Our Speakers

Michelle McQuaid

Dr. Michelle McQuaid is a best selling author, workplace wellbeing teacher and playful change activator. With more than a decade of senior leadership experience in large organizations around the world, she’s passionate about translating cutting edge research from positive psychology and neuroscience, into practical strategies for health, happiness, and business success.

An honorary fellow at Melbourne University’s Graduate School of Education, she blogs for Psychology Today, hosts the top-rated weekly podcast Making Positive Psychology Work, and her work has been featured in Forbes, the Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal, Boss Magazine, The Age and more.

Our Speakers

Michelle Etheve

Committed to creating cultures of curiosity by teaching people to ask better questions and spark positive changes, Michelle specializes in enabling people to create purposeful, strengths-based change. With more than a decade in higher education organizations, and a Masters of Science in Coaching Psychology, Michelle designs and delivers Appreciative Inquiry experiences, leadership learning challenges, and wellbeing programs in workplaces, schools, and communities around the world.

“We now have a group of passionate wellbeing champions with a shared vision for our school’s future.”  – Erika, Footscray Primary School

Our Speakers

Louis Alloro

A champion of enabling change leaders to design and deliver positive change experiences that improve wellbeing, Louis Alloro helps schools, workplaces, communities, and cities to build their psychological muscles and rally together to be the change they want to see in the world. A social entrepreneur with a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology, Louis designs and delivers highly sought after, evidence-based wellbeing and positive change learning experiences around the world, and is currently pursuing his PhD in systems informed positive psychology and social impact evaluation.

“The wellbeing program, led by Louis Alloro, with Midland community leaders in 2018, was tremendously valuable to me personally and to our work together to help Midland be a place where everyone thrives.” – Mark, Sustainability Director and Community Leader

Our Speakers

Paige Williams

Determined to help leaders move beyond just the need for resilience so they can become anti-fragile, Paige Williams PhD teaches people how to leverage their energy, attitudes, and mindsets to benefit from the dynamic, complex, and uncertain environment in which most organizations now operate. A lecturer and researcher at the Centre for Positive Psychology at the University of Melbourne, Paige uses a potent blend of positive psychology, neuroscience, leadership research, and her years of international business leadership experience to provide practical, evidence-based pathways to help people and organizations thrive through change.

Our Speakers

Alli Williamson

Passionate about improving the wellbeing of teachers, students, and whole schools, Alli Williamson designs playful, evidence-based learning journeys to help educational institutions navigate thriving and struggle. With more than 20 years as an educator in schools around Australia, Alli draws on her Masters of Applied Positive Psychology and her executive coaching certification to help schools and universities create long-term positive education strategies that deliver measurable results.

“Alli’s playful, engaging, and needs-based facilitation style thoroughly supported the wellbeing of our school. Alli emphasized the need to take small steps and build the program slowly in order for it to be authentic and long-lasting. You won’t regret engaging Alli to work with you on your organization’s wellbeing journey.” – Fahan School

Our Speakers

Rebecca Melville

Dedicated to enabling small actions that deliver a big impact, Beck is an experienced facilitator, speaker, coach, and leadership consultant. With almost two decades in the corporate world globally and a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology, she is passionate about operationalizing kindness to help teams unlock their potential and improve their resilience, so they can consistently accomplish their goals and make a positive contribution to the world.

“We have loved having Beck over in the Barossa and helping our female population grow. It has been very rewarding to hear & see the response by everyone who has participated. I look forward to the next steps.” – Mandy Barnes, Treasury Wine Estate

Our Speakers

Marie McLeod

An advocate for activating wellbeing in the face of adversity, Marie McLeod helps individuals, workplaces, families, and communities to find ways to live well, despite our struggles. Drawing on her qualifications in social work, adult education, and positive psychology, and her extensive background in community culture change, Marie designs and delivers Appreciative Inquiry experiences, wellbeing workshops, peer group support programs, and community kindness challenges.

“Thank you so much for such an inspiring presentation.  You were engaging, and I loved the perspective around hope – it fit perfectly with our mission. I’m already thinking about how to incorporate a lot of what you said into goals for my new role.” – Vivienne, Anglicare 

Our Speakers

Jo Murray

Devoted to helping leaders and their teams to show up authentically and connect, Jo unlocks people’s potential and performance by improving their levels of hope, self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism – or what researchers describe as “psychological capital.” Fusing her 30 years of consulting, and learning and development experience in workplaces of all sizes and backgrounds, with a Masters of Applied Positive Psychology, Jo activates and amplifies your training results by tailoring her approach to meet the unique needs of your organization.

“Jo has always been so generous in her concern for my development and wellbeing. So important to have that as a first time CEO. It’s been an absolute privilege to have taken the seven-year journey alongside her.” – CEO, ECMS

Our Speakers

Elise Morris

A disruptor of conventional leadership and people management practices, Elise’s diverse background, and Masters in Applied Positive Psychology, allows her to straddle the commercial realities of organizations, while forming deep human connections to facilitate positive change and extraordinary outcomes. With more than 25 years of global and local human resources experience in corporate and public sector organizations, she helps workplaces to amplify their people’s strengths.

“Elise brings compassion, courage, and connection to all that she does and has an incredible ability to help people ‘wake up’ in a disarming, safe, and powerful way. If you are looking to partner with someone who enacts positive change at the individual, leader, and system level, Elise is well placed to assist.” – Luke Speers, HR Director – ANZ

Our Speakers

Lela McGregor

Committed to enhancing the lives of others through the innovative design and delivery of scientifically-based wellness talks and programs, Lela McGregor helps leaders and their teams to use evidence-based approaches to creatively manage their levels of stress. With more than 25 years of corporate experience in business, sales, and marketing roles throughout Asia and Australia, Lela draws on her Masters of Applied Positive Psychology to design out-of-the-box learning experiences that draw on storytelling and creativity to trigger positive actions that make a real difference to people’s performance and wellbeing.

Our Speakers

Natalie Brain

Passionate about turning unrealized potential into realized results, Natalie Brain helps leaders and teams adapt to changing conditions, consolidate strengths, and cultivate a connection to fuel sustained success. With more than a decade of cross-functional management experience on six continents across technology, healthcare, professional services, Fortune 500, and start-up companies, and leadership roles at social enterprise, non-profit and academic organisations, Natalie fuses her breadth and depth of practical experience with the latest research in business, leadership, and applied positive psychology to deliver leadership development workshops and executive coaching.

Our Speakers

Vanessa King

A master at creating safe spaces for experiential learning and growth, Vanessa King has an enviable knack for unlocking people’s latent potential and their ability to thrive and flourish at work. Vanessa’s Masters in Positive Psychology and her diverse background from working as a chartered accountant, an HR leader, and as a board member and lead positive psychology and workplace expert for the UK based not-for-profit Action for Happiness, allows her to strategically link simple, relevant, and busy-proof content to ignite constructive conversation, connect people with possibility, and inspire individual, and collective, action and sustainable positive change.

Our Speakers

As demand for Michelle’s content has continued to grow it’s become impossible for her to meet this alone.  In 2017, we welcomed a team of amazing speakers – all wonderful researchers, strategists, facilitators, and coaches in workplaces who have been there and done that – to join us in designing and delivering our playful, scientific, actionable talks that help people to thrive, even in challenging times.

Click the speaker image to see their bio and to learn more.