Ingrid Vet

Ingrid Vet’s professional career includes experience in teaching, nursing and social work. She has been involved in extensive formal studies in all these areas. Her work experience is both at the local level in Coffs Harbour, and internationally in Papua New Guinea, Marshall Islands, Hawaii and Taiwan. The main focus of her work is mental illness and the effect of trauma on child development. She currently supports children of parents in relationship separation or conflict. On a philosophical level she believes every child needs to be raised as part of a community. Social enterprise activities involving the community in supporting children provide positive social and learning opportunities that enhances the likelihood of positive identities and emotional resilience in children.

Cameron Marshall MC

Cameron Marshall has been with ABC Radio as a broadcaster and manager for the last twenty years in Broken Hill, Adelaide and the Mid North Coast. Cameron presents a daily Mid North Coast breakfast program and manages ABC Mid North Coast and Coffs Coast. Cameron is a graduate in business studies and tourism from Charles Sturt University and has studied acting, elephant handling and classical guitar-but not in that order. When not on air Cameron enjoys performing in the odd play or musical. Sometimes the plays are not that odd at all.

Steve Lawrence

Steve Lawrence AO is Chief Executive of the Australian Social Innovation Exchange, created to support the search for fresh solutions to Australia’s key social challenges through cross-sector collaboration. He is Chair of Bonnyrigg Management P/L, a Public Private Partnership body bringing together the capabilities of four organisations to redevelop the public housing estate in South West Sydney for the NSW Government over the next 30 years. Steve also consults in Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

After starting his career with NSW Government, Steve spent 29 years until late 2008 as Founder, CEO and Social Entrepreneur with WorkVentures, an entrepreneurial community economic development agency, based in Sydney. Steve led WorkVentures from a $3000 startup in 1979 to annual revenues of $20million. WorkVentures was Microsoft Australia’s first community partner, won the PMs Community Business Partnership Award in 2005 and is now Microsoft’s longest standing community partner worldwide.

Steve was appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia in January 2010 for ‘service to the community through leadership roles in the development and implementation of non-profit ventures to create social change, particularly for youth and the long-term unemployed’. Steve was selected as Social Entrepreneur of the Year for NSW/ACT in 2004 in Ernst & Young’s global program.

Over the last 30 years Steve has played a leadership role in creating over 13 new non-profit organisations, most of which are still operating. They include Job Futures, United Way Sydney, Jobs Australia, Social Ventures Australia, School for Social Entrepreneurs Australia

Nic Bolto

Nic Bolto has been working in the field of mental health and employment since the late 1980’s and was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2009 that explored the use of social enterprise in reducing levels of reoffending amongst vulnerable citizens. Nic founded Ostara Australia Limited in 2001. The company has turnover of approximately $20m and delivers employment support services to people with mental health issues in 114 sites around Australia.

Dea Morgain

Dea is the Manager of the Workplace Supports Program at Social Firms Australia. In this capacity she works with Social Firms and other workplaces to develop systems and processes to effectively support employees with mental illness.

Dea has more than 20 years experience in casework with disadvantaged people, community development and the management of nonprofits agencies. Dea has a BA in psychology and Graduate Diploma in employee relations.

Michael Newman

Mike has worked in the field of adult education for more than forty years and, amongst other things, has been, a community education worker in the sometimes mean streets of inner London, and a national trainer with the Australian Trade Union Training Authority. He retired from his post as Senior Lecturer at the University of Technology, Sydney in 2001. He has written a number of books on adult education and social action, his most recent being Teaching Defiance: Stories and Strategies for Activist Educators, (Jossey Bass, San Francisco, 2006. (You can find slightly more information about Mike and his writing, and download three of his books free of charge, at http://www.michaelnewman.info/ .)

See Dr. John Tickell on ACA

See Dr. John Tickell on A Current Affair

Tracy Grimshaw's exclusive interview with television's Dr. John Tickell, who in this clip was fighting for his life after being diagnosed with brain cancer.