S-Z 2020

Sarah is the Co-Founder & CEO of TheStoryBoxes, an accredited B Corporation, profit-for-purpose storytelling agency committed to driving change through real stories. TheStoryBoxes is headquartered on Turrbal and Jagera lands and waters in what's now known as Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Sarah believes that entertainment and media can be used as a force for good and uses her work at TheStoryBoxes to enable positive impact across four key pillars: Human Rights, Mental Health, Culture and Creativity.

Sarah brings a unique lens to storytelling with her background in Public Health, Psychology and International Development, having worked with the World Health Organisation in Geneva and on in-country assignments across Asia Pacific. Through the application of collaborative commercial models, Sarah has produced hundreds of hours of factual content with national and global brands in order to engage audiences, communicate ideas, and incite change.

Tracy has over 18 years of experience in finance and investments having worked across the Asia Pacific region, including Australia, Vietnam and the Pacific Islands. She has been fortunate enough to have been able to combine her finance skills with her passion for creating social impact, having worked for the World Bank and more recently being on the Board of AMES Australia. Throughout her career, whether it be directly investing in businesses in emerging markets or advising companies in Australia, Tracy has always sought to find purpose in her work.

In 2018 Tracy joined PEXA, an Australian technology company which has transformed Australia’s property sector as GM of Corporate Development, where she focused on generating new growth opportunities for PEXA. After having incubated the data commercialisation strategy at PEXA, Tracy has recently moved into the role of GM – Data Strategy & Commercial to focus on commercialising insights that will create immense value to communities, governments and enterprises.

Tracy is a passionate advocate for women and girls, having mentored young professional women in the industry, advised women led businesses and supported gender equality initiatives through her work at the World Bank, AMES Australia and Lasallian Foundation. Most importantly, she prides herself on raising two fiercely independent young daughters.

South African/Australian artist Shilo Engelbrecht attended the Queensland University of Technology where she focussed on textile design, graduating in 2006. After winning the Mercedes Benz Start Up prize for her graduate collection she sold her first women's wear collection exclusively through Blonde Venus in Australia.

Shilo relocated to Glasgow in 2010 to work with a specialist digital printing studio and educated herself in digital printing technology. In 2012 whilst living in Cambridge, Shilo launched her first collection of paintings printed onto textiles for the home. In 2014 Shilo moved to Stockholm to establish her painting studio in Södermalm. It was here that she developed the collection for her first U.K exhibition hosted by Anthropologie U.K in Kensington. Shilo has now returned to Australia where she works on private and commercial commissions, paintings and textile ranges.

Shilo Engelbrecht's work is characterized by a strong use of colour, lyrical brush strokes and free elements which are recognisably by her hand. Her travels are dedicated to learning more about linen history, production and potential possibilities for collaborations. Her private showings are hosted around the world and her studio prides itself on small runs of the highest quality possible.

Adjunct Professor Shelley Nowlan has held executive leadership roles within Queensland Health and is currently serving as the states Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer in Queensland.

Professor Nowlan has earned a reputation in her 30 plus year career as a people orientated nurse leader who is experienced in clinical innovation, leading strategic planning, government policy and significant nursing workforce commissioning.

Through the Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer position, professorial roles and faculty membership Professor Nowlan’s strong advocacy for nursing and midwifery informs policy development at State and National level for clinical practice innovation, research, curricula and workforce development.

Professor Susan Kurrle is a geriatrician practising at Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Hospital in northern Sydney and at Batemans Bay Hospital in southern NSW.

She is the Clinical Network Director for Rehabilitation and Aged Care in Northern Sydney Local Health District and she holds the Curran Chair in Health Care of Older People in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney. Her research and practice interests centre on dementia and frailty, and successful ageing.

She was involved as medical adviser and commentator for the award winning ABC documentary series ‘Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds’, and has been working on implementing a similar model of care in residential aged care facilities and community centres across Australia.

Susan Harris Rimmer is an Associate Professor at Griffith University Law School, Brisbane Australia, and is a former Australian Research Council Future Fellow. Sue was born and raised on the land of the Kamilaroi people at Coonabarabran, and now I am blessed to live and work on Turrbal and Jagara Country. She is co-editor of the Research Handbook on Feminist Engagement with International Law (Edward Elgar 2019), author of Gender and Transitional Justice (Routledge 2010) and over 40 refereed works on women's rights and international law.

Susan was Australia’s representative to the UN Commission on the Status of Women in 2014, and the W20 (gender equity advice to the G20) in Turkey 2014, China 2016, and Germany 2017. She is a National Board member of the International Women’s Development Agency.

Sue was named in the Apolitical list of Top 100 Global Experts in Gender Policy in May 2018.

Passionate about Football, Sports, Business and increasing female participation across all of the above, Tain Drinkwater is the CEO of the Brisbane Broncos National Rugby League Women’s team, and the General Manager – HR, Risk and Compliance.

With over 10 years’ experience working at an executive level across the elite sport and mining resource sector as part of medium, large and global organisations, Tain is an intuitive leader with a proven record of success in senior leadership roles.

Most recently, Tain played a key part in working with the NRL to establish the National Rugby League Women’s Premiership competition and led the Club’s inclusion in the competition to be crowned the inaugural winners of the NRL Holden Women’s Premiership, followed up by a Premierships win in 2019. This work has ignited a passion to become involved in and support programs focused on health, leadership and women’s protection, with a focus on providing pathways for female empowerment to deliver social change.

Tanya Denning-Orman is a Birri and Guugu Yimidhirr woman from North Queensland and is Channel Manager of National Indigenous Television. Under the Aboriginal Protection Act, her family was removed from their traditional lands and Tanya was raised on Kanalu country in Central Queensland.

Tanya credits her career to her upbringing which led her to passionately pursue storytelling to empower those without a voice. She is one of a handful of Aboriginal women in a leadership role in media.

Vanessa is Chairman of the Board of Directors, The Allison Baden-Clay Foundation

Following the death of her sister who was murdered at the hands of her husband in April 2012, Vanessa and her parents turned their anger and sadness into something positive by starting a conversation around family and domestic violence.

Vanessa is on a journey to educate the community around the signs of domestic violence and teach tactics to become an active and effective bystander. As an educator, it is important to Vanessa to address the underlying attitudes and cultural beliefs that perpetuate gender inequality and socialisation that leads to violence against women and children.

Vicki is an entrepreneur, award-winning mentor, advisor to the next generation of change makers and leading advocate for entrepreneurship as a way of creating positive transformation in the world.

Vicki is Founder of SheEO and #radical generosity a global initiative to radically transform how we support finance and celebrate female entrepreneurs.

Vicki has co-founded and run ventures in Europe, Toronto and Silicon Valley and taken a company public on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Vicki was recently named as 1 of 30 “World-Changing Women in Conscious Business” by Conscious Company Magazine and one of the 100 most influential leaders of 2015 from “EBW – Empowering A Billion Women”, In 2001, Vicki was selected as a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum.