDonald, YLab Global
Rona is a proud Kaytetye woman and works with high impact organisations to propel social change. She has a background in economics and a deep curiosity and passion for disruptive ideas. Rona is currently the Director of First Nations at YLab, a social enterprise that puts young people with diverse lived experiences at the centre of designing and developing innovative and impactful solutions to complex social issues.
Rona is also the founder of Common Ground, an online space that shares Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, histories and lived experiences. Since Launching in 2018, Common Ground has supported over 130,000 Australians to learn about the cultures and histories of First Nations people. Through her work with First Nations communities across Australia, Rona aims to create future systems that centre First Nations knowledge and cultures. In 2019, Rona was a recipient of the Diana Award and named one of Australia’s Women’s Weekly ‘Women of the Future’.
Alex Hannant, Yunus Centre, Griffith University
Alex is Co-Director of the Yunus Centre at Griffith University, Australia. The Yunus Centre leads the University’s research, teaching, and engagement in the fields of social innovation, impact and enterprise.
In his previous role, Alex was CEO of Ākina Foundation, New Zealand’s primary development organisation for social enterprise, and the government’s strategic partner for social enterprise development. Before that, based in the UK, he was Director of Programmes at LEAD – a global network focussed on leadership and sustainable development, and also Head of Partnerships at the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN). He currently serves on the Boards of B Lab Australia and New Zealand, the Aotearoa New Zealand Advisory Board for Impact Investment, and Pomegranate Kitchen, a social enterprise focused on improving intercultural connections and the resettlement of former refugees.
Jaison Hoernel, Good Cycles
Jaison has over 20 years of professional experience in the bicycle industry in Australia and internationally. With influential roles across the industry, Jaison’s depth of expertise is highly regarded. He has enjoyed success in establishing one of Australia’s most successful and highly regarded commuter and specialty bicycle retail shops, holds an MBA (Executive) from RMIT and has a highly developed financial acumen.
Jaison has held management positions in both Australia and Asia and been actively involved in developing sponsorship and funding models for public transport projects internationally. As CEO of Good Cycles, Jaison is committed to social equity.
Usman Iftikhar, CatalysR
Usman Iftikhar is a social entrepreneur, passionate about utilising the power of entrepreneurship to solve global warming and the global refugee crisis. He's the co-founder and CEO of Catalysr, a startup pre-accelerator which empowers migrant and refugee entrepreneurs to launch their own startups in Australia. In their first 3 years, Catalysr has supported 181 migrapreneurs launch 50 businesses.
Usman also sits on the expert panel for Impact Investment Ready Growth Grants funded by Department of Social Services. He is a WEF Global Shaper, Westpac Social Change Fellow, AMP Tomorrow Maker, Singularity University's GSP Fellow, and the Australian lead for G20 YEA. For his work, Usman was named the 2018 Commonwealth Young Person of the Year amongst 1.4 billion young people living in the 53 Commonwealth nations.
Delegate numbers by State
Bryce Ives, Torrens University
Bryce Ives was appointed to the role of Vice President Communications & Public Affairs in February 2019. Bryce is a passionate and creative storyteller and courageous community leader, and he joins Laureate with more than 16 years of industry, educational, business and leadership experience. He has an impeccable reputation as a facilitator and agent of change, with an abiding connection to community and industry engagement.
Bryce has led change making projects across the Australian arts, agriculture, education, music, media and broadcasting industries, as well as in higher education, community and youth development.
Emma Joyce, Social Traders
Emma Joyce is the Engagement Manager at Social Traders, an organisation working to create jobs for disadvantaged Australians by linking business and government to social enterprises. At Social Traders, Emma manages engagement with a network of 300+ certified social enterprises and also conducts certification of new social enterprises. Once certified, Emma connects social enterprises with Social Traders’ business and government members, who are actively looking to increase their procurement spend with social enterprises to create greater social impact. Emma holds a Bachelor of Arts (Global) with Honours from Monash University, where she specialised in international development and human rights.
Elisabeth Lette, Victorian Government
Elisabeth Lette is the Procurement Policy and Reform Manager within the Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance. In this role Elisabeth has been responsible for the policy design, development and implementation of a number of procurement policy issues, including ‘Victoria’s Social Procurement Framework’ (SPF). The SPF is a whole of government framework that seeks to leverage the government’s $29 billion purchasing power to achieve a range of social, economic and environmental outcomes. It applies to the procurement of all goods, services and construction in around 300 government entities. Elisabeth is a Chartered Accountant with significant experience in accountancy and consulting practice, multi-national private sector organisations and government.
Mikey Leung, Digital Storytellers
To change the world, we must change the story. Mikey and his team live by this mantra at Digital Storytellers, a film-making agency and impact storytelling community based out of Sydney. By drawing on the deep and spiritual roots of storytelling, the team creates impactful stories and films that showcase and help scale the positive solutions in the world today. We also work to demystify the craft and the technology of storytelling for impact changemakers and including our Stories For Impact online workshop program, based on our face-to-face workshops that have reached thousands around the world. Our big vision is a peaceful and connected world where people, prosperity and planet are in harmony for the benefit of future generations. We co-create that world using the power of storytelling - by telling, and supporting others to tell stories which inspire a flourishing world.
Julia Lörsch, Digital Storytellers
Julia Lörsch is a Senior Producer at Digital Storytellers using her skills in narrative, image and producing to bring compelling stories to life. With a special interest in climate change, sustainability and the ethical economy, Julia is dedicated to integrity in message and production to create the most engaging pieces possible. Born in Germany and with a background in broadcast fiction, Julia brings her three languages, full passports and insatiable curiosity for understanding the world and its people, into each production she creates.
Belinda Morrissey, English Family Foundation
Belinda is the CEO of the English Family Foundation, one of the few Australian foundations with a sole focus on driving transformational change through the growth and development of social entrepreneurs and social businesses. For the past 6 years Belinda has worked closely with social enterprises to develop and support their growth, and she has a particular focus on progressing the role of philanthropy in supporting the social enterprise sector in obtaining the “right capital at the right time”. She has spent the past decade in the philanthropic and for purpose sectors and prior to this Belinda had an extensive career in investment management spanning three continents. Belinda holds several not for profit board positions – she is on the Board of ActionAid Australia and on the Advisory Board of the Social Impact Hub.
Dallas Mugarra, Thamarrurr Youth Indigenous Corporation
Dallas works hard and always try his best at new things. He loves meeting new people and learning about different cultures and to share his with others. He is a friendly, talented, smart, respectful and dutiful young man. He enjoys writing and making music with people in traditional language and in English. It keeps his mind and body motivated and active. He enjoys acting and is looking forward to do more new things but he also wants to see more young Aboriginal people do more similar stuff as he does by creating jobs for them.
Davinia Vella, #MakingItHappen & Impact Boom
Davinia Vella is the founder of #MakingItHappen, a social enterprise consultancy driving growth in socially-conscious businesses and not-for-profits across Queensland after working in the social and community space developing and delivering projects and programs for many years. Combining her enterprising spirit and belief in community work, Davinia founded #MakingItHappen in 2014 to support social impact organisations in transitioning from grant and donation-dependent operating models to newer, sustainable revenue-making approaches, guided by a belief that better business practices will lead to a better future for all.
Davinia is a Contributing Editor at Impact Boom and passionate about sharing insights on social impact.
Amber O’Connell, Victorian Government
Amber leads on the implementation of the Victorian Government’s Social Enterprise Strategy and Community Revitalisation programs. She is committed to utilising the best of both business and social policy to create a more equitable and just society. With a background in impact investment as well as social enterprise and investment readiness consulting, Amber brings a breadth of valuable experience in using business as a force for good to her government role.
Amber was previously the head of capacity building for a large European impact investor operating in developing and emerging economies with an exclusive focus on purpose-led enterprises and cooperatives. Amber has a degree in International Business and a master’s in International Development and delights in merging the two worlds to create positive change.
Matt Pfahlert, ACRE
Matt is a pioneering social entrepreneur, with a long-standing commitment to rural Australia. As co-founder and CEO of ACRE – the Australian Centre for Rural Entrepreneurship, Matt is driving the renewal of rural communities so that future generations may thrive. Matt started his first social enterprise in 1993 at the age of 23, working with ‘at risk’ young people in wilderness settings. His passion for positive social outcomes saw him receive the prestigious Young Australian of the Year Award in 1996. In 2013 Matt undertook a Churchill Fellowship to study social enterprise for rural and regional rejuvenation in the USA, Canada and the UK. Matt is active in sector development activities in Australia initiating the Social Enterprise Network for Victoria in 2018. In that year he also co-produced the inaugural Rural Symposium in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland to coincide with the 10th SEWF.
Juanita Pope, Justice Connect
Juanita heads up the Not-for-profit Law program at Australian legal charity, Justice Connect. A lawyer and social justice enthusiast, Juanita co-leads a team at Justice Connect that designs and delivers legal assistance services for community organisations, including social enterprises. She has played a key role in the development of Justice Connect’s own social enterprise, Not-for-profit Law Training, which offers legal and governance training for charities and other community groups. Outside work, Juanita is a lover of nature and culture, is raising two children with her partner, and volunteers on the boards of Melbourne Fringe and Reconciliation Victoria.
Sally Quinn, Green Collect
Sally Quinn is CEO and co-founder of Greencollect, a dynamic business and inclusive workplace delivering new sustainability and resource recovery services. Sally has hands-on experience of building a sustainable and impactful social enterprise from the ground up; guiding the enterprise through start-up, growth and now scale. At the heart of all work is Sally’s dedication to creating meaningful work with people excluded from the mainstream labour market. As a passionate leader, this has also included actively contributing to the development of the wider sector. Being partner to Green Collect co-founder, Darren Andrews, and parenting 4 kids along the way ensures that life is always very full!
Laura Reed, Seventh Street Ventures
Laura Reed is an experienced social impact and strategy professional, having previously led the social impact team at Westpac and held in house sustainability and community roles with Stockland and Fuji Xerox Australia.
She now co-leads Social Impact and Partnerships with Seventh Street Ventures, investing in social enterprises and managing impact investments, and consults on social impact with a range of large Australian companies, particularly across the financial services and property sectors through her consulting business Reed Consulting.
Laura holds Environmental Science and Political Science degrees, and a Graduate Certificate in Social Impact from UNSW.
Rhonda Renwick, Kindred Spirits Foundation
Connections to family and community and a passion for caring for the environment are what drives Rhonda’s desire towards equitable and sustainable pathways to social justice. With a background in education, community psychology, public transport and philanthropy, Rhonda believes in working together with all members of community to find answers to the increasing burden of chronic diseases. For Rhonda, education = health = wealth to all.
Emma-Kate Rose, QSEC & Food Connect
Emma-Kate is a mother of four, sister to 5, aunty to 19, community advocate and social entrepreneur from Brisbane, Australia.
She leads Food Connect, a social enterprise founded in 2005 by her partner, Robert Pekin, which has led the way in transforming the local food system, using principles of regenerative and community supported agriculture. Acknowledging the philosophy of ‘small is beautiful’, Food Connect has open-sourced its model across Australia and New Zealand, and last year, led an equity crowdfunding campaign to raise over $2million to buy its own warehouse along with 513 careholders.
EK is one of four Fellows of the Yunus Centre for Social Business at Griffith University, and is now in her second year as Chair of Qld Social Enterprise Council, where she’s led a dynamic management committee to secure philanthropic and government funding to coordinate a sector-wide strategy to scale impact across Queensland.
Lisa Siganto, QUT ImpaQt, White Box Enterprises
Lisa Siganto has worked in the impact economy for almost 20 years, supporting and investing in social entrepreneurs who are changing the world. Through her consultancy, Shorebirds, she has facilitated a number of large-scale partnership projects that create social impact. She is the Chair of White Box Enterprises, QUT ImpaQt and Asylum Circle.
Lisa was the founding QLD Director of Social Ventures Australia, where she was responsible for a hub of more than 60 social enterprises and profit-for-purpose businesses. Formerly, she was a Partner in consulting at Deloitte and a management consultant with McKinsey & Company. Lisa was also CEO of the Stronger Smarter Institute, an organisation that partners with schools and communities across Australia to change the tide of low expectations in Indigenous education. Lisa has an MBA from Harvard University and an Engineering Degree (Honours) from the University of Queensland.
Tony Sharp, Substation33
Tony is the Founder of Substation33, Founding Chair at the Social Enterprise Network - Logan and INNOV8 Logan and recipient of the Social Traders 2019 Social Enterprise Champion of the Year award.
It gives Tony great pleasure to be representing Australia in Addis Ababa Ethiopia.
Bianca Stawiarski, Warida Wholistic Wellness
Bianca Stawiarski from Warida Wholistic Wellness, is a strong and fiercely passionate Badimaya (Aboriginal) woman offering a sanctuary for wellbeing to support community change one person at a time. She welcomes a diversity of clients and their experiences of wellbeing, with her focus on empowering people to explore, embrace and reconnect with their unique inner fire. She utilises trauma-informed counselling with an Indigenous therapeutic approach (Master in Counselling Practice), transformational coaching (Dip. Life Coaching), equine assisted psychotherapy (certified EPI model), and horse archery (Level 2) as tools for empowerment and strength building.
Henly Terry
Henly is 12 years old from Brisbane and son of Social entrepreneur Luke Terry. Henly is passionate about any social enterprises that reduce carbon emissions. He can’t wait to go to SEWF in Ethiopia to learn about social enterprises past, present and future.
Luke Terry, White Box Enterprises
Luke is one of Australia’s most awarded ‘serial social entrepreneurs’. Over the last 15 years, he has founded several large-scale social enterprises that create meaningful work for individuals who would otherwise be excluded from the labour market.
In 2017, he created Vanguard Laundry Services, an AU$8 million commercial laundry with in-built mental health career and training centre employing more than 140 people since opening. In June 2019 Luke launched White Box Enterprises. With only 15 employment focused social enterprises in Australia paying an award wage and employing more than 50 people, White Box pledges to create 5000 jobs by 2030 using social enterprise. Luke has been recognised as a Westpac Social Change Fellow, the 2015 recipient of the SVA David Clarke Scholarship, a Queensland Citizen of the Year finalist, and winner of the 2015 & 2016 Australian Social Enterprise Awards.
Yoseph (Betre) Weldeyes, TeNeSu!
Betre Yoseph Weldeyes is passionate about community and social justice. He juggles a portfolio career that includes advising migrants with small businesses, organising community activities and campaigns, facilitating relationships and connections between organisations and communities, and driving trams through Melbourne, Australia. He has been with Amnesty International on campaigns and events, helped to establish the racial justice team with Democracy in Colour, and most recently co-founded a social enterprise called TeNeSu!. TeNeSu! brings together institutions, African communities in Australia, and the general Australian public through music, food, and events to help build mutual awareness of the strengths and opportunities that could be realised through greater connection and trust.
Jemima Welsh, QUT ImpaQt
Jemima Welsh is the General Manager of QUT ImpaQt, an organisation that works with social entrepreneurs to build social enterprise and profit-for-purpose business models, and then facilitates connections to impact investors. Jemima is also on the Board of the Queensland Social Enterprise Council and is coordinator of the QLD Impact Investing ‘Scrum’ Taskforce.
Jemima has worked in the fields of international development, Indigenous affairs and social impact consultancy across a range of non-profit, corporate diplomacy and for-purpose settings. She has a Masters in Philosophy and Public Policy from the London School of Economics (LSE) and a degree in International Relations from the University of Queensland. She is an inaugural Mercy Global Action Emerging Leaders Fellow.
Molly Whelan, Foundation for Young Australians
Molly Whelan is a committed Community, Arts and Cultural creative producer and manager, currently the Program Director at the Foundation for Young Australians (FYA), overseeing the development and implementation of new research led responses to prepare and enable young people to navigate and influence the future.
Molly has worked on major events all across the country and the world including, White Night Melbourne, the Cultural Program for the 20th International AIDS conference, the Opening Ceremonies of the 2011 Arab Games in Doha, Qatar, and Field Theory’s Site Is Set.
Molly is currently the Co-President of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, and has a great passion for the power of film as a medium to tell stories and create real change.
Sharon Zivkovic, Community Capacity Builders
Sharon Zivkovic is the Founder and CEO of Community Capacity Builders, Cofounder and Chief Innovation Officer at Wicked Lab, Co-organiser of the Adelaide Social Enterprise Meetup Group and a member of the South Australian Social Enterprise Council Working Group. Community Capacity Builders has been delivering social entrepreneurship and active citizenship programs in partnership with governments and universities since 2006. Wicked Lab has developed software that supports communities to address wicked problems and delivers Complex Systems Leadership and Systemic Innovation Lab Programs. In 2016 Sharon received a Fresh Scientist Award for her research into using complexity theory to address wicked problems.
Hear from 20 Australian leaders sharing their insights on social enterprise in Australia in this article:
