MEET THE MENTORS
Lisa Gaines
Mentor Leader
Lisa is a Leadership and Team Development Coach and Facilitator who is a supporter of women in business and more women holding leadership positions. Lisa has worked consistently with women business owners and leaders as a Business Coach, Consultant and Mentor for over a decade.
Lisa is a Professional Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation, A Coach Trainer and Mentor with the NeuroLeadership Institute, and a Learning and Development Consultant with Interaction Consulting Group here in Canberra. She works with clients from around the world in the private sector and with Government departments in Australia and New Zealand.
Lisa has expertise in coaching psychology, performance psychology, neuroscience, change management, communication skills, handling conflict, decision making, stress reduction, and creating a more sustainable workplace culture. She is passionate about educating leaders and team members to help them develop their emotional intelligence, improve their communication, and create more psychological safety in organisations.
Justine Lennane
Mentor
Justine is the founder, owner and Director of Gumnut Dance, a leading creative dance education studio for children, located in Mitchell. Justine started Gumnut Dance in 2013 after identifying a significant gap in the market and launched Gumnut Dance.
Justine holds a Bachelor of Arts (Dance) and a Graduate Diploma in Education at QUT. She taught dance and media studies at Kelvin Grove High school in Brisbane, holding senior roles.
Returning to Canberra in 2000, Justine joined the Australian Government Department of Education, working in project management, procurement, research and communications further broadening her skill set in this space. Justine also holds a Graduate Certificate in Marketing Communication (UC).
Justine is an affiliate member of the Australian Teachers of Dancing.
Justine was named the CWB Small Business Woman of the Year 2021.
Claire Naidu
Mentor
Claire has been assisting people for decades and has worked with thousands of clients. She is passionate about expanding her work. Her focus is empowering people to be free from conflict, present in the now, and clear about their future.
Claire is an Advisor, Arbitrator, Lawyer and Mediator. Her work also includes leadership facilitation, mindfulness, writing, and speaking. She began in the legal industry over eighteen years ago. She practices as a relationships and family lawyer and is recognised by the law society as being an Accredited Family Law Specialist. She has trained in mindfulness, mentoring, coaching, collaboration and more.
She serves her clients with a focus on resolving issues and gaining clarity.
Bianca Russell
Mentor
A knowledgeable business owner and CEO with experience across the NFP, Charity, and Commercial sectors. I am a collaborative, engaging leader with a commitment to compassionate leadership and a drive to break the traditional leadership styles. A diverse background has provided me with a range of skills that support business growth including marketing, business start-up, design, and financial growth
As a speaker, leadership coach, and mentor I love nothing more than helping others rise and succeed in their chosen pursuits.
Danielle Dal Cortivo
Mentor
I’m a passionate, energetic, entrepreneur, executive coach and c-suite leader. I thrive on challenging the status quo and am driven by transformation. I am inspired by finding new ways to solve wicked problems and supporting others to do the same. I love empowering people and know how to have teams thrive! I strive for and achieve lasting, impactful change and am motivated by achieving results using creativity and collaboration. I am curious, diligent and love contributing to the achievement of goals. I have more than 10 years’ experience as a CEO and the ability to successfully oversee and manage all key organisational functions including financial management, governance, human resources, people management, program and operations development, design and delivery, and marketing.
I am fascinated by leadership and what it makes possible. I started exploring leadership and the type of leader I aspired to be many years ago. Since then, I’m constantly developing and expanding my capacities as a leader to achieve results with velocity inside of making a difference in the world. I’m a qualified Executive Coach and have committed my life to being the type of leader who leads with love and authenticity. As a result I get to fulfil what matters to me, and this is what I want for you all!
I’ve founded charities, and my own businesses, and have been employed as a COO in a software start-up and a CEO of multiple health based organisations. But what I love the most, is where I get to step up and make a difference to others, to see others succeed and achieve what matters to them. I’m clear that leadership is available to us all, and that leaders are created, not born.
Kylie Ochsenbein
Mentor
Kylie is the Chief Operating Officer at DJAS Architecture. She has worked in the private sector for 30+ years and has experience across travel, logistics, telecommunications, real estate, transport, consulting, education, NFP and retail sectors. Kylie is a qualified executive coach and is passionate about working with young people, to provide support and advice around career planning and advancement, improving job satisfaction and helping people to work out what is going to offer the best personal and professional fulfillment. “One of the most important things I have learnt as I moved up the career ladder, was how important it was to have people who I could talk to and who I trusted and could be myself with, so that when the going got tough, I had informed ‘no nonsense’ support”.
Michelle Porter
Mentor
Michelle is a motivated commercial specialist with 14 years’ experience providing strategic commercial, procurement and contracting solutions on some of Defence's largest and most complex programs.
A strategic and agile thinker known for building resilient commercial teams and delivering pragmatic commercial solutions focused on achieving capability outcomes.
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Rowena Morais
Mentor
Rowena is an editor, writer and marketer. The former Founding Editor of HR Matters Magazine, a niche Human Resource publication which ran for eight years, Rowena helps organisations and senior executives with their communication, branding and content development initiatives. Over the last decade, she has been helping people refine their LinkedIn profiles and digital presence.
Programme Director at Vertical Distinct, she supports HR and IT executives with a range of internationally accredited programmes offered throughout APAC and the Middle East. She is also Founder and Creative Director of Digital Confluence, a boutique marketing and communications firm supporting businesses with bespoke solutions including white-label content development, social media management and communication services.
Invited to the TEDx stage twice. Rowena delivers workshops on leveraging LinkedIn and has a Skillshare class, Build Influence through LinkedIn. She lives in Canberra, Australia with her family.
Victoria Pearce
Mentor
Victoria Pearce is a sector leader in Heritage for economic growth through her business in Canberra, Endangered Heritage. The company offers fine art and heritage consultancy services with a fully equipped lab and a dedicated team of conservators, delivering conservation for public and private collectors. Victoria first discovered the joy of mentoring project managing the establishment of the National Museum of Textiles in Malaysia, bringing her passion and skills to establish a trained team to carry on the work after she had moved on. Her business takes on 8 University interns a year and delivers professional development training for the sector in Australia and overseas. As the organiser for the National Endangered Skills and Trades Show she runs the private largest vocational event promoting interesting and necessary careers for youth to consider. Having been in business for 2 decades here and overseas she is enthusiastic about the benefits particularly for women in being self-directed and driven in business.
We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the Ngunnawal lands on which we and our members live and work. We pay our respects to Elders, past, present and emerging, and to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesswomen in our community. We recognise and respect the continuing culture and contribution made to the life of Canberra and the region.