The 2023 Leadership + Hope Symposium explores the economic and psycho-social benefits of hope and explains the pivotal role it plays in successful businesses and communities.

The 2023 Leadership + Hope Symposium features exceptional speakers including:

  • Entrepreneur and Vinomofo and Good Empire Founder, André Eikmeier
  • Human rights champion and social sustainability expert, Richard Boele
  • Relational intelligence coach, Robyn Sutcliffe
  • Behavioural economist, Prof Swee-Hoon Chuah
  • Virtues-based leadership thought leader, Dr Toby Newstead
  • NBL commercial leader, Christine Finnegan
  • Climate Scientist, Dr Tom Remenyi

Hannah Gray

Hannah loves to tell a good story. She started her career as a journalist in Queensland’s wild west and is now a corporate affairs and communications specialist, with experience in senior media, government and private sector roles. Extensively skilled in stakeholder management, community engagement, campaign management, policy, strategic communications, PR, media relations and events, Hannah gets a kick out of generating ideas, making things happen and bringing people together.

Graeme Gardner

A palawa man, descending from the trawlwoolway people of North East Tasmania (lutruwita) Graeme has a long-held passion for working to address critical issues affecting the Aboriginal community, particularly in relation to Aboriginal health and wellbeing, social justice and the recognition of our cultural identity. Graeme is supporting TasNetworks to engage and build relationships with the Tasmanian Aboriginal community and increase cultural understanding across the organisation. Prior to joining TasNetworks, Graeme was the Manager of the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania for 19 years and has undertaken a wide range of land management and stakeholder engagement activities that have directly resulted in positive, long-term, outcomes for the Tasmanian Aboriginal community. Graeme champions opportunities for Aboriginal youth, both through social contacts and the sporting fraternity through his long-term involvement with the Rocherlea Football Club and AFL Tasmania.

Julia Curtis

Julia is based in lutruwita/Tasmania and works nationally on a range of community development projects focusing on monitoring and evaluation, capacity transfer and data governance. Julia has recently drawn for The Federal Aboriginal Health Ministers Roundtable, The Southern Australian Aboriginal Health Round Table, The Indigenous Data Summit and she draws regularly for the Lowitja Institute and with research groups such as the CRE-STRIDE Aboriginal Health Equity group at the University of Sydney. She also has a collaboration with Kylie Dunn in training people to Think Visually and has trained more than 400 people to just pick up a pen and draw.

Dr Toby Newstead

Toby is a leadership scholar at the University of Tasmania. She has industry experience spanning communications, corporate change, and leadership coaching and completed her PhD in leadership development in 2019. Toby researches and teaches leadership development and leadership ethics, with a focus on virtues-based leadership and leadership in the volunteer sector. Toby’s research has been widely published in some of the top business and management journals and she recently published a book on leadership and virtues. She engages regularly with industry through her state-wide Talking Leadership program and is frequently asked to deliver leadership workshops and keynotes.

Skye Cox

Skye is a proud Palawa community member. She recently started working in the palawa kani Language Program. Skye has been deeply involved within her community since birth, attending the Tasmanian Aboriginal Child Care and then on to the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre’s After School Programs learning culture and palawa kani, the language of Tasmanian Aborigines.

Ashanti Jones

Ashanti is a proud Palawa youth and loves spending time On Country with community learning culture.

Eva Matthews

21-year-old Eva Matthews grew up in Burnie with her mother and three younger sisters. She was homeschooled until Year 11, when she began studying at Hellyer College with the support of The Smith Family’s Learning for Life scheme. Upon graduating, Eva was awarded The Smith Family’s tertiary scholarship, which provided her with financial support, mentorship and connection to university services for the first four years of her degree. She now lives in Hobart, where she is in the final year of a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery degree.

Archana Brammall

Archana is an entrepreneur, business leader, and community advocate based in Launceston. As a culturally diverse woman, Archana is committed to sharing her perspective and knowledge to inspire others in overcoming adversity and embracing the journey of leadership up to boardroom level. Throughout the operation of her businesses, Archana has provided employment and mentorship to over 150 Tasmanians. She is dedicated to growth in business and challenges herself to continual improvement as an effective and empathetic entrepreneur.

Will Smith

Will Smith is a passionate social justice advocate and community leader. He is a former Tactical Operator with the Special Operations Group and now Director of JCP Youth, an organisation providing high-impact programs to vulnerable young people. As an experienced leadership facilitator and coach Will has become known for developing and implementing innovative youth programs in Australia and beyond. His life experiences have involved working for Netflix, walking the red carpets of Hollywood and working in an active war zone in the Middle East. Nationally recognised for his commitment and leadership contribution Will is the recipient of a Tasmanian Young Australian of the Year Award and a Human Rights Award.

Prof Swee-Hoon Chuah

Swee-Hoon is a Professor of Behavioural Economics at the University of Tasmania, where she is the Director of the Tasmanian Behavioural Lab. She holds a PhD in behavioural and experimental economics from the University of Nottingham, U.K. Her research focuses on cross-cultural experimental economics, in particular the impact of factors such as race, religion and social identity on socio-economic behaviour. In 2019, Swee-Hoon served a secondment to the Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government (BETA) in Canberra and remains particularly interested in the application of behavioural insights to public policy challenges. The policy-relevance of her work is evidenced by significant amounts of funding from governmental agencies, NGOs and research councils in the UK, USA and Australia.

Robyn Sutcliffe

Robyn’s area of speciality and personal passion is teaching others how to master relationships and cultivate resilience, skills that matter at any stage or phase of life. Her method is both belief and behaviour-based. Robyn can share evidence-based tools and research alongside the lessons learnt over the course of her career. Being up close and personal with people from many different backgrounds, at different times and stages of their lives both personally and professionally, her goal is to create as many relationally intelligent and resilient humans as possible.

Penny Terry

Penny turns leaders and experts into compelling speakers, who can talk with conviction, and without regret. Ever! She spent more than a decade as an ABC radio presenter, is a multi-award-winning podcast host and producer and has helped more than 20,000 people share their messages in the media, on stage and during important conversations. Penny delivers keynotes, workshops and executive coaching services across Australia while working alongside her sister, business partner and Tasmanian Leaders Program graduate Lucy Byrne. Together they co-founded for-purpose company Healthy Tasmania, where they help their partners make the change they want, but often don’t know how to achieve.

Richard Boele

Richard is the Chief Purpose officer for KPMG Australia. He is also a Partner of KPMG’s first dedicated human rights and social impact advisory team, KPMG Banarra. He has over 25 years of experience in advising on and helping companies manage their human rights and social risks, including in relation to complex operating contexts. Richard is a former Director of the UN Global Compact Network Australia and is widely published and a regular speaker at conferences.

Dean Yates

Dean Yates is the author of Line in the Sand, a highly acclaimed memoir that renowned Australian psychotherapist Steve Biddulph says will help millions of people. Dean was brought to the brink of suicide by extreme workplace trauma but recovered because of his obsession to get better, the human connection of his family and a mental health system that worked. During his career he worked for the international news agency Reuters for 26 years. He has led teams of journalists that covered the Bali bombings, the Boxing Day tsunami in Indonesia’s Aceh province and the Iraq War.

Christine Finnegan

Christine relocated to Tasmania in 2020 when she was appointed as the Chief Commercial and Marketing Officer for the JackJumpers. She has been instrumental in creating their strategies for commercial sustainability, community and staff engagement and their values driven approach to business. Now the proud Co-CEO for the NBL franchise the Tasmania JackJumpers, Christine Finnegan has firmly established herself as a commercial leader in the traditionally male dominated industries in Australia’s sporting landscape and is a passionate advocate to progress pathways for women in the sporting industry.

Dr Tomas Remenyi

Tom is a climate professional, expert at translating complex climate science into useful, accessible products, tools or advice. He has a decade of experience delivering useful climate services and tools across a range of sectors including natural hazards (co-author of the 2016 Tasmania State Natural Disaster Risk Assessment), emergency services (fire, flood, SES, ambulance), the alpine industry, the energy sector (Hydro Tasmania), numerous government departments and agriculture (Wine Australia, lead author of Australia’s Wine Future - A Climate Atlas). Tom has recently moved from academia into the climate services sector where he uses his abilities to help strategic decision makers plan for the coming challenges into the future.

André Eikmeier

André co-founded online wine startup Vinomofo with his brother-in-law in 2011 and built it into a $100m global company. In 2018, following an existential crisis driven by a profound sense of concern for the world and an awakening awareness of privilege and responsibility, André founded Good Empire, a gamified impact platform to gather, unite and empower 100 million people and 100,000 organisations for 1000 projects across seventeen impact goals aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals to help save the f*$#!~ing world.

Katy Cooper

Katy is a dedicated and passionate individual who strives to unite people and build a sustainable future for her family and the Tasmanian community. Through her company, DisruptiveCo, she has successfully partnered with renowned Australian brands such as Blundstone, NRMA, and SBS, helping them share their visions and stories of the future. Her commitment to shaping how Tasmanians embrace and overcome future challenges has positioned her as an influential figure in shaping potential narratives for the state. Katy’s unwavering dedication to creating a sustainable and prosperous future remains resolute. With her extensive experience and expertise in futurism, she continues to drive herself forward, exploring new opportunities and ventures that foster collaboration and pave the way for a better tomorrow for Tasmania and its people.