Service and Beyond

This is Part 2 of my discussion with Heath Smith. Heath discusses his experiences in recruiting veterans to his company and advising veterans on enhancing their employability as well as taking a learning approach to the recruiting process in general. He also answers the big 8 transition questions revealing what shaped his journey out of Defence and into management consulting and ultimately busines...

Heath Smith is a former Army Aeronautical Engineer who's early career included an exchange with the US Army's 101st Airborne Division in Afghanistan, before assuming the senior engineer role for Army's 1st Aviation Regiment ARH Tiger helicopters in Darwin. Heath was later selected to join an expert panel led by Air Chief Marshal Sir Angus Houston, which conducted a wholesale review of all aspects...

In Part 2 of my interview with Sean O'Loughlin, Sean answers the 8 transition questions and I discuss my key takeaways from Sean's story; the application of military learned resilience skills to the identity shift of becoming a civilian once more, the power of mindfulness practices in dealing with the emotional stressors and distractions of life, and the Sean's affinity for training mentoring and...

Sean O'Loughlin is a former Army infantry soldier who deployed to East Timor and later Afghanistan where contributed to Australian forces mentoring of the Afghan National Army. After leaving Army Sean completed a degree in paramedicine at Charles Sturt University. During his studies Sean teamed with fellow veterans to provide paramedic services at motor racing events in rural NSW and later through...

In part 2 of the interview with Matthew Smith, Matt details the significant time and effort he invested into exploring his transition options, from a career locality and lifestyle perspective and also considering his family's future priorities. This included a number of trips across the country to explore the area in which he intended to settle, as well as reaching out to numerous former colleague...

Matthew Smith is a former Air Force Super Hornet pilot and Qualified Flying Instructor. Matt and I trained together to become ADF pilots, with Matt's career taking him to the venerable Vietnam era DHC-4 Caribou before moving into Air Combat Group to fly the F/A-18F Super Hornet, and finally onto a training role where he mentored and developed the nation's future fighter pilots.   Matt shares the h...

Jeremy Holder served 7 years as a combat medic in the Australian Army and was awarded the Medal of Gallantry for his actions in Afghanistan when attached to the Special Operations Task Group in 2006.   Jeremy founded TACMED in 2010 translating his experiences in Army to provide emergency medical training and equipment to assist first responders in carrying out their roles in remote, high pressure...

Jeremy Holder served 7 years as a combat medic in the Australian Army and was awarded the Medal of Gallantry for his actions in Afghanistan when attached to the Special Operations Task Group in 2006.   Jeremy founded TACMED in 2010 translating his experiences in Army to provide emergency medical training and equipment to assist first responders in carrying out their roles in remote, high pressure...

Callum Newton served 15 years in the Royal Australian Navy as an Aviation Warfare Officer, operating MH-60R 'Romeo' Seahawk helicopters from Australian Navy warships. He was part of the initial cadre of aircrew selected to stand up a new squadron to accept the Romeo helicopters, prior to operating the aircraft across Indo-Pacific deployments.  Following his service Callum completed an MBA at the A...

Callum Newton served 15 years in the Royal Australian Navy as an Aviation Warfare Officer, operating MH-60R 'Romeo' Seahawk helicopters from Australian Navy warships. He was part of the initial cadre of aircrew selected to stand up a new squadron to accept the Romeo helicopters, prior to operating the aircraft across Indo-Pacific deployments.  Following his service Callum completed an MBA at the A...

  Christian "Boo" Boucousis served 10 years as an RAAF F/A-18 fighter pilot before the diagnosis of a medical condition ended his military flying career. On leaving Air Force Christian and a friend moved to Afghanistan starting a company CTG Global that rapidly grew from 2 to 1500 employees within 3 years. Following this success Christian embarked upon an extraordinary string of business endeavors...

In this episode Matt reveals the key themes and lessons from his initial guests' transition experiences, he delves into the key tips from the Department of Veteran's Affairs - Transition Task Force findings. He also discusses the importance of starting the transition journey early, and making early use of the range of transition support offered by Defence, the government and external support organ...

Tim Walsmley served 14 years in the Australian Army as an artillery officer including tours of Iraq and Afghanistan before injury altered the course of his career.  Tim worked in Defence acquisitions before leaving Army and working for a small Defence company where he identified a problem with workforce labour utilisation. Tim set about solving this problem by founding Bench On in 2016, developing...

Mathew Jones is a former Australian Army artillery officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Later working in capability acquisition, Mat was instrumental in bringing an advanced defensive system into service to fulfil an urgent operational requirement to protect Australian troops. Following his time in uniform Mat moved to defence industry and into business development, where he has worked for...

Tarryn Ryan's military flying career began in the South African Air Force where she captained security missions into the Congo, and continued in the Australian Army flying MRH90 helicopters in support of government missions through the Asia Pacific region. With a varied flying career encompassing service in the militaries of two nations, and including air ambulance rescue missions in South Africa,...

Natalee Johnston was Navy's first female helicopter pilot, flying instructor, and head of aviation department on Navy warships. Natalee served over 20 years in the Royal Australian Navy across a range of instructional and leadership positions. Following the 2005 Shark 02 Seaking accident, Natalee's career focused on aviation safety and safety culture, and she now operates her own business Assimila...

Matt previews season one, introducing his first three guests, and discusses his career background, key experiences and milestones along with perspectives he's drawn along the way.  

Welcome, today Matt explains the aims of Service and Beyond, what motivated him to join with former Defence members to tell their stories of service and transition out of uniform. Matt outlines what you can expect from the series. ---------------------------------------------- On Service and Beyond former Navy and Air Force pilot Matthew Dank speaks to former Australian Defence Force members on th...