ArtWords in started out in 1992 and Twenty two years later, it had become an award-winning marketing communication solutions destination for some of Australia’s most successful enterprises. In 2008, Sandy started her first charity Knit-a-square which led to her next career. She delivered a standing ovation TEDx talk about this extraordinary adventure in 2014.

The intersection of these two experiences was to prove pivotal to the work she does now. In ArtWords, if they couldn’t get their clients clear on what they were positioning, why, and for whom, they’d failed. This became the single most important component of their work. During the formative years of Knit-a-square, they learned that online stories with a focused purpose touched lives everywhere.

They helped build a worldwide community of 20,000 people in 71 countries which is still growing. Sandy wrote the book, Get It Right Online to detail the framework for how this was achieved.

The principles that informed this govern what she did then, and still does: Clarity: getting people clear on purpose, principles, people, product, and positioning Curiosity: keeping them in pursuit of their truth Coherence: helping them articulate their purpose and brand promise truthfully and consistently. In 2012, Sandy started to coach others as a clarity guide. Soon people asked for her help to tell their stories which lead to her career today.

Leveraging off my extensive background in consulting, sales and leadership development, this has predominantly been realised through the creation of high-performance cultures, coaching and executive mentoring, and always focusing on creating the best experience and outcome for the customer.

From a business leadership perspective, many of the roles I have undertaken have come as the result of being appointed to lead organisational change – even during times of volatility and uncertainty.  I have learned that to achieve significant, sustainable success and growth you must focus on the customer experience and outcome – continually delivering a better service today than yesterday.

As an executive mentor and leadership coach, I have worked with other business leaders in their personal develop as they too contend with the challenges of leadership during uncertainty and on the journey of organisational change and service excellence.

 Over time Caitlin received promotions to more senior positions over a period of 17 years ranging in different roles in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne resulting in her current role as VIC State Practice Leader – FINPRO. Caitlin’s role involves managing a large portfolio of business, working with global and ASX-listed companies, private, not-for-profit and government bodies from a broad range of industries addressing their executive insurance risks, as well as, leading a team of specialist brokers.

Caitlin’s career progression has all been achieved without changing companies, only recently moving to Marsh as part of their acquisition of the JLT business in early 2019. In late 2019, Caitlin was awarded Young Professional Broker of the Year by insurance industry body NIBA, and as a result was fortunate to attend the Yale School of Management’s Women’s Leadership Program in early 2020. In early 2021, Caitlin was accepted by Melbourne Business School to study her Master of Business Administration (MBA) and continues these studies on a part-time basis.

I am now in a privileged position to take what I love most, and provide support to individuals, business owners, entrepreneurs through mentoring, coaching and education tools that enable them to design their best lives, their best businesses, and their best pathways to success.

I have demonstrated expertise in:
General Management of a Retail/Wholesale business.
Leadership of large teams 30+
Optimising operating costs through re-evalution and implementation of systems, processes and structures
Management of Merchandise Planning, Replenishment and Supply Chain functions
Category/ Brand Portolio management

Management of store & DC operations
Product Design and Development
Commercial Business Management
Ecommerce Management including site design, content management, marketing
Wholesale Sales Operations
Sourcing/ Importing/ Freight Management
Sector experience: Big Box Discount Retailing, Stationery and Office Supplies, Fashion Apparel, Homewares, Beauty & Cosmetics.

I am the 3rd child in our family of 2 older boys and a younger half-sister. My brothers and I were raised by an incredibly strong and traditional woman with amazing smarts, fantastic work ethics and greatest generosity. From a very young age, I knew what I wanted and often map out how I’d achieve those goals. Today I operate a premium flower and gift social enterprise called “Miei Fiori”. With more than 10% of Australian population living below the poverty line and just half of those are Children, Miei Fiori was created as a vehicle to combat poverty, serve our people, support our community and protect our planet.
We do that by that by:
Donating 100% profit to children’s charities within Australia
Commit to sustainable options
Complete transparency

My entrepreneurship started at about 15 years of age when I was able to make my very own first dollar at McDonald’s. I mapped my path to owning my first property by 18, how I’d earn 6 figures by 25 and operating a Company that is dedicated to solving some world challenges by 40. Today I’m 37 years old and couldn’t feel luckier and more grateful for everything I’ve achieved thus far with my best-friend and soul mate.
Before taking the bold step to start my own company, I had an incredible Corporate career in varying roles across many industries practicing the lessons learnt from mentors, making many mistakes along the way, solving problems and pivoted through challenges whilst having a lot of fun along the way.

Melissa led the Retail IT function at Telstra from 2012-2016. During this time she successfully delivered a number of challenging programs end to end, including an inspiring world-class future retail environment as showcased in Telstra’s Melbourne and Sydney Discovery Stores.

Melissa is currently the Global IT Leader Enterprise at Aurecon, a global consulting, engineering design, management and specialist technical services firm that works across a broad range of markets and sectors fostering innovation, harnessing disruption and bringing ideas to life. Reporting to the CIO, she is the trusted IT partner for the business across the enterprise. She is responsible for executive/business engagement, shaping and co-creating business strategies, strategic roadmaps and is accountable for the delivery that drives strategic value for Aurecon and delivers a foundation for continuing and sustainable innovation.

Melissa is accountable for the Workday platform and building upon our established HCM capability and embarking on the delivery of a fully integrated Workday Finance, Projects, Procurement and People Platform…taking the opportunity to truly innovate how we work at Aurecon.

Cassandra has three decades of business experience having held many different senior leadership roles, including being appointed as Bupa’s first Global Director of Employee Experience. In this role she was focussed on the activation of the organisations’ purpose ‘Longer, Healthier, Happier Lives’ for their 86,000 employees around the world.

Today, Cassandra enjoys a portfolio career. She is the founder of The Centre for Self-Fidelity, the Chief Talent Activator at Think Talent, and a facilitator and executive coach for Thrive Global. Following the success of her first self-published book Self-Fidelity in 2020, her second book Being True was published by Hardie Grant in 2023.Cassandra was born in Sydney, but currently lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband and two young sons.

Relationship management has been a major focus for Kathryn and she is passionately committed to understanding the ever-changing needs of clients and candidates, carefully assessing the capabilities of candidates to ensure a good cultural match between the two. She has a strong understanding of the importance of building lasting relationships with clients and candidates alike. Providing career advice and mentoring is an aspect of her role which she finds particularly enjoyable and rewarding.

Utilising her MBA and background in high-level sales, leadership and management, she has worked with over 500 entrepreneurs to date, teaching them how to earn with ease, attract dream clients, and create a life by design. Her mission is to help business leaders tap into their true purpose while scaling their business with feel-good strategies and intuitive guidance.

Her clients love her instinctive ability to uncover the core problems stifling their growth — and the practical tools she provides to unlock their full potential. She’s known for her fun, bubbly attitude and unapologetically ambitious dogma.

Jocelyn has been featured in Thrive Global, Digital Journal, FOX, Ask.com, The Times and Finance News World. When she’s not empowering her clients, you can find her working on her own self-development, enjoying nature and planning her next getaway.

Nicole is highly motivated by the challenges of transactional work (including mergers & acquisitions, equity capital markets and projects), and enjoys working with businesses at all stages of their lifecycle (from start-up to exit and everything in between).  Nicole has worked with clients from a wide range of industries, including professional services, manufacturing, property development, energy (including renewables), agribusiness and food and beverage.  Nicole especially enjoys working with large and diverse teams, including clients, lawyers and other advisors from different areas and jurisdictions.

She found her performing anxiety solution: learning how to speak in public. She then became passionate about helping others to communicate well in front of groups or in social situations, and founded Improve Your Public Speaking in 2009. Now, she has worked with over a 1000 clients, often in tech, law, engineering, healthcare and architecture.
She now helps others through a combination of techniques learned as a keen researcher into effective communication skills, psychology, neuroscience, performing arts and speaker.

Known for her agile transformational methods, entrepreneurial, strategic, collaborative, solution-oriented leadership along with her strong coaching, networking abilities, data-driven passion and results, Cassandra doesn’t shy away from a challenge of growth and build executive roles 

She is passionate about mentoring diversity & inclusion and serves on the Business in Heels International Advisory Board.

She is a graduate of the MFA program at the University of Tennessee, which is currently in the top 10 programs of the world. She received her BA from California State University, Fullerton and went to San Francisco School of the Arts. She moved from New York City to Melbourne four years ago .

She works with stakeholders at all levels to identify the gaps in their processes and then designs result-driven solutions to meet the organisation’s needs, whether it be an individual strategy or an overall business change. At Success BOX, they are known as ‘Excellence Solutions’, and they span Leadership, Learning and Change Management to provide outcomes that consistently satisfy even the most discerning executive teams.

The strive to build organisational excellence has seen Debbie presented with 16 international awards while attaining a double Master’s qualification in Adult Education and Human Resource Management. With a curiosity to learn, Debbie is an active member of Monash University Alumni and Golden Key International Honour Society and an advisory board member for the Institute for Learning and Performance (ILP) Asia-Pacific.

Debbie is well positioned to continue the development of knowledge as it applies to the business world and looks forward to meeting with like-minded people across the globe.

To expand her skills recently Nabila took up the opportunity to do a Certificate in Cybersecurity, where she now adds python coding and cyber attack management to her expertise. In her spare time, Nabila enjoys mentoring others in the marketing communications field and consulting start-ups on best practice in digital marketing. 

Inclusion and diversity is important to her, and she advocates for this as a committee member for the women’s group at BHP in Melbourne, providing a platform for women in the business to advocate for each other. Other than this, she is also a strong LGBT+ ally and is the Global committee member for the LGBT+ global employee led resource group, Jasper.

Born and raised in Sweden, lived and worked in Denmark, now proud to call herself Australian.

With over 20 years in leadership positions, within management and expansion of multiple segments and multi-channel retailing in several different countries, she brings a holistic view and pragmatic approach to her work and life.

As a straightforward and inspirational leader, each day is active and energized, and always honest.

In her free time, she wishes she would exercise more and eat healthier.

Continuing her award-winning track record in her 21st year in the Insurance Industry, Jessica was named as Insurance Business Magazine’s Elite Women, Underwriting Agency BDM of the year in 2022 and 5 star BDM year of the year in 2021.

Holding several leadership and National relationship roles specialising in the development of go to market and growth strategies & marketing Mrs Jenkins holds an extensive track record of insurance industry and relationship management experience.   In her role as relationship manager, she is responsible for developing healthy, productive partnerships as well as nurturing and building the company’s existing key relationships with brokers. 

Proactive, highly informed and committed to outstanding communication, Jenkins takes an authentic approach to fostering lasting relationships and is focused on genuinely reflecting Brooklyn Underwriting’s commitment to their core value of “customer first, always”.  

She is motivated to share her extensive professional knowledge with her team and industry peers and volunteers as a mentor. 

With her passion to support and mentoring her colleagues, particularly those just starting out their careers in insurance clients and partners who come into contact with Jenkins benefit from her depth of knowledge, her strategic capabilities, and her ability to identify and develop new market channels.

“My goal is to encourage the wonderful women in our industry to lean in, believe in ourselves, and empower each other to be and do the best we can,” says Jenkins.

“It is OK to make mistakes and fail. Through failure, life’s greatest lessons are learnt. It’s through failure that we build a platform for great success.”

Outside of the office, she is a self-confessed coffee and chocolate addict. In addition to her day-to-day , she is a mother to six-year-old Mia and Co Founder of the the Women’s Wellness Hour of Power (WWHOP), a supportive event for women in the insurance industry who are juggling many roles and responsibilities on a daily basis. 

“The WWHOP is an idea borne out of a collective of women in the insurance and finance industry who are juggling their many roles and responsibilities daily, in particular, working mums,” says Jenkins. “As mothers of young daughters, our co-founder and I recognised the need for an independent safe haven for women in the industry to come together, empower, mentor and support one another and remember that it’s OK not to be OK.”