Business In Colour

Mani Thiru blends her love for space and satellites with poetry, writing, bharathanatym and more. She is a fierce advocate for women and indigenous peoples to participate in STEM. She is the winner of the Women’s Agenda, Emerging Leader Award and Stevie Awards, Female Entrepreneur of the year. In this episode, Mani takes us on a journey through her life from the UK to Sri Lanka to Zimbabwe to NZ and Australia. Mani shares beautifully how for many people of colour, books are an escape and education is a window to better opportunities. This episode is an education piece in itself as Mani gives us a lesson on the space economy and how much it is already part of our everyday life, from farming, to risk mitigation of fires and floods, to ubers and our everyday banking. Mani speaks passionately about women and especially women of colour in STEMM, how we might be super critical of ourselves and we might believe sometimes we are not good enough. She powerfully recounts her journey of being pushed to the front, even when she felt not ready, stumbling in the front and being encouraged to get back in front again. This is the essence of her call out to you, the audience, mentor, support, sponsor a women of colour in your space today. Mani, you are a star that shines bright for so many of us, thank you bringing space a little closer to us all. Please enjoy the magnetic, Mani Thiru.

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Captain Mona Shindy was born in Egypt in 1968 and migrated to Australia with her family at the age of three. Her 32 year Royal Australian Navy career saw her serve on a number of the nation’s most technologically advanced warships which took her to all corners of the world. She saw active service at the commencement of the IRAQ conflict in 2003. Utilising her extensive array of leadership, technical, change management and business competencies she has led many organisations through significant business and cultural reforms.

Mona Shindy is a highly respected strategic leader. In this conversation she shares stories of from her childhood, working in male dominated arena's, balancing career and family and the challenges of diversity and inclusion. 

She was awarded a Conspicuous Service Cross in 2015 for contributions to cultural and business reform initiatives she championed for Defence. Her career achievements as well as her considerable community service activities were recognised when she was named the 2015 National Telstra Business Woman of the Year. 

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Natassia Nicolao is the CEO and Founder of Conserving Beauty. Div first met Natassia as the Victorian State Winner, Telstra Best of Business Awards in the Accelerating Women Category. Div judged her at the Nationals and she wowed as judges. Here is an under 30, biochemist who leveraged the technology from water soluble bandages for burn victims to bring us water soluble make-up wipes – yes you that's right, she brought this to the beauty industry and in a big way. Did you know that two thirds of the global population are expected to be living in a water-shortage by 2035?

This is why Natassia’s waterless and water conservative product range is so critical in making its mark – Conserving Beauty is one of only four Australian brands carried by MECCA. I am hooked on the products, knowing that my investment in my skin does not have to come at the expense of the planet. Conserving beauty products tracks its water footprint and is transparent about it – how many of your current products can boast this? Give it a go, the links are the show notes or head to a big MECCA store in your area. We are privileged in this episode to get to know Natassia’s why, how she manages to keep her momentum and set boundaries – she explains why No is a full sentence! …. She is simply an outstanding social impact leader of our time, please be inspired by the powerful and purposeful, Natassia Nicolao.

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Emily Unity is a well-known mental health advocate, a software engineer and a creative designer. Emily has won a range of awards and we are so proud to be in conversation with them: to name a few of those Awards: 25 Under 25 Winner, named by the Future Minds Network; Multicultural Honour Roll, 2022; Mental Health Advocate of the Year, 2021. Check out their website: emilyunity.com to see their outstanding portfolio career and range of roles including board roles and committees. Emily leverages their lived and living experiences as a queer, disabled, and neurodiverse young person from a refugee and migrant background in such a unique way… – you will be drawn into this interview in so many ways – from Emily’s authenticity… to their self-leadership in finding their own voice… and using their voice to advocate for others. In this interview Emily talks about the pressure that comes with expectations from family to be the person they want you to be versus the person you are hiding or finding. This interview meanders beautifully and interestingly through topics of managing mental health day to day; finding certainty in code; holding boundaries; equalising playing fields; machine learning holding our biases; how to run a portfolio career and how to advocate strategically to create outcomes and impact. Emily gives us hope for our collective futures, they are already leading in spaces that most executives today find challenging and complex. We say more power to you Emily, we wish you scalable impact that fulfils you and the financial reward that goes with it. Please enjoy the formidable and authentic leader , Emily Unity.

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Tigist is an Ethiopian who was born in Sudan and came to Australia as a child under the humanitarian program. Her parents named her Tigist which means patience, after a family friend shared that Tigist is the patience her parent’s needed to have hope for the future. You will hear Tigist’s heartfelt recount of her Mum’s strength and determination from Ethiopia to Sudan, to Adelaide to Melbourne. Professionally, Tigist is a trained counsellor and has experience working in the public and private sector, including advisory roles in various levels of government. Tigist has strong grassroots connections with diverse communities, with expertise in workforce development and consulting. Tigist leads Pola Practice together with Nasalifya Namwinga – tune into Nasalifya’s business in colour episode if you haven’t already. In this episode, Tigist gives us a rare window into how she rediscovered and owned her identity. From trying to erase herself to occupying her rightful place in spaces, Tigist has so many vignettes of stories in this episode that many people of colour and others will relate to. An added bonus is Tigist’s explanation of burnout and its three dimensions. A must listen for all leaders, especially with the inclusion of psychological health in the OHS or WHS legislation across states in Australia. Tigist is an impressive counsellor and leader, grounded in systemic change making. She shares as her callout – if enough spider’s cobweb’s come together, they can trap a Lion. Find out what she means, in this moving episode – Please enjoy the powerful and patient, Tigist.

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Nasalifya Namwinga was born in Zambia, she left at the age of 11 with her family and lived in the UK and then New Zealand. She completed her schooling and tertiary education in New Zealand and is a senior clinical psychologist. She worked across a number of clinical and non-clinical settings before founding Pola Practice in 2018. In this episode, Nasalifya shares her parent’s and her story of leaving and finding communities, and the shifts ethnic people navigate as parent and child relationships change. Nasalifya shares the gender and racial barriers in the education system with the 4 father’s of psychology and the assumption that as a therapist she would serve white clients initially. One of the few options available for Nasalifya to work with people of colour back then, was to work in the justice system. This led Nasalifya to develop her own models of Culturally Responsive Practices, which she now drives as part of Pola Practices critical services. She shares poignantly in her call out, “no one is coming to save us, we have to save ourselves”. Nasalifya is leading the change she wants to see in the community and in business. Please enjoy the charismatic change leader, Nasalifya Namwinga.

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Michael Ray is an advocate for Equality and Change, an Author and Speaker, well known for his contribution to the gender equity conversation from a Solo Dad’s perspective. In this episode, Michael shares his journey into fatherhood later in life, becoming a solo dad while his daughter was still young and being her sole parent ever since. Michael shares some startling statistics like 1 one in 5 single parent families are single dad households, the fastest growing single family households in Australia AND 80% of workers in Australian workforces are fathers. We learn in this podcast through Michael’s lived experience how much of the narratives we hold is generationally gendered, like, “mother knows best”, “women are naturally better nurturing leaders”, “men don’t speak about their emotions or mental health”.  This is a must listen podcast if we are to truly understand gender equality, Michael will get you to think and rethink your deeply held gender stereotypes. His call to action for the diversity and inclusion space is The Power of the And. Tune in to find out why his thinking is critical to your business’s inclusion journey. Please enjoy the unique, engaging and impactful voice of Michael Ray.

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Graeme Beardsell, CEO of Fujitsu, Asia Pacific, a global technology, digital transformation business. Graeme takes us through his growing up years, the influence of his parents, leaving school in 6th form, turning down a job in IT, his start in IBM and move to Asia, where he spent 20 years living and working. Graeme has some keen insights that you will want to tune into about Australia 20 years ago and now.  What we love about Graeme is his bravery to listen to the truth and see the opportunity, decide on the change, lead the change and follow through, failing and learning fast. He closed the gender pay gap within 6 months of being CEO, women at Fujitsu are paid 5% more, isn’t that fabulous, makes up for those underpaid years. He combined Community Giving, Environment, Diversity and Inclusion, Indigenous Affairs and People Culture divisions into the Office of Purpose, People and Culture, with an Executive who reports directly into him. How cool is that. Graeme’s call to action for leaders, is “you have 2 ears and 1 mouth do less transmitting, and more receiving”. Dive into this episode, listen and re-listen, I know you will want to. Please enjoy the transformational and humanistic leadership of Graeme Beardsell.

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Vincent Nair is the Executive Chair & CEO of Smartech Business Systems. Born in Fiji his parents migrated to Canada. He shares with us his journey to Australia and the commitment Smartech has to people around diversity and inclusion 

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Our guest in this episode is Helen Brown who is the founder of Bisnis Asia and the Communications Lead for the Australia-Indonesia Centre. Helen is the former Indonesia foreign correspondent for the ABC and has a stellar 25 career in journalism, covering heart wrenching stories like the Bali 9. In this episode, Helen shares being the first in her family to obtain a University education, how a 3 month stint to prove herself as a foreign correspondent in Indonesia became a pivotal moment in her career and life. Helen generously gives us a window into society and business in Indonesia from her own lived experience and shares how and why Australian businesses should explore opportunities in Indonesia and across Asia. What Helen shares is perfectly applied to the way we need to think about inclusion and how it happens day to day. Her focus is on opening your heart and mind, preparing to do things differently, taking time to invest in building a trusting relationship and respecting every voice. Please enjoy the heart and head leadership of, Helen Brown.

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