The NSWICC Board of Directors

Jeremy Donovan

CEO, Walking With Wisdom

Jeremy Donovan is a well known and respected Entrepreneur and role model Nationally and Internationally. From a place of personal experience, Jeremy provides inspiration to Aboriginal Youth who experience institutionalisation from a young age.   His story as a young man facing the reality of being lost to a life of institutionalisation and his determination to break free to become a talented Key Note Speaker and Performer is remarkable. Driven by his love of culture and family values, Jeremy contributes to initiatives that strengthen the capacity of Indigenous people to take control of their own lives and destiny.

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Jeremy has recently joined the NSW Indigenous Chamber of Commerce Board because he believes the Chambers work as invaluable to enabling Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities to control their own destinies through the operation of sustainable enterprises. He is also a proactive supporter of the First Australians Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FACCI) as a Peak Body focused on supporting the aspirations of all to operate a business.

Jeremy is a Director for the Australian Indigenous Art Trade Association Limited, the Australian Literacy & Numeracy Foundation, Five Bridges Ltd and runs his own business, Walking with Wisdom. For the past six years, he has been an Ambassador for the Australian Literacy & Numeracy Foundation.

As the previous Chairperson for the Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts and CEO of Generation One, Jeremy demonstrates his capacity to lead in diverse environments. Recognised internationally for his talent as a cultural performer and educator and a captivating Key Note Speaker, Jeremy is one of Australia’s most humble talents.

Today, he is sort after as a consultant by Government Agencies seeking to improve programs and policies affecting Australia’s First People.

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Dr. Dennis Foley

Professor, University of Canberra

Doctor Dennis Foley is a proud descendent and Elder of the Gadigal people, well known and valued for his intrinsic knowledge of his Mothers Country. Professor Foley is another highly valued member of the Chamber’s team providing knowledge and guidance in the delivery of all projects. Dennis researches and teaches across numerous academic fields related to Indigenous Australians. His main research focus is towards the emerging discipline of Indigenous enterprise and entrepreneurship. He currently teaches at the University of Canberra in Australia and Bhutan.

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Dennis’ career within the tertiary education sector began in Queensland researching an Indigenous Career and Employment strategy at Griffith University followed by the establishment of the first Australian Indigenous Degree program in Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art. At Swinburne University in Melbourne, he wrote the first undergraduate subject on Indigenous entrepreneurship that continues to be successfully taught. Several teaching appointments followed including teaching MBA, Indigenous Land-Use Management Practice at the University of Queensland, Business and Management courses at the Australian Catholic University, and teaching Humanities, Education and the Arts at the Universities of Queensland, Sydney, Queensland University of Technology and the University of Hawaii, as well as Financial and Strategic Management at Swinburne University.

Prior to joining the tertiary education sector, Dennis held middle to senior management positions within the banking and finance sector. Dennis has written units of study at Undergraduate and Postgraduate levels, including Indigenous Politics, Land and Culture, Aboriginal Literature and Language.. He has also owned and created several small businesses enterprises in the services and retail industry.

In line with his key research focus, Dennis wrote the first Australian university course in Indigenous Entrepreneurship. Doctor Foley is a Fulbright Scholar and dual Endeavour Fellow. His publications focus on social inclusion and cross disciples such as Indigenous Literature, Indigenous History, Indigenous Studies, Business Management (Entrepreneurship) and Indigenous Epistemology and Pedagogy.

In a recent successful Australian Research Grant rejoinder Dr Foley was described by his examiners: “… Foley holds much credibility in this field. His contribution to the field of Australian Indigenous business and economic engagement is significant, and his personal knowledge of the field is very strong”. “Outstanding: Of the highest quality and at the forefront of research activity in this space. Prof. Foley leads research in the space of Indigenous entrepreneurship and enterprise development in Australia”. “Professor Foley has done more than any other Australian researcher to develop the study of Indigenous businesses.”

Dennis identifies as Koori. His matrilineal connection is Gai-mariagal of northern Sydney, and his patrilineal connection is to the Wiradjuri people of the Turon River region. He is active within the Indigenous community and Indigenous business associations within Darug circles and the NSW Indigenous Chamber of Commerce. He has also received several ministerial appointments to state and federal Advisory Committees and currently researches in Canada, Ireland and Aboriginal Australia.

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Liam Harte

CEO, Integrity Health & Safety

After finishing with the Australian Defence Force Liam began a career in Health through joining New South Wales Ambulance as an Intensive Care Paramedic providing care to patients in an out of hospital settings. Through this role, he has developed a strong interpersonal skill set, an ability to make important decisions quickly and built strong personal and professional relationships with all levels of healthcare professionals as a part of a multidisciplinary approach to care. Passionate about Indigenous health and how we can affect real change both currently and by doing things better for future generations.

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As a business owner, he has built relationships with government and corporate clients, driving partnerships that facilitate opportunity for Indigenous people and a deep belief that government and private sector partnerships will play a bigger role in delivering social and financial outcomes to the community as a whole. It is a perfect environment for strong leaders and change adapters to deliver sustainable outcomes that benefit Indigenous people – Indigenous health in Indigenous hands.

Integrity Health & Safety is an Indigenous owned company that works closely with clients to offer the best of Health and Safety innovation. Through partnership with market leaders, IH&S supports Indigenous education, employment and career progression in health.

Integrity Health & Safety works with a number of Federal, State and Local Governments, Other Government Agencies, Non-Government Agencies, Not-for-profits and ASX listed Companies. Integrity is a member of Supply Nation, the New South Wales Indigenous Chamber of Commerce and the Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce.

As founder and CEO, he has led the company from a community-based start-up to a long-term success story and best practice example. Liam has also provided significant input into future Indigenous health policies and Indigenous procurement policies at a federal, state and local level.

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Jamie Love

Founder, ABICSA

Jamie Love is a highly regarded Aboriginal man and descendant of the Widjabul people in Northern NSW. His mother was raised on Ulugundahi Island near McClean NSW, prior to being removed with her 8 siblings and placed in the NSW Aboriginal Home system (where two died) at an early age. Jamie’s mother and aunts were trained as domestics (housemaids) and his uncles sent to work as farmhands. Jamie’s cultural knowledge has been enriched by his connection to the Yankunytjatjara, having undertaking ceremonial rites of passage and lore with this group who are located in Central Australia (his home community being Mimili on the APY Lands).

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Combined with his extensive work with communities nationally,  he has developed a clear understanding of the differences in these communities and more specifically between traditional and contemporary Indigenous Australia. Commencing as a commissioned officer in the Australian Regular Army in 1992, Jamie has over 25 years’ experience with working in management and leadership positions within State and Federal Government, Private Industry and Aboriginal Controlled Organizations including the areas of Indigenous and external relations, defence, justice (policing and correctional services), employment and training, mining and exploration, health and mental health.

Jamie’s Achievements Include:

2008 – Nominated for Margret Tobin Award in Excellence in Aboriginal Mental Health.

2009 – Established Prisoner Reintegration and Employment Opportunities Program – gained international recognition as best practice, the program being awarded the SA Attorney General Award in 2013 and nominated for the international HSEC BHP Awards in 2015.

2013 – Awarded SA Premiers Award for Excellence in Community Participation in the Resources Sector for programs developed in mental health, land rehabilitation and pastoral sector training partnerships.

2015 – Established South Australia’s first Aboriginal Business Chamber.

2015 – Inaugural board member of the First Australian’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

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John McNamara

Managing Director, Wirrigan Group

John is a Wiradjuri man from Western NSW with over 30 years’ experience in Aboriginal employment and economic development overseeing Aboriginal employment initiatives in both the private and public sector. John has developed and implemented Aboriginal employment strategies with many of Australia’s leading companies, both privately owned and publicly listed. John has demonstrated extensive knowledge across Corporate Australia on their Aboriginal employment initiatives and activities. He possesses extensive knowledge of Aboriginal employment programs both Commonwealth and State-based including both the Commonwealth IPP Indigenous Procurement Policy & NSW Government Aboriginal Participation In Construction policy.

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John was a joint member of the first Indigenous employment panel tender provided by the Commonwealth to select and assess organisations for selection on the “preferred list” of providers to deliver Indigenous employment and training programs.

He has an extensive network amongst the Indigenous organisations and communities. This network also includes significant networks across both the Commonwealth and State Governments.

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Susan Moylan-Coombs

Director, The Gaimaragal Group

Susan’s ancestry is Woolwonga and Gurindji from the Northern Territory. She has extensive experience working with First Australian communities nationally and internationally, with specific expertise in community consultation, empowerment and the facilitation of voice and storytelling. Susan previously held the positions of Executive Producer ABC’s Indigenous Programs Unit and Head of Production, NITV a division of SBS. Today Susan uses her expertise to work with mainstream organisations and communities in the provision of cultural competency and immersion sessions as well as social planning processes. Susan is part of the group known as the Stolen Generations and has lived experience of the trauma associated with removal, loss, dispossession and disconnection.

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She is one of the founding Board member of the PTSD Australia New Zealand (Fearless Outreach) organisation as well as many community committees in the Northern Sydney Region.

Susan is also a Director of her own Company, the Gaimaragal Group established to lead social change and create social impact by bringing together like minds and like spirits. “ We believe that the philosophies and teachings of Australia’s First Peoples, the way of life that has sustained us for tens of thousands of years, is worth sharing, and that in doing so, we can create a new story of connection and wellbeing for all Australians. Our aim is to facilitate the voice for our Elders in the contemporary social space, empower our youth to realise their full potential, and provide two-way cultural translation to bring individuals and communities together.

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Trevor Satour

Director, Indigenous Success Australia

Trevor Satour was born in Alice Springs of mixed Arrernte and Gurindji heritage. He holds an Honours degree in Economics from Murdoch University in WA, and has completed a Coaching Diploma from the Newfield Institute. More recently he trained in the Tribal Leadership Intensive with Culture Sync, and with the Boston-based SoL group’s Leading for Sustainability program led by the acclaimed Peter Senge. Trevor is a founder of Building Indigenous Capability P/L (BIC) a 100% Indigenous Company with products and services across 3 business lines: consulting, facilitation and training services.

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BIC is based at Wyong on the NSW Central Coast just north of Sydney. Trevor was born in Alice Springs of mixed Arrernte and Gurindji heritage. He holds an Honours degree in Economics from Murdoch University in WA, and has completed a Coaching Diploma from the Newfield Institute. More recently he trained in the Tribal Leadership Intensive with Culture Sync, and with the Boston-based SoL group’s Leading for Sustainability program led by the acclaimed Peter Senge.

Trevor has operated in business for 16 years. He recently delivered IBA business workshops in Victoria, and in South and Central Australia. Prior to being in business, he had stints as: Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Studies at Curtin University (Perth, WA), CEO of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council (Sydney, NSW), and posts in both the Australian and Queensland public sectors.

Whilst at Curtin University, he was a member of a select group responsible for developing a Bachelor’s degree program in Aboriginal Community Development and Management at Curtin University – a program that still operates there within the Centre for Aboriginal Studies some 3 decades later. He was also a member of the WA Aboriginal Education Advisory Group a peak body advising the WA and Federal Government on priorities in Aboriginal Education. Trevor is passionate about global diversity and sustainability and helping Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples develop an economic base by leveraging the power of business through regional, national and global supply chains.

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Carol Vale

Managing Director, Murawin

As a businesswoman and social entrepreneur, Carol Vale brings to her work insights and experience in understanding the commercial and cultural value that embedding cultural diversity can bring to organizational development and growth. This insight stems from a career that spans almost three decades in government and more recently as the Managing Director of Murawin, a successful consultancy Indigenous business. Murawin expanded their focus in 2016 to establish Game Enough? which brings to the market Australian game-meat and native plant flavored savory, dessert and drink products.

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Carol grew up on an Aboriginal Mission in Armidale, NSW, where she lived with her extended family and continues to have strong cultural ties to her community and traditional lands of the Dunghutti, Gumbaingirr and Aniawan people.

Her professional career began as a trainee in the Commonwealth government and continued with the Qld and NSW government where she took up a number senior role in Aboriginal affairs, education, housing and child protection. This experience is supported by formal qualifications in business administration, public sector management and leadership. Since resigning from government in 2013, Carol co-founded Murawin Pty Ltd and is the company’s Managing Director and Principal Consultant. She continues to work across the breadth of Aboriginal affairs with a key focus on working with others to enhance leadership and management capabilities and cultural competencies. Carol’s current work at Murawin includes:

Facilitation: Carol is a Professional Certified Facilitator with the International Association of Facilitators and an active member of the Australian Facilitators Network. Carol’s facilitation practice draws on a variety of facilitation methods to guide those she works with to move through the process. She has a reputation for facilitating strategically and creating culturally safe environments to support challenging conversations.

Consulting: Carol has undertaken a range of projects with her clients ranging from small Aboriginal community organisations to government and the NGO sector to corporates. This work has included evaluations, strategic advice, planning and training.

Cultural Competency and Leadership Training: Carol designs and delivers a range of professional development training programs to build cultural competencies and leadership capabilities of staff and management. Previously a faculty member of the Australian Graduate School of Management at the University of New South Wales, Carol designed and ran their Aboriginal Career and Leadership Development program for NSW Aboriginal public service employees in middle-management positions seeking to advance their careers. She now does this type of training through Murawin’s Hands of Time training branch.

Evaluation and Research: Carol has joined with several other consultants to take on a range of evaluations in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and is also a current practising member of the Australian Evaluation Society. Carol has specialist qualifications in Indigenous Studies and public health research and has been a senior team member on several research projects. She has lectured at universities on the issue of Aboriginal affairs across several faculties including health and education, at undergraduate and post-graduate levels. As part of her own study, Carol has researched the impact of trans-generational trauma on Aboriginal people with a focus on healing and has developed policies and strategies throughout her career that aligned with this research

Community Engagement: Carol has played a key roles in establishing Negotiation Tables, Community Working Parties and Consultative Committees in many local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in NSW and Qld as well as numerous community development and strategic planning projects.

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