Faculty

You’ve no doubt heard the saying, If you want to learn something, read about it. If you want to understand something, write about it. If you want to master something, teach it.

At the core of what it means to be a Thought Leader is a passion for sharing your ideas, insights and experience with others so they too, can achieve self-actualisation. It is the essence of abundance, reciprocity and success. 

As a Thought Leaders student, you’ll benefit from the guidance and advice of a group of highly experienced and knowledgeable practitioners. Many of them are graduates who have built their own successful practice.

Coming from different personal backgrounds and various industries, our faculty members are a valuable source of knowledge and inspiration. What they all have in common is their mastery of the Thought Leaders curriculum and their desire to help others achieve their goals. The faculty members serve the tribe by leading workshops, facilitating sessions, providing elective content, and hosting group and one-on-one coaching sessions.

Meet the faculty

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Alex-Hagan-1

Alex Hagan

Alex Hagan catalyses thriving communities, organisations, and individuals in the New Normal—an era of intricate challenges and constant transformation. Committed to shaping the future and unlocking the full potential of an evolving world, Alex empowers those seeking meaningful work and genuine connections.

Andrew Deering

Andrew Deering

Andrew walks quietly with a big stick. Unafraid of difficult conversations, he is a fearless mentor. Having built a successful consultancy in the resources sector Andrew is a trusted leadership advisor to many high-level executives. Transforming people and their practices, Andrew understands the power of silence and the importance of big shifts. We love Andrew for his wisdom, gravity and grace.

Bob Cooney

Bob Cooney

Bob is an out-of-the-box thinker and a free spirit. He arrived at Thought Leaders Business School in 2017 with a backpack and a huge amount of experience as an entrepreneur, marketer and sales expert. A world-renowned expert on the business of virtual reality, Bob is a veteran of building businesses based upon emerging technology. His commitment to the program speaks volumes for the individuality each thought leader's path can take. Bob is direct, enthusiastic and super switched on about the future!

Brad Twynham

Brad Twynham

Brad runs a Global Consulting Practice in leadership, resilience and innovation, where he shares his powerful lived experiences to build radical leadership capabilities and help instigate change. 

As the Co-Founder of three international technology startups, Brad has been on the leading edge of technology and change for over 25 years. He has helped C-level Executives through business transformation programs in major corporations like UBS, Visa, Swisscom and CBA. He is currently the Entrepreneur in Residence at Western Sydney University.

Brad’s Radical Leadership Programs are being adopted by organisations such as Queensland Health, Rio Tinto, Endeavour Group, and the Australian National Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). He also mentors several high-profile technology founders in Silicon Valley. In his spare time, Brad is raising three future Jedi knights on the Central Coast of NSW.

Bryan Whitefield

Bryan Whitefield

Bryan understands the benefit of doing the work in this program. He has been part of Thought Leaders Business School since the very beginning! With a Bachelor of Engineering and an MBA under his belt. Brian credits Business School with teaching him to sell. A highly successful risk consultant, he has been able to take his knowledge around how we all make collective decisions to the market with great success. A thinker, a golfer and a hard worker, Brian works with executive teams that want to be challenged.

Callum McKirdy

Callum McKirdy

Speaker, author, mentor and facilitator, Callum specialises in workplace dynamics and behaviour. He has over two decades of experience helping Australasian leaders and teams leverage their uniqueness by harnessing the power of different thinking. Callum champions those parts of the workforce that are often overlooked and undervalued.

Proudly dyslexic and ADHD-positive, Callum uses his personal experiences and insights to show organisations how to think differently about different thinking.

He is the author of The HR Catalyst: A Guide to the New Practice of Leading HR (2019) and a contributing author to the Amazon Bestseller, What The Hell Do We Do Now? – An Enterprise Guide to COVID-19 and Beyond (2020). His new book, TILT: Thinking Differently About Different Thinking, is awaiting publication.

Cameron Schwab

Cameron Schwab

Cameron is the epitome of persistence. His own life journey is a rich story of rising up and rising up again. He knows what it means to sweat it out and do what it takes to get your message out into the world. A CEO with an MBA – Cam has turned his lifetime talent and experience into an incredible leadership practice.

Chris Freeman

Chris Freeman

Chris is a master of planning. He turns peoples potential into reality. He loves positioning and credits the curriculum for helping him to focus on who he is rather than what he does. Chris is an expert in designing peoples decades. A wise mentor for anyone playing the long game in your practice.

Chris Green

Chris Green

Chris is an entrepreneurial strategist, author, mentor, facilitator, and keynote speaker working across various industries. Establishing his practice in Wangaratta, Victoria, in 2001, Chris has been a consultant to myriad family-based enterprises and entrepreneurs, helping them to achieve strong outcomes, outstanding business results, and maximise their leadership potential.

Chris has an MBA (Strategic Management) and has owned and operated several regional businesses, giving him great empathy and understanding of business owners’ challenges. His clients say he shifts their thinking and gives them the confidence to execute change. 

Noted for thinking outside the box, his creativity and passion shine through and set him apart. His book, Business By Design and the game-changing program by the same name has helped hundreds of entrepreneurial and family-based businesses transform from chaotic and overwhelming to scalable and rewarding.

Craig Cherry

Craig Cherry

Craig is a master of figuring out the value behind your commercial offering and in his practice spends most of his time helping businesses be customer-centric and develop exceptional customer loyalty and exceptional sales growth. A big personality, a bigger heart he is all in when it comes to helping students.

Danette-Fenton-Menzies

Danette Fenton-Menzies

Danette Fenton-Menzies is a leader in the world of government finance and is a powerhouse in leadership. With an extensive education in economics and business and certifications as a Chartered Accountant and CPA, she has the skills to identify and develop genuine leaders at every level, elevating culture, performance, and profitability to achieve goals and reach new heights of success.

David Fish

David Fish

David Fish is a globally recognised strategist, business leader and record-breaking pilot. Driven by a desire to make sense of how things work, he has a natural ability to bring simplicity to the complex, removing sales barriers and making things easier to buy.

Over his 30-year career in marketing and advertising, he rose to the position of Chief Strategy Officer, working with and advising some of the world’s largest brands, marketing agencies, tech start-ups and media companies. He understands what it takes to connect, engage and convert customers.

As a Thought Leader, he applies his expertise to help others unlock growth through simplifying strategy, refining focus and assisting people to become more confident storytellers.

Dermot Crowley

Dermot Crowley

Dermot is a poster child for the program. Starting as a coach he has gone on to develop a world class million dollar practice delivering SMART solutions into the professional market. He knows the curriculum inside and out and has applied the methodology to great personal success. If you are ready to work Dermot will work alongside you to make your practice fly.

Emma Gibbens

Emma Gibbens

Emma activates leadership in change, one conversation at a time. She inspires people to take action and create inclusive change through speaking, training, discussions and strategic campaigns.

Emma’s energetic, playful and dynamic approach enables everyone to participate and belong, creating change that sticks. She believes transformative change occurs through iteration, by walking together on common ground in a shared direction. Emma has managed political and advocacy campaigns across the US and worldwide for over 15 years, specialising in scaling grassroots movements.

Emma McQueen

Emma McQueen

Emma is obsessed with helping people to reach and realise their potential. She knows what it takes to do the hard yards in this game. Persistent and relentless, Emma is the first to tell you that in this program we are all on the wrong side of a whole lot of work. She knows how to make the next steps visible and doable.

Ishan-Galapathy

Ishan Galapathy

Ishan Galapathy is a business productivity expert who specialises in simplifying complex concepts into frameworks and language that everyone can understand and engage with. With years of experience in the manufacturing and distribution industry, he has developed unique strategies to improve business productivity and drive growth.

Jenine Beekhuyzen

Jenine Beekhuyzen

Jenine is a champion for evidence based, scientific approaches to success. Founder of the Tech Girls Movement, she is a mover and shaker and a serious influencer in the world of tech, academia and social good. Having done a PHD in building and sustaining online communities,   Jenine credits Pink Sheets with helping her too unlock her thinking. An expert in research, STEM, diversity and education, Jenine is smart, well read and to the point.

Jennifer Kenny

Jennifer Kenny

Jennifer speaks, writes and delivers transformational programs globally to emerging technology, research, energy, and mobility companies on Leading Human Innovation with a focus on the two biggest levers for innovation: gender-balanced leadership and mindset. With degrees in geology, chemistry, and geotechnical engineering, Jen credits the Thought Leaders curriculum with giving her a structure for presenting and selling her thinking. Delightfully Irish but based in the US, Jen is a global thinker with a view towards the future.

Laurent Sylvestre

Laurent Sylvestre

Laurent Sylvestre is the CEO and Founder of The Human Perspectives. His life purpose is to help organisations and executive leaders identify, understand and act on the key cultural and leadership differentiators that will take them ahead of the competition.

Using a mix of thought leadership, public speaking, executive coaching and high-performing team workshops, Laurent makes journeys of change effective, impactful and sustainable. 

Laurent draws on more than 20 years of business experience. He has been a Chief People & Culture Officer and Executive Board Director across the Northern Hemisphere and the Asia Pacific.

Matt-Malouf

Matt Malouf

Matt is a seasoned expert in empowering business owners to attract top talent, boost profits, enhance efficiency, and reclaim their valuable time. With unwavering dedication, he imparts knowledge through teaching frameworks that streamline thinking, selling, and delivery.

Meredith Wilson

Meredith Wilson

Meredith’s passion for culture, leadership and learning is palpable and contagious. Her insight and experience, combined with her pragmatic approach and ability to connect, allow her to engage with people from the Boardroom to the coal face. 

Through her own stories and real-life examples drawn from a variety of industries and organisations, Meredith will have you laughing and learning. Her experience and knowledge of the corporate world have made her a highly sought-after Speaker and Panel Guest on Leadership and Culture.

Paige Williams

Paige Williams

Author, researcher and PhD in Organisational Behaviour, Dr Paige Williams is a trusted advisor and mentor to senior leaders across business, government, education and beyond. She uses a potent blend of neuroscience, psychology and her twenty-plus years of international business leadership to help leaders confront uncomfortable truths and the changes needed to break through and allow themselves, their teams, and their organisations to thrive. The results are dramatic and measurable.

Paige is an Honorary Fellow of the Centre for Wellbeing Science and an Associate of Melbourne Business School. Her book, Becoming Antifragile, Learning to

Thrive through Disruption, Challenge and Change (2020) was widely acclaimed, and her latest book, Own It! Honouring and Amplifying Accountability explores why accountability is the strategic imperative in the post-COVID economic landscape and how to improve it.

Rebecca Sutherns

Rebecca Sutherns

Rebecca knows the Thought Leaders game really well, and she loves playing games. Seeing the gamification of your journey to black belt is one way she can help you succeed. Our first Canadian member of the Faculty, Rebecca has a PHD in Sustainable Communities, is a master facilitator and an expert in nimble leadership & strategic planning. She will help you to unlock the energy behind your practice ambitions.

Richard Hodge (4)

Richard Hodge

Richard ‘The Professor’ Hodge is the gentleman’s gentleman. A career in the military as a scientist, strategic consultant, and GM in a global engineering firm, Richard has a PhD in systems approaches to strategy and execution in large enterprises.

His work today is all about showing people how No Problem is Too Big to act on and leave the world better for what you’ve done. He cares deeply about mentoring leaders to work artfully together with their people, co-creating new paradigms of thought and action for generational change. Richard credits his 10 years with Thought Leaders for teaching him to “know what I stand for and to stand for what I know”.

Rowena Millward (2)

Rowena Millward

Rowena is a master marketer. She knows what makes people stand up and pay attention to what you are offering. Methodical, intelligent and very considered she can help you map your path as a thought leader. Rowena is obsessed with turning possibility into opportunity and credits Thought Leaders Business School with teaching her the importance of investing time into her thinking and developing her IP.

Scott Stein

Scott Stein

Scott is one of the original Black Belts and is the co-author of the two core Thought Leadership Curriculum books, “Thought Leaders” and “Thought Leaders Practice”. Scott has a master's in communication and his work over the years has taken him into almost every market you can imagine. Scott is obsessed with students capturing their value and leveraging their opportunities. He knows the curriculum inside and out and is an exceptional mentor. A man of deep wisdom and integrity, Scott walks the talk of making a positive difference in the lives of others.

Selena Fisk

Selena Fisk

Selena is a ‘data storyteller’ who uses quantitative and qualitative information to understand behaviours, tell stories and lead positive change. With the collection and application of data having an ever-increasing presence in our work and home life, Selena helps people who may be otherwise intimidated by data to develop their skills so they feel less daunted.

A mentor to executive leaders, middle managers and employees, Selena shows how data storytelling can benefit organisations and communities in which they work. She is the author of I’m Not a Numbers Person: How to Make Good Decisions in a Data-Rich World (2023).

Stephen Duns

Stephen Duns

Stephen is obsessed with our identity and work being respected as sacred. His unique warm and calm energy, wisdom and cheeky charm allow him to challenge people to let their light shine by feeling truly seen, heard and loved. 

His experience in CEO, consulting and Board roles and his academic teaching and research all combine to add rigour and pragmatism to his work. This helps people bring the spirit of consciousness, grace and love to their leadership.

Susan Jaques

Susan Jaques

With her engineering background, Susan is especially adept at helping those from similar process-driven, formally-structured professions, such as engineers, accountants, project managers, lawyers and IT experts, separate processes from principles and transition to Thought Leadership.

Susan believes those from process-driven disciplines have much to offer organisations where the work needs to get done to high standards by thriving, capable and happy professionals.  

In her advisory practice, Susan provides strategic facilitation, training, and career coaching services.