Our team brings a wealth of experience, a commitment to genuine partnership and the delivery of real outcomes that improve the lives of the communities we support.
Ours is an ethos based on partnership with your teams, your leaders and your stakeholders on the delivery of outcomes.
Mark is a proud Gamilaroi man from Walgett in northwest NSW.
Mark is a highly skilled Aboriginal leader with 30 years’ experience in both the public and private
sector.
Director:
Mark deWeerd
Mark’s career began in the Public Service where over a period of 18 years he worked in the fields of Indigenous Education and Employment at a local, state and national level.
During his time as a Commonwealth Public Servant, he was awarded a Public Service Medal for ‘outstanding public service in implementing the Council of Australian Governments' Whole of Government Indigenous Trial in the Murdi Paaki region’. The Trial focused on strengthening Aboriginal community governance and putting community at the centre of decision making, in partnership with Government. In many ways, the Trial was a precursor for the current Closing the Gap initiative.
In 2011 he took a break from the Public Service and joined the National Rugby League spending 10 years as General Manager, Indigenous Strategy advancing Rugby League’s commitment to First Nations peoples on and off the field.
He returned to the Public Service in 2021, joining the NSW Department of Planning, & Environment (now the Department of Planning, Housing & Infrastructure) as the Executive Director, Aboriginal Outcomes where among other programs, he was responsible for the Department’s commitments to Closing the Gap and oversaw the development of initiatives aligned to socio-economic targets 9 and 15. He was also responsible for the implementation of the 5 Closing the Gap priority reforms.
Whilst undertaking his Global Executive MBA, Mark decided it was time to take what he has learnt over 30 years of working in Indigenous affairs and combine that with learnings from his studies to deliver on his ambition of enabling First Nations people and communities to be in control of their future through economic independence.
Mark is a thought leader who advocates for First Nations people to have a voice. He has a proven track record of being a change agent and over many years has developed a unique set of skills that enables him to navigate different worlds to deliver genuine outcomes.
Kyleigh grew up in Southern Africa, which instilled in her a deep sense of equality and a desire to make the world a better place.
Kyleigh is a passionate advocate for putting people at the centre of decision making.
Director:
Kyleigh Laughlan
Kyleigh is a purpose lead and inclusive leader with 25 years’ experience in both the public and private sector. Kyleigh started her professional career as a press liaison officer at the Sydney
Olympics and was most recently an Executive Director with the NSW Public Service.
Her career has spanned multinational organisations, ASX listed companies, government, logistics, oil and gas, mining, defence, and not for profit sectors, across local, regional, national and international operating environments.
Kyleigh spent her early career honing her communication and stakeholder engagement skills across numerous programs of work including adoption of new fighter aircraft into communities,
design and delivery of new rail corridors, the delivery of gas wells and related infrastructure across QLD and the development and implementation of a regional economic defence industry
strategy to attract small to medium enterprise investment in regional NSW.
Kyleigh’s desire to improve the way organisations deliver outcomes for the communities within which they operate saw a natural transition into business strategy, program design and evaluation.
More recently Kyleigh’s roles in the NSW Public Service spanned corporate strategy, program performance and evaluation, customer experience and design as well as all stakeholder engagement and communications functions. In this role she was responsible for
embedding the principles of Closing the Gap into corporate functions and associated programs through robust program design and ongoing evaluation and program improvement strategies
A proud Gamilaroi and Yuin woman, Tehneya is a young lawyer with a passion for social justice and supporting her community.
Director:
Tehneya deWeerd
During and since completing her studies at the University of NSW, Tehneya has worked at Australia’s top tier law firms across a range of teams where she has gained a wealth of experience in a short amount of time.
Whilst at University, Tehneya volunteered her time at the Redfern Legal Centre as well as undertook a placement at the NSW Aboriginal Legal Service.
Tehneya has gained invaluable experience working alongside senior lawyers on complex matters both domestically and internationally across a range of disputes and inquiries.
Having graduated in 2020 and been admitted to the New South Wales Supreme Court in 2022, Tehneya is an up-and-coming lawyer who is determined to make a difference.
Our team have experience across:
RENEWABLE ENERGY
Strategic Business Planning
Oil and Gas
Aviation
DEFENCE
SPORTING ORGANISATIONS
LOGISTICS
ASX LISTED COMPANIES
KEY INDUSTRIES
KEY SKILL SETS
Local/State and Federal government
ESG and Wellbeing based reporting frameworks
Program and Project Establishment
Performance Frameworks and Reporting
Evaluation guidelines, reporting and monitoring
Quality assurance, strategic review and re-baselining of existing work practices & program delivery frameworks
Customer Experience design and delivery
Community co-design
Stakeholder Advocacy and negotiation
BROKERING AND Agreement Making
CHANGE MANAGEMENT
GRASSROOT START UPS
NOT FOR PROFITS
