50 Essential Thought Leaders in Social Enterprise ANZ

Introduction

If you work in the purpose-driven economy in Australia or New Zealand right now, you already know that the questions landing on sector leaders' desks in 2026 are bigger, more interconnected, and more consequential than anything the field faced a decade ago. Social enterprise is no longer a fringe concept reserved for community groups running secondhand bookshops. It is a $21.3 billion sector employing more than 206,000 Australians, a growing force in government procurement, a destination for sophisticated impact investment, and a vehicle through which First Nations communities, refugees, and people experiencing disadvantage are building economic futures on their own terms.

Yet despite this scale, many of the people shaping the field's direction remain relatively unknown outside the sector. The most prominent household names in leadership and business rarely surface the work happening in this space. The founders building Melbourne's most innovative youth enterprises, the researchers at the Centre for Social Impact publishing the data that drives policy, the peak body leaders unlocking millions in federal funding, the New Zealand social entrepreneurs operating without the structural support their Australian counterparts receive: these are the people who deserve a wider audience.

The Centre for Social Impact's landmark August 2025 State of the Social Economy report confirmed that the social economy represents an estimated 7 to 10 percent of global GDP. In Australia, this work remains underquantified, which is one reason why the research community, the peak bodies, and the enterprise operators on this list are so consequential: they are building the evidence base that will shape the next decade of investment and policy.

This list brings together 50 voices from across Australia and New Zealand who are building, funding, advocating for, researching, and reimagining what the impact economy can be. They span social enterprise operators, peak body leaders, impact investors, researchers, philanthropists, First Nations economic development leaders, government changemakers, and the ecosystem builders who connect them all. The list was compiled to move past the household names readers are likely already familiar with, and surface the practitioners, academics, and builders who are doing some of the most consequential work in the field.

Organisations that want to bring Jonno White in to work with their leadership teams on the conversations, culture, and decision-making frameworks that sit behind every successful enterprise can email jonno@consultclarity.org. Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out (10,000+ copies sold), and trusted workshop facilitator for organisations globally.

Why Social Enterprise and Impact Leadership Matters

The stakes in this space are high, and they are rising. Australia's federal government committed $11.6 million through the Social Enterprise Development Initiative (SEDI), extended in late 2025 with an additional $3.9 million, to grow the capability and reach of the sector. Queensland launched an Office of Social Impact backed by $80 million, the most significant government investment in social enterprise at a state level in the country's history. The Social Traders data for FY2025 confirmed that Australian businesses and governments spent a record $304 million with certified social enterprises, the highest single-year total ever recorded.

New Zealand is navigating a more difficult environment. The Akina Foundation, which served as the country's primary social enterprise intermediary for 17 years, permanently closed its doors in April 2025, citing an "extremely challenging" economic and political environment. The closure leaves a structural gap in the ecosystem that the voices on this list are actively working to address through alternative pathways in law, investment, cooperatives, and direct enterprise operation. The Social Enterprise World Forum's 2025 Policy Forum, held virtually from Taipei, heard from Australian and New Zealand representatives about the opportunity the Brisbane 2032 Olympics presents for social procurement at scale.

For organisations wanting support building the leadership culture that allows purpose-driven enterprises to deliver on their mission, Jonno White works with teams across Australia, New Zealand, and internationally. His Working Genius facilitation, DISC workshops, and executive team offsites have supported organisations ranging from schools and nonprofits to corporates and government agencies. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

How This List Was Compiled

Every person on this list was selected on three criteria. First, they have made a substantial and documented contribution to the social enterprise and impact leadership field in Australia or New Zealand, through building enterprises, leading peak bodies, publishing research, deploying capital, or shaping policy. Second, they are actively engaged in the field as of 2025 and 2026. Third, the list was deliberately built to include voices from across disciplines, geographic regions, genders, and sectors, including First Nations leaders whose perspectives are essential to any serious conversation about the impact economy. The list moves past the most recognisable household names to surface the practitioners and builders driving the most consequential work in the field right now.

Sector Builders and Peak Body Leaders

The people in this category hold leadership positions in the organisations that shape the rules, the norms, the data, and the advocacy of Australia and New Zealand's social enterprise ecosystem. They set standards, unlock policy, and connect enterprise operators to markets and capital they could not access alone.

1. Jess Moore

Jess Moore is the Chief Executive Officer of Social Enterprise Australia, the national peak body for social enterprise, having spent more than 17 years in leadership positions across social enterprises and peak organisations. She previously served as CEO of Community Resources, one of Australia's largest jobs-focused social enterprises employing over 650 people, and as a Director at the Social Enterprise Council of NSW and ACT.

As CEO of Social Enterprise Australia, Moore has led the design and delivery of Australia's first National Social Enterprise Strategy, coordinating co-design workshops with hundreds of practitioners and hosting the Social Enterprise Jobs Summit in June 2025 with more than 300 delegates in Melbourne. Her leadership at the intersection of government, philanthropy, and enterprise makes her one of the most consequential strategic voices in the Australian sector today.

2. Tara Anderson

Tara Anderson is the Chief Executive Officer of Social Traders, Australia's leading social enterprise certifier and marketplace connector. Appointed in 2022, she brought extensive international experience in purpose-driven business and social procurement, and she has been recognised by the WorldCC Foundation's Inspiring Women 2026 programme for her leadership contributions.

Under Anderson's leadership, Social Traders confirmed in FY2025 that member organisations spent a record $304 million with certified social enterprises, the highest annual total in the organisation's history. Her convening of more than 300 delegates at Social Traders' Convene 2025 conference in Melbourne, under the theme of making business for good into business as usual, represents the frontline advocacy pushing social procurement from a niche practice into mainstream corporate and government supply chains.

3. Melina Morrison

Melina Morrison is the inaugural Chief Executive Officer of the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals (BCCM), the Australian apex body she was instrumental in forming in 2013 after heading Australia's International Year of Co-operatives Secretariat. She has spent more than two decades advocating for co-operative enterprise, successfully lobbying for legislative reform that has released more than $350 million into Australian cooperatives and mutuals since 2019.

As the national leader of the cooperative and mutual sector during the United Nations International Year of Cooperatives 2025, Morrison led Australia's campaign to celebrate the $47 billion sector, convened the BCCM Leaders' Summit in Adelaide with more than 300 delegates, and set an ambitious target to double the sector's size. Her development of the Mutual Value Measurement Framework, a standard for measuring the total value creation of cooperatives, represents the kind of patient, systems-level work that creates conditions for a more equitable economy.

4. Armine Nalbandian

Armine Nalbandian is the Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for Social Impact, the collaboration of four Australian universities whose research and education programmes sit at the foundation of much of what Australia knows about its impact economy. A US Fulbright Scholar and former Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Policy to the New South Wales Premier, she brings both research depth and government experience to the role.

Her leadership of the Centre's landmark August 2025 State of the Social Economy report, the first comprehensive research into Australia's social economy as a conceptual framework, produced foundational data confirming the social economy's significant but underrecognised contribution to the national economy. The report, co-authored with A/Prof Melissa Edwards and a team of researchers, has been cited in government briefings, philanthropic strategy documents, and sector advocacy submissions across the country.

5. David Hetherington

David Hetherington is the Chief Executive Officer of Impact Investing Australia, the national network and advocacy body for Australia's impact investment market. A former Executive Director of the progressive think tank Per Capita and the Public Education Foundation, Hetherington has spent his career at the intersection of research, policy, and economic development.

At Impact Investing Australia, Hetherington has worked alongside the Treasury, social enterprise intermediaries, and philanthropic foundations to channel capital into the sector's capability-building infrastructure. His appointment as MC and Host of the 2026 Impact Investment Summit Asia Pacific, taking place in March at the International Convention Centre Sydney, signals his central role as a connector between the investment community and the broader purpose-driven economy.

6. Andrew Davies

Andrew Davies is the Chief Executive Officer of B Lab Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, the regional arm of the global organisation that certifies B Corps. In this role, he leads the work of measuring, certifying, and advocating for businesses that meet the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance across both countries.

Davies has been a consistent public voice on what it means to lead with moral courage in the modern economy, arguing that sustainable business models actively benefit from transparency and strong environmental standards rather than being constrained by them. Under his leadership, B Lab Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand has grown to represent a community of businesses operating across every major sector that demonstrates in practice what the movement argues in principle: that profit and purpose are not competing priorities.

7. Kylie Flament

Kylie Flament is the Chief Executive Officer of the Social Enterprise Council of NSW and ACT (SECNA), the state-level peak body for social enterprises in New South Wales and the ACT. She was a featured speaker at the Centre for Social Impact's August 2025 social economy launch alongside the CEOs of B Lab, the BCCM, ACOSS, and the Centre for Social Impact, signalling her standing as a peer voice in the national sector conversation.

Her leadership of SECNA represents the state-level infrastructure that translates national policy and investment into practical support for the thousands of social enterprises operating across one of Australia's most active economic regions. Her ongoing advocacy at parliamentary inquiries into NSW government procurement practices has been central to the push for certified social enterprises to be formally embedded in state government supply chains, a reform that could unlock hundreds of millions in annual purchasing towards social purpose.

8. Maree Sidey

Maree Sidey is the Chief Executive Officer of Philanthropy Australia, the national peak body for philanthropic giving in Australia, joining the organisation in June 2024 after nine years as CEO of the Australian Communities Foundation. A social worker by training with an MBA from the Centre for Social Impact at UNSW, she has built her career across the full spectrum of Australia's for-purpose sector.

In her early period leading Philanthropy Australia, Sidey has moved quickly to build international connections, being appointed to the board of WINGS, the global network of more than 200 philanthropy support organisations from 58 countries. Her positioning of philanthropy as a lever for structural economic reform, rather than simply a mechanism for charitable giving, places her squarely in the impact leadership conversation at a time when Australia's philanthropic sector is being asked to step into an increasingly active role alongside government.

Social Enterprise Operators and Builders

This category features the founders, CEOs, and chief impact officers who have built some of the most significant social enterprises in the region. Their work demonstrates through practice what the sector can achieve when enterprise design is placed in service of genuine social outcomes.

9. Rebecca Scott OAM

Rebecca Scott OAM is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of STREAT, the Melbourne-based work-integrated social enterprise that has supported more than 1,500 young people experiencing homelessness through a portfolio of hospitality businesses including cafes, an artisan bakery, a catering company, and a coffee roastery. She founded STREAT in 2010 after time working with a social enterprise youth cafe in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Under her leadership, STREAT has become one of Australia's most referenced models for how social enterprise can serve simultaneously as a commercial business and a social intervention. Her published case study "Social Enterprise: A Case Study for Government," co-authored with Kate Barrelle and published by RMIT and STREAT, produced a rigorous quantification of social return on investment that found each young person at STREAT costs governments an average of $50,476 per annum in services, while the enterprise creates pathways to self-sufficiency that reduce those costs over time.

10. Dr. Kate Barrelle

Dr. Kate Barrelle is the Co-Founder and Chief Impact Officer of STREAT, bringing a background as a clinical and forensic psychologist to the design and delivery of STREAT's youth support and training model. Her PhD examined disengagement from violent extremism, and she is also recognised as one of Australia's leading practitioners in countering violent extremism in youth contexts.

At STREAT, Barrelle designed the organisation's evidence-based impact measurement framework, its trauma-informed practice model, and the workforce development tools now used by practitioners across the sector through the STREAT-wise professional development platform. The co-authored 2019 case study with Rebecca Scott and Greg Edelmaier, "Social Enterprise: A Case Study for Government," remains one of the most rigorous quantifications of social return on investment in the Australian social enterprise literature.

11. Luke Terry

Luke Terry is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of White Box Enterprises, the Brisbane-based organisation that builds, replicates, and scales jobs-focused social enterprises across Australia. He brings more than 15 years of experience in the social enterprise and not-for-profit sector, including the founding of Vanguard Laundry in Toowoomba before establishing White Box in 2019.

White Box has created over 400 jobs for vulnerable people and attracted more than $21 million in capital. In 2024, the federal government's $21.9 million WorkFoundations programme drew directly on the model and evidence White Box had developed through its Payment by Outcomes trial, representing a landmark moment of policy catching up with practice. White Box also launched in 2025 Australia's first Social Enterprise Loan Fund (SELF), a $5 million patient capital vehicle designed to bridge the gap between social enterprises and mainstream impact investors.

12. Tom Allen

Tom Allen is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Impact Boom, one of Australia's most active social enterprise intermediaries and the organisation behind one of the longest-running podcasts on the global social enterprise landscape, now past 629 episodes. Impact Boom has worked intensively with more than 335 purpose-led organisations to help them launch and scale, and has featured more than 850 global leaders through its media and programme work.

Allen led the successful Australian bid for the Social Enterprise World Forum held in Brisbane in 2022, a project which catalysed significant sector growth nationally and connected the Australian field with global counterparts. He holds a Fellow position at the Yunus Centre at Griffith University, sits on the board of the Queensland Social Enterprise Council, and has received two Australian Good Design Awards for his ecosystem-building work, making him the most prolific media connector in the Australian social enterprise field.

13. Geoffrey Smith

Geoffrey Smith is the Chief Executive Officer of Australian Spatial Analytics (ASA), a social enterprise that provides professional data and spatial analytics services to corporate and government clients, employing a team of which 80 percent identify as neurodivergent. Smith was named the 2025 Queensland Australian of the Year for his work building a commercial enterprise that creates meaningful career pathways for young neurodivergent adults.

ASA received a $5 million blended finance package from the Paul Ramsay Foundation in late 2023, comprising $2.5 million in grant funding and $2.5 million in impact investment, to support its national scaling plans. Smith's public commentary on the potential for strength-based social enterprises to mature past the grant cycle and create systemic impact through commercial contracts with organisations including the Australian federal government has made him one of the sector's most compelling voices on sustainable enterprise models.

14. Ronni Kahn AO

Ronni Kahn AO is the Founder and Visionary in Residence of OzHarvest, Australia's leading food rescue organisation, which she founded in 2004 and led as CEO for 20 years before transitioning the chief executive role to James Goth in 2024. An Officer of the Order of Australia and named Australian Local Hero of the Year, Kahn remains one of the country's most recognised social entrepreneurs.

Her latest initiative, OzHarvest Ventures, took ownership of premium corporate hospitality business Gastronomy in September 2025, demonstrating that purpose-driven organisations can operate innovative commercial arms that generate profit to fund their social mission. Her memoir A Repurposed Life and the feature documentary Food Fighter have brought the story of social entrepreneurship to mainstream audiences at a scale few practitioners in the sector achieve.

15. Ifrin Fittock

Ifrin Fittock is the Chief Executive Officer of SisterWorks, a Melbourne-based social enterprise dedicated to empowering migrant and refugee women through skills training, business development, and employment pathways. A Westpac Scholar and former management consultant who spent 23 years in strategy roles, Fittock made a career pivot into the sector after volunteering at SisterWorks during a sabbatical.

Under her leadership, SisterWorks has helped more than 2,500 women from 105 countries in its first decade, expanded into manufacturing capabilities including the reupholstering of Melbourne tram seats for the public transport network, and received a 2024 Westpac Social Change Fellowship recognising the enterprise's innovative approach to linking commercial operations directly to employment outcomes. Her trajectory from corporate leader to social enterprise CEO models the kind of talent migration the sector needs to attract and retain.

16. Phil Hayes-Brown

Phil Hayes-Brown is the Chief Executive Officer of Wallara, an innovative disability support organisation operating five certified social enterprises across Melbourne's southeast, north, and Mornington Peninsula. He was named the 2025 Social Traders National Game Changer of the Year in the Certified Social Enterprise category, a national recognition for champions of social procurement who are transforming Australian business through purpose-driven enterprise models.

Hayes-Brown's leadership of Wallara demonstrates how disability service organisations can integrate commercial enterprise at scale, creating meaningful employment while generating revenue that sustains the organisation's broader social mission. His public position that doing good and doing business are not mutually exclusive has become a practical proof point for the social enterprise sector's central argument, achieved through commercial relationships with councils, corporates, and procurement teams across greater Melbourne.

17. Lisa King

Lisa King is a New Zealand social entrepreneur and the founder of Eat My Lunch, the social enterprise she launched in 2015 with a "buy one, give one" model: for every customer lunch purchased, a freshly made lunch is delivered to a child in a New Zealand school who would otherwise go without. She has since founded AF Drinks, an alcohol-free beverage company built on the same social enterprise principles.

King has delivered more than 500,000 free school lunches through Eat My Lunch and received the New Zealand Women of Influence Award for Business Enterprise in 2016 and the New Zealand Woman Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2019. The Eat My Lunch model has become one of the most referenced case studies in New Zealand social enterprise education and was cited at the 2017 Social Enterprise World Forum in Christchurch as an example of how a commercial food business can embed social purpose at the level of its fundamental business model.

Investment, Philanthropy and Capital Mobilisers

These leaders work at the intersection of finance and purpose, mobilising capital towards social and environmental outcomes through philanthropy, impact investment, cooperative finance, and Indigenous economic development.

18. Professor Kristy Muir

Professor Kristy Muir is the Chief Executive Officer of the Paul Ramsay Foundation, Australia's largest private foundation, and a Professor of Social Policy at UNSW Sydney Business School. The Foundation committed $320 million in grants in FY2025 and $28 million in impact investments, representing a total of $1.476 billion in funding awarded since 2016.

Muir is also the founder of the Social Impact Leadership Australia programme, which she teaches to for-purpose CEOs across the country and which received a $16.4 million philanthropic investment in 2025 to double its reach to 120 for-purpose CEOs. Her work combining academic research with philanthropic deployment, and her coaching of for-purpose leaders through the Governance for Social Impact programme delivered to hundreds of directors and CEOs, make her the most influential bridge-builder between philanthropy and enterprise practice in the region.

19. Amy Lyden

Amy Lyden is the Chief Executive Officer of the Westpac Foundation and the Westpac Scholars Trust, roles she has held since July 2022, bringing more than 25 years of experience across corporate, foundations, SME, and not-for-profit sectors. She was previously the inaugural CEO of the Australian Scholarships Foundation.

Under Lyden's leadership, the Westpac Foundation awarded 10 Social Change Fellowships in 2024 valued at up to $500,000 in combined funding, supporting social entrepreneurs building enterprises in areas ranging from food security to climate. The Foundation has also been a significant partner to jobs-focused social enterprises through blended grant funding, and its participation in a pioneering coalition of Australian philanthropic foundations supporting work-integrated social enterprises through the WISE Grant programme has helped multiple organisations bridge from start-up to scale.

20. Allan English AM

Allan English AM is the Founder and Chair of the English Family Foundation, and serves as Chair of the Queensland Social Impact Advisory Roundtable, supporting the Queensland Government's $80 million Office of Social Impact. He received an Order of Australia for his contribution to philanthropy and community service and was recognised by the Australian Financial Review as one of its 21 True Leaders.

English founded Silver Chef to help hospitality entrepreneurs access equipment without heavy upfront costs, growing it to support more than 25,000 clients across Australia, New Zealand, and Canada before establishing the English Family Foundation to support social entrepreneurs. The close involvement of the Foundation in shaping Queensland's Social Enterprise and Impact Investing Roadmap 2025 reflects his long-term commitment to building the infrastructure of a regional impact economy, including his founding support for the Social Enterprise World Forum's Brisbane 2022 event.

21. Adam Davids

Adam Davids is a proud Aboriginal man and descendant of the Wiradjuri people. He is the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of CareerTrackers, the Indigenous Internship Programme that has created career pathways for thousands of First Nations university students in the private sector, and a Founding Partner of First Nations Equity Partners, a 100 percent Indigenous-owned and led social enterprise advancing Indigenous inclusion in the ASX 200.

A Fulbright Scholar, Kenneth Myer Innovation Fellow, and Sidney Myer Foundation Fellow, Davids has built an international profile around global racial equity standards and their parallels with underrepresented minorities worldwide. His 2025 submission to the Yoorrook Justice Commission documented the critical lack of First Nations representation in corporate and community leadership and proposed a pathway to remedy it. He also serves as a Non-Executive Director of Social Ventures Australia and as Chair of SVA's First Nations Council.

22. Darren Godwell

Darren Godwell, a proud descendant of the Kokoberren peoples of Cape York, is the Chair of Indigenous Business Australia, appointed in January 2025, and the Chief Executive Officer of i2i Global, an Indigenous-owned and Indigenous-led advisory company. He brings over 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.

Since taking the chair of Indigenous Business Australia, Godwell has overseen the most significant legislative reforms in the organisation's 33-year history, giving IBA new powers to borrow and raise capital on the open market for the first time. At the Blak and Bold conference in Darwin in October 2025, he articulated a vision for IBA as a true development bank for Indigenous Australia, with the goal of making First Nations Australians investors, not just participants, in the economy.

23. Rob Koczkar

Rob Koczkar is the Chair of Social Ventures Australia and Managing Director of Adamantem Capital. He served as CEO of Social Ventures Australia from 2014 to 2024 and previously as Managing Director at Pacific Equity Partners. He has spent more than a decade bringing the disciplines of private equity to the task of solving Australia's most entrenched social problems.

His widely cited CEDA address on capital and failure in the social purpose sector argued that the sector needed to find better and more effective ways to use capital investment for social purpose, applying business disciplines to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of social services. That argument, made nearly a decade ago, has since become mainstream policy in Australia's social investment framework. His role as Chair of Social Ventures Australia connects his private equity background to SVA's innovation agenda under incoming CEO James Toomey.

24. Barry Coates

Barry Coates is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mindful Money, a New Zealand social enterprise that has built a platform helping New Zealanders understand where their KiwiSaver and investment funds are invested and whether those investments align with their values. He has been active in sustainability since the Earth Summit in 1992, working in New Zealand and internationally on fair trade, climate change, and poverty.

Coates served as a judge at the 2025 New Zealand Sustainable Business Awards, and the Mindful Money platform was recognised at the 2025 Mindful Money Awards for its contribution to ethical investment reporting. In a country where the institutional support infrastructure for social enterprise has contracted significantly since Akina's closure, Coates represents the investor-facing voice advocating for a reorientation of capital towards positive social and environmental outcomes through the market mechanisms that drive mainstream finance.

25. Jo Kelly

Jo Kelly is the Chief Executive of Toitu Tahua: Centre for Sustainable Finance, New Zealand's independent body advancing a sustainable, equitable, and inclusive financial system in Aotearoa. Of Ngati Tuwharetoa descent, she has delivered cross-continent sustainability initiatives with some of the world's leading organisations, including managing the establishment of The B Team, co-founded by Sir Richard Branson and Jochen Zeitz, in 2011.

Under Kelly's leadership, Toitu Tahua has been working with the New Zealand Government to advance a sustainable finance taxonomy for Aotearoa, a framework that will define which economic activities can genuinely be considered sustainable and provide the foundation for directing capital towards climate and social transition. Her active LinkedIn presence through COP30 in late 2025 and her strategic advisory role to B Lab Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand make her one of the most connected voices linking sustainable finance with the broader purpose-driven business movement.

Systems Change, Research and Academic Leaders

These practitioners work at the intersection of research, systems design, and practice, building the intellectual infrastructure that helps the broader field understand where it is, where it needs to go, and how to get there.

26. Ingrid Burkett

Ingrid Burkett is a Co-Director of The Good Shift, a women-led for-purpose enterprise she co-founded after serving as Professor and Director of the Griffith Centre for Systems Innovation at Griffith University until November 2024. She remains an Adjunct Professor at Griffith Business School and a Past President and Honorary Ambassador of the International Association for Community Development.

Burkett's body of work on challenge-led innovation, social design, and transitions to regenerative and distributive futures has influenced practitioners and policymakers across Australia and internationally. Her ongoing collaboration with the Auckland Co-Design Lab and other partners on systems equity work explores the everyday patterns within systems that can be scaled toward more equitable outcomes. Her Challenge-Led Innovation Workbook, developed with the Griffith Centre for Systems Innovation, has become a practical tool for organisations working on complex social challenges.

27. Alex Hannant

Alex Hannant is a Director of Pocketknife, an advisory and contracting firm based in Nelson, Aotearoa New Zealand, and a Director of Social Enterprise Australia. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Griffith Centre for Systems Innovation and Co-Chair of B Lab Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. He previously served as CEO of the Akina Foundation for six years, where he was New Zealand's principal government strategic partner on social enterprise sector development.

Hannant's co-authored evaluation and learning framework for the Australian Social Enterprise National Strategy, published with CSI adjuncts Donna Loveridge and SEA CEO Jess Moore, demonstrates how monitoring, evaluation, and learning can be embedded into national sector development work without collapsing into compliance reporting. That kind of trans-Tasman systems thinking, applied across both the Australian and New Zealand ecosystems, characterises the contribution he continues to make from his advisory base in Nelson.

28. Natalie Egleton

Natalie Egleton is the Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (FRRR), the national charity dedicated to ensuring the long-term vitality of remote, rural, and regional Australian communities. With over 25 years in the for-purpose sector, she oversees one of the most geographically diverse grantmaking programmes in the country, distributing funds across disaster recovery, climate resilience, education, and community wellbeing.

Her presentation at the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience's October 2025 webinar for International Disaster Risk Reduction Day, and her ongoing commentary on social enterprise and community resilience, reflect a leadership style that integrates community development practice with strategic advocacy. Her argument that investing in community resilience before disasters is more effective than funding recovery after them represents a distinctive contribution to how the sector thinks about place-based investment in regional, rural, and remote Australia.

29. Associate Professor Melissa Edwards

Associate Professor Melissa Edwards is the Director of Research and Innovation at the Centre for Social Impact UNSW and a lead author on the Centre's inaugural State of the Social Economy research published in August 2025. She is also listed as a lead researcher on CSI's Benchmarking Impact report, which revealed that impact investing in Australia had delivered strong financial returns with the market growing nearly eight-fold since 2020.

Edwards's research sits at the convergence of social entrepreneurship, systems thinking, and institutional theory, producing evidence that shapes how foundations, governments, and impact investors understand what social and environmental return on investment actually means. Her work developing the data infrastructure that quantifies Australia's social economy, including the first comprehensive effort to map the scale and contribution of the sector as a whole, represents foundational research that will shape investment and policy decisions for years.

30. Sarah Haigh

Sarah Haigh is the Executive Director of the Office of Social Impact at Queensland Treasury, a role she has held for over 11 years through multiple phases of Queensland's social enterprise and social procurement policy development. She was a keynote speaker at the University of Queensland Business School's Alliance for Social Impact research launch in 2025 and represented Queensland at the Social Enterprise World Forum 2025 Policy Forum.

At SEWF 2025, Haigh spoke about leveraging the Brisbane 2032 Olympics as a catalyst for embedding social procurement permanently into how governments and corporations buy goods and services. Her expertise in complex, whole-of-system reforms aimed at improving outcomes for marginalised Queenslanders has been central to the design of Queensland's Social Enterprise and Impact Investing Roadmap 2025, the four-year strategic framework underpinning the $80 million Social Entrepreneurs Fund.

31. Steven Moe

Steven Moe is a Partner at Parry Field Lawyers in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the country's leading legal expert on social enterprise structures, governance, and impact investment. He is the author of Social Enterprises in New Zealand: A Legal Handbook, and hosts the Seeds podcast, which reached more than 450 interviews of inspiring New Zealanders working for positive impact.

In 2024, Moe won the New Zealand Lawyer Most Influential Lawyers Changemaker award. In 2025, the Seeds Podcast was recognised with the Best Media Reporting on Ethical Investment award at the Mindful Money Awards. His practical work includes chairing Community Finance, a social housing impact investment vehicle that has raised more than $53 million, which demonstrates that his thinking operates as much in practice as in law and media commentary.

32. Ben Gales

Ben Gales is the Executive Director of the Office of Social Impact at Queensland Treasury, working alongside Sarah Haigh to establish the most substantial state government investment in social enterprise in Australian history. He joined Queensland Treasury in early 2025 from a background that included delivering Australia's first Social Impact Bonds in New South Wales and serving as CEO of Social Enterprise Finance Australia.

His experience in social impact bonds, blended finance, impact investing, and government advisory roles across Australia and the United Kingdom gives him a dual perspective on what works in policy design and what founders and funders actually need to scale. His role in convening the sector, government, and philanthropy to co-design Queensland's Social Enterprise Roadmap is a practical demonstration of how government can act as an ecosystem builder rather than simply a funder.

33. Nicole Dyson

Nicole Dyson is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Future Anything, a Queensland-based social enterprise reimagining how young people engage with learning by turning problems into entrepreneurial possibility. An Obama Foundation Leader for the Asia Pacific region (2024) and a three-time honouree on The Educator's Most Influential list, Dyson has worked with over 100,000 young people and teachers across Australia and New Zealand.

Dyson's work includes founding YouthX, Australia's only startup accelerator for school-aged entrepreneurs, and Catapult Cards, a design thinking toolkit that donates 50 percent of its profits as micro-grants to youth-led social startups. Future Anything is the only Southern Hemisphere organisation contributing to the IDEEC project, a major European Union initiative shaping global best practice in entrepreneurship education. She was named a Queensland Australian of the Year Nominee for 2026, reflecting the scope of her impact across the education and social enterprise ecosystems.

34. Associate Professor Rick Macourt

Associate Professor Rick Macourt is a proud, queer Gumbaynggirr man, a lawyer, and an economic policy specialist. He is the Managing Director of Strategy and Foundation at First Nations Economics, an Aboriginal-led, Supply Nation-registered charity working to transform how economic systems serve First Peoples, and serves as Associate Dean of First Nations Strategy and Services at the University of Sydney.

Macourt was nominated for the 2025 Sam Tjengala Reuben Award for Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the Supply Nation awards for his co-founding of First Nations Economics in 2023 with Sean Cumming. The organisation funds scholarships, education initiatives, and pro bono services through income generated from its own consultancy work, building a model rooted in cultural values rather than corporate mimicry. As a speaker at the Social Enterprise World Forum 2025 in Taipei, Macourt discussed how Indigenous governance principles including free, prior, and informed consent and Indigenous data sovereignty apply beyond Australia to First Peoples globally.

Social Sector Leadership and Governance

This category profiles leaders whose work in organisational governance, sector advocacy, and cross-sector connection shapes the conditions in which social enterprise and impact leadership can flourish at a systemic level.

35. James Toomey

James Toomey is the Chief Executive Officer of Social Ventures Australia, Australia's most innovative social impact organisation, having commenced the role in January 2025 after serving as CEO of Mission Australia and as Deputy Secretary within the NSW Department of Communities and Justice. He brings a background in social work and extensive experience in child protection, youth justice, and family services across Australia and the United Kingdom.

SVA's Annual Review 2024-2025 showcases innovations including the Synergis Fund, Evidence for Learning, and the Employer Innovation Lab. Toomey's track record of cross-sector collaboration, including co-building the Constellation Project, the Possibility Project, and the End Street Sleeping Collaboration, reflects the kind of bridge-building between government, enterprise, and philanthropy that SVA requires as it continues to grow its role as Australia's leading intermediary for social innovation.

36. Sarah Davies AM

Sarah Davies AM is the Chief Executive Officer of the Alannah and Madeline Foundation, a national not-for-profit dedicated to keeping children and young people free from violence and trauma online and offline, and Chair of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) Advisory Board. She is also a Non-Executive Director of Social Ventures Australia.

Davies brings nearly 40 years of for-purpose sector experience across executive roles in tertiary education, private sector consulting, mental health, and philanthropy. She was named a Member of the Order of Australia in 2020 for her significant service to the for-purpose sector. Her governance work at the ACNC Advisory Board, where she shapes the regulatory framework for Australia's 60,000-plus registered charities, represents a crucial contribution to the transparency and accountability infrastructure that the entire social enterprise ecosystem depends on.

37. Dr. Cassandra Goldie AO

Dr. Cassandra Goldie AO is the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS), the national peak body advocating on behalf of people experiencing poverty and inequality, and an Adjunct Professor at UNSW Sydney. She has led ACOSS since 2010, building it into one of the most influential policy voices in Australian public life across the areas of income support, employment, health, housing, and climate equity.

Goldie was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2023 for distinguished services to social justice through leadership and advocacy. Her participation as a panellist at the Centre for Social Impact's August 2025 social economy launch, alongside the CEOs of B Lab, BCCM, and the Centre for Social Impact, signals the extent to which ACOSS and the social enterprise sector are engaging as aligned voices on economic reform. Her role as Co-Chair of the ACOSS and UNSW Sydney Poverty and Inequality Partnership bridges advocacy with rigorous evidence.

38. Jack Heath AM

Jack Heath AM is a Board Member of COORDINARE, the South Eastern NSW Primary Health Network, and was the CEO of Philanthropy Australia from January 2021 to March 2024, where he oversaw a significant expansion of the organisation's policy and sector development capacity. Earlier in his career, he founded ReachOut! Australia in 1997, the world's first online mental health service for young people, subsequently establishing ReachOut USA and serving on the Executive Committee of the US National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention.

Heath was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia in 2024. His career spanning social enterprise founding, philanthropy leadership, and mental health sector governance makes him one of the most institutionally experienced voices in the Australian for-purpose landscape. His earlier leadership of Philanthropy Australia, where he oversaw the Productivity Commission's "once in a generation" philanthropy inquiry co-led by Krystian Seibert, created the foundational evidence base for doubling philanthropic giving in Australia.

39. Krystian Seibert

Krystian Seibert is the Executive Director of Policy and Sector Development at Philanthropy Australia, having joined the organisation in July 2024 after serving as an Associate Commissioner at the Productivity Commission where he jointly led the landmark philanthropy inquiry that produced the "Future Foundations for Giving" report in July 2024. He is also Chair of Mental Health First Aid International.

Seibert's policy work at the intersection of philanthropy, charity regulation, and social enterprise is unusually well grounded: he managed the delivery of major not-for-profit sector reforms as an adviser to a former Australian Assistant Treasurer, including the establishment of the ACNC and Australia's first statutory definition of charity. His Adjunct Industry Fellow position at the Centre for Social Impact at Swinburne, where he delivered education programmes for the next generation of social impact leaders, adds a practitioner-academic dimension to his primarily policy-focused contribution.

40. Mark Daniels

Mark Daniels is an Executive Director at White Box Enterprises, having joined the organisation after a 20-year leadership career that included co-founding Social Traders and serving as its Executive Director for 13 years. At Social Traders, he led the development of the social enterprise marketplace that has become a must-access service for corporate and government clients seeking to integrate social enterprise into their supply chains.

Daniels's move from Social Traders to White Box Enterprises represents a career arc from marketplace development to enterprise building, bringing his understanding of what buyers and funders need to the specific challenge of launching and scaling jobs-focused social enterprises. White Box's description of him as "a leading figure in the social enterprise sector in Australia for a period spanning 20 years" reflects a standing built through consistent practice and relationship-building rather than any single high-profile moment.

First Nations and Social Inclusion Leaders

The voices in this category are building economic enterprises, political advocacy, and legal frameworks that centre the self-determination and economic wellbeing of communities that have historically been excluded from mainstream economic participation.

41. Zoe Black

Zoe Black is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Happy Paws Happy Hearts, a Queensland-based social enterprise that connects socially isolated individuals with rescue animals in purposeful programmes that build confidence, skills, and community connection. She was a speaker at the University of Queensland Business School's Alliance for Social Impact research launch in September 2025.

Happy Paws Happy Hearts spans from Darwin to Hobart, with a major Brisbane site recognised as the largest social inclusion programme of its kind in Australia. The organisation has been a social impact partner of Future Generation Global (ASX: FGG), the listed investment company whose management fees fund youth mental health charities, and was a finalist in the 2025 Lord Mayor's Business Awards. Black's work demonstrates how a social enterprise built around a distinctive model of mutual benefit, connecting vulnerable people with rescue animals, can scale commercially while maintaining integrity of mission.

42. Annie Stonehouse

Annie Stonehouse is the Executive Director of the Lovewell Foundation Australia and its social enterprise arm, the Lovewell Cafe, a Brisbane organisation supporting women from vulnerable backgrounds including domestic violence, addiction, and homelessness to rebuild their lives through employment training and entrepreneurship pathways. A psychologist by training, she has worked in the community sector specialising in family violence and child abuse for more than 35 years.

The Lovewell Cafe model, founded in 2016 and rebranded from its original identity as a Christian organisation in 2020 to reflect its commitment to serving women from all faiths and cultures, demonstrates how a social enterprise can embed its employment mission in every commercial transaction. The organisation received a $15,000 grant through the ETC Community Support Fund in 2025-26 to expand its micro-loan model supporting women into small business ownership, adding a capital pathway to its existing training and employment services.

43. Ryan Salzke

Ryan Salzke is the Chief Executive Officer of Vanguard Laundry Services, a Toowoomba-based work-integrated social enterprise providing commercial laundry services to hospitals, aged care facilities, and hotels while creating employment pathways for people experiencing significant barriers to work. He was a guest speaker at the University of Queensland Business School's Alliance for Social Impact research launch on Building Resilient Social Enterprises in Queensland in September 2025.

Vanguard Laundry is a direct successor to the work of Luke Terry, who co-founded the organisation before establishing White Box Enterprises. Under Salzke's leadership, Vanguard has continued to demonstrate the WISE (Work Integrated Social Enterprise) model's commercial viability in a competitive contract services market. The organisation's participation in Australia's first Payment by Outcomes trial, led by White Box Enterprises, has produced evidence that jobs-focused social enterprises can deliver measurable employment outcomes that warrant direct government contracting relationships.

44. Margot Beach

Margot Beach is the General Manager of the Dusseldorp Forum, a Sydney-based philanthropic foundation focused on investing in innovative approaches to reduce disadvantage and create opportunity for Australians facing entrenched barriers. She was a speaker at the Social Impact in the Regions 2025 conference in Stanthorpe alongside FRRR CEO Natalie Egleton and other leading regional impact voices.

The Dusseldorp Forum has been a long-standing funder of social enterprise ecosystem development in Australia, including its investment in collaborative platforms that bring practitioners together across geographic and sector boundaries. Beach's leadership of a family-founded philanthropic institution that has resisted the consolidation and growth pressures facing Australian philanthropy more broadly demonstrates how values-led grantmaking can maintain strategic clarity even as the sector's complexity increases.

45. Professor Paul Flatau

Professor Paul Flatau is the Director of the Centre for Social Impact at the University of Western Australia (CSI UWA) and a lead researcher on the Centre's 2025 State of the Social Economy report. He is a Professor of Economics and has led CSI UWA's research agenda on homelessness, financial inclusion, social enterprise, and place-based investment in Western Australia.

Flatau's role in producing the first comprehensive benchmark of philanthropic giving in Western Australia, engaged by Philanthropy Australia, adds to CSI UWA's track record as the principal research partner for the Western Australian social impact sector. His place-based research on the social enterprise sector's contribution in regional and remote WA has influenced state government policy on procurement and community investment, and his ongoing co-authorship with CSI colleagues on national impact investing benchmarking keeps his work at the frontier of what the sector knows about itself.

46. Robert Servine

Robert Servine is the Chief Executive Officer of Green Connect, a Wollongong-based work-integrated social enterprise providing green jobs in community gardening, food production, and environmental services for refugees, people with disabilities, and long-term unemployed job seekers. He was featured on WIN News in 2025 for the organisation's work connecting people with barriers to meaningful employment through purposeful environmental enterprise.

47. Bernie Shakeshaft

Bernie Shakeshaft is the Founder of BackTrack Youth Works, a Guyra-based social enterprise in northern New South Wales that provides a supported transition into education, employment, and training for young people in contact with the justice system. The organisation was the subject of the award-winning 2018 documentary BackTrack Boys, which followed his work and the young people he was trying to keep alive and out of gaol.

BackTrack Youth Works was a Social Ventures Australia venture partner for three years and has become one of SVA's most-cited examples of scaling impact from a regional base. A former jackaroo who pivoted to social enterprise after witnessing the lack of pathways for young people in rural New South Wales, Shakeshaft represents the founder archetype that the social enterprise sector most needs to tell its story: someone who built something extraordinary in a place where no existing institution was addressing the need.

48. Jodi Tutaki

Jodi Tutaki, of Ngapuhi and Te Rarawa descent, is the Chief Executive of Te Pai Roa Tika o te Taitokerau, a large-scale Maori-owned and Maori-led impact investment organisation in the Northland region of Aotearoa New Zealand. She was listed as one of the key practitioners in New Zealand's impact investing community by the Impact Investing Network NZ.

49. Dr. Josephine Khalil

Dr. Josephine Khalil is the Head of Employment at the Paul Ramsay Foundation, overseeing the Foundation's investment portfolio in employment outcomes including its landmark $5 million blended finance package with Australian Spatial Analytics announced in late 2023. She works at the intersection of philanthropic strategy and impact investment to direct Foundation funding towards social enterprises and organisations demonstrating the highest quality evidence of employment outcomes for people experiencing disadvantage.

Her public commentary on ASA's blended finance partnership described how social enterprises like ASA demonstrate the ability to mature past the grant cycle and create systemic impact over the long term when provided with tailored capital support. Her role helping design and deploy PRF's employment portfolio, which has included $60 million invested into work-integrated social enterprises between 2022 and 2024, makes her one of the most active grantmakers and investors in the jobs-focused social enterprise field in Australia.

50. Julia Davison AM

Julia Davison AM is the Founder of Goodstart Early Learning, Australia's largest not-for-profit early childhood education provider, and a Board Member of the Paul Ramsay Foundation. She received a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to children, to youth, and to the community, and was named in Philanthropy Australia recognition for her contributions to the philanthropic and for-purpose sectors.

Goodstart Early Learning operates as one of Australia's most significant social enterprise models, deploying revenues from fee-paying families across 680 centres to provide early childhood education with a specific focus on communities experiencing disadvantage. The organisation was established through a consortium purchase of ABC Learning's assets in 2010, a landmark moment in Australian social enterprise history that demonstrated how purpose-driven organisations could acquire and operate commercial-scale infrastructure in service of social outcomes.

Notable Voices We Almost Included

Several outstanding practitioners were considered for this list but were ultimately set aside to make room for fresher voices. The social enterprise and impact economy have a number of figures who have shaped the field for years and whose names appear on almost every list of this kind. Simon Sinek, Brene Brown, Adam Grant, and other household names in leadership would appear on most lists about leadership and purpose. Their work has influenced millions of practitioners, but this list deliberately moved past those household names to surface voices the reader may not yet have encountered.

Within the Australian and New Zealand social enterprise sector specifically, the founders of some earlier-generation organisations who have since transitioned to board and advisory roles, including several who led the ecosystem building work of the 2010s, were considered but ultimately not included. The field has developed enough that it can now showcase 50 people who are active practitioners and leaders right now in 2025 and 2026, without needing to pad the list with historical figures who have stepped back from direct leadership.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Engaging the Social Enterprise Sector

One of the most common mistakes organisations make when engaging with social enterprise is treating social procurement as a corporate social responsibility add-on rather than a strategic supply chain decision. The Social Traders data shows that $304 million was spent with certified social enterprises in FY2025, but this represents only a fraction of what is possible when organisations treat social procurement as they treat any other supplier relationship: using rigorous procurement criteria, building long-term contracts, and measuring commercial outcomes alongside social impact.

A second mistake is conflating social enterprise with charity. Many of the enterprises on this list operate on fully commercial terms, tendering for government contracts, selling products at market rates, and reinvesting surpluses into their social mission. Treating them as charities in need of donations, rather than as commercial partners whose additional social value makes them preferable suppliers, misses the fundamental point of what social enterprise is designed to do.

A third mistake is assuming that the social enterprise sector operates primarily in major cities. Natalie Egleton's work at FRRR, Ryan Salzke's Vanguard Laundry in Toowoomba, Bernie Shakeshaft's BackTrack Youth Works in Guyra, and Annie Stonehouse's Lovewell Cafe in Brisbane's outer suburbs all demonstrate that some of the sector's most innovative work happens in regional and suburban settings, often serving communities that have been underserved by mainstream employment and social services.

A fourth mistake is underestimating the capital requirements of scaling social enterprise. The field has moved well beyond grant funding as its primary capital source, with blended finance structures combining grants, loans, and equity now being used by organisations including Australian Spatial Analytics, Vanguard Laundry, and Green Connect. Leaders who want to scale impact need a working knowledge of social impact bonds, patient capital, blended finance, and B Corp certification, not just a compelling impact story.

A fifth mistake is treating First Nations economic development as a subset of social enterprise rather than as a distinct and prior field with its own logic. The work of Adam Davids at CareerTrackers, Darren Godwell at Indigenous Business Australia, Rick Macourt at First Nations Economics, and Jodi Tutaki at Te Pai Roa Tika o te Taitokerau each operates from a specific grounding in self-determination and community-led governance that differs structurally from mainstream social enterprise models. Engaging this work well requires understanding those differences.

Implementation Guide: How to Follow and Engage These Leaders

The most practical starting point is to follow each of the 50 people on this list on LinkedIn and subscribe to the podcasts and publications they host. Tom Allen's Impact Boom podcast, now past 629 episodes, is the single richest audio archive of Australian and global social enterprise leadership. Steven Moe's Seeds podcast, with more than 450 interviews of New Zealand impact practitioners, is its closest New Zealand equivalent.

Beyond media, the key events to put in your calendar are the Social Traders Convene conference in Melbourne, the Social Impact in the Regions conference (Stanthorpe in September 2026), the Impact Investment Summit Asia Pacific, and the BCCM Leaders' Summit. The Social Enterprise Jobs Summit, hosted by Social Enterprise Australia in June 2025 with more than 300 delegates, is likely to become an annual fixture as the WorkFoundations programme scales.

For New Zealand practitioners, the Mindful Money Awards, the New Zealand Sustainable Business Awards, and the work of the Impact Investing Network NZ provide the most consistent gathering points for the impact economy field. With Akina's closure in April 2025, the intermediary infrastructure in New Zealand is more dispersed, which means that individuals rather than institutions are currently the primary connective tissue.

To access the research produced by the Centre for Social Impact, the Paul Ramsay Foundation, Impact Investing Australia, and Social Ventures Australia, subscribe directly to their newsletters and publications. The CSI's State of the Social Economy 2025 report, Impact Investing Australia's Benchmarking Impact report, and SVA's Annual Review are the three most important documents for anyone wanting to understand the current state of the sector.

If your organisation is looking to embed Working Genius, DISC, or other team development frameworks into the leadership culture that underpins your social enterprise or for-purpose organisation, Jonno White works with executive teams, boards, and leadership cohorts globally. His Working Genius facilitation and team offsite design have supported organisations in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Singapore, Canada, and the USA. Email jonno@consultclarity.org or visit consultclarity.org to find out more.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is social enterprise?

A social enterprise is a business that operates commercially while pursuing a social, environmental, or community mission. Unlike a charity, a social enterprise generates most of its income through trading rather than donations, and unlike a conventional business, its primary purpose is to create social value rather than maximise shareholder returns. The Centre for Social Impact's 2025 State of the Social Economy report estimates the social economy represents 7 to 10 percent of global GDP.

How was this list compiled?

Every person on this list was selected on the basis of three criteria: a substantial documented contribution to the social enterprise and impact leadership field in Australia or New Zealand; active engagement in the field as of 2025 and 2026; and representation of the diversity of disciplines, geographic regions, genders, and sectors that characterise the field. The list deliberately moved past the most recognisable household names to surface practitioners and builders doing some of the most consequential work in the field right now.

What is a B Corp?

A B Corp (Benefit Corporation) is a company certified by B Lab as meeting the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. There are more than 9,000 B Corps in 100 countries and 162 industries. In Australia and New Zealand, the certification is administered by B Lab Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand under CEO Andrew Davies. Certified B Corps include businesses across every major sector, demonstrating that any type of business can operate in alignment with social and environmental values.

What happened to the Akina Foundation in New Zealand?

The Akina Foundation, which had served as New Zealand's principal social enterprise intermediary for 17 years, permanently closed its doors on 30 April 2025. Akina cited the "extremely challenging" economic and political environment and said it "would not be responsible, nor ethical" to continue trading. Over its existence, Akina established New Zealand's first domestically focused impact investing fund, developed a social enterprise certification programme, and delivered support schemes for social businesses across the country. Several Akina alumni, including Alex Hannant, Jo Kelly, and Barry Coates, continue to work in the impact economy through different vehicles.

Can I hire someone to help my organisation build better leadership and team culture?

Yes. While the 50 voices on this list bring expertise in social enterprise, impact investment, philanthropy, and systems change, organisations that want external support building the leadership culture, team dynamics, and communication frameworks that allow purpose-driven enterprises to deliver on their mission can engage Jonno White. Jonno is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out with over 10,000 copies sold, and trusted executive team facilitator for organisations across Australia, New Zealand, and internationally. He delivers keynotes, Working Genius facilitation, DISC workshops, and executive team offsites. Email jonno@consultclarity.org or visit consultclarity.org.

How large is the social enterprise sector in Australia?

Australia has more than 12,000 social enterprises, contributing an estimated $21.3 billion annually to the economy and employing more than 206,000 people, according to data cited by White Box Enterprises in 2024. Approximately 58 percent of these are focused on employment services. The federal government's Social Enterprise Development Initiative (SEDI) has committed $15.5 million over four years from 2023-24 to 2026-27 to grow the sector's capability and reach.

Final Thoughts

The 50 people on this list are not household names in the way that certain global leadership authors or TED Talk celebrities are. That is partly a function of the media ecosystems that amplify some kinds of expertise more readily than others. But it is also a function of what these leaders have chosen to do with their careers: the slow, patient, often unglamorous work of building enterprises, changing procurement systems, deploying capital, and generating evidence.

Social enterprise in Australia and New Zealand is not a trending topic. It is a permanent feature of the economy that is growing in scale, sophistication, and policy significance. The $304 million spent with certified social enterprises in FY2025, the $80 million Queensland Government investment, the federal WorkFoundations programme, the Benchmarking Impact research showing impact investing growing eight-fold since 2020: these are not indicators of a moment but of a movement.

The most consequential thing any organisation, government, or investor can do with this list is spend time with the work of the people on it. Read the CSI's State of the Social Economy report. Listen to the Impact Boom podcast. Engage a certified social enterprise as a supplier. Commission a Working Genius team session to understand what your team is built for. And when you want to bring an experienced facilitator into your leadership team to do the hard relational work that sits behind every successful enterprise, reach out to Jonno White at jonno@consultclarity.org.

Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out (available at https://www.amazon.com.au/Step-Up-Out-Difficult-Conflict/dp/B097X7B5LD), host of The Leadership Conversations Podcast (230+ episodes, 150+ countries), and Founder of The 7 Questions Movement (6,000+ participating leaders). He works with schools, corporates, and nonprofits around the world and regularly travels for speaking and facilitation engagements. International travel is often far more affordable than clients expect.

About the Author

Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, bestselling author, 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.

Next Read

If this list has given you a broader view of who is shaping the impact economy in Australia and New Zealand, you may also want to read our blog on the best thought leaders in human resources in Australia and New Zealand, which covers the people shaping how purpose-driven organisations attract, develop, and retain the talent they need to deliver on their mission.

50 Essential Thought Leaders in Human Resources in Australia and New Zealand