Tasmanian Leaders Leadership + Legacy Symposium will explore how you can shape a legacy that matters, with expert keynote speakers, insightful panel discussions and practical workshops.

Features exceptional speakers including:

  • US based international leadership expert and author of Leading from Purpose, Nick Craig
  • Multi-award-winning producer, broadcaster and investigative journalist, Dr Norman Swan
  • The ever-popular psychological scientist and clinical psychologist, Professor Kimberly Norris
  • Natural and impactful speaking coach, Kate Cashman
  • Virtues-based leadership thought leader, Dr Toby Newstead
  • Inspirational LGBTQIA+ equality advocate, Rodney Croome AM

Dr Kate Cashman

Kate is a multi-passionate and experienced coach and educator who helps people find their voice, step into self-leadership and share their magic with the world through their voice. Kate coaches and supports changemakers, business owners and leaders to more confidently speak up, step into life and share their passion and knowledge with the world – on stages, in workshops, in offices and boardrooms. Anywhere. Kate is deeply passionate about helping you share yourself with the world and become the leader that she knows you are because she knows there is no ‘one way’ to be a great communicator and speaker and is here to help you find out who YOU are.

Dewayne Everettsmith

Dewayne is a palawa man descendant from both the community of North East Nation of Tasmania and gunai / kurnai people of Victoria. Dewayne was recognised with a Human Rights Week award for bringing Tasmanian Aboriginal culture and language to the broader community, educating children and working to protect his Aboriginal heritage and the revival and continuation of language (palawa kani), especially in the area of songs for ceremony and dance. From his childhood appearances within his own Tasmanian Aboriginal community, through many festival stages around Australia and across the Pacific, and his audition for Australian Idol, one thing has become very clear – Dewayne’s a very special performer. One of those rare performers with a gift and a presence, Dewayne simply tells his story to a crowded room and most individuals listening feel he’s singing just for them. He can’t explain it and he’s not consciously trying to use it; it’s just there, it’s just him.

Nick Craig

Nick is the President and Founder of the Core Leadership Institute (CLI), a global development firm committed to waking up those who will wake up the many. Over the past ten plus years, CLI has helped nearly 20,000 leaders discover their purpose, the unique gift that they alone can bring to the world. In 2007, Nick began collaborating with Professor Bill George at Harvard Business School; this partnership ultimately led them to co-authoring, Finding Your True North: A Personal Guide, which became the course book for the Harvard Business School MBA class Authentic Leadership Development. Nick is also the co-author of the 2014 Harvard Business Review article From Purpose to Impact with Scott Snook, Senior Lecturer at the Harvard Business School. Nick’s expertise in purposeful leadership has been sought out by both corporate and academic organisations ranging from The LEGO® Group and Ben & Jerry’s, to the United States Military Academy at West Point. His insights from working with these organizations are captured in his 2018 book Leading From Purpose. Over the past year, Nick has developed a robust virtual delivery system for CLI’s programming, launched the Leading from Purpose podcast series, and created a thriving community for CLI program alumni through monthly engagement sessions.

Professor Kimberley Norris

Kimberley is a psychological scientist and clinical psychologist who works across academic, research and clinical practice settings. Primarily based at the University of Tasmania, her overarching research and academic interests are focused on maximising human health, wellbeing and performance in both normal and extreme environments. Her research interests include adaptation and resilience in both extreme (e.g. climate distress, Antarctica, space and FIFO) and more normative (e.g. academic, life events) environments. Through her work, Kimberley develops new and innovative ways to provide psychological support for individuals in remote, rural, maritime and extreme environments at an individual, organisational and relationship level.

Malcolm Lazenby

Malcolm is passionate about and committed to making a positive difference to people’s lives, their businesses and communities – both local and global. He has over 25 years of experience and is internationally recognised for his success in creating innovative approaches to engaging, developing and transforming individuals, teams, organisations and communities. He is the author of two books, The Emotionally Health Leader and Working with Emotional Health and the Enneagram. As a ‘for purpose’ organisation and a certified B Corp, Global Leadership Foundation, he uses his business as a force for good, placing its profit each year into a philanthropic fund for the development of leaders in community.

Dr Toby Newstead

Toby is a leadership scholar at the University of Tasmania. She has industry experience spanning communications, corporate change, and leadership development. Her research and teaching focus on leadership development and leadership ethics; with a focus on virtues-based leadership and leadership in the volunteer sector.

Katy Cooper

Katy is both a futurist and a ‘now’ist. In her current role as Director City Futures for Hobart City she is focussed on engaging, creating and planning our Island Capitals future stories, it’s strategic plans/urban designs with a stellar team of professional planners, urban designers, curators and placemakers. Together they also bring arts and culture and events to life to showcase our future in action. She also works with proudly Australian brands such as Blundstone, NRMA and SBS to enable them to share their future stories. An evangelical Tasmanian, Katy has worked across industry at home to develop a collection of the potential future stories for our state. She is passionate about helping shape the way we step up to future challenges and collaborate to meet the opportunities of a future where we all thrive.

Dr Norman Swan

Norman hosts RN’s Health Report and since the COVID-19 pandemic, co-hosted Coronacast, a daily podcast on the coronavirus. Norman is also a reporter and commentator on the ABC’s 7.30 Report, Midday, News Breakfast and Four Corners and a guest host on RN Breakfast. He is a past winner of the Gold Walkley and has won other Walkleys including one in 2020. He created Invisible Enemies, on pandemics and civilisation for Channel 4 UK and broadcast in 27 countries. Norman was awarded the medal of the Australian Academy of Science and has an honorary MD from the University of Sydney. He trained in medicine and paediatrics in Aberdeen, London and Sydney before joining the ABC.

Rodney Croome AM

As a spokesperson for the Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group, Rodney fronted the long and ultimately successful campaign to decriminalise homosexuality in Tasmania. That campaign saw Tasmanian activists take their case for equality not only to the parliament and people of Tasmania, but to the United Nations, the Federal Government and the High Court. This campaign saw Tasmania transformed from having Australia's worst laws, policies and attitudes on homosexuality to having some of the best. Rodney became a Member of the Order of Australia in 2003 and was named Tasmania’s Australian of the Year in 2015. Rodney grew up on the NW Coast, lived in Hobart for three decades and then moved back to the North West with his partner, Rafael, in 2019. He is currently working with illustrator, Chris Downes in a book of Tasmanian tables and folk tales.

Hannah Moloney

Hannah grew up in a verdant herb nursery in inner city Meanjin/Brisbane. Over the past twenty plus years, she’s worked across Australia on organic farms, permaculture projects and urban agriculture initiatives that grow food and grow community. Hannah is passionate about gardening and land management as a way to help create a healthy future for all. In 2015, she was awarded the Tasmanian Young Landcare Leader Award and is an ambassador for Community Gardens Australia. She’s a presenter on ABC TV’s Gardening Australia, a regular contributor to the Gardening Australia Magazine and is a bestselling author of The Good Life: How To Grow A Better World. She’s based in nipaluna/Hobart where she’s the Director of Good Life Permaculture, a sustainability education, landscape design and community-building practice. Her colourful and productive home is perched on a steep hillside where she gardens with her partner, daughter and many animals.

Ronni Kahn AO

Ronni Kahn AO is a social entrepreneur and founder of Australia’s leading food rescue charity, OzHarvest. Ronni is a passionate advocate and activist renowned for disrupting the food waste landscape in Australia. She appears regularly in national media, serves in an advisory capacity to government and is a sought-after keynote speaker. Her mission to fight food waste and feed hungry people is supported by some of the world’s finest chefs. Ronni is an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) and was named Australian Local Hero of the Year. Her journey is the subject of feature film, Food Fighter directed by Dan Goldberg. In 2020 she co-authored her biography; A Repurposed Life, which was nominated for an ABIA award for Biography Book of the Year.

Stella Varcoe-Dodd

Stella has always been a girl who quietly and firmly states her truth, especially where it concerns the welfare of animals and those who suffer under inequality. In grade six she made an impactful speech to the Tasmanian parliament about voice, treaty and truth. She hates balloons because baby birds eat them and choke, and successfully achieved banning them from her primary school’s CFA fundraisers in grade three. A committed vegan, Stella also loves her dog Charlie, sailing, outdoor adventures, theatre, music and writing.

Grace Williams

Grace is the Founder and Director of Citizen Tasmania, a cultural organisation that provides individuals with the means to tackle human rights challenges within their communities. She has directed films, published works, and presented internationally on the importance of engaging communities by empowering grassroots activism. Grace received the Tasmanian Human Rights Youth Award in 2018 for her documentary film Citizen that engaged communities in important discussions about human rights and diversity in Tasmania. In 2021 Grace produced and directed One a Week, which premiered at Paris Independent Film Festival. She was recently selected as the first Australian activist to join Nile Rodger’s New Yorkbased We Are Family Foundation: Youth to The Front, for infusing arts and social justice into the project design of One a Week. She was recently published by Australian Quarterly, Oxford University Press and Black Inc.

Matthew John Mansfield

Matthew is the epitome of a life turned around. His school career was a very rocky path, from start to halfway through year twelve. Although he showed promise for a career in mathematics, he didn’t have the positive drive or self-confidence and took things to heart, and ultimately gave up. Back then, he chose to turn his back and forget those possibilities. This sent him on a long road in the wrong direction. between the ages of seventeen and 35 he lived a nightmare. Wrong decisions led him on a negative path, despite having three major positives in his life: his children. After eight years under mental health support and losing his mind three times, finally he managed to secure living at Common Ground, which was the catalyst to him turning his life around. He gave up drugs and has never looked back. Through mentoring and perseverance, Matthew has learnt to change his mindset from constant striving to thriving and is 100% confident that he’s going to be successful in whatever falls my way. Until he turned his life around, he looked down on himself. Now Matthew sees himself as a big asset to help people turn their live around to.

Robert Pennicott

Robert is the owner of the multi-award winning Pennicott Wilderness Journeys, which he founded in 1999. Today the business operates six signature experiences in Tasmania and one in Victoria, including: Bruny Island Cruises, Tasman Island Cruises, Iron Pot Cruises, Tasmanian Seafood Seduction, Bruny Island Traveller, Wineglass Bay Cruises and Wilsons Promontory Cruises. Pennicott Wilderness Journeys has a fleet of seventeen state-of-the-art vessels and fourteen buses, employs more than 100 staff and hosts over 110,000 visitors annually. Robert passionately promotes the importance of sustainable and regenerative tourism. A portion of each ticket sold goes to the Pennicott Foundation to fund important philanthropic activities. Pennicott Wilderness Journeys is 100% Carbon Offset and has won fourteen Australian Tourism Awards and thirty State Tourism Awards including being inducted into the Australian Tourism Awards Hall of Fame for Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism. Robert was also the 2012 Tasmanian Australian of the Year.

Eugenia Jenny Williams

Eugenia (Yenni) was born in Košicecity, now in the Slovak Republic, where she worked in The Social Department of then Czechoslovakia in the position of the secretary to the Committee for social and disabled for ten years. After occupation of her country by the USSR in 1968, she and her family illegally escaped to Vienna, and in 1969 she arrived as an assisted migrant to Australia. Her employment experiences in Australia were varied, depending on the level of her newly acquired English language. Eventually she became a proprietor of three successful businesses. She is the author of five books and is a recipient of two literary grants from Arts Tasmania. Part of Yenni’s professional life has included lecturing for Adult Education Classes and at the U3A. She is regularly invited to clubs and social groups to speak about her books. All her books are available in e-book format on Amazon.