Good Will Hunters

Welcome to Episode 26 of Good Will Hunters, with Christopher Thorn AM, Outcome Measurement Partner at EY.

Christopher and I chat about his early aspirations of becoming a truck driver, and how he instead ended up a New York stockbroker, with a mission to prove that creating social value was good for people, and good for profits. Christopher was integral in establishing the philanthropic division of a major stockbroking firm, before eventually transitioning to EY, leading the firm's outcome measurement and long term value service-lines.

We chat about why the private sector is the key to achieving the SDGs, and how to stay "close" to the frontline of impact when working for a private sector organisation. Christopher also shares some handy resources for those looking to enter the sector!

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review on iTunes or Facebook - we're always grateful for your support, as it allows us to continue to grow our audience and share the wisdom of our guests far and wide!

Enjoy,

Rachel

Welcome to Season 3 of Good Will Hunters! I am so excited to be back, and can't wait to share our latest line-up of guests with you.

Kicking off Season 3 is a collaboration I recently did with Humans of Purpose host, Mike Davis. If you haven't already heard of the Humans of Purpose podcast, you should have! Mike is a superstar of the podcast world, his show has tens of thousands of listeners globally, and he has been a great inspiration to me in setting up Good Will Hunters.

Mike approached me a few months back and suggested we do a collab, in the form of a shared episode which we both air on our channels. I jumped at the idea, and I'm thrilled with the final result!

We chat about:

- How we each started our podcasts

- Pursuing a career in politics

- Reflections on the NFP sector

- Swapping preparation for authenticity

- My "word of the year" (Hint: It's surrender)

- Where we'll be ten years from now

- Lots more!

I'd love to hear your thoughts! I'd also love to know - if Mike and I were to do a live podcast recording in Sydney, would you come?! And who would you like us to interview?

Enjoy,

Rachel and the GWH Team

Welcome to Episode 23 of Good Will Hunters, and our second last episode of Season 2! This week on the show we have Paul Brown. Paul is the CEO of ChildFund New Zealand, a position he has held for 14 years with industry-leading results.

In this episode, we chat about the Pacific Islands, and the new approach being taken by the NZ Government on development in the region. It's an enlightening take on our nearest neighbours and Paul's extensive leadership in the sector is apparent from the get-go.

Enjoy,

Rachel and the GWH Team

Royalty free music by Bensound

Welcome to Episode 22 of Good Will Hunters!

This week, I chat to Ross Piper, CEO of Christian Super. Prior to this role, Ross was the Chief Operating Officer of World Vision Australia. Ross has over 25 years’ experience as a leader in the finance and not for profit sectors, including roles as the Head of Corporate Risk at Macquarie Group, and Senior Director of Operations for the Middle East and Eastern Europe at World Vision International, where he worked closely with peer to peer microfinance programs.

Upon his appointment as CEO, Ross remarked that Christian Super has a track record of operating with purpose and intentional impact within the Superannuation sector, and he has continued that legacy in his role.

Ross was also a Founding Board Member of Agroinvest, a microfinance bank providing credit services for agricultural enterprises in rural Serbia and Montenegro. In addition Ross was an Advisory Board Member of the Shared Value Project, a regional community of practice committed to driving adoption and implementation of shared value strategies among leaders and companies, civil society, and government organisations in Australia. Ross is currently a Board Member of the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia, and Seed Initiatives.

In this episode we chat about some of the most pertinent topics affecting the development sector at the moment, including Long Term Value (LTV), investor attitudes towards environmental and social risk, consumer-driven change (and why we've just had the most "Hostile AGM's" ever!) and whether we really need the distinction between the "For Profit" and "Not For Profit" sectors - it's a very interesting topic!

Ross is well known in the development sector, and at least half a dozen people recommended I interview him on Good Will Hunters, so I'm thrilled it finally happened - and I couldn't be happier with the result. This is one of the most enlightening and thought-provoking interviews I've done.

If you enjoyed this episode, please let us know via our social media pages @goodwillpod and leave us a rating on iTunes so we can continue to share these conversations far and wide.

Enjoy!

Rachel and the GWH Team

Links:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-25/super-fund-rest-sued-for-not-doing-enough-on-climate-change/10029744

https://www.ey.com/en_gl/assurance/does-nonfinancial-reporting-tell-value-creation-story

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Welcome to Episode 21 of Good Will Hunters!

This week on the show we have Mark Harwood. Mark leads the Social Enterprise and Economic Development (SEED) Unit of World Vision, with a focus on inclusive business, economic opportunities for women and impact investment.

Mark and I met a few months back in Jakarta, where we were participating in a workshop on impact investment, and specifically how to promote gender-lens investment to the region. Mark's insights were fascinating in Jakarta, and they're equally as fascinating in this episode!

We chat about what "innovation" actually means for the SEED program, the challenges women face in securing impact investment, and the role the private sector can play now and in the future

If you enjoy this episode, please leave us a review on iTunes and connect with us on Facebook and Instagram @goodwillpod.

Enjoy,

Rachel and the GWH Team

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Welcome to Episode 20 of Good Will Hunters! This week on the show we have Alison Covington, Founder and CEO of Good360 Australia. Good360 is to manufactured goods what OzHarvest is to food - a recycler, a repurposer (if there is such a word!) and a champion of the circular economy.

Alison discovered Good360 in the USA and knew immediately that it was a concept Australia desperately needed. Australian corporations are not required to report on the end-use of their goods, meaning we have very few ways to track where unused manufactured goods end up, but we could safely assume that many go to landfill. Landfill is cheap in Australia compared to other countries, and the combination of a low cost and little transparency means that we have a waste crisis in our manufactured goods sector.

Enter Good360! Good360 takes brand new, unused goods that may have been surplus or "last season" and connects them to charities who distribute them to people in need. The stories Alison shares in this episode are truly heartwarming. Giving someone the dignity of a brand new blanket, or a toy on a birthday, or even a bath bomb (listen to the episode for that story!) can make a profound difference on their sense of self worth and equality with others. It's a seemingly obvious concept, but difficult to execute and even more difficult to scale to the heights Alison has set her target on - but I have no doubt she'll do it.

Whilst we don't discuss scaling Good360 to developing countries in this episode, I urge you to consider it as you listen, and share your thoughts with us on our social media. How would a model such as this work in a country like Papua New Guinea or Nepal? I'm intrigued to hear your ideas!

Enjoy!

Rachel and the GWH Team

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Welcome to Episode 19 of Good Will Hunters! This week I chat to Alicia Curtis, Founder of Alyceum and 100 Women.

Like last week's guest, Dr Jemma Green, I came across Alicia at the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. Alicia was nominated for her work in establishing and growing 100 Women, a giving circle intended to ignite women's philanthropy. Alicia gave a TEDx talk on this very topic in Peth last year. In that talk, Alicia spoke about how many women, traditionally, don't view themselves as philanthropists because they're not on extraordinarily high wages. When we think of philanthropists, we think of Bill Gates or Andrew Forrest, not ourselves! Alicia and her team at 100 Women are out to change this perception, teaching us that we can all be philanthropists. You'll have to listen to the episode to find out how..!

Alicia and I also chat about why we should all consider joining a not for profit board, and the skills needed from modern day board members. I am inspired by every guest I have on this show but this episode in particular was like a call to action for me, to join a board, to become a philanthropist and to never shy away from leadership.

Links:

- Whitepaper on joining NFP Boards - https://alyceum.com.au/launching-the-white-paper-4-strategic-reasons-to-support-your-staff-to-seek-a-not-for-profit-board-position/

-100 Women - https://100women.com.au

If you enjoyed this episode, please let us know by leaving a review on iTunes! And if you have a great idea for a guest we should have on the show or a topic we should cover, please get in touch via our social media channels!

Thanks,

Rachel and the GWH Team

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Welcome to Episode 18 of Good Will Hunters, with Dr Jemma Green, Co-Founder and CEO of PowerLedger, the leading peer to peer marketplace for renewable energy trading.

A few weeks ago I attended the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards in Sydney. Jemma was nominated, and won! Just days earlier, Jemma was on Nekker Island with Richard Branson himself celebrating a whole different award. Suffice to say, Jemma is on a winning streak. But in this episode, Jemma explains why she doesn't have that winning feeling yet - PowerLedger has a huge decade ahead of it, not least due to Jemma's vision of PowerLedger playing a significant role in achieving the Paris Climate Goals and democratising energy, for good.

I'm the first to admit that I don't really "get" blockchain. I also haven't made an effort to understand it, until I attended an event a few weeks ago showcasing the incredible impact blockchain can have on conservation efforts (check out this website for more on that: https://www.wwf.org.au/get-involved/panda-labs/wwf-australia-and-blockchain). From that point onwards, I was intent on showcasing the impact blockchain can have on social change in this show.

In this episode, Jemma and I discuss how PowerLedger enables the democratisation of renewable energy trading, by allowing households to sell their solar energy, harvested from their own roof, and be paid immediately. The process is underpinned by a blockchain, which keeps tally of who's selling and buying. There's also a cryptocurrency involved - in fact, PowerLedger was the first Australian business to do an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) - I view Jemma and her team as new age, very tech-savvy, super intelligent eco-warriors.

Jemma and I talk about much more than blockchain in this episode too -we talk about leadership, eco-villages, serendipitous meetings, climate goals and more.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on iTunes and let us know what you liked most via our social media channels @goodwillpod.

Have you got a great idea for an episode? Or want to collaborate? Get in touch! We'd love to hear from you.

Enjoy!

Rachel and the GWH Team

Some links:

https://www.powerledger.io

https://gbbcouncil.org

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Welcome to Episode 17 of Good Will Hunters!

Phew - have we got a great episode for you today!

Simon Doble is an inventor, an entrepreneur, a CEO, and one of the kindest and most compassionate individuals I've ever met. The SolarBuddy story is an amazing one. SolarBuddy started because Simon was outraged by the fact that so many people globally were living in energy poverty, and so few knew about it. Energy poverty means a person uses toxic kerosene lamps to cook at night, and it means a student can't do their homework because they can't see the pages past sunset. It means that during the evening, very little can be done because there is simply no light - this is a powerful metaphor.

As I aptly (albeit accidentally)say in this episode, you'll "see the light" when you hear Simon's story. Simon is inspiring - he saw a problem, he invented a solution, and then he created a social enterprise around it. Not only is SolarBuddy wildly successful, it also enables Australians to engage in international development in a brand new way - by creating lights and writing letters, and knowing that those very lights will be held by school students in Papua New Guinea, in South Africa, or in one of 11 other countries. Simon is lighting up lives and connecting people on all corners of the globe - it is development in it's best form. It's the sort of development that reminds me why I love what I do.

I hope you love this episode as much as I do - I know I say this every week, but this one's possibly my favourite yet.

I suggest you listen to this episode alongside Episode 1 with Dr. Gen Nelson - Gen and Simon are great mates and colleagues and work miracles* together in PNG (not actually miracles - just really great work done by really great people!)

Please share your thoughts on this episode with us on our social media, and please check out the SolarBuddy website to learn more!

Enjoy!

Rachel and the GWH team

Welcome to Episode 16 of Good Will Hunters!

This week on the show I chat with Kaitlin Tait, the Director of YHER, a part of YGAP which focuses on supporting female entrepreneurs in the Pacific, Bangladesh and parts of Africa. Kaitlin and husband Aaron started Spark International back in 2008, after getting caught up in the violent election crisis that plagued Kenya that year (much like our guest from two episodes ago, Annabelle Chauncy!). Spark International grew into a highly impactful organisation, and merged with YGAP in 2015 - you may recall we had YGAP Co-Founder Elliot Costello on the show in Episode 6!

In this Episode, Kaitlin and I discuss why female entrepreneurs need specific, tailored support - generally, female entrepreneurs are less likely to attract the same amount of investment capital as their male counterparts, despite being MORE likely to demonstrate innovation... it's a frustrating reality and one that Kaitlin and her team work tirelessly to change.

Kaitlin is considered to be of the most influential women in the development sector in Australia, and it's clear why when you listen to this episode! I've noticed a trend - all of the outstanding female leaders we have on this show are humble, thoughtful and take a pause before answering questions, ensuring that their statements have the same truth and integrity that have defined their careers. It's inspiring - and it makes me so grateful to get to bring this show to you every week.

Enjoy!

Rachel and the GWH Team