Holly Ransom

Public Speaker, Author, Content Curator

Holly Ransom is a globally renowned content curator, powerful speaker and master questioner with the belief that if you walk past it, you tell the world it’s okay. Named one of Australia’s 100 Most Influential Women by the Australian Financial Review, she has delivered a Peace Charter to the Dalai Lama, was Sir Richard Branson’s nominee for Wired Magazine’s ‘Smart List’ of Future Game Changers to watch and was awarded the US Embassy’s Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Leadership Excellence in 2019. Having interviewed the likes of Barack Obama, Malcolm Gladwell, Richard Branson, Billie Jean-King, Condoleezza Rice, Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and the world’s first humanoid robot Sophia, Holly fights complexity with curiosity, apathy with empowerment and fear with fact. As a Fulbright scholar and Harvard Kennedy School Class of ’21 fellow, Holly is a recipient of the prestigious Anne Wexler Public Policy Scholarship, allowing her to action social and economic inclusion by connecting people with the decisions that affect their lives. Holly’s new book, The Leading Edge, helps people harness their own potential to lead by asking better questions, thinking beyond biased answers, and building collective momentum for change. In The Leading Edge, Holly brings the real-world leadership lessons of so many diverse thinkers and pioneers she’s met to the fore.

https://hollyransom.com/

Alistair Carmichael

Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company, Mental Health Advocate Alistair is an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company and a leader of the People and Organisational Performance Practice. Alistair works with clients to transform culture, orchestrate and lead change, develop leadership and talent and reimagine operating models and organisational design. Alistair is a leader of the McKinsey Health Institute and one of the drivers of McKinsey’s thinking on creating mentally healthy and safe workplaces. Outside of McKinsey, Alistair is a passionate advocate for mental health and a volunteer at Lifeline.

Ben Hamer

Head of Future of Work, PwC Australia and Chair of Future of Work, AHRI

Dr Ben Hamer is an accredited Futurist and is a global expert on the Future of Work, having trained with Institute for the Future.

He heads up the Future of Work market for one of the world's leading advisories and has worked at the World Economic Forum leading projects on the future of work, skills, and education. He is also a Board Member for the Australian HR Institute, where he was appointed as the youngest Non-Executive Director in the organisation’s history at the age of 31.

Current Work:
Ben has a Doctorate of Public Administration, which included time spent as a Visiting Scholar at Yale University, and is an Adjunct Fellow with the Centre for the New Workforce at Swinburne University. In 2014, he was also the recipient of the HR Rising Star Award. Ben regularly features across Australian media providing expert commentary on the Future of Work and as a representative voice of Millennials.

With these insights, Ben has advised ASX CEOs through to Government Ministers. He is a sought after keynote speaker on the Future of Work and related topics. Ben is the host of PwC’s Future of Work podcast and author of The Kickass Career, which provides a fresh take on career advice and how to succeed in the Future of Work, today.

Jono Nicholas

Founder & Managing Director, Wellbeing Outfit | Chief Mental Health Advisor, EY Oceania

Jono is the Managing Director of the Wellbeing Outfit and Chief Mental Health Advisor to EY Oceania. In 1997 he was one of the founding staff members of ReachOut, Australia's leading digital mental health service for young people and their parents. After 10 years as ReachOut CEO, he founded the Wellbeing Outfit, an advisory business that helps organisations drive performance by improving the safety and wellbeing of their people. He has an honours degree in psychology and a Masters in Public Health and was a 2018 finalist for the Australian Mental Health Prize.

Lucas Finch

Global Head of Wellbeing at Xero

Lucas Finch has had an eclectic career which includes the following:

• Completing a silent meditation retreat for over 6 months in the jungle of Malaysia
• Postgraduate completing an internship in China’s largest hospital practicing traditional Chinese medicine
• Designing and delivering randomised control trials in health behaviour change
• Receiving Black belt in Brazilian Jujitsu
• Since turning his attention to workplace wellbeing he has had a number of successes including winning the Australian Psychological Societies Workplace Excellence Award for the development of an evidence based Workplace Wellbeing Program

Today Lucas is the Global Head of Wellbeing for Xero: A skyrocketing technology company founded in New Zealand that provides cloud-based accounting software platform for small- and medium-sized businesses.

Professor Angela Martin

Director of Pracademia

Angela has had a 20 year career as an academic across a number of Australian universities, with a particular focus on workplace mental health in her research and education activities. She is an author on over 100 peer reviewed publications across the disciplines of psychology, business and medicine and has received nationally competitive grants and awards for her research and teaching. In addition to a part-time academic appointment at the University of Tasmania, she is Director of Pracademia, a consultancy network that delivers evidence-informed services and projects to corporate, government and not-for profit clients. Angela is known for her capability as a ‘boundary spanner’, bringing her academic expertise and networks together with a deep knowledge of business and organisational realties.

Dr Laura Kirby

Organisational Psychologist, and Chief Mental Health Officer, Commonwealth Bank

Laura is a qualified Organisational Psychologist with more than 10 years’ experience, specialising in workplace psychological health and safety. Laura has worked with a range of organisations and sectors globally to deliver services designed to enhance their workplace mental health strategy and outcomes. In January 2021 Laura was appointed the Chief Mental Health Officer of Commonwealth Bank, as part of the Group’s ongoing mental health strategy. Laura’s role is focused on enhancing the Group’s strategic focus on mental health, which includes the prevention and mitigation of mental ill-health at work, and ensuring the workplace protects its people’s mental health and enables them to thrive.

Professor Bronwen Dalton

Head, Department of Management, UTS Business School

Professor Bronwen Dalton (D.Phil. Oxon) is the Head of the Department of Management and the Director of the Masters of Not-for-Profit and Social Enterprise Program at the University of Technology, Sydney. She is also the founder of Ruff Sleepers, a charity that washes and grooms dogs of homeless folk. Bronwen has held various positions in the Not-For Profit Sector and Government including as the National Manager, Research at Mission Australia and policy roles at the Independent Commission Against Corruption and The NSW Attorney General’s Department. Bronwen is also a Korean expert and speaks fluent Korean.

Dr Libby Sander

MBA Director | Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Bond University

Dr Libby Sander is an internationally renowned academic expert on work and the workplace. She is a leading expert on understanding the future of work, and how we can reimagine work to live more meaningful and creative lives. She is an Agenda Contributor at the World Economic Forum and has spoken at TEDx.

Libby’s articles on her research on the international academic website The Conversation have over 2.8 million readers and have been republished in leading mastheads nationally and internationally including Harvard Business Review, the BBC, Newsweek, ABC, and all major Australian newspapers.

Lyndall Soper

Deputy Chief Executive Officer, National Mental Health Commission

Lyndall Soper is the Deputy CEO at the National Mental Health Commission, and currently oversees the Policy, Monitoring and Reporting functions. This includes projects such as the National Workplace Initiative, the Children’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, and the annual report on the Fifth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan.

She joined the Commission in March 2020 after four years at the Department of Health where she held positions including managing the Complementary and Over the Counter Medicines Branch in the Therapeutic Goods Administration, Chief of Staff to Secretary – Ms Glenys Beauchamp and Acting First Assistant Secretary in Population Health and Sport Division.

Lyndall brings with her significant experience in policy development and policy implementation, project management, and leadership, having held senior executive positions across a variety of Commonwealth agencies including Environment, Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Industry, and Defence.

Joel Davies

Senior People Scientist, Culture Amp

Dr Joel Davies is a Psychologist and Senior People Scientist Culture Amp. Joel is obsessed with helping people reach their full potential. Joel's career to date has spanned across academia, organisational development, learning & development, and tech product development. Across his diverse roles, Joel’s work has focused on applying principles from psychology, neuroscience, and organisational behaviour to create powerful change in the lives of people and the organisations they work for. Joel now works with Culture Amp's APAC customers to design employee feedback strategies and derive actionable insights from the comprehensive data collected through the Culture Amp Platform.

Ms Jessica Cranswick

Director, Environment, Health, and Safety, Ernst & Young

Jessica Cranswick is the Director of Health, Safety, Wellbeing at Ernst & Young and a registered psychologist with a Masters in Industrial/Organisational Psychology. Jessica has spent over a decade assisting organisations to apply psychology principles in the workplace to drive strategic business outcomes. At EY, Jessica helps equip her clients to navigate mental health in the workplace in changing corporate and social landscapes.

Most recently, Jessica has undertaken ethical conduct reviews for high performance sporting codes where power imbalance has been publicly alleged, led the development of a global health, safety, and security strategy for a mining organisation, written thought leadership on health, safety, and wellbeing transformation, and led projects with high profile federal government departments to review key psychosocial risks and controls. Above all, Jessica is passionate about the role that the workplace plays in societal mental health.

Ms Sharon Leadbetter

Workplace Wellbeing Specialist

Sharon is a Workplace Wellbeing Specialist and has held roles in the mental health, community/public health and health promotion sectors in Australia, England and New Zealand. She has qualifications in Psychology and Health Promotion and specialises in preventative healthcare.

Sharon’s strengths lie in her passion and enthusiasm for bringing different groups together, engaging and building relationships with key stakeholders, communicating health information, working with culturally diverse communities, improving health and wellbeing literacy, advocating for best practice and creating opportunities. She also sits on several workplace sector advisory groups.

Ms Stacey Jenkins

Associate Director, Health Safety and Wellbeing

Stacey has more than fifteen years teaching experience at the tertiary level (higher education and vocational). She has received a Joss Group Award for CSU Outstanding Doctoral Thesis, a Teaching in Excellence Award, and a Personal and Business Rotary Achiever Award.

She is a NSW Justice of the Peace, member of Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management (ANZAM) and Australian Institute of Training and Development (AITD). She is the Founder / Chair of the Riverina HR Networking Group and has served as a judging panelist for the Australian and New Zealand Human Resource Industry Awards and the Wagga Wagga Business Chamber Crow Awards. She was a Guest Speaker at the Australian Women's Leadership Forum and presented to a number of different forums since.

Stacey has extensive human resource industry experience. She has worked as a National Human Resources Manager in private practice. The industries in which she has held HR generalist positions domestically include corrections, detentions, manufacturing and hospitality. She has also worked domestically as an Industrial Advocate.

Internationally Stacy has worked in the tourism and hospitality industry in the USA and Canada. She is currently Chief Investigator on a number of research projects which centre on mental health & wellbeing and the impact initiatives are having.

She helped co-design the Charles Sturt Universities Graduate Certificate in Community Resilience and Leadership.

Mr Jim Kelly

Director of Health and Safe Design, SafeWork NSW

Jim Kelly, Director of Health and Safe Design at SafeWork NSW, is responsible for leading a range of specialist areas including workplace health, engineering, ergonomics, mental health and return to work.

Jim has extensive experience across many industries leading regulatory services and human resource teams in workplace health and safety (WHS) prevention, injury management, and rehabilitation.

 Jim’s current responsibilities include leading the specialist psychosocial services inspectorate and implementing the NSW Mentally Healthy Workplaces Strategy 2022.

 Jim is also a member on the Board of Advisors for the Healthy Heads in Trucks and Sheds Foundation, and a citizens advocate for the recently formed Safety Governance Foundation.

Jim loves to spend time with his young family, getting active in the outdoors and enjoying the sun and surf.

Ms Sam Popple

Director, Psychological Health Unit, Office of Industrial Relations Queensland

Ms Camille Wilson

National Organisational Development Manager, Benestar Group

Camille is a leading expert in workplace mental health, with over 8 years’ experience working in human resources teams across various industries, witnessing the importance of real and genuine mental health programs at work. Camille’s passion is derived from her own lived experience of mental health as a teenager and young adult and has continued this passion through studying psychology at UNSW and is currently part of the postgraduate program at the Brain and Mind Centre at USYD.

Camille has previously been involved in the Being Consumer Advisory groups for lived experience and is passionate about building awareness in lived experience and research, as exemplified by her ambassador work with Neuroscience Australia.

Most recently, Camille is the founder of Grow Together Now that works with organisations to drive systematic change within workplaces by engaging with the voice of lived experience to drive the development and design of workplace programs.  

Camille is also the National Organisational Development Manager at Benestar, one of Australia’s leading Employee Assistance Programs (EAP). 

Ms Jane Gardner

Head of Health and Wellbeing Strategy and Foundation Programs, Lendlease

Jane is responsible for the development and implementation of Lendlease’s global health and wellbeing strategy.

With a strong focus on mental health, Jane drives the mental health agenda at Lendlease, through a strategic mental health approach which includes a range of interventions and programs to decrease stigma and encourage positive mental health, she is also a mental health first aid facilitator. 

Jane is also responsible for Lendlease Foundation that supports the Lendlease people and their families, to ensure the successful delivery of programs globally, with a strong focus on delivering positive health and wellbeing outcomes and personal development.  

Jane’s passion is to improve the health and wellbeing of the Lendlease people and their families and create positive awareness around mental health within corporates and communities. 

Ms Sandra Surace

Head of Workplace Mental Health

Sandra began her career as an educator before moving into leadership in schools, with a focus on the wellbeing of the learning community.

Sandra holds a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from Melbourne University and has worked in organisational cultural change wellbeing for several organisations including a national youth mental health foundation and is a mentor at Melbourne University in the Masters of Applied Positive Psychology stream.

She has received government awards for excellence in education and leadership and is a highly regarded speaker, sharing evidence-based strategies to international audiences. 

Sandra’s passion is to create sustainable cultural change that enables wellbeing to flourish, increases productivity and enhances engagement. Sandra believes that strength in wellbeing is developed within and between individuals and sees organisations as powerful players in the mental health and wellbeing of its individuals and how they work, connect, collaborate and perform. 

Sandra’s hope is to empower employees with the skills to better understand themselves and their colleagues for a more positive and engaging professional journey. 

Mr Chris Lockwood

National Chief Executive Officer, Mates in Construction

For the last 10+ years Chris has led initiatives to reduce the incidence of suicide and poor mental health through workplace based initiatives. 

As the National CEO for MATES in Construction, Mining & Energy, Chris works to affect change every day in our workplaces.  

MATES are a leading evidence based suicide prevention program delivered through the workplace and across industry in Australia.  

Having delivered face to face programs to over 240,000 workers, MATES improves the mental health of all of us at work through trusted workplace development programs, on site workshops, individual case management and helpline services. 

Leading MATES in Construction Nationally, Chris has seen structured expansion and growth of the program, where MATES now has programs on the ground supported by industry in Construction, Mining & Energy. With a pilot underway expanding the program into the Manufacturing industry. 

Chris is also a director of 9 years with the NGO 'Permanent Care and Adoptive Families', with 7 of those years as Chair. 

Mr Jonathon Woolfrey

Managing Partner, talenting

Throughout his career, Jonathon has held executive and leadership roles across many sectors and industries, including State and Commonwealth governments, large and medium not-for-profit organisations, and corporate organisations. He has led teams delivering strategy and service to workforces of over 12,000 staff, to delivering on projects for small and medium enterprises,

Currently founder and Managing Partner at Talenting, a people & culture consulting firm, Jonathon is also State President and Board Director of the Australian HR Institute (AHRI) with 20,000 members, is the Deputy Chair of the Catholic Education Commission of WA, responsible for 163 Catholic schools and 78,000 students and is a Research Advisory Board Member for Edith Cowan University’s (ECU) Work + Wellbeing Research Centre, having served & chaired other boards for over 6 years.

Jonathon has lectured in postgraduate programs, at Curtin Graduate School of Business in Human Resource Strategy, and ECU's Faculty of Business & Law in Employment Relations. He is also currently an Academic Coordinator for AHRI.

Dr Kim Hamrosi

Executive Director, Corporate Mental Health Alliance Australia

Kim is the Executive Director of the Corporate Mental Health Alliance, a business-led, expert guided for purpose organisation focusing on raising the bar on workplace mental health. Kim joined in March 2021 and is responsible for leading the Australian chapter, focused on the three key pillars of providing safe settings, empowering leaders, and driving lasting change that supports thriving and mentally healthy workplaces. 

She is a healthcare professional with over 20 years’ experience, working initially as a pharmacist in clinical service delivery, and then in academic research, health technology assessment and patient outcomes research.

Over the last few years Kim has worked in the corporate environment, with a focus on healthcare strategy and implementation, delivering multiple large projects in complex stakeholder environments in the areas of health and life sciences with government, Industry, and the not-for-profit sector. 

Kim brings a practical understanding of the clinical and research aspects of health and how this can be translated into practice. She is a strong advocate for an evidence informed approach, and sees collaboration across organisations, to share learnings and insights as an essential part of how we improve health outcomes. 

Kim holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy and a PhD from the University of Sydney. She lives in Sydney with her husband, teenage son, and pet family members Meisie and Murphy. 

Ms Erica Crome

Project Director, National Workplace Initiative, National Mental Health Commission

Dr Erica Crome is the Project Director, National Workplace Initiative at the National Mental Health Commission.

Dr Crome is a Clinical Psychologist with a background in implementation research and service design to improve mental health outcomes.

Ms Jessica Cranswick

Director, Environment, Health, and Safety, Ernst & Young

Jessica Cranswick is the Director of Health, Safety, Wellbeing at Ernst & Young and a registered psychologist with a Masters in Industrial/Organisational Psychology. Jessica has spent over a decade assisting organisations to apply psychology principles in the workplace to drive strategic business outcomes. At EY, Jessica helps equip her clients to navigate mental health in the workplace in changing corporate and social landscapes.

Most recently, Jessica has undertaken ethical conduct reviews for high performance sporting codes where power imbalance has been publicly alleged, led the development of a global health, safety, and security strategy for a mining organisation, written thought leadership on health, safety, and wellbeing transformation, and led projects with high profile federal government departments to review key psychosocial risks and controls. Above all, Jessica is passionate about the role that the workplace plays in societal mental health.

Mr John De Bono

Director and Principal Consultant, Groupwise Australia

John is passionate about learning and began his professional life as a teacher and then, for several years, Principal of a Special School for infants, children and young people living with a range of complex medical and learning needs. He has since worked in the areas of staff support and professional development in the education, disability, welfare, aged care, justice & community safety, and health care sectors including palliative care and indigenous health.

John is the founder of GroupWise Australia - People Development Services, and consults as a Professional Coach, Workplace Mediator, Trainer and Facilitator. He utilizes a range of interactive learning dynamics and is influenced by his training in Humanistic Education and Psychodrama. John assists staff to be aware of their personal functioning while navigating the sometimes-challenging territory of the workplace and organisational life. He has designed and conducted professional development workshops for Boards, CEOs, all levels of management and frontline staff.

John’s interests include Values Based Leadership, Workplace Culture, Team Development, Communication and Restorative Processes. He has participated in several national and international conferences as presenter and keynote speaker. John has served on several boards, and he currently sits on the Clinical Ethics Committee of St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne.

John’s Qualifications
Qualifications: BA, Dip Ed, B Ed, Grad Dip Ed, M Ed (La Trobe Uni), M Ed (ACU), Cert IV Assessment and Workplace Training (Vic Uni), Accredited Mediator (Resolution Institute), Professional Coach (Silent Partners), Psychodrama Group Work Practitioner (PIM), NLP Master Practitioner (NLP Melbourne).

Mr Dean Bayliss

CEO | Principal Facilitator, Healing Works Australia

Dean is a proud Kamilaroi man and is the CEO of Healing Works Australia which is an Indigenous led and operating as a private social enterprise corporation that provides an array of suicide prevention services. Healing Works aim to empower communities through sustainable outcomes. This is achieved by working with communities to determine their own unique needs so that they can more effectively respond competently to suicide. With an ongoing commitment to delivering exceptional services and ongoing support to the communities they actively engage and support. Dean has extensive experience within suicide prevention and postvention, including roles within The Way Back Suicide After Care Program, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide After Care Program and suicide prevention with community led emotional wellbeing and healing events. He also has significant experience in strategic suicide intervention program development, implementation, and delivery. Additionally, he has been a contributing member of multiple suicide prevention-based networks and groups, including LifeSpan Newcastle. Dean is an active member of Aftercare community collaboratives both in The Upper Hunter and Surrounds and Western NSW, he has been commissioned to provide cultural supervision for a NSW school based “Elevate and Empower leadership program” with the Indigenous support staff through training, mentoring and supervision.

Dean’s personal and professional experiences have placed him in a unique position to provide culturally competent, sensitive, and safe environments for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples who are at risk of suicide, or who would like to learn how to support someone who is at risk of suicide. Dean’s solid understanding of himself and his own lived experiences, enables him to understand and assist others through a nurturing and empathic approach. This is critical when empowering communities. His background in training, development and business management compliments his abilities to lead others as a confident role model and mentor to individuals through a social enterprise model of Healing Works Australia.

Dean holds a strong commitment to building the capacity and resilience of individuals and communities regarding mental health, suicide prevention and healing. He values and respects cultural protocols and does not allow consultation and community engagement to be compromised as he believes they are fundamental for a tailored and sustainable approach for each individual community.

Dean is a Master ASIST and I-ASIST trainer and is also a safeTALK and safeYARN trainer – all of which are industry leading suicide intervention training programs developed by Livingworks Australia, whom Dean is proudly affiliated with. Dean is also a co-developer of the Hope to Healing Workshop. Dean is currently a National Network Member for the Black Dog Institute Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Lived Experience Centre, a National Advisory Member for the Ibobbly Social and Emotional Wellbeing app for the Black Dog Institute, and a national Consortium Member on behalf of Healing Works Australia for I-ASIST.

Dean collaborates and has forged strong partnerships with Government, Non-Government and community groups with guidance, vision and accountability. His key focus is building strong sustainable kinship through targeted support.

Ms Julie Mitchell

Chief General Manager, Personal Injury | Allianz Australia Insurance Ltd

Julie Mitchell is the Chief General Manager for Personal Injury and is responsible for personal injury lines CTP, Life and Workers Compensation for Allianz Australia. 

Across a 20-year career at Allianz, Julie has held a number of key leadership roles including Chief General Manager Workers Compensation, General Manager of Victoria, and the NSW Treasury Managed Fund (TMF) businesses. 

Julie has over 24 years of insurance industry experience across workplace injury, claims and  operational management. Prior to joining Allianz, Julie held roles at WorkCover NSW and has also spent a number of years within the occupational rehabilitation industry. 

Julie holds a Bachelor of Health Science (Rehabilitation Counselling) degree from the University of Sydney and a Graduate Diploma of Safety Science through the University of New South Wales. 

David Nancarrow

Counsellor, Lifeline QLD and Suncoast Counselling

For the past 20 year David has had a wide variety of counselling and professional experiences. He first started in the Education Department as a counsellor for primary aged children running programs about social awareness and behaviours. As child consultant David has worked extensively with Symbol and Sand Tray Therapy for child who have experienced trauma and family separation.  His work as a Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner involved working with couples who had recently separated and assist them develop workable parenting plans for the betterment of the children. A period of his work focused on assisting fathers improve their relationship with their children and partners. David developed the Core Value Therapeutic model in 2007 that has greatly addressed anger management, domestic violence, mental health issues and relationship breakdowns in clients. He has been a Regional Manager of a Mental Health organisation which utilized the ‘Boston Model’ of mental health recovery. David is now a workplace trainer for government, non-government and business sector.  His passion is to help equip people understand their mental health so they can be emotionally healthy living successfully and having lasting relationships.

Dr Aimee Gayed

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Black Dog Institute

Dr Aimee Gayed is a registered psychologist with experience working in research, professional education and clinical settings across mental health and criminological domains. In 2015, Aimee joined the Workplace Mental Health Research Team at the Black Dog Institute, UNSW, to commence a PhD developing and evaluating tailored training for managers, to help them better understand and better support the mental health needs of the staff they supervise. She is extending this work through her current role as Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the Team, investigating the benefits of evidence-based workplace interventions designed to promote more mentally healthy workplaces.