Meet Small Giants

Lynn is the Finance & Operations Lead at Small Giants Academy. Originally from the UK, she has called Australia home for the past 16 years. Beginning her career in the Corporate sector, she discovered both passion and purpose whilst working on projects in the Not-for-Profit space. She has since worked across a variety of sectors including health, education and disability.

Lynn loves spending time with her family, walking her dog Luna and dancing whenever she can!

Alicia is the Producer for our Impact Investing Programs and Into the Arena: Climate Leadership Accelerator at Small Giants Academy. Alicia is an experienced community and partnership builder who has a passion for social impact. She previously worked with The Conduit Group on impact investing education, high impact programming, and cross-sector partnerships.

Alicia holds an MSc in Gender and International Relations, and BA in Theology, both at the University of Bristol. Away from Small Giants, Alicia enjoys hiking and is a qualified yoga teacher.

Wesel has recently joined the Small Giants team in Australia following years of collaboration as the Program Officer at the Gross National Happiness Centre Bhutan. During her time at GNHCB, she focused on developing youth programs aimed at promoting GNH values in schools and colleges both within and beyond Bhutan. Her passion lies in advocating GNH in action through daily lives. Wesel currently resides in Albury, NSW.

Berry Liberman is a podcaster and writer who focuses on themes of leadership, storytelling, consciousness, money, and human cultural evolutio and connection.

Berry, whose family office Small Giants has a 100% impact portfolio, is a pioneer in the impact investing landscape globally, across media, the built environment, venture capital, regenerative agriculture, financial services, nature-based climate solutions, biodiversity, and energy systems.

Berry is the Creative Director of Small Giants Academy, a not-for-profit accelerator, education and media initiative with a focus on leadership fora hopeful future. Berry was the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Dumbo Feather Magazine — now The Wisdom & Action Podcast — with an abundant audience of conscious leaders from all sectors.

As a mother to three beautiful children, her work is in service to them and generations to come.

Danny Almagor is co-founder (with his wife Berry) and the Executive Chair of Small Giants. Danny was the inaugural Social Entrepreneur in Residence at RMIT, the founder and former CEO of Engineers Without Borders Australia and is the co-founder and Chair of the Impact Investment Group. He has founded over a dozen for profit and non profit organisations including The Sociable Weaver, The Impact Club, and Beyond Creative. He has served on numerous boards, including Tom Organic, The School of Life, The Cape ecovillage, Pacific Biotechnologies, Smiling Mind, The Gross National Happiness Centre in Bhutan.

He has studied Aerospace Engineering, Business Administration and outdoor education. He loves to cook, read, rock climb, talk about philosophy, garden, travel and jump on the trampoline with his three kids. He doesn’t like to run marathons, watch horror films, drink beer, spend time on social media, or invest in anything that isn’t impact.

Khalid Malik is a journalist and broadcaster and is working with us producing the Mastery of Business and Empathy program. In this personal essay, Khalid shares his experience of looking for work in Australia.

‍

Jen is the Head of Strategic Partnerships at Small Giants Academy. She is committed to purpose driven work, with experience in developing meaningful and productive commercial partnerships that have a strong business development mindset. Jen loves working with organisations that are bridging the gap between profit, people and a sustainable future.

Samuel is the Family Office’s Chief of Staff. He provides executive project, property, business, event and relationship management and support to Small Giants' Co-Founders, and CFO / Chief Investments Officer. Samuel has supported Impact and progressive business leaders for almost 10 years in Paris, London, New York, and Melbourne. Samuel is a professionally trained writer, actor, and musician with experience that allows him to lead with trauma awareness, and deep, compassionate understanding for our various, diverse human conditions and contexts.

Naomi is our Front of House Coordinator, welcoming visitors to The White House and supporting the Small Giants Family Office. Born and raised in Melbourne, Naomi lives in Thornbury with her small family. When Naomi isn’t at The White House, you can find her enjoying time in nature, walking, cycling, and swimming.

Anna is Brand Director and Head of Impact Safari at Small Giants Academy. She thrives on creating transformational impact experiences for our community by collaborating deeply with local knowledge. She is passionate about creating nurturing spaces for humans to be human and explore storied places across the globe through a local lens. As a trained death doula, Anna approaches her work and life with deep reverence to rites of passage and the cyclical way of being.

Away from her work with Small Giants Academy, Anna spends time plotting her own off-grid small home, dancing and road tripping the Australian coastlines with friends, collecting inspiration to imbue her work with.

David is our Deep Dives Producer at Small Giants. He comes from an Operations and Human Resources background in the Education across Spain and Australia, specialising in entrepreneurship, sustainability, emotional intelligence, and languages.

Originally from Venezuela, David has traversed the globe living in the US, Spain, and now calls Australia his beloved abode. With a passion for nature, football (soccer), graphic design, and personal growth, he dives deep into the exploration of our inner worlds, always eager to engage in thought-provoking conversations.

As a self-proclaimed over thinker, David is currently working on improving his listening skills and becoming more selective with the words he chooses to use. When he’s not crushing it in the office, David hits the trails as an avid hiker and camper, knocks it out of the park as a decent baseball player, and goes the distance with a good run.

Olivia is the MBE Host and Producer at Small Giants Academy and comes from a visual storytelling and production background in film, TV and advertising industries. She has worked in producer and production roles for over 15 years in documentaries, narrative, music videos and feature films in Australia and internationally. A community facilitator and bridge builder, she is passionate about creating inclusive spaces and immersive experiences for leaders and those who are curious and interested in working together to create a hopeful future.

Van (pronounced Varn) is our Community and Events Manager at Small Giants Academy. A passionate connector of people, she deeply understands the value of a well-curated, nourishing retreat and event. Her experience as a creative thinker, master weaver and community builder allows Small Giants to cross-pollinate its various communities.

Away from the White House she loves to spend time immersed in nature and is deeply committed to various volunteer roles.

Tamsin is the Head of Programs and the Mastery of Business and Empathy at Small Giants Academy. She brings several decades of leadership experience and systems change in Europe, Australia and Africa. Tamsin believes the best way to predict the future is to create it, change moves at the speed of trust and the superpower of leadership today is our ability to listen. After working as a policy advisor to the Premier of South Australia over two successful campaigns, Tamsin went on to ignite and co-create a string of initiatives including co-founding: Workshop17 inclusive innovation hub in Cape Town; TheBoardroom Africa to bring board gender balance; and The Rallying Cry to shift investment at the intersection of gender and nature for climate outcomes. She is a strategic advisor to CEOs on feminine leadership, gender lens investing and embodiment and holds an MBA from the University of Oxford as a scholar of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship.

Kaj is the Director of the Small Giants Academy Action Labs, where he leads the incubation and development of new initiatives. This has included the creation of Regen Melbourne, launching B Corporation in our region, bringing the School of Life to Australia and co-creating the Mastery of Business and Empathy and Impact Safari. He is a guide on a number of the SGA programs including Impact Safari Scandinavia: the Future of Cities.

Berry Liberman is a podcaster and writer who focuses on themes of leadership, storytelling, consciousness, money, and human cultural evolutio and connection.

Berry, whose family office Small Giants has a 100% impact portfolio, is a pioneer in the impact investing landscape globally, across media, the built environment, venture capital, regenerative agriculture, financial services, nature-based climate solutions, biodiversity, and energy systems.

Berry is the Creative Director of Small Giants Academy, a not-for-profit accelerator, education and media initiative with a focus on leadership fora hopeful future. Berry was the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Dumbo Feather Magazine — now The Wisdom & Action Podcast — with an abundant audience of conscious leaders from all sectors.

As a mother to three beautiful children, her work is in service to them and generations to come.

Karl Treacher (GAICD) is an Associate Professor of Social Science at Griffith Business School and the Chairman of The Brand Institute and The Culture Institute of Australia. He has over 20 years of experience working with tier-one brands, boards and business leaders and is recognised as an expert in organisational reputation, brand, culture and experience alignment.

Karl’s thought leadership in the fields of brand and culture have led to more than 60 published articles and speaking engagements at the Committee for Economic Development in Australia and TEDx. Karl’s organisations choose their clients based on an environmental and social impact criteria.

Lydia is a Conscious Leadership Facilitator. Her professional background is in executive arts leadership, festival curation and producing for theatre and film, in both urban and remote communities. She was previously the dual recipient of the Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship and the Australia Council for the Arts Community Arts and Cultural Development Fellowship, where she formed much of the work she does today in facilitating conscious leadership, spiritual direction and next economy transitions for both companies and individuals.

Lydia has a BA in Social Sciences and is currently undertaking post-graduate studies in theology. She enjoys a continued arts practice as a singer/songwriter and freelance writer, creating two back to back albums True North and The Narrows in 2019–21. Lydia loves to enjoy her free time either in the ocean, church or the bush, and outside of her work she enjoys a simple, quiet life with her partner and two children.

Francie is the CFO and Chief Investment Officer at Small Giants. She is passionate about empowering people for positive impact and systems change. Responsible for leading finance, investments, governance, and operations for the Small Giants family office and the portfolio of Small Giants businesses, she holds several governance positions across the Small Giants portfolio. This includes Board Chair for Small Giants Catalyst Foundation and Small Giants Academy, as well as a Board member for Impact Funds Management (IIG subsidiary) and Sentient Impact Capital.

Francie is also on the Board of Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA), member of RIAA’s People, Nominations and Remuneration Committee and is a Governor at WWF Australia. She has a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) and a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting), and is also a Chartered Accountant (CA) and Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) Company Directors course and AICD Boardroom Mastery course. Francie is a member of the Australian Psychological Society (APS) and APS College of Organisational Psychologists. She is a Provisional Psychologist currently completing a Master of Psychology (Organisational).

Francie has a big family and loves long walks as well as arts and crafts (you can never have enough sequins and glitter!).

Danny Almagor is co-founder (with his wife Berry) and the Executive Chair of Small Giants. Danny was the inaugural Social Entrepreneur in Residence at RMIT, the founder and former CEO of Engineers Without Borders Australia and is the co-founder and Chair of the Impact Investment Group, and more recently created Sentient Impact Group. He has founded over a dozen for profit and non profit organisations including The Sociable Weaver, The Impact Club, Beyond Family Office and Beyond Creative. He has served on numerous boards, including many of the Small Giants family of businesses such as Tom Organic, The School of Life, The Cape ecovillage and Pacific Biotechnologies, as well as non-profit boards and advisories boards including the Jewish Museum of Australia, Stand Up, Smiling Mind, The Gross National Happiness Centre in Bhutan and Toniic. Danny has been recognised through many awards including a Churchill Fellowship, RMIT Alumnus of the Year, EY Social Entrepreneur of the Year, UN PRI Social Investment Pioneer and the Medal of the Order of Australia.

He has studied Aerospace Engineering, Business Administration and outdoor education. He loves to cook, read, rock climb, talk about philosophy, garden, travel and jump on the trampoline with his three kids. He doesn’t like to run marathons, watch horror films, drink beer, spend time on social media, or invest in anything that isn’t impact.

Francie is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO)/Chief Investment Officer (CIO) at Small Giants, an impact investment family office. Francie began her career at PwC, where she was a senior Director providing assurance, consulting and transaction services across a range of clients. Before joining Small Giants,Francie was the CFO at the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, a role cementing her belief that arts and culture are important for the wellbeing of society.

Francie is passionate about empowering people for systems change and using finance and business to shift us to a more socially equitable and environmentally regenerative world. She has 23 years’ experience reporting to Board of Directors and Board sub-committees (Governance, Finance,Audit, Risk,Investment) of ASX listed, not-for-profit and for-purpose private companies across financial services, property, construction, mining, education, health, retail and arts and culture. Francie also has 13 years’ experience as a Non-Executive Director on Boards of not-for-profit and for-purpose private businesses across property funds management, retail, health, education, arts and culture.

Francie’s current directorships include Impact Investment Group (IIG, subsidiaries–Impact FundsManagement and Impact Assets Management), Sentient Impact Capital, Responsible InvestmentAssociation Australasia (RIAA), Small Giants Academy and Small Giants Catalyst Foundation. Francie is also Chair of the RIAA Governance Committee.

Francie was previously on the Board of B Lab Australia & New Zealand and TOM Organics. Francie was previously an External Member of the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee for St Kilda Mums and Our watch.

Francie has a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) and a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting). Francie is aChartered Accountant (CA) and Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD)Company Directors course and AICD Boardroom Mastery course. Francie is also a member of theAustralian Psychological Society (APS) and APS College of Organisational Psychologists. Francie is aProvisional Psychologist currently completing a Master of Psychology (Organisational).

A passionate and experienced governance professional, Mele-Ane’s work explores the intersection of cultural wisdom, purpose-led business, and the “next economy,” and believes in the immense power of storytelling for change. Mele-Ane holds an MBA from Oxford, where she was a fellow of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship. She also has an LLB/BA fromMonash University.

Mele has over 20 years of experience reporting to Boards and Board sub-committees with over 13 years of experience as a non-executive Director of Boards. Her experience spans ASX-listed companies, not-for-profits and for-purpose organisations across a wide range of sectors.

Mele-Ane’s professional background spans the areas of corporate law, human rights and community law, leadership development, strategy, operations, investment management and media. She has worked in Australia (predominantly based in Melbourne and the Kimberley) and overseas (the Netherlands, theUK and the UAE).

Prior to taking time to care for her young children, Mele-Ane was the founding CEO of Small GiantsAcademy for 2 years during its establishment. Prior to that, Mele-Ane held various positions across theSmall Giants impact investment family office including co-CEO, strategy and portfolio manager, and general manager of Dumbo Feather. Mele-Ane began her career in law, working at Clayton Utz inAustralia in corporate law, including governance advisory work and then for international French firmGide Loyrette Nouel, supporting their expansion into the United Arab Emirates.

Mele-Ane is currently the co-Chair of B Lab Aotearoa Australia & New Zealand and founding Board member of Regen Melbourne.

Prior to that Mele-Ane was a Director of the Impact Investment Group (impact fund manager), Tolu-TePae ki te Rangi, an investment fund using Maori values and principles to invest in communities, where she served as interim Chair. She also sat on the Investment Committee for Small Giants Family Office and The School of Life, a board she also chaired, finally she was also Company Secretary of the UNPrinciples for Social Investment.

Mele-Ane has a Bachelor of Arts (Indigenous Studies) and a Bachelor of Laws, in addition to a Masters ofBusiness Administration from Said Business School, Oxford University where she was a Skoll Associate Fellow.

Kaj (pronounced Kai) is the CEO of Regen Melbourne, an engine for ambitious collaboration, in service ofMelbourne. Powered by an alliance of more than 200 organisations, Regen Melbourne is the host of bold projects that are moving Melbourne towards a regenerative future

Kaj is also the Director of Action Labs atSmall Giants Academywhere he leads the creation of newinitiatives and collaborates on the Academy’s education and storytelling programs.

Eleanor is a curator of immersive experiences which bring people together to explore the ideas defining our time.

Eleanor most recently curated the ‘Forest Economics Congress’ with MONA (Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania) and ‘Into the Arena’ the Climate Leadership Accelerator for Small Giants Academy.

She was previously the Head of Programs at Small Giants Academy, co-creating the Mastery of Business and Empathy, Impact Safaris to Israel and Palestine (conflict & innovation), Bhutan (GNH & systems of measurement) and the Tarkine rainforest (regeneration of people and place), as well as various courses exploring the interplay of wisdom and action required to meet global challenges.

Eleanor was formerly the Managing Director of The School of Life Australia, a platform exploring emotional intelligence through philosophy, anthropology and culture, staging ambitious public programming with interdisciplinary thought leaders across the country.

She and her husband Dan co-founded First Light to contribute to the growing global community investing in climate responses. She is a board director for Groundswell Giving and co-chair of the Atelier Council at the Art Gallery of New South Wales

Robert K Champion moves audiences with his haunting guitar music and compelling stories of life, love and loss.

A Gubrun, Kokatha and Mirning man now living and making music in Melbourne, Robert performs original compositions, a combination of country ballads and melodic songs.

Robert has toured nationally as a solo artist as well as with his band The MERRg and as part of other collectives and performing acts such as the Desert Fringe Super Band, the Stray Blacks and more.

Andrea Kirwin is an Australian-Fijian Artist/Producer with a retro soulful sound and a knack for storytelling. She writes and arranges her songs by weaving melodies and lyrics together with purpose and passion much like the way her Fijian grandmother used to weave pandanus mats in the village on the island of Matuku, Lau. Andrea's sound can be described as an earthy blend of folk, roots, reggae, blues, funk and soul and she waxes and wanes between her more gentler folk/soul tunes as a solo artist, and her upbeat groove based songs that she performs with her talented band.

Lucy Peach is a long-time champion of the power of the menstrual cycle who published Period Queen (she’s also a folk singer and a talented performer).

Lucy was featured in Dumbo Feather issue #65, sharing a conversation with Berry Liberman on rest and the cycles that we are both part of and are part of us. We loved the way Lucy talked about the period as the invitation that is present in each stage of that cycle, so we also published their conversation on the Dumbo Feather podcast.

Monique diMattina understands how music casts spells, how it engulfs us on a whole-body level. A pianist, singer-songwriter, composer and educator, she spent 10 years living in New York on a Fullbright scholarship in her twenties, observing and learning from the greats while fine-tuning her own style, which today swings from jazz to classical to roots, depending on her appetite at the time.

Monique is sass and joy and love and sophistication, wrapped up in a clever quip and a yearning to connect. For her, global fame isn’t the pull, it’s playing at the local jazz bar for the baker up the road, and knowing that her music lands somewhere, like sunlight reaches a flower.

Nathan Scolaro spoke to Monique in Dumbo Feather issue #67, read their conversation in “Monique diMattina composes beauty”.

Jess Hitchcock is an Indigenous singer-songwriter, award-winning opera singer and composer. Her powerful voice and passion for storytelling are revealed in captivating performances, be that with her own band, or when she joins forces with Australian music legends or performing arts companies such as Bangarra Dance Theatre, Victorian Opera, Opera Queensland and Short Black Opera.

Jess shared her musical journey with us in “Singing the sun up”, originally published in Dumbo Feather issue #67 exploring Music.

Joel Havea is a man of many talents. A skilled songwriter, natural singer, unique guitarist and an overall engaging performer whose eclectic style reflects his roots as a true world citizen — he was born to a Tongan father and a Dutch mother in the island capital of Nuku’alofa and was raised in the rich cultural landscape of Melbourne.

Joel’s music asks the question, “What does it mean to be at home?”, the experience is different for everyone, but that feeling is one we all recognise — listening to old Tongan music has always transported him to that place.

Lydia’s Fairhall’s professional background is in executive arts leadership, festival curation and producing for theatre and film, in both urban and remote communities.

Lydia is a Worimi woman, born on Bundjalung country, now living in Gubbi Gubbi Country. She has lived many lives in this one life, from experiencing trauma in early life to art-filled, soulful adult life as a mother, producer, executive, singer/songwriter and custodian of ancient wisdom, Lydia is the embodiment of compassionate resilience.

Today she facilitates conscious leadership, spiritual direction and next economy transitions for both companies and individuals.

Lydia is part of much of our work, she’s a Guardian of Purpose, a guide in the Mastery of Business & Empathy, was featured on the cover of Dumbo Feather issue #60, Belonging, and has contributed to a number of issues of the magazine. Her reflection on “Holding Space for a New Creative Process” (co-written with Leanne de Souza) is a must read.

Bobby Alu is a multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter. His mantra is:

Move. And be moved. Find your flow and go about each day to the rhythm of your own making.

It’s been a long-time personal and musical mission.

Bobby’s tunes have a way of sneaking into the subconscious and taking up residence with smooth harmonies, rhythms inspired by a strong family lineage of Polynesian performance.

During our time together, we invited Bobby to reflect on his experience during the Covid-19 Pandemic, read his story in Being an Artist in 2020.