LGBTQIA+ Executive Fellowship

This specially designed, one-week program gives you the leadership, strategy, communication and decision-making skills to confidently shape the culture and respond to the challenges of tomorrow.

You will return to work with new capabilities, techniques, and mindsets to lead with confidence, shape the play and tackle complexity. You will be supported on this journey by your new professional network of other lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning executives from a diverse range of industries.

Key Benefits

This unique program delivers transformative leadership growth through an overarching theme of “unlearning, " which challenges traditional managerial wisdom and adapts it to your context and lived experience. 

You will:

• Develop your personal leadership style with a unique understanding of the influence your LGBTQIA+ identity imparts.
• Unlock your authentic leadership presence and become a more dynamic, impactful and inspiring communicator.
• Strengthen your strategic leadership capabilities.
• Leverage the power of a design thinking mindset to unleash creativity in your leadership and strategic thinking.  
• Build a powerful and dynamic network of LGBTQIA+ peers for ongoing support and collaboration.

Apply now.

LGBTQIA+ Executive Fellowship experience

Over five transformational days, you will work with fellow LGBTQIA+ leaders to tackle challenges and embed the skills that will launch you into the next phase of your leadership journey.

Your experience will culminate in a personal action plan to transform learning into immediate action. You will take part in:

• Live action project work
• Simulations
• Interactive and experiential sessions to challenge traditional thinking and take you beyond your comfort zone.
• Guest speaker sessions, where an impressive array of speakers will share their personal journeys, key insights and lived experiences.

The program will run from 9 am – 5 pm at our Sydney CBD Campus, with evening events including a welcome dinner, a celebratory dinner to close the program, and hosted networking opportunities to facilitate community building and collaboration and strengthen inter-industry networks.  

Past guest speakers 

The Honourable Michael Kirby AC CMG (he/him) is an international jurist, educator and active advocate for human rights including women, young people and sexual minorities. When Mr Kirby retired from the High Court of Australia in 2009, he was Australia’s longest serving judge. He has served in many international and United Nations positions and is currently a patron of the Pinnacle Foundation.

Anna Brown OAM (she/her) is a lawyer and the founding CEO of national LGBTQIA+ organisation Equality Australia and was previously Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Centre. Her fingerprints are on nearly every major reform for LGBTQIA+ people in recent years including playing a critical role in the campaign for marriage equality co-chairing the Equality Campaign.

Paul Zahra is a chief executive officer, non-executive director, board and company advisor, and one of Australia’s most influential diversity advocates. A leading force in the Australian retail industry for over 40 years, Paul’s corporate roles have included chief executive officer & managing director of ASX-listed, David Jones Limited, as well as senior leadership roles at Target Australia and Officeworks Superstores. He served as chair of the board of directors of The Pinnacle Foundation from February 2016 until October 2021, after joining the board in June 2015.

Alan Joyce AC was Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director of the Qantas Group from 2008 until 2023. He previously served as founding CEO of Jetstar for five years from 2003, establishing its operations in Australia and Asia. Alan was recognised as one of the world’s most influential gay business leaders for two years running in the OUTstanding / Financial Times list of “Top 100 Leading LGBT Executives”. He is also a Cornerstone Patron for the Pinnacle Foundation.

Dr Sally Auld is the Chief Investment Officer at JBWere. Previously, she was Managing Director, Chief Economist and Head of Economic and Markets Research, Australia and New Zealand at J.P. Morgan. Sally has also worked at ANZ and started her career at Credit Suisse First Boston. She holds a Bachelor of Economics with first class honours and the University Medal from The University of Sydney and a D.Phil in Economics from Oxford University. Sally is Chair of the SCEGGS Darlinghurst Ltd. Board, a member of the Public Policy Committee of the Grattan Institute and a member of the Finance and Investments Committee for the Children’s Medical Research Institute. She is also a member of the RBA Shadow Board.

Who should attend?

• Mid- to senior-level LGBTQIA+ leaders with at least ten years of professional experience and five years of management experience.
• LGBTQIA+ leaders from any size company or institution and any industry, including not-for-profit, and the public sector.
• LGBTQIA+ leaders who have recently or are about to step up from a technical specialist to a leadership role.
• Allies responsible for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), talent management or leadership development interested in fostering LGBTQIA+ inclusion.

Program Director

Associate Professor Massimo Garbuio

Massimo Garbuio is an Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship at the University of Sydney. His approach to research and training involves helping others – whether they’re students or seasoned strategists – imagine, ideate and design new sources of value. Massimo is passionate about the human impact that good ideas can make given the right approaches and skill-sets, whether within start-ups seeking a firm footing or organisations envisioning a new future.

Massimo holds a PhD from the University of Western Australia and has also trained at University College London and the University of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the Strategic Management Society, the Design Research Society and the Academy of Management.