The Hatchery

Leisel’s professional swimming career includes 14 individual world records, 9 Olympic medals – 3 Gold, 5 Silver and 1 Bronze, 7 World Championships titles, 10 Commonwealth Games Gold medals and 23 National titles.

While her medals and world record swims speak for themselves, these days Leisel is driven by a different world changing pursuit. As an author and professional speaker, her mission is to share principles of truth, integrity, and authenticity in life and business.

Leisel shares a very personal journey of what it is to be an Olympian – The joys, as well as the pain. Leisel enjoyed undeniable success in the pool but she was also the victim of public scrutiny and perception. At such a young age pressures to be thin or act a certain way took a toll, and it wasn’t until she was able to unlock authenticity, that she was able to find freedom.

Karen Harfield is currently the General Manager of the Enterprise Portfolio Management Office having joined the Australian Public Service in 2008.

Prior to joining Services Australia, Karen was the First Assistant Secretary for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. In 2011 Karen led the programme of work developing the National Intelligence Fusion Capability that provides sophisticated data analytics and visualisation tools used in multiple cross-government operations and task-forces whilst at the Australian Crime Commission.

Prior to moving to Australia with her family Karen spent sixteen years in UK law enforcement working for Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, the National Crime Squad and Warwickshire Police. Karen acquired strategic, project and operational expertise in a variety of roles including intelligence, audit and inspection, investigation, and community policing.

Karen co-authors Covert Investigation published by Oxford University Press (currently writing the 6th Edition). Karen has also co-authored Investigation, Community and Partnerships (OUP 2008).

Jackie is a Project Leader with over 20 years of experience in Portfolio Management, Program Delivery and Business Operations Management. Jackie worked in various countries- US, Malaysia and now Australia for large organisations like Hewlett Packard (HP), Dell, Optus before she decided to call nbn home. Jackie specialises in:

Jackie is currently an Executive Manager in nbn where she leads one of the PMO’s, comprising of a team of program managers, projects managers, Business Analysts, Portfolio manager and PMO governance leads.

A strong believer in the power of people, Jackie is a mentor to women seeking guidance on career development and a coach of people looking to get their foot into project management.

Jackie is passionate about innovation and believes working in hybrid project management & governance frameworks will allow individuals to be equip with various tools and be flexible in their approach. It also ensures that the governance frameworks that we implement is fit for purpose based on business maturity and demand. During her free time, Jackie spends most her time learning new cooking recipes as she can’t travel far to experience good food, and coaching her 2 dogs she adopted.

Angela is the Project Director for the Sydney Metro – Western Sydney Airport project. Responsible for the delivery and construction of this multi-billion dollar city-shaping infrastructure project, the new metro service will form the transport spine for Greater Western Sydney, connecting travellers with the new Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport and the growing region.

Prior to joining Sydney Metro in 2020, Angela was the Senior Project Director working on the Westmead Health Precinct Redevelopment project, a large brownfield campus with a vision to deliver design excellence, innovation, place-making and consumer satisfaction. Angela has also delivered projects in the justice, education and local government sectors and has a Bachelor of Interior Architecture and a Master of Construction Project Management.

Elena is a senior manager and leader with a track record of successfully delivering portfolios, programs, and projects in complex environments. With over 13 years of hands-on delivery experience, Elena worked across several industries including Banking, IT, Civil Construction, Electricity Transmission and Mining. Elena is a visionary thinker who works closely with leadership teams and boards to build sustainable systems and processes that enable successful delivery of corporate objectives.

She believes in driving capability improvements through embracing diversity and inclusion on all levels of the business. Her key areas of expertise include program and portfolio management, organisational strategy implementation, international marketing, and development and roll out of fit-for-purpose project management frameworks.

Elizabeth Foley is a seasoned Non-Executive Director and CEO, with experience across a range of sectors, including financial services, digital innovation, health and medical research and professional services industries. Comfortable in the start-up, not-for-profit or traditional large corporate and highly regulated environments, Elizabeth was CEO at the Australian Institute of Project Management from 2019 to 2021 where she wrote two advocacy papers on gender equity in the workplace specifically for the project management profession.

A strong advocate for gender equality, Elizabeth is a non-executive director of the Australian National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS). She has also worked at Chief Executive Women as Director Research and Business Engagement. She brings exemplary stakeholder management credentials, particularly working with senior levels of government, including Federal, State MP’s and senators, as well as senior public servants.

Michele is responsible for the strategic and operational planning of OIR’s IT functions. Michele provides leadership, management and governance of information technology strategy and architecture ensuring alignment with OIR’s strategic direction. Michele works closely with the OIR senior leadership group and has direct reports over Cyber Security, Information Management, Service Support, Operations, Stakeholder Engagement and a large and complex Service Delivery Transformation Program. Michele holds overall responsibility for 50+ staff and a significant IT budget.

Michele is an experienced Portfolio, Project & Program Management Director, leading people, process and technology change in government. Working in the Information, Communications & Technology field leading projects and programs requiring planning, design and strategic alignment. Michele delivers success by recruiting, managing and leading high performing teams through varying degrees of change, ambiguity and uncertainty. Her leadership success is attributed to her care, strength in coaching and genuine concern for her staff. She drives performance through mentoring, sharing and valuing diversity. Her expertise and demonstrated experience in human resource management delivers results.

Michele is a accredited, trained and experienced in the use of contemporary methodologies; PRINCE2, MSP, MoR, Benefits & P3O and ProSci Change Management.

In 2020-21, Jane Creaser was mobilised by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment (OCPSE) to serve SA Health, the SA Police (SAPOL) and their communities for the SA COVID-19 Response, as a Project Manager with the Communicable Disease Control Branch (CDCB) and the SA COVID-19 Information Line. Since October 2021, Jane has been seconded to backfill the role Operational Manager Security and Emergency Management (DfE).

Jane is a senior people, business and project leader. Jane is progressive, innovative, collaborative, and keen to contribute her diverse, well-developed and ever-growing strategic and operational skillset. Jane’s areas of expertise include end-to-end People, Business and Project Management, Human Resources Management, Inclusive Leadership, Organisational Development, Strategic and Operational Communications, Contact Centre Strategy and Operations and Emergency Response and Recovery. Jane prides her work on being both people and process driven to achieve best-practice outcomes for all stakeholders. Over the last 14 years, Jane has worked with the Government of South Australia (10 years) and the University of South Australia (4 years). Jane also has paid and voluntary experience within the Private and Not-For-Profit sectors.

Jane holds an Honours Degree of Bachelor of Psychology and a Certificate IV in Mediation. Jane also holds a current Provide First Aid (HLTAID003) Certification (valid 2020 to 2023). Jane has served on a number of Boards and Committees over the years, and currently sits on the Trinity Gardens School Governing Council and the Out of School Hours Care (OSHC) Committee. Jane has provided mentoring to numerous Graduates within the Public Sector over the years through the OCPSE, is committed to lifelong learning, and is a professional member of AHRI and IPAA.

Tamara Pratt is a senior executive with over 25 years’ experience specialising in business transformation. She is experienced in translating an organisation’s corporate vision and strategy into portfolios and programs of work that deliver successfully against performance indicators. She is experienced in establishing high-performing ePMOs, and leads program, project and operational teams through the initiation and and delivery phases, engaging and influencing all levels of stakeholders, and utlimately delivering positive business change. Tamara has engaged in various sectors including private, corporate, financial services, mining, superannuation, state and federal government and education sectors and predominantly in the adoption and alignment of information technology initatives.

I am a project leader who is committed to making HOW we do things along the way, just as important as WHAT we achieve at the end.

I love working in construction, and I feel proud every day to work with amazing people, and to get to contribute to exciting and iconic railway projects around the world.
I have enjoyed a varied career so far, leading digital media transformation, enabling works programmes, organisational change initiatives, bridge upgrades and tunnel ventilation projects – all under the banner of rail.
I love that rail can mean so many things and that means we need so many different types of people. I think every day about what I can do within my sphere of influence to break down barriers to entry and help drive the change I want to see for our industry.

I try to do my job with creativity, analytical thinking, kindness and emotional intelligence, and seek to build teams which share these core values and bring their own special stamp to the project.

You can usually count on me to crack a joke or get the giggles at some point (probably at my own joke), but that’s me, and I like to bring my whole self to work.

Eleanor is the founder of Your Best Asset and is a committed developer of leaders and teams. She is an engaging and experienced facilitator who has held a lifelong fascination with what makes people ‘tick’ and brings a unique perspective on human behaviour with a 20-year career in this field across the corporate, law enforcement, mental health, education, and not-for-profit sectors. She is passionate about working with people to find their ‘fit’ and to create psychologically safe environments and cultures which enable individuals to flourish and the business to thrive.

Eleanor holds an MSc in Forensic Psychology and a BSc (Hons) in Psychology, is an ICF accredited coach, and combines her background with other qualifications in training and design to create and deliver customised programs. These programs have a focus on engagement and implementation through which she works with individuals, teams, and leaders at all levels and then supports them to apply their learnings in the workplace.

Outside of her work, Eleanor is an ardent supporter and advocate of causes relating to child protection, human trafficking, and refugees and helps to run her local branch of the Disabled Surfers Association.

I’m proud to be one of the world’s leading experts in Emotional Intelligence providing accreditation and training globally. As an experienced Organisation Development consultant I specialise in corporate culture, leadership development, executive recruitment and executive coaching.

Through the successful business that my husband and I founded 20 years ago, we consult to ASX, large corporates and government, satisfying our curiosity and desire to engage with inspired leaders. We truly believe in partnerships, authentic connections, and building internal capability to ensure cultural change is embedded.

I am passionate about women in sport. An experienced community cricketer and premiership coach, I am currently Chair of the All Girls Cricket Competition which is heading into its 8th season and provides the opportunity for almost 400 girls to play cricket in the south eastern suburbs of Melbourne.