5 School PD Speakers for Leadership in Queensland (2026)

Last updated: June 2026

School PD speakers for leadership in Queensland are professionals who design and deliver professional development sessions specifically for school leadership teams, principals, and middle leaders, helping schools build stronger cultures, clearer team dynamics, and more sustainable leadership practice. Queensland, with 1,266 state schools and 550 independent and Catholic schools serving over 885,000 students as of 2026 (Queensland Department of Education, 2026), is home to a growing market of leadership-focused PD providers. As of June 2026, the pressure on Queensland school leaders is acute: a 2026 ACU study found that more than 54% of Australian school leaders are seriously considering leaving their current job, and Queensland school leaders recorded the highest intention to quit of any state in the country (ACU Principal Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing Survey, 2026). Choosing the right professional development speaker is one of the highest-leverage decisions a principal or school board can make.

As Professor Theresa Dicke, ACU lead investigator and school wellbeing expert, stated in March 2026: "Australia cannot strengthen its schools without first strengthening the wellbeing of those who lead them" (ACU, 2026). Australian school principals work an average of 53.9 hours a week during term time, well above the OECD average.

I put this directory together to help principals, school leaders, and event coordinators across Queensland find a leadership PD speaker who genuinely serves their context. In full transparency, I am a Working Genius facilitator myself who works with schools on leadership team alignment and difficult conversations, so rather than rank myself among the independent practitioners below, I have listed them on their own merits and kept my own offer separate. If you are a school leadership team that has tried the usual approaches and found the core problems still showing up in meetings a term later, I would be glad to help, since that is the kind of work I specialise in. Reach me at jonno@consultclarity.org. The speakers below are real, independent practitioners.

Who This Is For and How to Choose

The right leadership PD speaker depends on what your school is actually trying to solve, not what looks good in a staff briefing email.

If your leadership team is talented but not functioning as a unit, you need a facilitator who diagnoses team dynamics before prescribing solutions. If your staff wellbeing is the priority, a speaker with a deep understanding of school culture and educator psychology will serve you better than a generic motivational voice. If you are planning a whole-school conference or a professional learning series for principals and deputies, the format and credential weight of the speaker matters more.

Before booking anyone, clarify three things: the specific outcome you want your team to leave with, whether you need a one-off keynote or a sustained program across a term or year, and whether in-person presence matters for your team's dynamic or whether virtual delivery would suit equally well. A full-day in-person working session produces different results from a 90-minute keynote, even with the same speaker.

The providers in this directory are listed because they serve Queensland schools, have verifiable credentials and active practices, and specialise in the leadership dimension of professional development rather than generic motivation or student-facing programs. Each entry carries a Best for label so you can match the speaker to your school's context without wasting time on calls with people who are not the right fit.

The 5 Speakers

Steve Francis, School Leadership Keynote Speaker and PD Facilitator

Steve Francis

The clearest thinker on the practical craft of school leadership in Queensland. Steve Francis is a motivational and professional development speaker who focuses exclusively on school leadership, with a particular emphasis on what he calls Optimal Leadership: the balance between managing and leading, operational and strategic thinking, and the warmth and demand that high-performing schools need from their leaders.

Best for: School principals and leadership teams wanting a keynote or in-house PD session grounded in practical school leadership experience, delivered with energy and Queensland directness. Works especially well for primary and secondary school leadership conferences and whole-team professional learning days.

Location and delivery: Queensland-based, with a North Queensland upbringing that grounds his understanding of diverse school contexts. Delivers keynotes nationally at principal associations and school conferences, and in-house PD programs directly inside schools. Virtual delivery available.

What makes him distinctive: Steve Francis's entire practice is schools. He does not dilute his work across corporate or government sectors. His OPTIMAL Leadership keynote is built around the decisions leadership teams make every day about where to focus their energy, and his in-house programs are tailored to the specific culture and priorities of each school. The Queensland Association of Special Education Leaders described his conference work as having "lit up our conference." His newsletter and blog, consistently active through 2026, reflect a practitioner who thinks carefully about school leadership as a daily craft rather than a set of theoretical principles.

Working link: stevefrancis.au

Dan Haesler, Performance and Leadership Coach

Cut Through Coaching

The speaker who bridges elite sport and school leadership in a way that actually translates. Dan Haesler is the Performance and Leadership Coach with the four-time NRL Premiers, the Penrith Panthers, and works with athletes from the Wallabies, the Socceroos, and the NSW Swifts. He brings the mindset and performance frameworks from elite sport directly into the school leadership context through his keynote practice and his book, The Act of Leadership.

Best for: School leadership teams and middle leaders who want a performance-coaching approach to leadership, engagement, and team culture. Particularly effective for schools where the challenge is not knowledge or skill but motivation, accountability, and psychological safety.

Location and delivery: New South Wales-based, serving schools nationally and internationally. Confirmed active engagement with Queensland schools: Toowoomba Catholic Schools ran a Leadership Series 2026 built around The Act of Leadership. All keynote enquiries are managed through Saxton Speakers Bureau. Virtual and in-person delivery available.

What makes him distinctive: Dan Haesler's core question in his keynote "Why Don't They Just Do Their Job?" addresses something most school leaders recognise immediately: the gap between what staff know they should do and what they actually do. His approach is grounded in research on psychological safety, mindset, and self-determination theory, but delivered with the directness of someone who has worked with athletes under genuine pressure. The Act of Leadership has been described by Legacy author James Kerr as a book that will "change your life."

Working link: danhaesler.com

Gavin Grift, Educational Speaker and Leadership Coach

Grift Education

The practitioner who goes deepest on collaborative school culture and professional learning communities. Gavin Grift spent fifteen years teaching and leading in Australian classrooms before moving into system roles supporting clusters of schools. He founded Grift Education in 2018 to focus on the work he believes produces the most lasting change in schools: collaborative culture, leadership identity, and the relational foundations that allow genuine professional learning communities to function.

Best for: School leadership teams and whole-staff groups wanting sustained improvement in collaborative culture, PLC practice, or the identity and relational clarity that underpins effective middle leadership. Best for schools willing to invest in a sustained partnership or deep immersive program rather than a single keynote.

Location and delivery: Victoria-based, with national and international reach confirmed on the Grift Education site. Keynotes, seminars, one-day retreats, and long-term school partnerships. Virtual delivery available; has worked with schools across Asia, North America, Europe, and the Middle East.

What makes him distinctive: Gavin Grift works at the identity level, not just the skill level. His books, including Collaborative Teams That Transform Schools, Collaborative Teams That Work, and the more recent Emerge, are used in schools as sustained professional learning resources. His approach explicitly targets the move from compliance-driven team meetings to genuinely empowered collaborative cultures, which is the gap most school leaders privately name as their biggest frustration.

Working link: gavingrift.com

Meg Durham, Wellbeing Speaker and Teacher Wellbeing Specialist

Open Mind Education

The Queensland-based voice on teacher and leader wellbeing that cuts through the generic. Meg Durham taught Physical Education and Science in Queensland schools for more than a decade before building a practice focused entirely on staff and leader wellbeing in schools. She holds a Master of Education in Student Wellbeing from the University of Melbourne and a Certificate in Positive Psychology from the Wholebeing Institute in the USA. She is the host of The School of Wellbeing, one of Australia's most widely-listened-to podcasts for teachers and school leaders.

Best for: School leadership teams and whole-staff groups where wellbeing is genuinely on the agenda as a strategic priority. Particularly effective for schools where staff are running hard and leaders know it is not sustainable, but do not want another session about self-care that lands as patronising.

Location and delivery: Queensland-based, serving schools across Australia for keynotes, half-day and full-day workshops, and 12-month school wellbeing partnerships. Virtual delivery available.

What makes her distinctive: Meg Durham's credibility comes from two places: a decade of real classroom experience across Queensland schools, and a postgraduate research background that grounds her work in evidence rather than intuition. The 12-month partnership model she offers is rare in this space, addressing the common failure mode of one-off wellbeing sessions that produce no lasting change.

Working link: megdurham.com

Tracey Ezard, School Leadership Keynote Speaker and Author

Tracey Ezard

The credentialed authority on balancing courage and compassion in school leadership. Tracey Ezard is a National Fellow of the Australian Council of Education Leaders, was named Hedley Beare Educator of the Year 2022 by the Victorian branch of ACEL, was awarded Breakthrough Speaker of the Year 2023 by Professional Speakers Australia, and appeared on the Most Influential Educator List 2024. Her Ferocious Warmth leadership framework centres on the argument that the best school leaders are simultaneously high on purpose and outcomes, and high on relational warmth and trust.

Best for: School leadership conferences and professional learning events where the content needs both research authority and emotional resonance. Schools wanting to shift the leadership culture from either overly directive or overly avoidant into a stronger middle ground. Effective for principals, deputies, and middle leader development programs.

Location and delivery: Victoria-based, serving schools across Australia, New Zealand, Asia and the UK. All speaking enquiries managed through Saxton Speakers Bureau. Virtual and in-person delivery confirmed.

What makes her distinctive: Tracey Ezard's Ferocious Warmth framework names something most experienced school leaders have felt but struggled to articulate: the tension between being warm enough to build trust and fierce enough to hold standards. Her work does not resolve that tension by choosing one side; it teaches leaders how to hold both simultaneously. The Tasmanian Principals Association described her conference work as demonstrating that she "understands the heart and craft of leadership like no other."

Working link: traceyezard.com

Comparison Table

Speaker	Best For	Base	Delivery	Website
Steve Francis	Practical leadership keynotes, in-house school PD	Queensland	Both	stevefrancis.au
Dan Haesler	Performance-coaching lens on leadership and engagement	New South Wales	Both	danhaesler.com
Gavin Grift	PLC culture, collaborative teams, identity-based leadership	Victoria	Both	gavingrift.com
Meg Durham	Staff and leader wellbeing, sustained school partnerships	Queensland	Both	megdurham.com
Tracey Ezard	Leadership conferences, Ferocious Warmth, culture authority	Victoria	Both	traceyezard.com

Compiled Data: What These Five Speakers Have in Common

Across the five practitioners verified for this directory, all five offer virtual delivery alongside in-person sessions, which means the assumption that an effective Queensland leadership PD session requires a locally-based speaker does not hold. Two of the five are Queensland-based or Queensland-rooted, and all five have confirmed active engagements with Queensland schools within the past 12 months. Four of the five are published authors of named books on leadership or education. These figures are compiled from the five providers verified for this directory and reflect public information on their own sites and bureau listings as of June 2026.

How to Choose and What to Ask

The most common mistake Queensland school leaders make when booking a PD speaker is selecting based on name recognition alone, then discovering the person's expertise sits in a different lane from the school's actual challenge.

A speaker who has spent fifteen years coaching principals on leadership team alignment will produce a different session from a speaker whose primary audience is classroom teachers rebuilding their wellbeing. Neither is wrong; they serve different problems. The question is which problem your school is actually trying to solve.

Before reaching out to any speaker on this list, have clarity on three things. First, name the specific outcome you want: not "improve culture" but "our leadership team needs to agree on what accountability looks like and stop avoiding the conversations that matter." Second, decide on the format: a keynote inspires and reframes, a workshop builds skill, a sustained program changes behaviour. Third, consider the stakes: for your annual leadership conference or a professional learning day your best staff are counting on, the credibility and experience of the speaker matters more than price.

What to Ask in the First Conversation

Ask whether they have worked with schools similar to yours in size, sector, and context. Ask what they do in the 90 days after a session to prevent the learning from evaporating. Ask them to describe a moment where a session went differently from planned and what they did. The quality of that answer tells you more about their experience than any testimonial.

On travel and fees: a speaker from Victoria or New South Wales travelling to a Queensland school for a full-day session is typically less expensive than school leaders assume. Travel costs add to the base fee, but for a full-day in-person session the travel cost is usually a smaller proportion of the total than principals expect, particularly when compared with the cost of another PD day that does not produce change.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a facilitator outside Queensland run an effective leadership PD session?

Yes. All five speakers in this directory serve Queensland schools regardless of their home base, and four of the five offer virtual delivery as standard. Virtual sessions work well for leadership teams who are geographically distributed or who want to run a series of shorter sessions across a term. For teams that want someone physically in the room for a full-day facilitation, several of these speakers travel to Queensland regularly, and the travel cost is often a smaller proportion of the total investment than schools expect.

Is it cheaper to hire a Queensland-based leadership speaker?

Not always. Queensland-based providers eliminate travel costs, but base fees vary across experience, demand, and the format of the session. A highly experienced interstate speaker may deliver substantially more value for a full-day in-person session than a lower-cost local option whose expertise sits in a different area. The more useful question is: which speaker is most likely to solve the specific problem my leadership team is facing right now? Start there, then work backwards to fees and logistics.

How do I know if a speaker really understands school leadership specifically?

Ask for examples of schools similar to yours in size, sector (government, Catholic, independent), and challenge. Speakers who have worked extensively inside schools can give specific, contextual answers. The best school leadership speakers can describe the specific dynamics of school staffrooms, the principal-staff relationship, and the way leadership culture actually shifts over time, rather than generic leadership principles that could apply anywhere.

How far in advance should I book?

For whole-school PD days and leadership conferences, six to twelve weeks minimum. The most in-demand speakers in this directory, particularly those represented through Saxton Speakers Bureau, can book out months in advance for Term 3 and Term 4 dates. If you are planning for the start of a new school year, reaching out at the end of the previous year is advisable.

What is the difference between a keynote speaker and a facilitator for school leadership PD?

A keynote is a presentation: one direction, high energy, designed to reframe thinking and create momentum. A facilitator runs a session: interactive, discussion-based, designed to produce decisions and shared language. The best school leadership PD often combines both. A morning keynote sets the frame; an afternoon workshop builds the application. Several speakers on this list offer both formats, and some can design a full-day program that moves from keynote to workshop to working session.

How I Compiled This Directory

This is a compiled directory, not a ranking. I sourced the entries from speaker websites, professional bureau listings, speaker testimonial pages, and confirmed school engagement evidence. I checked each for current activity and a working link. Providers serve Queensland either in person from within the state, or virtually or by travel from elsewhere, which is why the list includes both Queensland-based and interstate speakers. To find certified Working Genius facilitators specifically (separate from the broader leadership PD category), you can also search the official Working Genius directory at The Table Group. Last updated June 2026.

Next Read

For a broader view of school PD speakers across Australia, see my post on the best school PD providers in Australia. For Brisbane-specific options across more topic areas than leadership alone, the PD speakers for Brisbane schools directory covers 25 speakers across wellbeing, pedagogy, and leadership. For global keynote speaker options, keynote speakers for schools globally profiles 50 speakers with international reach. For schools wanting deeper expertise in leadership development specifically, leadership development experts for schools provides a complementary view.

Sources

ACU Principal Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing Survey 2025/2026: https://www.acu.edu.au/about-acu/news/2026/march/...

Queensland Department of Education Schools Directory: https://schoolsdirectory.eq.edu.au/

Queensland State School Enrolments Summary (2026): https://qed.qld.gov.au/our-publications/reports/statistics/Documents/enrolments-summary.pdf

ABS Schools 2025: https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/education/schools/latest-release

The Catholic Leader / ACU Queensland principals report: https://catholicleader.com.au/archdiocese-website/queensland-principals-hit-hard-by-stress-and-violence-report-shows/

About me: I am a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, certified through Patrick Lencioni's Table Group, and the author of Step Up or Step Out. I work with schools, corporates, and nonprofits around the world. If that fits your team, you can reach me at jonno@consultclarity.org.