“First do what is necessary. Then do what is possible. And before you know it you are doing the impossible." - Saint Francis
Our board
We are governed by a Board comprised of leaders from within our founding member organisations. The Board is supported at an operational level through a working group comprising representatives from each member organisation.
None of us think we have all the answers, but we're all doing lots of things and in many cases lots of really good things [to support mental health]. The idea is to get together and share what's working with each other.
It’s a chance for businesses to come together as a united voice to pursue a vision of improving workplace mental health, where everyone feels safe to talk about their mental health without fear of stigma or discrimination.
When you genuinely care about mental wellbeing, you have a responsibility to expose yourself to new ideas, new ways of thinking and working. You also have a responsibility to make an impact.
Annette has spent the last 20 years working across Woolworths Group. Annette's roles over the years have included eCommerce, logistics, buying, marketing and replenishment. Annette also led the redesign of our supply chain network which laid out our development and investment roadmap.
Most recently, Annette has been part of the WooliesX scale-up and has spent the last few years building capabilities for our customers and teams in her role as Director of B2C eCommerce. In this role, she grew a highly capable team and worked closely with our supply chain and store operations teams to navigate huge acceleration in this space. During her time in the role, Annette oversaw growth of the WooliesX eCommerce platform from 2% to 11% of our total business.
In her current tole, Annette is responsible for leading Primary Connect, the supply chain arm of Woolworths Group. Annette's team of more than 10,000 support Woolworths, BIG W, BWS and Dan Murphy's stores across the country, providing them with our customer's favourite food, drink and everyday needs items.
Passionate about our customers and team, Annette brings a wealth of experience and passion to the Group Executive team, with a track record of delivering customer-led strategies, delivering change , innovation and scalable ways of working.
We want to help reduce the stigma that comes with talking about it in the workplace. People should be able to go to work and feel safe and comfortable to be their authentic selves, including being able to open up about their mental health.
I love the power of a significant number of Australian business leaders stating that mental health is critically important and that in a way we’re not doing enough, so together we’re going to do more, and we’re going to be better in our organisations and together.
Julie Mitchell is the Chief General Manager Personal Injury and is responsible for personal injury lines CTP, Life and Workers Compensation for Allianz Australia.
Across a 20 year career at Allianz, Julie has held a number of key leadership roles including Chief General Manager Workers Compensation, General Manager of Victoria and the NSW Treasury Managed Fund (TMF) businesses.
Julie has over 24 years of insurance industry experience across workplace injury, claims and operational management. Prior to joining Allianz Julie held roles at WorkCover NSW and has also spent a number of years within the occupational rehabilitation industry.
Julie holds a Bachelor of Health Science (Rehabilitation Counselling) degree from the University of Sydney and a Graduate Diploma of Safety Science through the University of New South Wales.
Lucy has a strong commitment to helping others. Her primary areas of focus are issues facing Women and Girls and Mental Health and Wellbeing, particularly in the workplace. She takes an evidenced based approach to problem solving and social investment.
Lucy has more than 25 years’ experience commercial experience with companies including Macquarie Group and Ernst & Young working in accounting, finance, and organisational psychology. Specifically, Lucy has worked in trusted advisory roles with some of Australia’s leading CEO’s, Managing Partners, Ministers, and Chairs.
After eight years as a Commissioner and Chair of the National Mental Health Commission and Mentally Healthy Workplace Alliance, Lucy is now pursing new interests within the Care sector.
Chair, Diabetes Australia Research Program
Director, Australian Unity Limited
Director, Be Kind Sydney
Governor, Queenwood School
Director, Corporate Mental Health Alliance Australia
Founder & Patron, Sydney Women’s Fund
Silver Medallion, Surf Lifesaving – Patrol at Bilgola Beach
Renae Lattey is the Chief Executive Partner, Australia for King & Wood Mallesons, a top tier international law firm, from Asia, for the world. In her role, Renae is responsible for the development of the firm’s strategy as the Australian practice continues to build on its strong foundation and vision.
KWM continues to focus on building an inclusive and respectful workplace where all individuals and teams can maximise their performance and wellbeing in a sustainable way.
Our ambassadors
There are inevitably times in life when we are stretched and overwhelmed, sometimes to a point when we can’t cope. Workplaces need to support their people through these times and do all they can to ensure that the work environment is not the cause of the problem.
Lauren joined nib in 2018 as Head of People & Culture and was recently promoted to Group Chief People Officer in 2022 to drive and lead nib’s people agenda. She has also been responsible for the design, development and delivery of the diversity, equity and inclusion strategy and policy in her time at nib.
Previously, Lauren held several senior management positions in human resources (HR) for major corporations including BHP and Deloitte. She also worked in London across various executive advisory and HR management roles for leading international mining group, Rio Tinto.
Lauren has 20 years' experience across human resources, diversity, equity and inclusion, organisational design and transformation, talent management and employee engagement. She is also highly skilled in providing strategic advice to Executive teams to foster inclusive organisational cultures to ensure the attraction, development and retention of high performing talent.
Fiona has been Suncorp’s Group Executive, People, Culture & Advocacy since January 2021. In this role, she is responsible for the functions of People & Culture, Corporate Affairs, Customer Advocate and Regulatory Affairs. Fiona previously spent five years as Suncorp’s Chief Risk Officer. Prior to this, Fiona was Chief Risk Officer – Insurance and Associate General Counsel and has held several leadership roles within legal, risk management, compliance, internal audit and customer advocate functions since joining Suncorp in 2001.
Fiona has led Suncorp through significant strategic projects, including risk transformation, mergers and acquisitions, capital raisings, regulatory change, remediation activity and licence consolidation.
Fiona has also been integral in leading her teams through periods of significant change and is passionate about the creation and maintenance of high performing, healthy and supportive workplaces and is an advocate for diversity and inclusion.
As Avanade’s Australia General Manager, Laura leads a team of more than 700 professionals located across Australia, who help clients to deliver innovative solutions through the power of people and Microsoft technology.
Laura launched her Avanade career eight years ago as its Australia Chief Technology Officer. Since then, Laura spent time in London as Avanade’s UK Digital Lead, UK and Ireland (UKI) Chief Operating Officer, and Global Advisory Practice Lead. Laura returned to Sydney in March 2020 to take on the role as Avanade’s Growth Markets Growth & Strategy Lead and has been General Manager of the Australian business since September 2021.
Laura lives in Sydney with her husband and two children. She loves running and music and is a passionate advocate for inclusion and diversity.
By showing our vulnerability as leaders, we teach to our people that it’s okay to not be okay. We start to erode the barriers that have kept people silent for so long.
As a leader, improving mental health starts with a willingness to make yourself vulnerable. If you can accept your own short-comings and open some of those up to others, people feel less alone. That’s all a lot of people in the world want – to feel less alone.
Virginia Briggs is recognised within MinterEllison and beyond as a values driven leader. Virginia has held numerous leadership positions within the firm including being a member of the Executive Leadership Team since 2017; a member of the Board Diversity & Inclusion Committee since 2015 and as a Champion of PRiME the firm’s LGBT+ inclusion network. Virginia is also the Managing Partner of MinterEllison’s Infrastructure, Construction and Property group. She is a market-leading practitioner in the property, development and infrastructure markets acting for both government and private clients. Virginia deals in complex large-scale real estate transactions spanning the development, sale, purchase and leasing of commercial, industrial, residential and retail developments and infrastructure assets.
In each of the leadership roles Virginia holds she is committed to creating an inclusive, psychologically safe workplace for all members of the firm. As Acting CEO & Managing Partner Virginia leads a team that recognises that a workplace environment characterised by psychological safety and wellbeing is as fundamentally important as a physically safe workplace, and this focus is critical to sustainable high performance for individuals and the organisation.
Throughout Virginia’s career she has been a visible champion of the legal profession’s resilience@law initiative and over the last two years an executive sponsor of MinterEllison’s involvement in the CMHAA. Virginia has also personally supported a number of colleagues within the firm, and in the broader profession, through mental health challenges and looks forward to learning more alongside her CEO peers at the CMHAA and playing a leadership role as an advocate for better mental health for all Australians.
