Agenda

Saroo Brierley was born in a small Indian town. In 1986, aged only 5, he lost all contact with his family when he was separated from his brother at a train station. He never saw his brother again.

After living on the streets of Calcutta for 3 weeks by himself, Saroo was placed in a local orphanage before being adopted by an Australian family. He grew up with his new parents in Hobart, Tasmania for the next 25 years. But he was unable, and unwilling, to forget the land of his childhood.

Determined to rediscover his past, he embarked on a virtual odyssey of his homeland and, after many hours pouring over Google Earth, armed only the images etched into his memories as a 5 year old, he managed to recognise his home town - and track down his mother.

Their reunion in 2012 made headlines across the world, and his full story is recounted in his #1 international bestselling autobiography, A Long Way Home.

The film Lion, based on his autobiography was released in November 2016 and nominated for four Golden Globe and six Academy Awards. The film stars Nicole Kidman and Dev Patel.

Saroo’s journey is a remarkable and touching story of survival and sheer determination.

Stewart Bell is a Business Coach, Author, and Founder of Audere Coaching & Consulting.

In over 15 years working on the business of advice, he's coached well over 400 professional services firms large and small to improve business performance and find opportunities to innovate.

His clients include financial advisers, accountants, and mortgage brokers, in addition to the institutions that work with them, across a wide range of business models, successful and otherwise.

Stewart also has a specialist interest in the tech world and the methods used to launch Silicon Valley startups. This passion lead him to found Audere, and create the Leveraged Advice Firm program; a business improvement program & community designed to introduce proven methods to achieve more with less models that foster growth without constraint, and ways to make your business stand-out and innovate.

He's also the author of two books Finnovation: The Complete Advisers Guide to Innovating Your Advice Model and 100 Ways To Run Your Business Better

Sonia Gibson, director at Accounting Heart Chartered Accountants. Using the feminine touch, Sonia has woven into Accounting Heart’s lifeforce a vision that sees business, money, and finances as more than just the numbers. Everything she does is underpinned by two core aspects: alignment between head and heart and a heart-based approach focused on well-being. As the winner of 2020 Women in Finance - Accountant of the Year, Silver Stevie Awards - Women in Business Awards and a finalist in the MyBusiness Awards, Sonia’s philosophy is to work with business aligning the head and heart to educate, empower, and help business owners to implement strategies for long term success and simplified management.

Sonia has featured on ABC talkback radio, has been published in SmartCompany, Inside Small Business and Kochie's Business Builders and is about to be published in an upcoming edition of Forbes Magazine.

Michelle Maynard is a Chartered Accountant, Chartered Tax Advisor and Partner at Carbon Group. Michelle is also the Channel 9 and 6PR Finance Expert, Media Commentator and recipient of the 40under40 award in 2020. Michelle partnered with Carbon Group in 2017, bringing a wealth of experience in accounting and bookkeeping. Her focus is on working with for individuals, SMEs and High Net Worth Groups covering everything from tax accounting, planning and estimates, to cloud integration, payroll and SMSF. Michelle has been awarded Top 50 Women in Accounting in 2018, New Partner of the Year in 2019, One of 20 Future Leaders of CA in 2020. Her passion is working with small business owners to assist them with their business.

Cate Bakos completed a degree with honours in Chemistry at Monash University in 1996 but held a passion for property long before her career in science. Winning 2018’s #1 National Buyer’s Agent of the Year Award marked a high watermark for Cate.

Purchasing her first property at 21, Cate continued to invest in property whilst developing her career in sales and marketing with Orica (formerly ICI). In 2003, Cate won a marketing and bursary award, however her passion for real estate saw her make the decision to move into the property industry as a sales agent in Melbourne’s Bayside. Qualifying and working as a mortgage broker after the birth of her daughter and throughout the GFC has become one of the most valuable ‘apprenticeships’ she could have served. Her appreciation of lending policy, loan restrictions, borrowing capacity calculation, and cashflow analysis is what sets her apart from her competitors.

Cate’s role as a co-director of a large Melbourne firm was instrumental in introducing their Buyer’s Agency arm. Since 2011 Cate has guided over 2000 clients through their various property journeys, from investment to owner-occupier purchases. In 2014 she launched Cate Bakos Property; a boutique and independent Melbourne Buyers Agency firm. Cate’s extensive asset-selection experience not only in Melbourne metro suburbs but also in Victorian regional markets including Ballarat and Geelong has given her a valuable point of difference to offer her cashflow-driven clients.

Cate is a regular commentator in the media, and contributes weekly to newspapers, live television, podcasts, and publications including Domain, Australian Financial Review, Herald Sun, Fox Business, Your Domain and commercial television. Cate shares her knowledge and experience regularly at seminars, volunteers her bidding skills often, and enjoys mentoring young people in the industry she so loves.

Katherine Skinner began her career in property 15 years ago in Melbourne working in Property Research and Investment Management within a well-known Buyer Advocacy Firm.
Returning to her home town of Adelaide in 2009, Katherine quickly established a reputation as an exceptionally thorough and diligent practitioner, providing outstanding customer service coupled with a calm and positive attitude while working with some of Adelaide’s most highly regarded agencies.

Katherine joined National Property Buyers with a unique combination of experience as a Buyer’s Agent and in Investment Management, which complements her client base day after day. She has been able to provide exceptional guidance to her clients to find the best properties and expertise on achieving the best management results.

Katherine’s understanding of the different requirements of each stage of the property process ensures her clients have the confidence they are receiving the very best advice.
Katherine is extremely passionate about pairing clients with their perfect property. Whether that be high-performance investment properties which she can then oversee throughout management of the investment, or sourcing a forever home.

Katherine is a multi-award-winning buyer’s agent, Katherine won back-to-back the prestigious REISA Buyers Agent of the year for 2018 and 2019, she was a finalist for the REIA National Awards 2019 and 2020 and is the current South Australia representative for REBAA.

Miriam Holme, Founder & Director - Flinders Accounting Miriam Holme founded the award winning business FAB Tax Accountants 10 years ago. Starting with a handful of clients from her kitchen table she now helps thousands of people and businesses across Australia and overseas.

Building her business from referrals, in particular her happy clients and other professionals Miriam is passionate about taking the stress out of tax. She enjoys making tax as easy as possible and dare we even say fun too!

Miriam has a Masters in Taxation, CPA and three Bachelor Degrees - Commerce, Economics and Law with Honours. She is a strong advocate for life long learning and is actively involved in financial education for her clients and the broader community. In particular, communicating key finance and tax concepts without the jargon. 

Miriam was recognised as one of South Australia’s 40 under 40 leading entrepreneurs in 2019 for her vision, achievements and passion as a young business leader and invited by the Premier to be a part of Force Forty in 2020.

Simon Noakes has built his Real Estate career on providing exceptional levels of service and results.

Selling over 200 homes a year and being named one of the TOP 100 agents across Australia (REB), Simon has established himself over the past decade as the trusted adviser in the coastal markets of Adelaide.

Simon bring with him a team of 4 experts in administration, buyer management and marketing to ensure his clients receive world class service. 

As a CPA-accredited tax accountant, winner of the 2018 Xero Accounting Partner of the Year, member of the Xero Partner Advisory Council, and co-founder of Future Advisory, Jason is passionate about achieving success for his clients. He gets to the core of your bigger picture to map out a personalised tax strategy to assist you in realising your personal and business success.

As a business owner himself, he understands the challenges you may be facing. He’s “been there, done that” so he knows your financial pain points personally, and he works closely with you to alleviate these.

Jason places a high premium on forming close personal relationships, not just with clients, large or small, but also referral partners, software providers, and industry peers. Jason understands that you are trusting him to look after one of the most important parts of your life. This “relationships first” mentality pervades every aspect of what he does.

From a very young age I developed an interest in real estate because my parents were property investors, so I learnt a lot from the conversations that we often had growing up. I have been fortunate to have never rented, but instead I bought my first home in Brisbane at the age of 18. This was the beginning of my own property journey and I continue to build my portfolio today.

I’ve come from a research background, having completed a PhD in 2001. Instead of staying in academia I moved into real estate, with involvement in the building and construction industry and property development. Now I lead our team of professional buyers agents in Brisbane. I use the skills I have acquired over the years to help our small team make evidence based property decisions, to accurately interpret data and translate that in an easy way for our Clients to understand. I’m passionate about helping people in property and I’m driven by helping others find success.

Her dynamic and very straightforward approach attracts a large repeat and referral clientele. This has enabled her to exceed expectations of quality customer service, speed of sale and achieved price. Alex’s point of difference in the real estate industry is her exponential market knowledge, tough negotiator, buyer profiling ability, accuracy in property price statements, enthusiasm throughout and honesty. Her friendly demeanour, infectious laugh and ability to understand her client’s personalities and needs warm and comforts people. Once meeting Alex, they know which agent they will use well before they need one. Alex continues to undertake regular training in sales and marketing, property law and auctions to make sure she is providing the very best skills in a competitive and ever-changing market. A great agent knows no bounds, and Alex with her wealth of experience and knowledge can sell in any location within 10KL to the CBD. Over the years, Alex has won numerous awards ranging from the prestigious life membership from her former firm through to top 5 salespeople from the Real Estate Institute of Queensland 2011 and 2013. Alex continues to be awarded Black Club status within Place and regally appears around 5th place company-wide.

Paul Glossop is a Dad, husband, property investor, developer and CEO of Pure Property Investment and Finni Mortgages. Paul is also a bestselling author and award-winning buyer’s agent. Pauls expert commentary is regularly sort as a guest presenter on Channel 9, Channel 7, Sky News and numerous other media outlets. If he’s not busy with any number of these commitments, you’ll usually find Paul surfing.

Sonia Gibson, director at Accounting Heart Chartered Accountants. Using the feminine touch, Sonia has woven into Accounting Heart’s lifeforce a vision that sees business, money, and finances as more than just the numbers. Everything she does is underpinned by two core aspects: alignment between head and heart and a heart-based approach focused on well-being. As the winner of 2020 Women in Finance - Accountant of the Year, Silver Stevie Awards - Women in Business Awards and a finalist in the MyBusiness Awards, Sonia’s philosophy is to work with business aligning the head and heart to educate, empower, and help business owners to implement strategies for long term success and simplified management.

Sonia has featured on ABC talkback radio, has been published in SmartCompany, Inside Small Business and Kochie's Business Builders and is about to be published in an upcoming edition of Forbes Magazine.

Michelle Maynard is a Chartered Accountant, Chartered Tax Advisor and Partner at Carbon Group. Michelle is also the Channel 9 and 6PR Finance Expert, Media Commentator and recipient of the 40under40 award in 2020. Michelle partnered with Carbon Group in 2017, bringing a wealth of experience in accounting and bookkeeping. Her focus is on working with for individuals, SMEs and High Net Worth Groups covering everything from tax accounting, planning and estimates, to cloud integration, payroll and SMSF. Michelle has been awarded Top 50 Women in Accounting in 2018, New Partner of the Year in 2019, One of 20 Future Leaders of CA in 2020. Her passion is working with small business owners to assist them with their business.

Cate Bakos completed a degree with honours in Chemistry at Monash University in 1996 but held a passion for property long before her career in science. Winning 2018’s #1 National Buyer’s Agent of the Year Award marked a high watermark for Cate.

Purchasing her first property at 21, Cate continued to invest in property whilst developing her career in sales and marketing with Orica (formerly ICI). In 2003, Cate won a marketing and bursary award, however her passion for real estate saw her make the decision to move into the property industry as a sales agent in Melbourne’s Bayside. Qualifying and working as a mortgage broker after the birth of her daughter and throughout the GFC has become one of the most valuable ‘apprenticeships’ she could have served. Her appreciation of lending policy, loan restrictions, borrowing capacity calculation, and cashflow analysis is what sets her apart from her competitors.

Cate’s role as a co-director of a large Melbourne firm was instrumental in introducing their Buyer’s Agency arm. Since 2011 Cate has guided over 2000 clients through their various property journeys, from investment to owner-occupier purchases. In 2014 she launched Cate Bakos Property; a boutique and independent Melbourne Buyers Agency firm. Cate’s extensive asset-selection experience not only in Melbourne metro suburbs but also in Victorian regional markets including Ballarat and Geelong has given her a valuable point of difference to offer her cashflow-driven clients.

Cate is a regular commentator in the media, and contributes weekly to newspapers, live television, podcasts, and publications including Domain, Australian Financial Review, Herald Sun, Fox Business, Your Domain and commercial television. Cate shares her knowledge and experience regularly at seminars, volunteers her bidding skills often, and enjoys mentoring young people in the industry she so loves.

Katherine Skinner began her career in property 15 years ago in Melbourne working in Property Research and Investment Management within a well-known Buyer Advocacy Firm.
Returning to her home town of Adelaide in 2009, Katherine quickly established a reputation as an exceptionally thorough and diligent practitioner, providing outstanding customer service coupled with a calm and positive attitude while working with some of Adelaide’s most highly regarded agencies.

Katherine joined National Property Buyers with a unique combination of experience as a Buyer’s Agent and in Investment Management, which complements her client base day after day. She has been able to provide exceptional guidance to her clients to find the best properties and expertise on achieving the best management results.

Katherine’s understanding of the different requirements of each stage of the property process ensures her clients have the confidence they are receiving the very best advice.
Katherine is extremely passionate about pairing clients with their perfect property. Whether that be high-performance investment properties which she can then oversee throughout management of the investment, or sourcing a forever home.

Katherine is a multi-award-winning buyer’s agent, Katherine won back-to-back the prestigious REISA Buyers Agent of the year for 2018 and 2019, she was a finalist for the REIA National Awards 2019 and 2020 and is the current South Australia representative for REBAA.

Miriam Holme, Founder & Director - Flinders Accounting Miriam Holme founded the award winning business FAB Tax Accountants 10 years ago. Starting with a handful of clients from her kitchen table she now helps thousands of people and businesses across Australia and overseas.

Building her business from referrals, in particular her happy clients and other professionals Miriam is passionate about taking the stress out of tax. She enjoys making tax as easy as possible and dare we even say fun too!

Miriam has a Masters in Taxation, CPA and three Bachelor Degrees - Commerce, Economics and Law with Honours. She is a strong advocate for life long learning and is actively involved in financial education for her clients and the broader community. In particular, communicating key finance and tax concepts without the jargon. 

Miriam was recognised as one of South Australia’s 40 under 40 leading entrepreneurs in 2019 for her vision, achievements and passion as a young business leader and invited by the Premier to be a part of Force Forty in 2020.

Simon Noakes has built his Real Estate career on providing exceptional levels of service and results.

Selling over 200 homes a year and being named one of the TOP 100 agents across Australia (REB), Simon has established himself over the past decade as the trusted adviser in the coastal markets of Adelaide.

Simon bring with him a team of 4 experts in administration, buyer management and marketing to ensure his clients receive world class service. 

From a very young age I developed an interest in real estate because my parents were property investors, so I learnt a lot from the conversations that we often had growing up. I have been fortunate to have never rented, but instead I bought my first home in Brisbane at the age of 18. This was the beginning of my own property journey and I continue to build my portfolio today.

I’ve come from a research background, having completed a PhD in 2001. Instead of staying in academia I moved into real estate, with involvement in the building and construction industry and property development. Now I lead our team of professional buyers agents in Brisbane. I use the skills I have acquired over the years to help our small team make evidence based property decisions, to accurately interpret data and translate that in an easy way for our Clients to understand. I’m passionate about helping people in property and I’m driven by helping others find success.

Her dynamic and very straightforward approach attracts a large repeat and referral clientele. This has enabled her to exceed expectations of quality customer service, speed of sale and achieved price. Alex’s point of difference in the real estate industry is her exponential market knowledge, tough negotiator, buyer profiling ability, accuracy in property price statements, enthusiasm throughout and honesty. Her friendly demeanour, infectious laugh and ability to understand her client’s personalities and needs warm and comforts people. Once meeting Alex, they know which agent they will use well before they need one. Alex continues to undertake regular training in sales and marketing, property law and auctions to make sure she is providing the very best skills in a competitive and ever-changing market. A great agent knows no bounds, and Alex with her wealth of experience and knowledge can sell in any location within 10KL to the CBD. Over the years, Alex has won numerous awards ranging from the prestigious life membership from her former firm through to top 5 salespeople from the Real Estate Institute of Queensland 2011 and 2013. Alex continues to be awarded Black Club status within Place and regally appears around 5th place company-wide.

As a CPA-accredited tax accountant, winner of the 2018 Xero Accounting Partner of the Year, member of the Xero Partner Advisory Council, and co-founder of Future Advisory, Jason is passionate about achieving success for his clients. He gets to the core of your bigger picture to map out a personalised tax strategy to assist you in realising your personal and business success.

As a business owner himself, he understands the challenges you may be facing. He’s “been there, done that” so he knows your financial pain points personally, and he works closely with you to alleviate these.

Jason places a high premium on forming close personal relationships, not just with clients, large or small, but also referral partners, software providers, and industry peers. Jason understands that you are trusting him to look after one of the most important parts of your life. This “relationships first” mentality pervades every aspect of what he does.

Paul Glossop is a Dad, husband, property investor, developer and CEO of Pure Property Investment and Finni Mortgages. Paul is also a bestselling author and award-winning buyer’s agent. Pauls expert commentary is regularly sort as a guest presenter on Channel 9, Channel 7, Sky News and numerous other media outlets. If he’s not busy with any number of these commitments, you’ll usually find Paul surfing.

Determined and resourceful, Daniel Flynn is the co-founder and managing director of one of Australia’s most successful start-ups, Thankyou.

He co-founded Thankyou at the age of 19, and today 12 years later, Thankyou’s products are stocked by major retailers in Australia, with every product contributing to helping end global poverty. To date, Thankyou has raised over $17 million to impact the lives of people across 22 countries.

Daniel is also the author of best-selling book Chapter One, a story that generated $1.4 million in sales in its first month using an unorthodox ‘pay-what-you-want' model. He is known for his disruptive marketing and has received widespread media coverage for some truly unconventional and highly successful campaigns
that led to Thankyou products being stocked by some of Australia’s biggest retailers.

Daniel’s achievements as an entrepreneur have also been widely celebrated. In 2014, he was named an honouree in JCI’s Ten Outstanding Young People of the World, and in 2015 Daniel won EY Entrepreneur of the Year (for the Southern Region). In 2016 Daniel was named in the Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 for Social Entrepreneurship.

Daniel is known for his ability to tell stories to engage and motivate audiences to realise that they too can make their own ideas a reality

Deanna is the Director and Primary Mortgage Broker here at More Than Mortgages (MTM). Currently ranked no.1 female broker in the ACT (a title she’s held for over 4 years) and no.63 nationwide (MPA Top 100 2020), De has ranked in the Top 100 every year for the past 6 years. De started in the industry over a decade ago and has organised over half a billion dollars worth of home loans. Most recently, De and her team won “Business of the Year 2019” at the BX xCellence awards in Sydney, and De has been listed as a finalist in 2 categories for the Better Business Awards 2021.

De’s drive to consistently meet and exceed her own and her client’s expectations comes from her desire to help everyday Australians get into their own homes. Read more about De’s story here.

Outside of work, you’ll find De walking her two dogs around her 16 acre property, riding her motorbike, catching up on some salsa (dancing that is, not the dip!), fishing, scuba-diving, travelling or supporting her fiancé Andy in his love of AFL

Amy has been interested in residential property since purchasing her first investment in 2008. She views property ownership as a great long-term wealth creation strategy and is passionate about helping others enter the property market, whether it be for investment or their own home. Amy’s passion for all things real estate, working with people and aptitude for research led her to a career in mortgage broking.

Prior to establishing Inca Mortgage Solutions, Amy fine tuned her customer service skills working as a B2B relationship manager for a number of large corporates. Additionally, she holds a Bachelor of Science (Biomedical) and Diploma in Modern Languages (French) from the University of Western Australia.

Outside of work, Amy enjoys spending time with her young family, traveling and speaking French.

Cara Giovinazzo is the Founder of Borro. She is an experienced residential and commercial broker with over 10 years in lending experience. She has a passion for offering high levels of customer service and is driven by achieving results for her clients. 

She founded Borro with a goal to foster a happy and healthy environment for the brokers working for her, whilst still delivering outstanding results for clients. Borro aims to fine tune the mortgage journey, from submission to settlement, making it a smooth journey for the client and broker. 

Outside of growing Borro, Cara is a Mum and Wife. She has two energetic boys aged 8 and 6 and loves to play basketball with them.

With over 20 years experience in the finance sector Robert has been helping local client's dreams become a reality by looking after their financial requirements.

Robert is a National Award winning broker after recently being named the 2015 "Regional Broker of the Year" by the Australian Broker Awards and the 2017 and also 2012 "Australian Broker of the Year for Insurance" in the Australian Mortgage Awards and therefore becoming a Finalist for the 2017 & 2012 National Broker of the Year.

He also has been announced the inaugural winner and National Broker of the Year 2014 for the ALI Group.

Robert understands the stresses incurred when making that property purchase and works hard at taking those pressures away from his client's by keeping them up to date with every process of the loan from assessing their needs through to after the settlement of the property.

Robert has worked throughout Gippsland with Westpac for 10 years before deciding to start his own company in 2004 based in East Gippsland, Bairnsdale.

Robert Trewin Mortgage Broking has since then outgrown 2 premises to its current location in Main Street Bairnsdale, assisted over 2500 clients

Robert is also very community minded and has held board positions with the local Sunrise Rotary Club of Bairnsdale including president, delivered Meals on Wheels in Bairnsdale for over 8 years and financially supported the East Gippsland Sport's Foundation.

Robert also started his own charity in memory of his son which is called the "Cooper Trewin Memorial SUDC Research Fund" which has established an international research project in conjunction with the Boston Children's hospital into the Sudden and Unexplained Death in Children after losing Cooper aged 16 months without explanation.

Robert has managed to raise over $1,300,000 which is being used in an effort to find a cause and hopefully help stop another family from going through this tragedy.

Tony Wilson, MBA, BSc., has a passion for Human Performance. He has spent his entire working life helping the countries biggest brand and athletes reach a higher performance zone. Now, because of his ground breaking tools to achieving ‘HYPERformance’ Tony can be seen regularly featuring on The Project and ABC.

Originally a performance coach for elite athletes and sporting teams throughout Australia and the USA, Tony combines cutting edge performance science with contemporary management theory to put a unique slant on high performance in and out of the office. With a focus on high performance, Tony works with leaders around the world to help create the environment for their people to thrive, and works with individuals on managing their own performance and productivity.

Tony is highly sought after for keynote presentations, workshops and one- on-one performance coaching and executive mentoring. He is changing the way people work and lead.

Tenille Bentley is a creative innovator, an internationally award winning global change agent, winning awards recognised by the Prime Minister called The Australian Leadership Award and being picked by The Australian Financial Review as one of the top 100 Women of Influence.

The Governor inducted her into the Western Australian Women's Hall of Fame, then she became a finalist in the Telstra Business Woman of the Year.

She was also one of the top 3 in the Australian Institute of Management Excellence Awards. This was in recognition for her work in digital media and community work throughout the ownership of her global charitable organisation ‘The Global Good Foundation’ supporting families impacted by domestic violence and her previous social media agency building it up to a 2.5M company in under two years.

During Tenille’s business career she has sat on some of Australia's most prestigious boards as a non-executive director, often as the youngest and only woman. Over the years she has advised and governed some of Australia's largest brands in the early adoption years of social and digital media.

As a professional keynote speaker, Tenille has presented across the globe, educating others in the area of wellbeing, mindfulness, female leadership, marketing, digital, creativity and innovation.

Throughout her career she spent one on one time with the great minds of Richard Branson, Oprah, Deepak Chopra, John Demartini, Don Miguel Ruiz assisting her in developing the missing ingredient to every day success and delivers a unique workshop program in some of the top organisations and biggest boardrooms around Australia. She is specialised in the field of corporate emotional wellbeing and how this connects with the workplace.

Gifted as she is in turning her hand successfully to anything she takes on, Tenille has also authored two books – 'Digital Consciousness', which was supported by The Heartmath Institute, Dr John Demartini and Dr Bruce Lipton, and a children's emotional literacy book ‘Jazzy, Pinky & The Energy Ball’ supporting kids with emotional wellbeing and underpinning the flagship kids program in her company - The Emotional Literacy & Mindfulness Academy.

Tenille is also a prolific multi-instrumentalist, singer and frequency musician bridging science and sound to bring people into states of wellbeing and inner peace being globally reaching the global stages in unique art projects at Nuit Blanche Paris – Museum of Modern Art of Paris & The Palais de Tokyo Museum Square and Techism Exhibitions in Florida and continues to expand.

While Katrina Webb has been recognised and acknowledged as one of Australia's top performing Paralympic athletes, her more recent success off the track as a professional speaker and high performance consultant has drawn her equal acclaim.

Katrina Webb is a unique and inspiring speaker whose ideas and experiences challenge and motivate her audiences. Drawing on her own incredible achievements, she has recognised that high performance athletes and business owners share some characteristics: passion, determination and a drive to succeed.

Katrina is in demand by corporate clients worldwide to help improve the performance of their people and has delivered over 500 presentations to over 100,000 people across five different countries.

When Katrina was 18, on a netball scholarship at the Australian Institute of Sport, she discovered that a weakness on her right side was a mild case of Cerebral Palsy. Katrina realised that she was eligible to compete at the Paralympic Games and decided to tackle her disability head on and take on the challenge.

At her first Paralympic Games in Atlanta in 1996, Katrina won a Gold Medal in the 100m and 200m sprint and a Silver medal in the Long Jump. At the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games Katrina had the honour of being the first torchbearer to enter the Olympic Stadium for the opening ceremony and went on to win Silver in the 100m and 400m sprint and a Bronze Medal in the 200m sprint. At the Paralympics Games in Athens 2004, Katrina won another Gold medal for the 400m sprint and set a new Paralympic Record.

Having learnt how to overcome her disability, love her uniqueness and celebrate her difference, Katrina has the ideal skills to help others to achieve their goals. She has natural positive attitude, a thirst for new challenges, excellent people skills and is a person that knows how to achieve gold medal results.

In May 2000, Katrina established Silver2Gold High Performance Solutions which specialises in working with organisations, individuals and teams to achieve high performance outcomes. Bringing the best of sports psychology and business together, organisations are transformed through well researched, high quality and tailored solutions designed to meet their diverse needs. Clients range from International BlueChip companies such as ING and Prudential through to local councils, schools and SMEs who believe in the potential of their people.

Katrina's success as an athlete and as a business woman was recognised internationally, when she was one of four athletes selected from around the world to present at the closing ceremony of the United Nations International Year of Sport and Physical Education in New York in 2006.

Sam is the founder of the Higher Branch Success Academy. He is also the author of, A Higher Branch and Guide To Greatness and the host of A Higher Branch podcast on iTunes and Spotify.

Sam holds a Master of Laws degree and is also Founder and Managing Director of MSA National, a law firm specialising in banking and finance law. His clients include Westpac, Macquarie Bank and National Australia Bank.

As a lawyer and business strategist Sam is credited with designing some of the most effective processes, systems and business strategies during volatile economic conditions and an ever-changing digital landscape.

Sam’s core values are empathy and humility. He credits his success to his ability to bring the best out of people and mentoring them to their personal greatness utilising his own proprietary frameworks that leverage his philosophy, principles and prescriptions pioneered in his book, A Higher Branch.

As a keynote speaker he brings intensity to his message and speaks from experience. He sparks thinking and stirs emotions. His talks are dynamic, challenging and entertaining. He has the natural ability to explain complex life issues through magical and memorable stories.

Conducts keynotes and workshops on Sustainable Peak Performance Resilience, Leadership and High Performance Teams. Works extensively across a range of industries including Financial Services, Real Estate, Health, Retail and Education.

High Performance Coach at Collingwood in AFL for 15 years. Acted as club's Runner for AFL 250 games. Worked with Victoria in State of Origin Series on 5 occasions. Recently inducted into Collingwood’s prestigious Hall of Fame.

Former Magazine Editor and Designer of innovative Go Zone and Every Day Counts Programs and Author of 4 successful books, published internationally and widely translated.

Played senior AFL football for Melbourne and represented Victoria through the VFA.