Keynote Speakers |
|
|
Dr Majora Carter (United States) Life in New York’s South Bronx can be a struggle. A family is twice as likely to breathe air pollution above safe standards, five times more likely to live within walking distance of a waste or power facility, and have a one in two chance of living below the poverty line. More than half the neighbourhood’s buildings have been torched. But life is changing - thanks to Majora Carter. This self-proclaimed “poor black girl from the ghetto” will share how she has cultuivated a community reform by insisting on environmental justice. Read more…
|
 |
Brian Bacon (Britain) Brian Bacon is the Founder and President of the Oxford Leadership Academy, and has been providing consultancy services to multinational corporations, governments and public sector agencies for more than 25 years. He is a celebrated international speaker on leadership and the driving forces that shape the future, and his corporate clients have included Ford, Ericsson, GE, Proctor & Gamble and numerous other Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 corporations. He has also been an advisor in innovation and organisational reform to the Federal Governments of Australia, Chile, Mexico and Sweden, as well as to the United Nations and the International Labor Organization (ILO). Through his work with Australian governments, Bacon led the culture change process within the New South Wales (Australian) and Victorian State police services. He has also been an advisor to Australian Federal Government departments and public sector agencies for organisational restructuring and culture change as part of micro-economic reform. He is leading the establishment of the Leadership Academy of Peace in the Middle East; and is a member of the EU steering committee on the Balkans Stability Pact Initiative in Brussels.
|
 |
RICHARD AHMAT (Australia) Richard Ah Mat was born on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait. Richard's parents are descendants from the East and West coast of Cape York. Richard's mother is a Wuthathi woman whose traditional lands cover the 'white sand' area around Shelburne Bay on Eastern Cape York while his father was a Yupungathi man whose traditional country can be found on the Western side of Cape York between Weipa and Mapoon. In his teens Richard left his home in the Torres Strait to work in the Northern Territory in the fishing and hunting industry. In the 1970's he moved to Weipa working for Comalco Mining for 27 years. During this time he led the strike against Comalco Mining, opposing Individual Contracts and was elected President of the CFMEU Lodge - the first Aboriginal man to hold this position in Australia. While holding this role and speaking about the Union movement at an Aboriginal meeting in the Gulf of Carpentaria, tragedy struck when he was 'in the wrong place' and was purposely run down by an enraged driver. Following the near fatal accident in Burketown which saw the loss of his leg, he became heavily involved in the fight for native title rights in Cape York. Richard took up the position of West Coast Area Officer for Cape York Land Council in 1997 and was elected as Chairperson of the Land Council later that year. During his time as Chairperson of CYLC, Richard led the Aboriginal negotiating team in making the historical Western Cape Communities Coexistence Agreement. This agreement between the 11 Traditional Owner groups of Western Cape York and Comalco Aluminium created employment, economic and training benefits for Aboriginal traditional owners of the area. This Agreement sets the precedent for future agreement between Traditional Owners and Mining giants such as Comalco. This agreement will be in place until Comalco cease mining in Weipa. After serving his 4th term as Chairperson he moved into the position of Executive Director of CYLC. He held this position until 2005, when he left the Land Council to start his own business, Which Way Consultancy. In this capacity he provides support to the Regional Organisations of Cape York and is heavily involved in the Welfare Reform Agenda in the Cape. Richard sits on the Boards of a number of Organisations who are fighting for economic development, Land and Sea Rights across the Country including Cape York Corporation, Cape York Institute, Balkanu Cape York Development Corporation, NAILSMA and IWPG.
|
 |
LESLEY ANN van Selm (South Africa) Lesley Ann van Selm has dedicated the last eleven years to building a non-profit organisation she envisioned and then developed into a reality. Khulisa Crime Prevention Initiative is increasingly recognised as a vital player in South Africa's efforts to reduce violent crime. From her earlier experience in marketing, creating new organisations for the new South Africa, and with an understanding of the importance of inter-cultural dialogue, Lesley Ann and Khulisa have developed, tested and implemented new strategies and methods for working both with prisoners (to reduce recidivism), and with at-risk youth in disadvantaged communities. Khulisa, under Lesley Ann’s leadership has created effective options to gangs, drugs and crime. Lesley Ann, Khulisa, and individual Khulisa programmes have received numerous national and international awards for both achievement and innovation. The organisation is forecasting growth of 20-30% per annum in South Africa alone and has embarked upon an international expansion campaign.
Speakers, panellists and workshop facilitators |
 |
LEISA HART (Australia) Before joining Mission Australia in 2008, Leisa joined Telstra / KAZ in early 2005 as the Chief of Operations for Telstra’s newly acquired subsidiary. In that role she was responsible for driving efficiency and consistency in all facts of the KAZ commercial operations. Inclusive of this role was the general management of the services outsourcing business managing the end-to-end delivery of ICT services to KAZ and Telstra clients. A large focus of her work at KAZ was centred on business transformation to becoming Telstra’s ICT services arm. Prior to joining Telstra, Leisa held numerous senior roles at EDS, including President of Asia Pacific Global Operations. Her last position at EDS was leading the purchase and transition of a Managed Services Company in the USA (Loudcloud Inc). Leisa was attracted to the role at Mission Australia because of the Mission Values and the ability to help people. “There is something very profound and rewarding being part of an organisation which enables people in need to find pathways to a better life. Prior to joining Mission Australia was a time of personal reflection and focus. I wanted a change of direction in my professional role, to learn, to lead and be lead and give back to the community.”
|
 |
MAJOR DAVID ELDRIDGE (Australia) David has been a Salvation Army Officer for 28 years, primarily working with homeless people at the Crossroads Network and Brunswick Community Programs. Over this time, he has been involved in a number of Government Committees, including chairing the Kirner Government’s Community Reference Group on Youth Homelessness, the Prime Minister’s Youth Homelessness Taskforce, the Prime Minister’s Youth Pathways Action Plan Taskforce, the Commonwealth Advisory Group on Homelessness and a number of other committees including the Board of the Employment Services Regulatory Authority. He currently chairs the National Youth Commission Inquiry into Youth Homelessness, funded by the Caledonia Foundation.
|
 |
Timothy McCallum (Australia) In 1999 Tim was one of 18 talented performers who were selected from a pool of over a thousand applicants into the Musical Theatre course at Perth’s prestigious Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). However, only days before he was to commence his music theatre course, a swimming accident left him a quadriplegic. Since then, his resilient character and extraordinary spirit have touched the hearts of the arts community, as they have watched him rehabilitate and return to the stage to continue his performing career. Tim has also devised his own one-man cabaret “A Road Less Travelled”, and produced and performed in a highly acclaimed Mothers Day Concert with the Australian Army Band which raised $20,000 for Assistance Dogs Australia. Tim’s biggest fan at these performances is Buster, his own assistance dog, who contributes immeasurably to his personal life and his independence.
|
 |
WILMA GALLET (Australia) Wilma Gallet has a breadth of experience in the employment services sector spanning over 25 years, including senior management and policy executive roles within the public, community and the private sector, developing employment services and innovative responses to labour market challenges. Wilma was the founding CEO of The Salvation Army Employment Plus and established and built this enterprise from a zero base to the largest provider of employment services under the Government’s Job Network umbrella. More recently she has worked extensively in the area of suicide prevention and postvention, homeless services and youth and family community services. She co-ordinating Stop The Traffik in 2007, which is a major global campaign against modern day slavery. Wilma has a keen insight into the issues which impact on social policy development and programme implementation and was a member of the Welfare Reform Consultative Forum and the Centrelink Community Reference Group. She currently provides consultancy services in social policy, programme development and service delivery to a number of organisations.
|
 |
Dr John Falzon (Australia) Dr John Falzon, a sociologist working in the area of social justice and social change, is Chief Executive Officer of the St Vincent de Paul Society National Council. He has written and spoken widely on the structural causes of marginalisation and inequality in Australia and has long been involved in advocacy campaigns for a fairer and more inclusive Australia, especially in regard to welfare legislation, housing justice, homelessness and poverty. John has worked in academia, in research and advocacy with civil society organisations, and in community development in large public housing estates. He was recently a participant in the 2020 Summit and, in May this year, was appointed by the Prime Minister to the Australian Social Inclusion Board.
|
 |
Crystal Kosa (Canada) Crystal Kosa is one of Canada’s most respected voices in Aboriginal human resources, bringing wisdom and sensitivity to her leadership role as the council’s National Director, Corporate Training and Inclusion Strategies. Since 2001, she has helped design, build and implement leading edge initiatives at the council including the first national job board, the Inclusion Continuum roadmap for employers, the Exclusion-Inclusion workshop series and more recently, the council’s leading edge program – Mastering Aboriginal Inclusion. Crystal and the team of experts at AHRC have been developing the Mastering Aboriginal Inclusion program since 2005. Conceived and constructed with 30 national employers, MAI is the foremost authority for public and private sectors seeking to become the employer of choice for indigenous talent. Crystal conducts workshop training across Canada and guides companies in the design and implementation of HR design strategies. For 13 years Ms. Kosa worked with the telecommunications giant TELUS rising up the ranks to become the equity and diversity advisor, initiating and managing a range of programs to grow the company’s internal diversity competence and better serve the diversity of its customers. Crystal insights on workplace transformation are helping organizations understand the business case for inclusion, making connections in the labour force and driving their diversity agenda into action.
|
 |
John Mendoza (Australia) John has recently established his own consultancy after a career that has seen him hold several executive positions including Chief Executive Officer of the Mental Health Council of Australia and Chief Executive of the Australian Sports Drug Agency. He is also presently:
As CEO of the MHCA, John played a lead role in the development and execution of the political strategy to engage all Australian governments (Federal, states and territories) to commit to the reform of mental health services through the Council of Australian Governments (CoAG) and the $4billion National Action Plan announced in July 2006. John has authored or co-authored a number of major reports and submissions to public inquiries, most notably the seminal report on mental health care in Australia, Not For Service. He continues to work with national, state and local organisations in the mental health and alcohol and drug fields and serves on a number of committees and advisory bodies. Prior to John’s term as Chief Executive of the Mental Health Council, he was the Chief Executive of the Australian Sports Drug Agency, a Commonwealth Statutory Authority, from November 2000 and from February 1996, the Deputy CEO of ASDA. In these roles, John played a lead role in the Australian and international anti-doping programs leading up to the Sydney Olympics and the establishment of the World Anti-Doping Agency and World Anti-Doping Code. In 2002, John was awarded the Queensland University of Technology, Vice-Chancellor’s Outstanding Alumni Award for Innovation and Excellence. He was also awarded the Faculty of Health’s 2002 Outstanding Alumni Award.
|
 |
Adrian Panozzo (Australia) Adrian is the Chief Executive Officer of RecLink Australia, an organisation that provides sport and arts programs for those experiencing disadvantage. His involvement with RecLink spans more than 10 years as a volunteer, Board Member and former President. Prior to his current role Adrian was the AFL’s Game Development Umpiring and Projects Manager working to support umpiring, participation opportunities for people with a disability and AFL international development. Adrian is a graduate of Stanford University’s Executive
Program for Not for Profit Leaders and in 2007 was awarded a Churchill
Fellow to study activity programs that improve health inequalities
in disadvantaged communities - UK, South Africa, USA
|
 |
Michael Manthorpe (Australia) Michael Manthorpe is Group Manager of Strategic Policy in the Commonwealth Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. The purpose of the Group is to focus on long term strategic policy issues of interest to the portfolio, ranging from early childhood care through to participation in the workforce. Michael has very recently moved into this role, having led the Department's work on the review of employment services for much of the first half of 2008. In recent years, Michael's roles in DEEWR have included managing labour market and skill shortage analysis and advising functions; leading DEEWR's work on industry strategies and employer engagement; overseeing the 2006 employment services purchasing process; managing DEEWR's relationship with Centrelink; and program management for the Work for the Dole program.
|
 |
John Allen (New Zealand) John Allen is the Regional Commissioner for Social Development,
Work and Income in the Ministry of Social Development. The purpose
of the position of Regional Commissioner is to implement at the
regional and local levels Government’s employment and income
support strategies. Emphasis is on providing a range of services,
including responsive local solutions and agreed nationally consistent
services that contribute to individual, family and community
self-sufficiency. The Southern Region is geographically one of the largest regions in New Zealand and encompasses South Canterbury, Otago, Southland, and Stewart Island. John has focused on inter-agency collaboration to identify and
address the root causes of social problems. This collaboration has
resulted in the establishment of regional governance groups, involving
senior management and collaborative programme delivery initiatives
at the local level.
|
 |
Robert J. Ivry (United States) Robert Ivry is Senior Vice President of Development and External Affairs at MDRC – a United States social policy research organisation dedicated to improving the wellbeing of low-income people by actively communicating research findings in order to influence social policies and programs. Ivry is a well-known expert on US social policy issues, especially in the areas of workforce development, education and welfare reform, and youth development and employment. At MRDC, Ivry manages the information dissemination activities, working with national organisations, federal and state agencies, US Congressional staff, public interest groups, foundations, and research organisations to actively communicate what is learned from MRDC’s work; both to inform public policy and improve practice in the field. He currently directs Opening Doors, a project geared to help low-income people earn college credentials. Before joining MRDC, Ivry was the Director of Youth Services for the Mayor’s Office in Baltimore. Ivry received both a BA and a Master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University.
|
 |
Professor Mark Considine (Australia) One of Australia’s leading political scientists, Professor Considine was recently promoted to the role of Dean of the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Arts. Formerly Head of the University’s School of Political Science, Criminology & Sociology, he is an expert in the field of policy innovation and the reform of public institutions. Considine’s current research has two related strands. He is involved in comparative studies of the reform of employment services in Australia, the UK, the Netherlands and other OECD countries, while also researching the emergence of networks as an alternative to markets and hierarchies in the organisation of government and new governance systems. He has been associated with governments and the community sector in the implementation of a number of projects and reviews including the OECD’s LEED Program review of local partnerships, and a Communication and Marketing review for Job Network. He is an Australian Research Council Professorial Fellow and a Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia (Victoria) and the Australian Academy of Social Sciences.
|
 |
Professor Jane Millar (Britain) Jane Millar is Professor of Social Policy in the Department of Social & Policy Services at the University of Bath, UK. She is also the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Strategic Developments) and is Director of the University’s Centre for the Analysis of Social Policy (CASP). In her role at CASP, Millar works with other academic and research staff from the University’s Department of Economics & International Development, Department of Psychology, and School of Health. The Centre’s principal areas of research are: work and welfare; health and social care; children and young people; globalisation and governance; and policy analysis and design. Her research interests are in family policy; social security and tax policy; poverty, inequality and social exclusion. She is also actively engaged in policy evaluation and development, and has been a Special Adviser to the House of Commons and to the Department for Work and Pensions. She was awarded an OBE in June 2001 for ‘services to social policy research and teaching’. She is a graduate of Sussex University, has a Master’s degree from Brunel and obtained her doctorate at York.
|
 |
Roy Newey (Britain) Roy is an international thought leader and regular speaker on training, education and entrepreneurship on many international forums. Recently, he spoke at the World Bank in Washington to the Labour Markets group members, he was a speaker at the Rural Development Summit in India and the Polish Labour Market Conference in Poland. He spoke at significant events in South Africa and Nigeria. Working with numerous Governments and public agencies in the field of welfare and employment, Roy has led A4e’s expansion from the UK into the EU and Middle East. Roy is now working with policy makers in Poland, India, South Africa, Australia, Canada, Palestine and Denmark to address Labour Market challenges and discuss Active Labour Market instruments. Public Service Partnerships, particularly with NGOs, have been his particular passion, and A4e is widely recognised by third sector actors as an excellent, reliable partner. Roy is also an entrepreneur with a track record for high growth and is recognised as an expert in the field of economic regeneration.
|
 |
BRUCE HARVEY (Australia) Bruce has worked for Rio Tinto for 28 years, as an exploration geologist and in community focused roles for the last eight years. During his career he has worked extensively with land connected peoples and has developed an understanding of many issues relating to their history and their land. Bruce has several degrees including an MBA majoring in economics and humanities. As Global Practice leader – Communities, he travels extensively to Rio Tinto’s sites and associated communities around the globe promoting community engagement based on development anthropology. He maintains that communities work in the resource sector is essentially an economic proposition. Rio Tinto wants to build mines in peoples’ neighbourhoods with irreversible changes to their natural and social landscape, some induced by mining and some occurring anyway. In return, the company is promising to help build a local economy. Training, employment and a multiplier economic base are an essential foundation to this proposition.
|
 |
Glenn Capelli • Dynamic Thinking A professional speaker, author, songwriter, radio and television presenter and creator of Dynamic Thinking, Glenn Capelli has delivered a message of creativity, innovation and thinking smarter to audiences around the world. A member of MENSA, Glenn is also a former ‘hobo’ who backpacked his way around the world for seven years, working in a variety of roles including a fish farmer on kibbutz in Israel, a comedian in Los Angeles, a travel writer in Kenya and a summer-camp counsellor in North Carolina. In 1987 he was awarded the prestigious Winston Churchill Fellowship, which he used to further his research into better ways of thinking and learning. With a career as a professional speaker for more than 20 years, Glenn Capelli has emerged as an expert educator in Thinking and Learning Skills and has become Australia’s most awarded professional speaker : a two-time state winner of Speaker of the Year, the inaugural Educator of the Year recipient in 2006 and winner of the 2007 Nevin Award – the Australian Professional Speaking Industry’s highest achievement honour. His award winning cable television series ‘Born to Learn’ aired weekly to an audience of over 26 million households across the USA, while his current program “Thinking Caps” goes out around Australia on the ABC network each week. His clients range from the most remote outback schools of Australia to the biggest corporate organizations in the world. Glenn uses his unique, involving, humorous and entertaining presentation style to teach audiences to become more flexible thinkers, leaders and life-long learners in today’s crazy, fast paced world.
|
 |
David Bussau (Australia) From a poor beginning in an orphanage, David Bussau realised soon after starting work that his true calling was as an entrepreneur. By his mid-thirties he was operating a multi-million dollar construction company. When Cyclone Tracy struck Darwin in 1975, David took a volunteer construction team to help rebuild the city. He later went to Bali to help rebuild rural areas devastated by an earthquake. It was through these experiences that he realised that sustainable development needed more than just infrastructure. Poor people wanted work, and that with jobs they could also solve their other problems. His solution was to offer small business loans – a hand up instead of a hand out. David established the non-profit Maranatha Trust to fulfil his dream of helping the poor help themselves before joining forces with a like-minded counterpart in the USA in 1979 to form Opportunity International. More than five million jobs have now been created across almost 30 countries. David made history as the first social entrepreneur to be inducted into the World Entrepreneur of the Year Academy in Monte Carlo, while The Bulletin magazine has recognised him “as one of Australia's 10 most creative minds”. Learn about David's capacity to respond to poverty in a new and creative way.
|
 |
David Hudson (Australia) David is from the Ewamian and Western Yalanji people of Northern Queensland.Growing up as an Indigenous Australian and facing adversities with his cultural background, has always taught him how to succeed in the face of “ cultural differences.” David will tell you he is a fortunate person who has been blessed with traditional knowledge and he is happy to share this with the world. David has had the privilege to work with international actors and musicians and to lend his music and didgeridoo playing for sound tracks for the Australian Music Awards, USA and Australian Survivor and guest appearances on Entertainment Tonight and Good Morning America Audiences who listen and meet David experience a different perspective on life and a better understanding that we are all from one race and that’s the HUMAN RACE. Artists make Dreams and Visions become a reality
|
 |
Els Sol (The Netherlands) Els Sol a sociologist and economic geographer, is associate professor at the Hugo Sinzheimer Institute of the Faculty of Law at Amsterdam University. She published on employment services in eight countries in the book ‘Contractualism in Employment Services. A New Form of Welfare State Governance’. Els leads a major 4 year university research program ‘Pathways to work’ encompassing ten research projects all trying to bridge the gap between research and practice for different (client, work, institutional) environments of welfare to work. Also she operates as partner for the University of Amsterdam in a new three year EU research program entitled: 'Meeting the challenges of economic uncertainty and sustainability through employment, industrial relations, social and environmental policies in European countries' (GUSTO) which explores various models of both policies and systems of governance to cope with uncertainty while seeking security and appraises their relative success in order to develop a new concept to analyse social models. Currently Els is also involved in comparative studies of employment services in Australia, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. She is fellow of the Amsterdam Institute for Labour Studies (AIAS) , has been a.o. advisor for OECD/LEED program, British Policy Exchange and the Dutch Start Foundation. Recently she has become (co) chair of a new international research network on reforms in employment services called RESQ (www.resq.org).
|
