Culture Makers

Danny Donachie helps individuals and organisations to achieve peak performance in sports. A former professional footballer, Danny had to retire as a result of injury and has dedicated himself to helping others instead. He was part of the medical and sports science teams at Sunderland, Everton and Aston Villa before establishing his own practice - Embodyism - to help transform the lives and perform...

We are publishing this episode on December 3rd, the International Day of People with Disability , which for 2023 has the theme: " United in action to rescue and achieve the SDGs (sustainable development goals) for, with and by persons with disabilities ". We are delighted to be chatting to someone who embodies that theme every day, Australian Paralympian and World Champion Katie Kelly, O...

One of a new generation of culture-first sporting leaders, Kristof Vanhout is Technical Director of Rugby Netherlands and on a mission to get to the Rugby World Cup - and beyond. Kristof employs his considerable emotional intelligence to connect with the team and enable them to connect with each other. He brings them together in pursuit of their common goal and creates a place where they can celeb...

Meredith Blackler is a hugely experienced people professional and a culture maker in every sense of the word. She has over 15 years of experience in the people space in the north island of New Zealand in places such as Levin, Palmerston North and now Wellington. Meredith was the winner of the 2015 HR Game Changer Award; the HDC's Chief Executive's Award 2015; and named as one of the top 12...

Jane Poole has almost 20 years experience in the banking and insurance industry. She is a successful leader of multiple Business and IS Transformation Programmes, designing and executing global initiatives. She is also a genuine, progressive leader consistently demonstrating integrity, passion and fairness that inspires global teams to achieve both strategic and personal objectives. Jane shares he...

Mark Hooper is the Group CEO and Managing Director at Paragon Care. Mark is a former Chief Financial Officer, Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer for many different businesses in the Pharmacy, Consumer and Medical consumables business with a fantastic track record of leadership and culture building stretching almost 30 years. He has been involved in mergers, acquisitions, fended off tak...

Deb Cramb has had a fantastic and varied career in film, multimedia and technical industries, including stints with Walt Disney Studios, Industrial Light and Magic, Spinifex Group and in her current role with DNEG - a leading visual effects and animation studios for feature film and television - but also start ups and smaller creative organisations such as Autopilot and Mable. Skilled in scaling c...

Bronwyn Clere is Operations Executive at InfraCo - the asset based business of Australian telecommunications company Telstra. Prior to joining InfraCo Bronwyn was head of growth platforms at TelstraHealth, Executive Director, Capital Planning and Delivery at Telstra. She has also been a managing partner at JP Morgan and worked for AIA in Hong Kong and AXA in Australia, New Zealand and the United K...

Matt Harrington is the CFO of Australian Super and has a fantastic career history having worked for organisations such as Royal and Sun Alliance, GE Capital, ANZ, Tabcorp, IAG and Arthur Anderson. He’s worked in London, Sydney, New York, Melbourne and Copenhagen and shares some fascinating insights into working in different social cultures. We talk about: Understanding of difference social culture...

Fiona Wright, Executive Group Manager, Climate Change and Energy at ACT Government, is a passionate advocate for women in STEM, a dedicated public servant and a tireless culture maker. She has been a trailblazer in her career since day one but continues to learn, develop and experiment in her pursuit of high performing, psychologically safe workplace cultures. In this episode we talk about: Increa...

Jeffrey Sumberg is a seasoned executive leader with deep experience helping organisations address their most difficult human capital challenges.  From a legal role in labour relations and developing US government-wide policy and tools in all areas of human capital, to being a trusted partner for C-suite clients by helping them align people strategies with critical business goals. Throughout his ca...

Welcome to season five of the Culture Makers podcast with your host Colin D Ellis! We are kicking off this season with a fantastic guest who walks the talk when it comes to people and culture. Bhavya Misra is the Director & Head of HR - India, for Lenovo. A seasoned HR professional, Bhavya started her career with PepsiCo, took a leap into the start-up world and then returned to PepsiCo before...

Trudi Mares describes herself as the accidental public servant but whether accidental or not, Trudi has carved out an impressive and impactful career and continues to learn, eveole and take the opportunities she rightly earns. She understands how to connect purpose and values and turn it into meaningful action and inspires the same in others.  Trudi has a passion for authentic leadership, cus...

This week's Culture Makers episode is a replay of my 2019 (pre-pandemic!) interview with Didier Elzinga, CEO of Culture Amp a people and culture platform that helps companies around the world to gather insight and analytics on engagement and performance so that they can build and evolve high achieving teams. So while a lot has changed in the world of work since this interview, I think you'll also...

Richard has been in the coffee industry for 16 years, beginning with his first cafe in 2006. His career has taken him from behind a coffee machine to coffee farms in Colombia, washing stations in Burundi to head judging the World Barista Championships. His work with growers as part of Raw Material has been some of the most rewarding; developing and building new relationships with in-country partne...

Leanne is an award-winning CEO and Director with a demonstrated history of building vibrant cultures of success in the real estate industry. Skilled in Leadership, Negotiation, Property, Sales and Event Management, Leanne was recognised as the Most Influential Woman in Property at the 2021 AREA awards and Industry Thought Leader of the Year at the REB Awards. She has a Masters Degree in Business A...

Tamara Ryf is an experienced executive with 20 years’ experience in Australia and Europe providing staffing, consulting and technology solutions to Private and Public Sector organisations. Her strength is in building vibrant cultures that work collaboratively with clients to achieve their business objectives through the attraction and retention of exceptional individuals. She is a pragmatic soluti...

As Second Commissioner and CIO, Ramez Katf provides leadership and strategic direction on information and communications technology in the ATO and ensures the delivery of technology services to support staff. He also ensures that the organisation is leveraging the most innovative trends in technology, to improve the experience of staff and clients. Before joining the ATO, Ramez was a managing dire...

Born in Italy and educated in Milan, Matteo started his own photography business at an early age and spent 10 years shooting and exhibiting his work around the world. After starting their own family, Matteo and his husband became entrepreneurs in the healthcare sector when they opened the pionnering South Slope Pediatrics in New York City. Matteo fell in love with customer experience and company c...

Narelle Burke's full job title is as big as her experience and passion for people: Chief Human Resources Officer, Insights for Asia Pacific and Head of Diversity and Inclusion Global for Kantar. Narelle is an award winning international Human Resources (HR) leader with more than 20+ years’ experience working in strategic HR Business Partnering and Centres of Excellence roles. She has worked across...

Brisbane-based Martin Holzworth has worked at BoQ, EDS, Hewlett-Packard, Ernst & Young, Fujitsu, Griffith University and now VMware in a mix of CTO and cyber roles that have seen him share his expertise and knowledge in 35 countries and territories. In this conversation, Martin shares his leadership and culture insights around cyber security, building great teams, purpose before paycheck and h...

As you'll see from this bio, Dr Siew Fang Law has qualifications and experience a-plenty but what really stands out for me is her understanding of people, the unique human experience and how who we are, where we come from, what we believe, influences how we create meaning in the world. Being able to tap into this is a great skill for building cultures and encouraging collaboration.  Siew Fang...

Guillermo Diaz is a transformative global business leader and champion of diversity, equity and inclusion. He serves as the Chairman of the Hispanic Technology Executive Council (HITEC), he is on the board of directors at Blue Shield of California and also at Kloudspot Inc., an innovative predictive analytics platform provider, where he was previously CEO. As founder and CEO of Conectado Inc., Gui...

Welcome to Season 4 of the Culture Makers Podcast where Colin D Ellis finds more culture makers out in the world of work and gets them to share their stories, insights and tips for creating a great place to work.  In this episode Colin is talking to a leader who thrives on getting things done! Hassanah Rudd is the Head of People and Culture at Brighte , based in Sydney. Hassanah has more than...

The future of HR is here and it's bright! Erin is a dynamic young HR professional on a mission to make employee experiences positive and meaningful. She's already got great experience, insights and ideas and I have no doubt she will take the profession by storm.  Erin shares her career path so far, what she loves about HR, the importance of inclusion and how to do all of this while still havi...