Entrepreneurs and Executives - Panel event

WiT bring you an inspirational panel of leading entrepreneurial and executive women keen to pass on the keys to their success. 

Find out how our panelists have managed work and family lifestyle to achieve phenomenal results.  Topics include:

• How our panelists came about starting their business or career
• What help and advice they sought
• Challenges in growth
• Tips and tricks for balancing work and lifestyle
• Finding flexible workplaces or negotiating flexible work agreements   

Bring your little ones along!  Breast feeding and quiet baby noise is welcome.

Places are limited and this event will sell out, so book early to avoid disappointment

Our Panelists:

Vanessa Garrard – CEO & Founder of E3 Style & Zenixx Ltd

Vanessa Garrard founded consumer products group of companies in 2006 which is now Australia’s leading supplier of youth electronics and private label tech gadgets.  1 in 2 Australians owns a product that Vanessa’s company has produced.  The business is now global.  Walmart, Best Buy, Argos, Kmart, Target are just some of the retail giants stocking product created by her company.  In addition to private label product development, they also develop products for the likes of Samsung and licensed brands including Batman, Superman, Barbie.

Amassing a slew of achievements, Vanessa has been ranked in Australia’s Top 30 Female Entrepreneur list every year since 2010, and recognized for her entrepreneurial achievements in 2011 taking out Telstra's Young Business Women’s Award.  She has also topped the BRW Fast Starters and Fast 100 lists and was named the Australian EY Entrepreneur of the Year for Industry and more recently was recognised with an Australian Financial Review/Westpac 100 Women of Influence award.

Yvette Adams - Founder & Partner of The Creative Collective

Yvette Adams is a serial entrepreneur and a multi-award winning business woman including winning the ICT Woman of the Year at the iAwards in 2013 and Commonwealth Bank Business Owner category at the Telstra Business Womens in Queensland in 2010.

She has started six businesses, the first a newspaper when she was just 17, and two of which she has since sold. She currently runs three businesses - The Creative Collective - a crowdfunding & digital marketing agency; The Training Collective - a digital skills training organisation, and awardshub.com - an online portal which helps people find business awards to enter.

In 2015 she was recognised for making a significant contribution to science and innovation in Queensland and included on the Queensland Science and Innovation Champion Hall of Fame & in 2016 was named a Digital Champion.

Yvette is a twice published author, and regularly called on as a media commentator and keynote speaker, facilitator and MC for events all over Asia Pacific.  Her most recent book was published in 2014 and is titled ‘No Kidding – Why Our Kids Know More About Us Than Technology and What We Need To Do About It’. Most recently she has been presenting a new show called Young Entrepreneurs which can be viewed on BRiN, the worlds first artificial intelligence app.

Rhonda Brighton - Executive General Manager Organisation Development of Commonwealth Bank

Rhonda Brighton is recognised as one of Australia’s foremost experts in human resources, specialising in leadership, diversity and future of work. Her fundamental belief is that inclusion and good leadership are not only foundational for good people practices in organisations, but equally of more equitable and prosperous economies and communities.

Her career has spanned senior roles in four large multi-nationals, starting with BHP, moving to Sara Lee, (Italian eyewear giant) Luxottica and CBA (Commonwealth Bank of Australia). As well as Australia, Rhonda has lived and worked in Europe, Asia, and the USA. She now works exclusively with entrepreneurs, believing they provide our best opportunity to redesign work.

To this end, Rhonda is Chair of FlexCareers, a business built to change the way careers work, redefining flexibility and linking talented women to progressive employers. Based on game changing technology, FlexCareers also consults on all things around flexibility and has the clear ambition to enable women to own their own future.

Rhonda has an undergraduate degree from UNSW and post-grad from UTS and London Business School. She lectures in HR, Leadership and the Future of Work at UNSW and Sydney University.

A former HR Leader of the Year and Telstra Business Woman of the Year, Rhonda is a current Director of AHRI. She is a past Patron for ASPECT (Autism), and remains involved in ASPECT and other organisations that work closely with disability, the indigenous community and other structurally excluded people or groups.

Lynda Edwards - Executive Coach, Change Specialist & Leadership Consultant PepperCon Coaching & Consulting

Lynda Edwards is an experienced and accomplished Business Leader with over twenty five years industry experience in a variety of corporate cultures both locally and abroad.  A skilled Shared Services professional, her passion is for inspirational leadership, strategy execution and people development.  She has led large teams across the globe and delivered multi-million dollar programmes across the technology and financial services sectors.

Her strength is in strategically driving change in organisations through effective problem solving, people coaching and decisive leadership.  Lynda’s technical background, underpinned by strong communications, change and leadership skills, enables her to work with large teams on complex programmes that deliver significant transformational change to businesses.

Lynda now specialises in leadership coaching supporting those new to leadership or needing to deepen their current skills and capabilities.  She often works with clients whose work environments are undergoing significant or sustained change.  She applies a brain based approach and works with her coachees to create awareness and develop positive sustainable results.  Her challenging, but supportive style, allows her clients to be the best leaders they can be whilst focusing on both themselves and the organisational goals.

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