Travels From New South Wales

Speaker Topics

Gender Equality in Business

Learn how to set targets, practical strategies and what really works as well as leadership must dos.

Inclusion 101: Where do we start?

Sam gives audiences practical initiatives and tools including leadership training, employee networks, action plans and targets/measurements

LGBTIQ Inclusion

Discover how to create a truly inclusive workplace for your LGBTIQ employees and customers, including inclusive language and how to build a strong employee network.

Sam's Personal Story and Insights

Hear Sams story of authentic leadership and being an out female senior leader in a large organisation.

We Think We're Inclusive. What Next?

How inclusive are your leaders? How do you shift middle management? What is inclusive leadership anyway? Includes a Q&A for senior leaders.

Sam Turner

Highly sought after speaker for her thought leadership on creating inclusive workplaces

Sam Turner is the former Head of Inclusion & Diversity for the Westpac Group, and a much sought after speaker for her thought leadership on creating inclusive workplaces. During her time at Westpac, she launched an employment program for people with autism, achieved 50% women in leadership roles, established and governed nine employee action groups, and created a unique leadership program for people from culturally diverse backgrounds.

Sam is currently working alongside the CEOs of major global tech and media companies as the Program Director for Male Champions of Change Global Tech Group. She provides coaching, advice and actionable strategies to increase gender equality and inclusion both within their organisations and across the tech industry more broadly.

Sam also works as a consultant with Elizabeth Broderick & Co in their highly reputable and visible reviews of workplace culture – specifically gender equality, diversity, and cultural transformation/renewal.

She is an energetic and engaging leader who is passionate about people and equality.

Sam was with Westpac for five years including a role as Chief of Staff for NSW Regional Banking, and has held various senior roles at NAB, BHP, and Deloitte. She has a unique blend of commercial acumen, transformational leadership, and imagination. Sam knows how to drive tangible positive outcomes within the public and private sector, but yet also stretches leaders with bold vision and innovative ideas for sustainable change.

Sam was the Overall Winner of the 2016 Women of Influence Awards, and was named one of Australia’s Outstanding 50 LGBTIQ leaders in the Deloitte/Google 2018 list. Sam has recently completed a prestigious Churchill Fellowship undertaking global research on enabling greater Cultural Diversity in Australian leadership.

Sam is the Chair of The Aurora Group, one of NSW’s largest not for profit organisations providing small grants to LGBTIQ charities.

She holds an Honours degree in Commerce, and a Postgraduate Diploma of Psychology.

Sam was our featured speaker for our Wear it Purple Day event in 2018. In providing an on point, tailored and inspiring speech that met the brief we gave her Sam exceeded our expectations. Her combination of personal story, demonstrated business impact, and vision for the future generated an ongoing conversation and impetus for working for inclusion. I recommend Sam highly to those looking for an insightful, engaging and visionary speaker who can inspire commitment to change.

Department of Social Services

A big thank you for meeting with our Ford Executive today. Dave Webb and Sam Smith (both Assistant Treasurers) along with Melissa Rothert (Director, Global Banking) appreciated the discussion and were really energized afterwards to raise this up further within the senior Finance and Management team. You are such an engaging, passionate and knowledgeable speaker – thanks again.

Westpac Institutional Bank

Feedback was very strong and that it was a great couple of days, in particular your session! It’s clear that D&I is becoming an increasingly important matter, and hopefully we can grow the event in coming years.

Aventedge

Thank you so much for your time and wonderful engagement on the panel at Down Under Dreaming yesterday. I had so many people come up afterwards and say how inspiring and open Sam was and how much they enjoyed the session. Thank you for taking time out of your day to make it a success.

Salesforce

Sam, you were a very big hit at the panel lunch today. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to support this event. I know your input was greatly appreciated.

KPMG

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to you for being one of our guest panelists at our Twilight Seminar ‘Champions of Change – The Pursuit of Diverse Leadership’’ held at Uber last night. We have had wonderful feedback from those who attended, and we were delighted to have you as part of the evening. I am sure you will agree there was a great energy and buzz in the room too. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to you talk about the importance of having targets around Inclusion & Diversity at Westpac, including not only the white anglo saxon females but the inclusion of women of colour and LGBTI groups. In particular, I thought it was really interesting hearing you explain bias, and how to identify it and then flip it on its head! Thank you for your invaluable insights, humour and honesty which made the event such a success.

YMCA NSW

I have been absolutely pumped from the panel session. On paper, I knew we had a great panel, but it was the openness and engagement from you that really brought this session to life. Thank you for the experience and personal perspective that you brought to this Sam. We have already had a lot of great feedback on the session, particularly on the calibre of the speakers. Thank you for opening my eyes further to the fact that as an ally, I can be doing more to move us there.

Suncorp Group

Just a quick line to say on behalf of myself and the entire Misfits team we wish to thank you so much for participating in our 3% Conference for 2017. You did an amazing job at speaking on the first Talent/HR Tack panel – your discussion on diversity in the industry was thought provoking and invaluable for the event. Thank you again for your involvement and we hope to see you involved in the event next year!

The Misfits Media Company

I wanted to send a quick note to say thank you so much for your participation at the National HR Summit 2017. Your presentation was extremely well received by the audience and we are very grateful for your contribution. I hope it was an enjoyable and valuable experience for you as well. • Great presentation--Sam was also conscious that not all of us had the resources that larger organisations had & that was appreciated! • Great insight into inclusion program. • Some good "take-aways" even for smaller organisations • Wow so engaging, Sam provided practical tools and ideas we can all implement. • Excellent speaker. Engaging and interesting.

National HR Summit 2017