Ideas for a modern conversation with Caroline Austin

Caroline is an experienced researcher and strategist in the not-for-profit and university sectors. She has developed and managed large-scale community engagement and behaviour research and projects in various locations worldwide.  Alongside this, she is a writer and publisher of the interdisciplinary magazine SINTEZO.She holds an international humanitarian law, design and business qualifications from Melbourne University and the Queensland University of Technology. This includes a Masters in International Law (specialising in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights); a Graduate Certificate in Creative Industries (Human Centred Design); a Master of Fine Arts and a Bachelor of Business and Law. In 2011, she received the Outstanding Young Alumnus Award from QUT.Head over to Sintezo at https://sintezo.com.au/Connect with Caroline at https://www.linkedin.com/in/austincaroline/

Leading Sustainability & Business for Good Laurent Mas is a Sustainability Consultant, Business Strategist, and Impact Entrepreneur, dedicated to transforming businesses into forces for good. As Co-Founder & Director of 3i Sustainability, he leads a global movement helping businesses, investors, and changemakers integrate sustainability and social responsibility into their core strategy. A Sustainability Advocate for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for nearly 10 years, Laurent has actively worked to align businesses with Profit, People, and Planet. In Melbourne, Australia, he founded his first sustainability-focused business, helping SMEs integrate the SDGs into their strategy—proving that sustainability and profitability go hand in hand. For over seven years, Laurent has been a proud B1G1 member, embedding giving and impact into business ecosystems to drive meaningful change. A proud Australian, Laurent relocated to Geneva, Switzerland, at the end of COVID, continuing his mission to support businesses and leaders in their sustainability transformation and regenerative practices.  Sustainability & Business for Good:3i Sustainability Community (3isustainability.com) – A dynamic platform that connects businesses and leaders committed to sustainability, impact-driven growth, and regeneration.Entrepreneur for Good Program – Empowering entrepreneurs to launch and scale businesses with purpose, integrating sustainability from day one.Successful Business Solutions – A boutique advisory firm helping businesses align profitability with sustainability, making impact-driven strategies both financially viable and scalable.  Mental Health & Conscious Leadership:Beyond sustainability, Laurent is passionate about mental well-being. He integrates mindfulness and leadership development into his work, supporting entrepreneurs and executives in achieving balance and resilience. His initiatives include:Meditate with Laurent – A platform for guided meditation and breathwork.Activate Your Wealth Vibrations (activateyourwealthvibrations.com) – A transformative program combining meditation, sound healing, and mindset shifts to unlock abundance and prosperity.The Space – A mental well-being hub offering personalized wellness solutions.Council for Human Development – A global initiative unlocking human potential through neuroscience, psychology, and leadership coaching. Through 3i Sustainability and his various impact-driven ventures, Laurent helps businesses redefine success—blending sustainability, profitability, and well-being to create a Better You, Better Business, Better World. Connect with Laurent on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/laurentmas1 

Sally Murphy is an expert human resources professional who left the corporate world behind to launch the purpose-led human resources company Purple Playground in 2018.   After spending twenty years working within people and culture roles across a variety of HR disciplines, Sally took the opportunity to build a company that would better support other businesses in their human resources initiatives.   Her vision for Purple Playground is in perfect alignment with her purpose and passion - to prove business leaders with a proactive approach to people and culture. As far as HR agencies are concerned, Purple Playground is deliberately different.   Sally heads up the Human Resources division of the company, and works her magic to:   Ensure businesses are compliant with their Fair Work employer obligations. Help businesses scale their organisations through simple, yet strong human resource foundations and a clear people strategy. Build the leadership capability within teams, with a focus on creating resilient, high-performing teams.   The Purple Playground team are the antidote to the boring, stuffy, ‘we’d better call HR’ approach and are leading the way in helping purpose-driven business owners re-imagine what people and culture support looks like. They are a certified B Corporation and long term member of B1G1 Business for Good.  It’s all part of showing the human side of human resources. To Sally and the team, adding value to clients means being committed to helping them ‘systemise the process and humanise the experience’ throughout every aspect of the full employee lifecycle.

Leanne Butterworth, an Empathy Educator, TEDx speaker and Social Entrepreneur, is dedicated to creating healthier, more connected workforces and communities through accessible Empathy Training. Her personal experience with postnatal mental health challenges led her to recognise the life-changing impact of empathy-based communication. As the founder of Empathy First and a lecturer of social enterprise at QUT, Leanne is actively involved in the startup, mental health, and social enterprise communities. She has presented her empathy work internationally and holds degrees in Applied Science and NonProfit Business. Leanne has received several prestigious scholarships and awards, including the 2023 Women Changing the World People's Choice Social Enterprise Award and the George Alexander Foundation Scholarship. She is also a contributing author in the upcoming anthology Women Making a Difference.  Leanne believes empathetic leadership is not a nice-to-have but a business imperative in the modern world. Her passion drives her to create compassionate environments where healthy empathy thrives.

Kristy is the GM and CTO of Allume Energy, an Australian solar technology company that has developed a world-first solution which unlocks rooftop solar for apartments. Allume Energy was founded to ensure it is possible for everyone to access clean technology solutions and be taken on the journey to a liveable future.  While Kristy is a technology expert, for Kristy the T in CTO stands for team as much as technology. Kristy’s authentic leadership style creates environments that create inclusion of all & inspire courage; crucial to generate the innovation required to solve the most pertinent problems of our time. Connect with Kristy on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristy-battista-35177819/ Reach out to Allume Energy at https://allumeenergy.com/au/

Dan is the Founder of The Ocelli Group, helping organisations build resilience and commercial opportunity through bespoke Sustainability support networks. This 'Impact-as-a-Service' ecosystem consists of sustainability consultancies, data reporting platforms, and communications agencies, ensuring these teams are consistently realising collaborative advantages.Dan has worked in Australia and the US for both publicly-traded firms and early-stage startups, across natural resources, technology advisory, and ESG consulting. He sees collaboration as being the key factor in ensuring all companies, industries, and countries seize the opportunities presented as we decarbonise the global economy.He often reflects on a quote from George Mack: “Networks are unique, because they don’t divide when you share them - they multiply.” Find Dan at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-leverington/ https://www.ocelli.group/

In this episode we connect with Tracy Norman and Coralie Nichols from The Ian & Shirley Norman Foundation. Tracy Norman - Founder & Chair Tracy Norman is the proud middle daughter of Ian and Shirley Norman. She has a background in small business enterprises with a particular focus on regenerating economies in regional New South Wales. Tracy currently operates a number of businesses, based in the Hunter, in the areas of regenerative agriculture and food and hospitality. The paddock-to-plate experience can be found in her business offerings. Her business interests are underpinned by a degree in Ecological Agriculture. Tracy served on Dungog Shire Council for 9 years from 2012 to 2021, with her service to the community including two and a half years as the Mayor. Tracy was a founding member of the Dungog Arts Foundation and the driving force behind the Dungog Festival, two initiatives that gave her a great sense of pride and joy. Tracy is keen to respond to filling gaps to address social disadvantage and to work in partnership with innovators that change people’s lives. Coralie Nichols - Chief Executive Officer. Coralie is a Graduate of the AICD, has completed Harvard Business studies, was a 2017 finalist in the Queensland Telstra Business Women’s Awards, has an undergraduate degree from Wollongong University, a graduate diploma from Sydney University and completed her Master’s Degree in Management at the University of Technology Sydney.Coralie has worked in local government in NSW and Queensland for over 20 years and has held senior executive and general manager roles. She has also worked at the Chief Executive level in the not-for-profit sector in the Northern Territory and NSW. Coralie has lived in major cities and rural and remote communities across Australia. She now lives with her husband and three children near the vineyards of the Hunter Valley. Connect with the foundation at https://isnfoundation.org.au/

Dr Graziella Thake is the CEO of The Optimisation Hub, a learning hub designed to increase human potential. With over three decades of diverse experience combined with a history of achievement in forensic corporate and sports psychology, Graziella has a range of credible knowledge and skills in impact delivery projects for social change across education, government departments, mining , health, sport and corporate. Her operational management of complex projects has seen her follow a validated research focus to manage complex delivery projects in simple, real formats. She brings innovation facilitation and sought after professionalism to anything she does as a tangible asset in positive impact leadership. With experience in 24 multinational brands, by reputation she is as a leadership asset, who combines humility, experience, knowledge and a straight forward robust approach to any project and team for lasting long term sustainable performance optimisation. Graziella is both a diversity champion and team enabler and been dubbed “the positive virus creator” having achieved 2 world firsts. She combines all her passions, and professional experience to impact positively, and sustainably to lead outcomes, in a fast, and sustainable manner giving energy time and professionalism to sustainable outcomes. Her leadership is blueprint is her ability to create and extend dynamic impact culture in any team. Connect with Graziella on Linked HERE The Optimisation Hub website is HERE

Georgina Camp is the Managing Director and Founder, Huber Social. Founder and Managing Director of Huber Social, Georgina’s team is committed to creating a global society where Wellbeing thrives. Following a 10-year career across international law and the military, Georgina transitioned to Community Development to address social issues at their root cause. Having experienced both ends of the ‘problem solving’ spectrum, Georgina recognised we need to get all parts of the system working together to solve social issues once and for all. Through measuring social impact, Huber Social provides data driven intelligence to facilitate a systems approach, measuring progress overall in terms of wellbeing and identifying priority needs. Huber Social has successfully measured the wellbeing of people for the last 6 years across more than 10 countries and 150 projects. Georgina holds a Master of Development, Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts (Politics and International Relations). Georgina was recognised in the 2019 Australian Financial Review’s top 100 Women of Influence. find Georgina on linked HERE Huber Social Website: https://hubersocial.com.au/

Adrian is a passionate business sustainability professional, with more than 22 years of activity in the field. Through his business, the Sustainability Compass, and as a Partner for Corporate Sustainability in Fifth Eagle, both next generation advisory companies, he is focused on guiding organisations towards future proofing their business and maximising the return on their sustainability spend. Prior to this, Adrian worked in energy, operations and technical leadership roles in the heavy industry in Australia and Eastern Europe. Adrian has a PhD on the topic of corporate sustainability, an MBA from the University of Queensland’s Business School and is a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD). Most recently, he completed business sustainability programs with the business schools of Cambridge, Oxford, Yale and MIT, on topics such as sustainability strategies, circular economy, leading sustainable corporations and sustainable finance. He is also a Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Certified Professional. Over the years, he applied this knowledge in the industry for practical outcomes such as: publishing sustainability reports, helping release lower carbon footprint products, developing energy efficiency strategies, enhancing circularity, significantly reducing emissions and fossil fuel consumption, creating and implementing environmental performance improvement plans and so on. Connect with Adrian Mail: [email protected]  Web: www.sustainabilitycompass.com.au https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianvaida/