37 Powerful First Nations Business Leaders in Australia

Last updated: June 2026

As of June 2026, First Nations business in Australia is not an emerging story. It is a scaled reality. Indigenous-owned businesses are generating $42.6 billion in social value annually, Supply Nation's verified directory lists more than 5,800 active enterprises, and the sector spans every industry from satellite technology to luxury fashion, infrastructure rehabilitation to equity investment funds competing with ASX benchmarks. The 37 leaders in this directory built that scale.

They are the founders, chief executives, investors, advocates, and creative entrepreneurs who turned a sector once locked out of the economy into one of Australia's most dynamic growth stories. Rather than recycling the same handful of names that appear on every generic list, this directory surfaces the full picture: the ASX-listed mining executive who founded a national scholarship program, the fashion designer showing at Australian Fashion Week 2026, the investment analyst building the country's first Indigenous equity fund, and the salary packaging entrepreneur whose contracts include BHP and Chevron.

These are leaders who genuinely deserve to be far better known, whose work is actively shaping how Australia does business, allocates capital, and understands economic self-determination.

Whether your organisation needs a facilitator who can help your team work more effectively with First Nations communities and businesses, or a keynote that challenges assumptions about leadership in the modern economy, book Jonno White, author of Step Up or Step Out (10,000+ copies sold), through jonno@consultclarity.org. Jonno works globally with corporates, nonprofits, and schools.

Why First Nations Business Matters

The scale of First Nations business leadership in Australia matters because economic self-determination is the mechanism through which communities exercise genuine sovereignty. For generations, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians were legally excluded from owning and operating businesses. The transformation since that period ended is among the most significant and under-reported shifts in Australian economic history.

The numbers confirm the change. Supply Nation enabled over $4.6 billion to flow into the Indigenous economy in 2023-24. Indigenous Business Australia reports that $77 million in business finance was delivered to 172 businesses in 2024-25, helping create or sustain 791 jobs. Supply Nation's 2025 research, The Sleeping Giant Rises, found that for every dollar of revenue, Indigenous businesses generate $3.66 in economic and social value for households, employees, and families.

As of 2025, NSW has more than 940 registered Aboriginal businesses, representing 31 per cent of First Nations businesses nationwide. The charge is being led by Indigenous women, who are creating new businesses at a faster rate than any other cohort in Australia.

These leaders are not simply participating in the economy. They are building a new layer of it, grounded in cultural values, community accountability, and a view of intergenerational wealth that the mainstream market is still learning to understand.

For executive teams and boards seeking to understand how to work more effectively with First Nations businesses and communities, hire Jonno White as a facilitator for your next strategic planning session or offsite. Jonno White, host of The Leadership Conversations Podcast (230+ episodes, 150+ countries), works globally. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

How This List Was Compiled

Every person on this list was selected on three criteria. First, a documented and verifiable contribution to First Nations business in Australia, through founding or leading a business, building capital infrastructure for the sector, or contributing substantively to the advocacy and policy environment that shapes how Indigenous businesses operate. Second, active engagement in 2025 or 2026. Third, a deliberate effort to surface voices from across the country and across sectors, from construction and resources to technology, fashion, finance, media, and cultural enterprise.

This directory does not claim to be exhaustive. First Nations business in Australia has more excellent leaders than any single list can hold.

Category 1: Trailblazers at the Corporate Frontier

These leaders have broken through into the highest levels of corporate Australia, holding roles on ASX boards and in executive positions where First Nations representation has historically been almost entirely absent. Their presence changes what is possible for the leaders who come after them. Currently, only a handful of Indigenous Australians serve as directors on ASX 300 boards, a figure Colleen Hayward AM has described publicly as starkly insufficient given the expertise and value First Nations leaders bring to governance.

1. Brad Welsh

A proud Muruwari man, Brad Welsh became the first Indigenous CEO and Managing Director of an ASX-listed minerals company when he took the leadership of Energy Resources of Australia, responsible for one of the world's most complex mine-site rehabilitation projects. His career spans more than 25 years across mining, government, and private sector leadership, including serving as General Manager of Rio Tinto's Weipa bauxite operation in northern Queensland, the first Indigenous general manager of operations in Rio Tinto's history.

In October 2025, Welsh founded Mawal, a world-leading leadership program offering 60 full scholarships backed by BHP, Soul Patts, Ampol, Jarden, and Indigenous Capital Limited, and supported by the University of Sydney. The program is designed to equip Indigenous Australians with the skills to secure senior corporate roles with material financial and commercial accountability. Welsh's founding statement reflects his conviction: for a culture to thrive, it must be able to manage capital and risk, skills his people have applied for 65,000 years.

2. Ben Wyatt

Renowned as the first Indigenous Treasurer of any Australian state or territory and the first Indigenous person appointed to the board of an ASX-200 company, Yamatji man Ben Wyatt has been one of the most consequential voices in Australian economic policy for more than a decade. His tenure as Western Australia's Treasurer from 2017 to 2021 coincided with the state's resources boom, and his management of that revenue gave him a national platform on economic development, Indigenous land rights, and the intersection of native title and commercial opportunity.

Since leaving parliament, Wyatt has built a corporate advisory and board career that includes serving on the board of Rio Tinto. His consistent argument, that economic inclusion and cultural respect are not competing values but mutually reinforcing ones, has shaped how major resource companies approach Indigenous partnerships.

3. Colleen Hayward AM

As a highly respected Noongar Elder from Western Australia with deep experience across health, education, and community development, Colleen Hayward AM holds an appointment as an independent non-executive director at Mineral Resources. Her impact on the company has been direct: under her engagement, MinRes's spending with Indigenous-owned businesses grew from $2.6 million in FY21 to $68 million in FY24, benefiting 44 Indigenous businesses.

Her perspective on business and country is unequivocal: every bit of business that happens in this country happens on Aboriginal land, and companies that understand that reality engage meaningfully and durably with traditional owners and Indigenous communities.

4. Phillipa McDermott

Phillipa McDermott is a Yugambeh woman whose career bridges corporate professional services and Australia's leading cultural institutions. She held the role of Director of First Nations Talent at Deloitte Australia, following nearly a decade as Head of Indigenous Employment at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. At the ABC, she oversaw a systemic shift in how Indigenous languages, names, and Acknowledgements of Country were embedded across television, radio, and digital output, driving representation from inside a major national institution.

She is Chair of Bangarra Dance Theatre, Australia's leading Indigenous performing arts company. Her work across both corporate professional services and cultural institutions makes her one of the most influential connectors between the two worlds.

5. Tanya Hosch

Tanya Hosch is a nationally respected leader with a long history in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander policy, governance, and public advocacy. She served as the first Indigenous person and second woman appointed to the AFL's executive ranks, driving significant advances in social inclusion across the code as Executive General Manager of Inclusion and Social Policy. She is now Co-Chair of the First Nations Advisory Group for the National Australia Bank, a Director of the Coaxial Foundation and the National Library of Australia, and a member of the Australian National University Council.

Her ability to operate at the intersection of sport, policy, corporate governance, and cultural advocacy reflects the breadth possible in senior Indigenous leadership.

6. Darren Godwell

A proud descendant of the Kokoberren peoples of Cape York, Darren Godwell serves as Chair of Indigenous Business Australia and CEO of i2i Global, an Indigenous-owned and Indigenous-led advisory company. He brings more than 25 years of experience in Indigenous enterprise and economic development, including four years as an adviser to the World Bank and executive education at INSEAD and MIT Sloan Management School.

The IBA Strategy Towards 2030 he helped architect commits to mobilising between $5 billion and $7 billion over five years to advance First Nations commercial and economic interests, including through capital market engagement and major project facilitation.

Category 2: Enterprise Builders

These are the entrepreneurs who built businesses from the ground up and scaled them into entities that employ people, win national awards, and compete at the highest levels of their sectors. Their companies are the infrastructure of the Indigenous economy. What distinguishes this group is not simply that they built businesses, but that they consistently entered sectors where Aboriginal enterprise was previously absent.

7. Kim Collard

Balladong-Whadjuk man of the Noongar Nation Kim Collard is the Executive Chairman of Kulbardi, Australia's largest Aboriginal-owned office supplies company, and Executive Chairman of Kooya, the country's largest Aboriginal-owned fleet services business. Over three decades, he built two of the most significant Indigenous-owned enterprises in the country by identifying markets where Aboriginal businesses were essentially absent.

He was recognised as Male Elder of the Year at the 2024 National NAIDOC Awards and established the Bibbulmun Fund, which directs five per cent of company profits to community programs and has raised over $1.4 million supporting 19 charitable organisations.

8. Sharna Collard

Balladong and Wilmen Noongar woman Sharna Collard is the CEO of Kooya Australia Fleet Solutions, which she co-founded in 2015 and has led as chief executive since 2019. Kooya is the first and largest Aboriginal-owned salary packaging company in Australia, holding contracts with BHP, Telstra, and Chevron. In 2022, she led the company's transition to full Aboriginal ownership, which she has described as one of the best decisions the business ever made.

She has argued publicly that better standardisation of joint venture agreements is essential to ensuring Aboriginal businesses retain genuine ownership and control over time. Her leadership through the ownership transition has made Kooya one of the most cited examples of Indigenous business self-determination in commercial enterprise.

9. Gordon Cole

Noongar man Gordon Cole is the CEO of Cole Supplies, the Indigenous-owned wholesaler he co-founded in 2013, specialising in workwear, safety, health, medical, and industrial products. He is Chair of the Noongar Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which represents hundreds of Indigenous businesses across Western Australia, and a board director of First Australians Capital.

He describes the Indigenous business sector as being on an unprecedented growth trajectory. His dual role as a commercial operator and chair of the sector's key representative body in WA gives him unusual reach across both commercial and advocacy dimensions.

10. Jasmine Kadic

Jasmine Kadic is a Whadjuk and Ballardong Noongar woman and Managing Director of Benang, a contracting firm that has grown since 2018 to more than 50 staff servicing the water, power, gas, and mining industries in Western Australia. Benang was named Indigenous Business of the Year in Western Australia. She is also Chair of Noongar Mia Mia, an Aboriginal housing provider.

A MURRA alumni from the University of Melbourne Business School, her ability to build a substantial industrial contractor while simultaneously chairing a community housing organisation reflects a kind of dual accountability that characterises many of the most effective First Nations business leaders.

11. Amanda Healy

Amanda Healy is the CEO of Warrikal, one of Australia's most successful Indigenous-owned engineering companies, providing employment and training opportunities for Indigenous people in the resources sector. She is simultaneously the CEO of Kirrikin, an Indigenous luxury fashion brand that transforms First Nations artworks into globally recognised fashion, with royalties returning directly to the artists.

Her view on Indigenous business is direct: businesses need to be taken seriously at the highest possible level, operating and performing comparably to any other organisation of their size and scope.

12. Zak Kirkup

Zak Kirkup is a Yamatji man and Managing Director of a group of Aboriginal-owned companies in Western Australia, known as Chalkwest, operating across construction services, vehicle rental, infrastructure, and professional services, making them one of WA's largest Aboriginal employers. He is also the editor of The Indigenous Business Review, the first Australian publication dedicated solely to Indigenous-owned businesses and Indigenous business leadership.

His May 2026 article called for Aboriginal businesses to move from supplier diversity to genuine business diversity, expanding participation beyond procurement into the core economy.

13. Ray Pratt

Ray Pratt is the founder of DICE Aust, which delivers infrastructure, renewable energy, and essential services projects across remote Australia. In 2025, DICE Aust won the Telstra National Indigenous Excellence Award, recognising its contribution to economic development and employment in remote communities.

Pratt built DICE into a significant remote infrastructure contractor by combining commercial competence with an understanding of the specific challenges and opportunities that remote economies represent for First Nations enterprise.

14. Tammy O'Connor

Tammy O'Connor is Founder and Managing Director of KingKira Group and was named Indigenous Businesswoman of the Year at the Supply Nation Supplier Diversity Awards in August 2025, at Australia's largest Indigenous business event at ICC Sydney, attended by more than 4,000 participants. Her recognition at the most prominent annual celebration of First Nations business in the country placed her among the sector's most celebrated operators of the year.

Bring Jonno White in to facilitate your next executive offsite or leadership workshop. Jonno White, Certified Working Genius Facilitator and author of Step Up or Step Out (10,000+ copies sold), works with organisations globally. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Category 3: Capital, Finance and Investment

These leaders are changing how capital flows toward Indigenous businesses, closing the structural gap in access to finance that has constrained Indigenous enterprise for generations. The challenge is structural: low intergenerational wealth transfer and lower home ownership rates have historically made commercial lending difficult for First Nations businesses. These five leaders are working on that problem through investment funds, impact capital, advocacy, and institutional reform.

15. Jocelyn King

Jocelyn King is a proud Aboriginal woman born and raised on the lands of the Gadigal people and Co-Founder and Chair of First Australians Capital, an Indigenous-led organisation providing capacity building and access to capital for Indigenous businesses. FAC has $18.5 million under management in its Catalytic Impact Fund, with investors including the Visa Foundation and Square.

She has said that First Australians Capital started largely because Aboriginal people had been both legislatively and structurally excluded from participating in the economy, and her 10-year Radical Possibilities strategy aims to ensure that exclusion cannot persist in the next generation.

16. Brian Wyborn

Brian Wyborn is a Torres Strait Islander and Papua New Guinea man who currently serves as Chief Investment Officer of Aboriginal Investment NT, which manages a $600 million-plus strategic investment plan to drive Aboriginal-led development across the Northern Territory. He previously served as Managing Partner of First Australians Capital.

In April 2026, he presented the First Australian Equity Fund at the FGII Market Information Day in Adelaide, reporting returns of 13.9 per cent net of fees in its first year, approximately two per cent ahead of ASX benchmarks, while maintaining a First Nations Outcomes Index ahead of benchmark.

17. Adam Davids

Adam Davids is a proud Wiradjuri man and Managing Director and Founder of First Nations Equity Partners, a 100 per cent Indigenous-owned social enterprise committed to advancing the inclusion of Indigenous Australians in the ASX 200. He is also Chair of CareerTrackers and a Non-Executive Director of Social Ventures Australia.

In 2025, he called for the sector to evolve from supplier diversity to business diversity, arguing that Indigenous businesses should be regarded not only as suppliers but as organisations servicing the core of the economy.

18. Leah Armstrong

Leah Armstrong is a Torres Strait Islander woman with more than 30 years of business and not-for-profit experience and is currently Managing Director of Core Insights Advisory Services and Interim Director of the ANU Centre for Indigenous Economic Transformation. She is the patron of the Leah Armstrong Scholarship, which supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women studying economics, finance, and business.

She serves on the DFAT pilot First Nations Trade and Investment Advisory Group and is an Australian co-representative of the Indigenous Peoples Economic Trade Co-operation Agreement Partnership Council.

19. Sean Armistead

Sean Armistead is a senior executive at Indigenous Business Australia, with traditional lands at Padthaway in South Australia. He joined IBA in June 2020 and has led programs resulting in the employment of more than 900 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and tens of millions of dollars procured through Indigenous businesses. He co-founded CareerTrackers, connecting Indigenous university students with corporate internships.

As one of IBA's key operational executives alongside CEO David Knights, he is central to the implementation of the Strategy Towards 2030, which commits to mobilising between $5 billion and $7 billion over five years to advance First Nations economic interests.

Category 4: Technology and Digital Innovation

These three leaders are building Australia's Indigenous digital economy, using technology to assert sovereignty over culture, data, and narrative. The sector is growing rapidly: in 2025, the Indigenous Digital Inventiveness Award was won by Virtual Songlines for its interactive platform reclaiming First Nations narratives through digital Country.

20. Mikaela Jade

Mikaela Jade is a Cabrogal woman from the Dharug-speaking nation of Sydney and the Founder and CEO of Indigital, which uses augmented reality technology to embed Indigenous stories and history into the mainstream. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, a 2022 Schwab Foundation Social Innovator of the Year, and a 2021 Indigenous Leader of the Year at the Women in Digital Awards.

Her work connects cultural authority with commercial technology in a way that creates genuine economic value for Indigenous communities while expanding access to knowledge systems that are 65,000 years old.

21. Dean Foley

Dean Foley is a Gomeroi man and Founder and CEO of Barayamal, Australia's leading Indigenous startup accelerator. In 2025 and 2026, Barayamal was funded by the NSW Government to deliver a pre-accelerator supporting up to 80 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander founders, including micro-grants to reduce barriers to participation. Foley is a former member of Microsoft's Reconciliation Action Plan Advisory Board.

He led Australia's first Indigenous charity hackathon and has been one of the most consistent voices on what Aboriginal entrepreneurship in the technology sector looks like in practice.

22. Rick Macourt

Associate Professor Rick Macourt is a proud, queer Gumbaynggirr man, lawyer, and economic specialist who co-founded First Nations Economics in 2023 with Shaun Cumming. He leads the organisation as Managing Director of Strategy and Foundation and serves concurrently as Associate Dean of First Nations Strategy and Services at the University of Sydney. He is a published author with Oxford University Press and a Non-Executive Director of Barnardos Australia.

In 2025, the NSW Government funded First Nations Economics to deliver a culturally safe program for up to 60 First Nations women through mentoring, business capability development, and entrepreneurship pathways. His nomination for Supply Nation's Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2025 reflected the speed with which First Nations Economics has grown into a nationally significant institution for economic policy and scholarship support.

Category 5: Policy, Advocacy and Economic Architecture

These leaders are working at the systems level, shaping the policy environment, economic frameworks, and advocacy infrastructure that determine the conditions under which First Nations businesses operate. Their influence is structural rather than transactional, and their reach extends well beyond any individual business.

23. Noel Pearson

Hailing from the Guugu Yimidhirr community of Hope Vale on the southeastern Cape York Peninsula, Noel Pearson is among Australia's most influential voices on Indigenous economic development and self-determination. He founded the Cape York Partnership in 1999 and later established the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership in 2004, both focused on empowering Indigenous families and communities to pursue lives of value, freedom, and economic prosperity.

His arguments for the structural conditions of Indigenous economic participation have shaped national policy debates for more than two decades. He serves on the board of Fortescue Metals Group, extending his influence directly into corporate resource sector governance.

24. Wayne Bergmann

Wayne Bergmann is the Managing Director of Leedal Pty Ltd and Executive Chair and co-owner of the National Indigenous Times. He previously served as CEO of the Kimberley Land Council, where he negotiated multibillion-dollar native title agreements that transformed the economic landscape for Kimberley Aboriginal communities. He is a Professor of Practice at the University of NSW and a published author.

His career arc from native title negotiator to media proprietor to academic is unusual in its breadth, and his persistence through repeated obstacles has shaped his public philosophy: with grit and determination, you can do anything.

25. Shelley Reys AO

Shelley Reys AO is a Djiribul woman of far north Queensland and CEO of Arrilla Indigenous Consulting, which she established nearly 30 years ago. She is the inaugural Co-Chair of Reconciliation Australia, Vice-Chair of the National Australia Day Council, and Chair of the Council for the Order of Australia. Her background working with the Disability Royal Commission and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples gives her a global lens on Indigenous business and governance.

Her consistent argument is that genuine self-determination requires structural change, not improved service delivery within systems that were not designed with Aboriginal communities as their primary consideration.

26. Phil Usher

Phil Usher is a proud Wiradjuri man who served as CEO of First Nations Foundation from 2020 until 2025, leading the organisation's work on financial capability and economic development for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Under his leadership, First Nations Foundation expanded its national financial wellbeing programs and strengthened its role connecting Indigenous communities with superannuation, financial literacy, and economic participation pathways.

His work at the intersection of financial literacy, governance, and economic development has made him one of the sector's more strategically positioned voices on the capital formation challenge facing First Nations businesses.

27. Sean Gordon

Sean Gordon is a proud Wangkumarra and Barkindji man, based on Awabakal Country, who chairs the CBA Indigenous Advisory Council at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. In 2025, he was centrally involved in the landmark Memorandum of Understanding between IBA and CBA, which committed both institutions to co-developing innovative financial solutions and expanding access to finance for First Nations customers, businesses, and communities.

His career in Indigenous economic development and governance spans multiple decades and institutions, and his ability to work effectively at the interface between government, community, and major financial institutions has made him a trusted figure across all three.

Category 6: Creative Economy and Cultural Enterprise

These leaders are building Australia's Indigenous creative economy, recognising that cultural enterprise is not peripheral to economic development but one of its most powerful drivers. First Nations businesses in this sector have a genuine competitive advantage grounded in cultural authority, creative distinctiveness, and a growing global market for authentic Australian Indigenous culture.

28. Denni Francisco

Wiradjuri woman Denni Francisco is the Founder and Designer of Ngali, a sustainable womenswear label she founded in 2018 that collaborates with First Nations artists to transpose their artworks onto premium silk garments. Ngali translates to "we" or "us" in several Aboriginal languages, reflecting the brand's ethos of collective creation. Francisco showed at Australian Fashion Week in May 2026, was featured at the National Gallery of Victoria, and won Indigenous Designer of the Year at the 2023 Australian Fashion Laureate.

Her model supports artists through royalties and passive income streams and has expanded access to First Nations culture in markets across Australia and internationally.

29. Wayne Denning

Birri Gubba and Guugu Yimidhirr man Wayne Denning is the Managing Director and owner of Carbon Creative, which he founded in Brisbane in 2006 to create more positive representation of First Nations Australians in mainstream Australian media. In 2024, Carbon Creative won both a global Anthem Award and an Australian Good Design Award for its brand work on tarkiner, an Aboriginal community product from the Tarkine in Tasmania, sold at Bunnings in partnership with Seasol.

In September 2025, Carbon Creative opened a new Sydney office to meet growing national demand, a significant expansion that reflects the sustained commercial success of one of Australia's longest-established Indigenous-owned creative agencies.

30. Mundanara Bayles

Mundanara Bayles is a Wonnarua, Bunjalung, Birri-Gubba and Gungalu woman and Co-Founder and CEO of BlackCard, a cultural capability training organisation she co-founded with Dr Lilla Watson. In May 2026, she co-founded HAVAS Blak in partnership with HAVAS Red, a first-of-its-kind First Nations communications offering designed to embed Indigenous perspectives into mainstream Australian communications at scale.

She also co-hosts the Culture Capital podcast, launched in 2026 to shift the leadership conversation from optics to accountability. Her podcast Black Magic Woman has built a substantial audience around First Nations stories, leadership, and culture.

31. Rachael Sarra

Rachael Sarra is a proud Aboriginal woman from Queensland and a creative strategist whose work spans content, marketing, and cultural engagement. She is a patron of Girl Shaped Flames, committed to supporting the next generation of female leaders and entrepreneurs in Queensland. She spoke at Content Summit Australia 2026, offering a widely noted perspective on the responsibility of ethical marketing.

She posts regularly on LinkedIn on First Nations business, culture, and leadership, and her profile reflects the growing importance of First Nations perspectives in the national marketing and communications conversation.

32. Charlene Davidson

Charlene Davidson is a Biripi and Gadigal woman and CEO of the GO Foundation, the scholarship and education organisation co-founded by Adam Goodes and Michael O'Loughlin. In 2025, she welcomed Governor-General Sam Mostyn as an official Patron of the Foundation. Her leadership of the GO Foundation connects the commercial success of First Nations business leaders directly to community outcomes.

The most powerful Indigenous business models generate social value far beyond their immediate commercial operations, and the GO Foundation under Davidson's leadership is among the clearest demonstrations of that principle.

Category 7: Workforce, Supply Chain and Sector Infrastructure

These leaders are building the visible, operational infrastructure of the Indigenous economy: the businesses that employ people, fill contracts, win awards, and demonstrate what First Nations enterprise looks like at scale.

33. Kate Russell

A proud Awabakal woman, Kate Russell is CEO of Supply Nation, Australia's largest Indigenous supplier diversity body and operator of Indigenous Business Direct, the national directory of more than 5,800 verified Indigenous businesses. Under her leadership, Supply Nation enabled over $4.6 billion to the Indigenous economy in 2023-24 and published The Sleeping Giant Rises, finding that Indigenous businesses generate $42.6 billion in social value annually.

She led Supply Nation through Connect 2025, which attracted 280 exhibiting Indigenous businesses and more than 4,000 participants, the largest Indigenous business gathering in Australian history.

34. Steven Fordham

Steven Fordham is the Founder of Blackrock Industries and was named the winner of Supply Nation's Sam Tjengala Reuben Award for Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2025, at Australia's largest Indigenous business event at ICC Sydney. His recognition came in a year in which Supply Nation leadership described the sector as demonstrating remarkable resilience, optimism, and commitment to cultural values.

His emergence as a nationally recognised young entrepreneur reflects the pipeline of new talent entering the sector through pathways built by earlier generations of First Nations business leaders.

35. Adam Goodes

A proud Adnyamathanha and Narungga man, Adam Goodes is the CEO and Co-Founder of the Indigenous Defence and Infrastructure Consortium (iDiC), which works to increase the participation of Indigenous companies in long-term, nation-building infrastructure and defence projects. He co-founded the GO Foundation in 2009 to improve access to education for Indigenous youth. He was the 2014 Australian of the Year.

In 2024, iDiC and Boeing Defence Australia won Supply Nation's Supplier Diversity Partnership of the Year. Since retiring from football, his career has been built entirely around expanding Indigenous economic participation.

36. Belinda Kendall

Belinda Kendall is a Barkindji, Wailwan, Worimi, and Wiradjuri woman and Co-CEO of Curijo Pty Ltd, a Canberra-based consulting firm that became wholly Aboriginal and female-owned in November 2023 and rebranded in May 2025. Curijo delivers cultural awareness training, Aboriginal community consultation, reconciliation action plan support, and research services.

In the IWGIA Indigenous World 2026, Curijo was cited as an example of Aboriginal women building wealth, health, and prosperity through enterprise. Kendall's leadership of the firm through its ownership transition is a model of Aboriginal self-determination in professional services.

Category 8: Financial Capability and Workforce Development

This final category brings together a leader working at the intersection of workforce development and Indigenous economic empowerment, demonstrating that the business case for First Nations inclusion extends well beyond compliance and procurement.

37. Tara Croker

Tara Croker is a proud Wiradjuri Yinaa woman and Founder of Yaala Sparkling, a drinks business that infuses sparkling water with native Australian botanicals such as Davidson plum, waratah, and lemon myrtle. In 2025, Yaala Sparkling was a finalist for Supply Nation's Sam Tjengala Reuben Award for Young Entrepreneur of the Year and in May 2025 broke through onto Amazon Australia, marking a significant expansion into online retail.

Her business is among the most cited examples of First Nations entrepreneurs building commercially viable consumer brands grounded in Australian native ingredients, creating economic value from Country while expanding awareness of Indigenous botanical knowledge.

For organisations looking to build leadership cultures that genuinely engage with First Nations perspectives, bring Jonno White in for your next workshop, keynote, or offsite. Jonno White, Certified Working Genius Facilitator and author of Step Up or Step Out (10,000+ copies sold), works globally with corporates, nonprofits, and schools. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Notable Voices We Almost Included

Any list of this kind involves difficult decisions. The names that appear most frequently on generic leadership lists worldwide, including writers like Brene Brown, Adam Grant, Simon Sinek, and Daniel Pink, are deliberately absent here. They appear on every other list. This directory was designed to move past the obvious and into the specific.

Within the First Nations business space itself, there are dozens of leaders whose work is equally significant to those featured, from individual business owners recognised in state-level awards to peak body executives and regional development leaders whose influence is profound but whose public profile is smaller.

Particular mention belongs to the leadership of Aboriginal Investment NT (which manages one of the largest Indigenous-controlled investment pools in the country), the chambers of commerce and industry operating across WA, Queensland, and the NT, and the growing cohort of First Nations professionals entering finance, law, and engineering through programs like CareerTrackers and Barayamal.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Engaging with First Nations Business

The most common mistake organisations make when engaging with First Nations businesses is treating supplier diversity as a compliance exercise rather than a commercial strategy. Supply Nation research has shown that every dollar spent with a verified Indigenous business generates $3.66 in economic and social value. Organisations that treat Indigenous procurement as a cost or a reporting requirement miss the commercial logic entirely.

A second mistake is engaging with First Nations businesses only through procurement channels, without considering investment, partnership, or board representation. The leaders in this directory are not looking for charity procurement. They are running competitive businesses, and the organisations that engage them as genuine commercial partners rather than diversity statistics build the most durable relationships.

A third mistake is assuming that First Nations business leadership is concentrated in a handful of well-known names. As this directory demonstrates, the sector is deep, geographically distributed, and growing in sectors as varied as equity investment, augmented reality technology, luxury fashion, and remote infrastructure.

A fourth mistake is failing to understand the intergenerational dimension of First Nations business. Many of the leaders in this directory are explicitly building not for this quarter but for the next generation. The Bibbulmun Fund, the Leah Armstrong Scholarship, the GO Foundation, and the Mawal leadership program are all examples of business leaders using commercial success to create structural change. Organisations that want to be trusted partners in that work need to think at a similar timescale.

A fifth mistake is treating First Nations economic development as a subset of corporate social responsibility rather than as a distinct field with its own logic, grounded in self-determination, land rights, and community governance. The leaders in this directory are not asking to be included in someone else's model. They are building their own.

Implementation Guide: How to Engage with First Nations Business

The single most effective action an organisation can take to engage meaningfully with First Nations business is to register with Supply Nation and commit to verified Indigenous procurement. Supply Nation's Indigenous Business Direct directory lists more than 5,800 verified businesses across every sector. The verification process is rigorous, and procuring from it is the fastest way to ensure procurement spend is reaching genuinely Indigenous-owned enterprises.

The second action is to move beyond transactional procurement into strategic partnership. The leaders in this directory are not primarily interested in one-off contracts. They are building businesses for the long term, and they respond to organisations that invest in the relationship, provide feedback, and create pathways for growth. The most successful corporate-Indigenous business relationships in Australia, including MinRes's engagement under Colleen Hayward AM, share a common feature: the corporate party committed to the relationship before the commercial results were guaranteed.

The third action is to pursue Indigenous board representation actively rather than passively. Ben Wyatt has noted that the number of Indigenous directors on ASX 300 boards remains starkly low. Programs like Mawal are building the next generation of Indigenous leaders with board-level commercial skills. Organisations that want to be ahead of this shift should be actively recruiting now.

The fourth action is to invest in First Nations economic infrastructure directly. First Australians Capital, Indigenous Business Australia, Aboriginal Investment NT, and First Nations Economics are all building the financial and policy architecture that the sector needs to grow. Corporate investment in these institutions creates returns that compound over time in ways that procurement alone cannot.

The fifth action is to build cultural capability inside your organisation. Mundanara Bayles, Belinda Kendall, Shelley Reys AO, and others in this directory offer cultural capability programs that help organisations develop the internal competency to engage with First Nations businesses and communities effectively. Without that internal capability, even well-intentioned procurement programs tend to underperform.

The sixth action is to follow these 37 leaders on LinkedIn and engage substantively with their content. They are producing some of the most thoughtful writing on business, economic development, and leadership in Australia. Following them is not a symbolic gesture. It is a practical way to stay current on one of the most dynamic sectors in the Australian economy.

If your organisation wants support building the leadership conversations, team dynamics, and facilitation skills that allow genuine engagement with First Nations business to work in practice, email jonno@consultclarity.org. Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator and author of Step Up or Step Out (10,000+ copies sold). International travel is often far more affordable than organisations expect.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who are the most influential First Nations business leaders in Australia in 2026?

Among the most influential First Nations business leaders in Australia in 2026 are Brad Welsh, the first Indigenous CEO of an ASX-listed minerals company, Kate Russell, CEO of Supply Nation, and Darren Godwell, Chair of Indigenous Business Australia. The sector spans construction, technology, fashion, investment, and media, and the 37 leaders in this directory represent that full range.

How big is the First Nations business sector in Australia?

As of 2025, Supply Nation verifies more than 5,800 Indigenous-owned businesses across Australia. Supply Nation enabled over $4.6 billion to flow to the Indigenous economy in 2023-24. Research by Supply Nation found that Indigenous businesses generate $42.6 billion in social value annually. NSW alone has over 940 registered Aboriginal businesses, representing 31 per cent of First Nations businesses nationwide.

What is Supply Nation and how does it support First Nations business?

Supply Nation is Australia's national supplier diversity organisation, founded in 2009, which operates Indigenous Business Direct, the national directory of more than 5,800 verified Indigenous-owned businesses. It connects verified Indigenous suppliers with corporate, government, and not-for-profit buyers, and hosts the annual Connect event, Australia's largest Indigenous business gathering.

How can my organisation support First Nations businesses?

Organisations can support First Nations businesses by registering with Supply Nation and committing to verified Indigenous procurement, pursuing active board representation and partnership rather than transactional procurement, investing in First Nations economic infrastructure through organisations like First Australians Capital and Indigenous Business Australia, and building cultural capability internally through programs offered by leaders like Mundanara Bayles and Belinda Kendall.

What is the Leah Armstrong Scholarship?

The Leah Armstrong Scholarship is a program led by First Nations Economics that provides up to $20,000 per year for three years to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women pursuing study in economics, finance, business, or community governance. The scholarship is valued at up to $60,000 per recipient and was established to address significant underrepresentation of First Nations women in finance and economics professions.

Final Thoughts

The 37 leaders in this directory are building something that did not exist a generation ago: a deep, commercially serious, geographically distributed First Nations business sector in Australia. They are doing it in sectors that were previously closed to Aboriginal enterprise, at a scale that the mainstream business community is still catching up to understand, and with a clarity of purpose rooted in self-determination rather than recognition.

For anyone who wants to understand how Australia's economy is genuinely changing, following these leaders is essential. For any thought leader in social enterprise in Australia and New Zealand working on the intersection of purpose and commercial sustainability, for a related directory see our blog post on thought leaders in social enterprise in Australia and New Zealand at https://www.consultclarity.org/post/thought-leaders-social-enterprise-anz.

For organisations working in the not-for-profit space alongside First Nations communities, a related directory of NFP leaders shaping Australia and New Zealand is available at https://www.consultclarity.org/post/nfp-leaders-australia-new-zealand.

The businesses and institutions these leaders are building will shape the Australian economy for the next generation. The question is not whether you want to engage. It is whether you are ready.

To explore how your organisation can build the leadership capability and cultural competency to engage meaningfully with First Nations businesses and communities, email jonno@consultclarity.org. Jonno White, founder of The 7 Questions Movement (6,000+ leaders) and Certified Working Genius Facilitator, works globally with corporates, nonprofits, and schools.

About the Author

Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, author of Step Up or Step Out, and leadership consultant who has worked with schools, corporates, and nonprofits around the world. His book Step Up or Step Out has sold over 10,000 copies globally, and his podcast The Leadership Conversations has featured 230+ episodes reaching listeners in 150+ countries. Jonno founded The 7 Questions Movement with 6,000+ participating leaders and achieved a 93.75% satisfaction rating for his Working Genius masterclass at the ASBA 2025 National Conference. Based in Brisbane, Australia, Jonno works globally and regularly travels for speaking and facilitation engagements.

Organisations consistently find that international travel is far more affordable than expected. To book Jonno for your next keynote, workshop, or facilitation session, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Sources

Supply Nation (2024). Annual supply chain data and Indigenous Business Direct directory statistics. Supply Nation (2025). The Sleeping Giant Rises research report.

Indigenous Business Australia (2025). IBA 2024-25 business finance delivery data. NSW Treasury (2025). NSW Aboriginal Business Sector Report.

IBA Chair Darren Godwell (October 2025). IBA 2030 Strategy LinkedIn article, reproduced at iba.gov.au.

Next Read

For a broader look at the leaders building purpose-driven organisations across Australia and New Zealand, the following related directory explores the thought leaders shaping social enterprise, impact investment, and Indigenous economic development in the ANZ region.

Keep reading: "50 Essential Thought Leaders in Social Enterprise ANZ" at https://www.consultclarity.org/post/thought-leaders-social-enterprise-anz