Menzies Foundation

Menzies Foundation Official news and updates about the Menzies Foundation activities. This page will maintain a focus on the Menzies Alumni and their achievements.

Established in 1979 to perpetuate the legacy of Australia’s longest serving Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, the Menzies Foundation has a vision to inspire and nurture Australia’s future leaders. As a national, non-profit organisation, the Foundation has awarded more than 220 prestigious scholarships to bright and inspiring young Australians. It has also invested over $9 million in four health

and medical research institutes and supported a range of other legacy activities in line with Sir Robert’s passions.

Australian health and medtech innovation has enormous potential. But potential alone doesn't scale.It takes connected sy...
05/06/2026

Australian health and medtech innovation has enormous potential. But potential alone doesn't scale.

It takes connected systems — aligned capital, specialist expertise, trusted networks and leaders who know how to navigate complexity.

That's what makes HESTA's anchor investment in Synthesis Capital so significant. It's not just a capital story. It's a systems story.

Synthesis Capital brings together capital, venture-building capability and global networks to help high-potential companies move from breakthrough science to real-world impact. For us at Menzies Leadership Foundation, it reflects something we've believed for a long time: innovation doesn't scale through individual brilliance alone. It scales when the conditions around it are right.

Since 2018, through our partnership with MedTech Actuator, we've been helping researchers, clinicians and founders build the capability, confidence and connections to move ideas forward. Synthesis Capital is a powerful next step in that journey.

As our CEO Liz Gillies put it: "This is systems entrepreneurship in action. It shows what becomes possible when catalytic capital, capability and connectivity are brought together around a shared purpose."

We've shared our full thinking on what this announcement means — for Australian health innovation, for ecosystem-building, and for the role philanthropy can play in helping systems shift.

👉 Read our response https://menziesfoundation.org.au/mobilising-capital-to-help-australian-health-innovation-scale/ — and follow the AFR's coverage of HESTA's $70m investment to see the broader picture.

If this kind of work matters to you, we'd love to have you in the conversation.

🎬 A Leadership Recommendation from the Menzies Foundation Resource: "You are the Future of Philanthropy" – Katherine Ful...
05/06/2026

🎬 A Leadership Recommendation from the Menzies Foundation

Resource: "You are the Future of Philanthropy" – Katherine Fulton (TED Talk)

Platform: TED

This fortnight, we're recommending a forward-looking TED Talk from Katherine Fulton, then-President of the Monitor Institute, who offers a profound reimagining of what philanthropy can become. Delivered at a pivotal moment in the sector's evolution, this talk remains extraordinarily relevant for anyone thinking about how giving is changing — and must continue to change.

The talk explores:
🌐 the five forces reshaping the future of philanthropic giving
💰 how collective, distributed giving is democratising philanthropy
🔄 moving from isolated donations to networked, collaborative social investment
📲 the role of technology in enabling a new generation of philanthropists
🌍 why 'mass collaboration' may be philanthropy's most powerful new tool
💡 reimagining the ordinary citizen as a force for extraordinary change

Key insight from Katherine Fulton:
"Philanthropy is reorganising itself before our very eyes. This is a moment in history when the average person has more power than at any other time."

A visionary watch for leaders thinking about the next chapter of strategic, collective impact.

👉 Watch/Listen here: https://www.ted.com/talks/katherine_fulton_you_are_the_future_of_philanthropy

01/06/2026

🎙️ NEW EPISODE — Purpose Leading into the Future Episode 4: Risk & Moral Judgement

Hosted by Dr Peter Collins · with Michael Saadie, CEO of JBWere and Head of NAB Private Wealth.

Most leaders follow the rules. Fewer know what to do when the rules run out.
In this episode, Dr Peter Collins is joined by Michael Saadie to explore what it means to lead inside one of the most scrutinised industries in the country — where compliance is the floor, not the ceiling, and judgement is what separates good leaders from great ones.

The conversation explores:
→ Why purpose becomes the anchor when no policy can give you the answer
→ How treating customer complaints as leadership signals — not operational noise — builds lasting trust
→ What it means to support people through life's most defining financial moments, not just their transactions
→ Why the best organisations adapt systems to serve people — not the other way around
→ How a childhood lesson about bricks became a lifelong philosophy on disciplined leadership

A reminder that leadership isn't judged by whether you comply. It's judged by how you treat people when the answers aren't clear.

🎧 Listen now — https://menziesleadershipforum.podbean.com/e/risk-moral-judgement-with-michael-saadie-purpose-leading-into-the-future/?token=96fcde6cecd23696ed752aa3f7a62a1b

From our Transforming Systems Forum 2025, hosted with Collaboration for Impact and Mark Cabaj: belonging shapes not only...
31/05/2026

From our Transforming Systems Forum 2025, hosted with Collaboration for Impact and Mark Cabaj: belonging shapes not only what we seek to transform, but how transformation unfolds.
When communities are trusted and resourced to lead on their own terms, collective agency becomes a powerful civic force.

💭 Who in your sphere doesn't yet feel they belong? What would it take to shift from inviting participation to genuinely sharing power?

Leadership is the practice of creating the conditions where everyone can thrive.

A single mother kept her daughter home from birthday parties.Not because of the parties. Because of the gifts.She couldn...
29/05/2026

A single mother kept her daughter home from birthday parties.

Not because of the parties. Because of the gifts.

She couldn't afford one that wouldn't draw judgement — so it felt safer to just not go.
She wrote to Kmart to tell them this. Anonymously. And what she said was that affordable products had changed it. Her daughter could finally say yes.

That story is from Episode 3 of Purpose: Leading into the Future — a conversation with Callum Smith, Chief Commercial Officer at Kmart Australia and New Zealand. And it reframes something easy to overlook.

Because underneath that price tag isn't a margin. It's dignity. Belonging. The difference between a kid who gets to go and a kid who stays home.

In a cost-of-living crisis, affordability stops being a commercial issue. It becomes a social one. And leadership at the frontline stops being about reducing prices — and starts being about reducing exclusion.

A few things from the conversation worth sitting with:
→ Purpose is tested most under constraint. Anyone can hold values when things are stable. When fuel, shipping and inflation all hit at once, the real test is who absorbs the pressure. Kmart's commitment was to take as much of it as possible before passing it to customers.

→ Fairness is never isolated. Every pricing decision is a trade-off somewhere else — suppliers, logistics, workers, communities. Long-term thinking is what keeps the whole system honest.

→ Culture isn't built in speeches. Across 50,000+ people, many starting casual work at 15, purpose only survives through repetition. Stories told. Values reinforced. Every single day.
The clearest proof came during COVID. Stores closed — and leadership kept paying team members anyway, despite the hit. Not a drawn-out boardroom debate. A fast call, because internally it was simply understood as the right thing to do.

That's the tell. Purpose isn't what an organisation says when it's easy. It's what it does when there's a real cost.

The leaders worth paying attention to right now are quietly moving:
Margin → meaning.

Short-term gain → long-term stewardship.
"I" → "we."

Because in hard times, people remember more than products. They remember whether you showed up. Whether you acted fairly. Whether purpose stayed visible when the pressure was on.

This is the question at the heart of the series: when costs are rising and something has to give, what's the test you actually use to decide who absorbs it?

🎧 Purpose: Leading into the Future — Ep. 3
Conversation with Callum Smith, Chief Commercial Officer at Kmart Australia and New Zealand.

Full reflection piece: https://menziesfoundation.org.au/fairness-at-the-frontline/
Episode link: https://menziesleadershipforum.podbean.com/e/fairness-at-the-frontline-with-guest-callum-smith-purpose-leading-into-the-future/

Kmart Australia Kmart New Zealand

WEEK 7: SPEAKING vs. LISTENING In a polarised world, where does your information actually come from? And whose voices ar...
25/05/2026

WEEK 7: SPEAKING vs. LISTENING

In a polarised world, where does your information actually come from? And whose voices are you really listening to? The practice of discerning when to speak up — and when to create space — is one of leadership's most underrated disciplines.

Professor Kristy Muir on leading in divided times and how the voices leaders choose to hear shape every decision they make.

💭 Whose voice has been missing from your recent decisions? How might you create space to hear them?
🎙️ Listen: Cultivating Cultures
🔗 https://menziesleadershipforum.podbean.com/e/leadership-and-the-cultivation-of-social-impact-hosted-by-michelle-bloom/

📚 A Leadership Recommendation from the Menzies Foundation Resource: "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone ...
22/05/2026

📚 A Leadership Recommendation from the Menzies Foundation

Resource: "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action" by Simon Sinek
This fortnight, we return to one of the most influential leadership books of the past two decades — a work that is as relevant to philanthropic leadership as it is to business strategy. Simon Sinek's deceptively simple framework has transformed how organisations around the world think about purpose, culture, and the art of inspiring others.

The book explores:
🔵 the Golden Circle: Why, How, and What — and why most organisations get it backwards
💡 how clarity of purpose drives loyalty, trust, and sustained impact
🌍 case studies from movements and organisations that changed the world by leading with 'Why'
🤝 why employees and donors give more when they believe in the cause, not just the organisation
🎯 how philanthropic foundations can articulate a 'Why' that outlasts any single program
📣 building a movement, not just managing an organisation

Key insight from Simon Sinek:
"Very few people or companies can clearly articulate WHY they do WHAT they do."
A foundational read for every leader navigating the intersection of mission, values, and impact.
👉 Find it here: https://simonsinek.com/books/start-with-why/

The debate is no longer about what you decide. It's about whether you have the standing to decide at all.Permission is n...
20/05/2026

The debate is no longer about what you decide. It's about whether you have the standing to decide at all.

Permission is no longer inherited. It must be earned. Leaders today are no longer expected simply to make good decisions. They are expected to justify why they are the ones making them. Sarah Jenkins examines the shift from authority to legitimacy—and what this means for how you lead. In "When Leadership Loses Its Mandate," the first essay in our series, she explores the paradox of leadership in 2026: resisted and demanded at the same time. Leading without the assurance of universal permission is now the defining challenge. If you recognise this tension in your own leadership, this essay is for you. The conversation continues.*

→ Understand the shift
https://menziesfoundation.org.au/when-leadership-loses-its-mandate/

19/05/2026

🎙️ NEW EPISODE — Purpose Leading into the Future Episode 3: Fairness at the Frontline

Hosted by Dr Peter Collins · with Callum Smith, Chief Commercial Officer, Kmart Australia & New Zealand.

Most leaders talk about purpose. Fewer hold it when the supply chain tightens and the household budget can't. So what does fairness actually look like when you're operating at the frontline of the cost-of-living crisis?

In this episode, Dr Peter Collins is joined by Callum Smith to explore what it means to lead a retail organisation of scale — one that serves 22% of the Australian population every month — with purpose as the anchor.

The conversation explores:
→ How Kmart holds its low-price promise against rising input costs — fuel, shipping, raw materials
→ Why fairness must extend upstream to suppliers and downstream to communities doing it tough
→ How transparency and accountability are embedded when bad news needs to travel faster than good
→ What it looks like to make a values-based decision in minutes — not months — when it matters most

A reminder that purpose isn't a commercial trade-off. It's the reason a single mum can say yes to her daughter's birthday party.

🎧 Listen now — https://menziesleadershipforum.podbean.com/e/fairness-at-the-frontline-with-guest-callum-smith-purpose-leading-into-the-future/

Dr Polly McGee, practitioner at the cutting edge of trauma-responsive leadership, and Dr Toby Newstead, host of The Futu...
17/05/2026

Dr Polly McGee, practitioner at the cutting edge of trauma-responsive leadership, and Dr Toby Newstead, host of The Future of Leadership Development podcast, argue that developing leaders fit for today's world requires a paradigm shift.

Leadership isn't something held at the top—it's distributed, relational, and responsive.

How are you building collective capacity rather than individual capability? Where could you shift from control to connection in your leadership?

Leadership is the practice of developing the capacity of those around us.

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