Menzies Leadership Forum

What kind of leadership does the next chapter demand?

In environments of heightened scrutiny and institutional fragility, leadership requires moral clarity and disciplined restraint.

Through a Defence or national service lens, this episode explores how leaders remain anchored in purpose when obligations are formal, stakes are high and public legitimacy must be protected.

The series concludes by examining leadership as guardianship — holding authority on behalf of others and sustaining institutional trust in times of uncertainty.

Key Themes:

• Duty and obligation
• Ethical reasoning in high-stakes environments
• Institutional legitimacy under pressure
• Leadership as guardianship

Brigadier John Fenwick (Retd), Adjunct Professor at the University of Canberra in the faculty of Business, Government and Law, and a moderator/facilitator with the Cranlana Centre for Ethical Leadership  

How do institutions hold purpose across time, not just performance cycles?

Some institutions are designed to steward capital, assets or public trust across generations. Their decisions shape not just quarterly performance, but long-term national resilience.

This episode examines how leaders balance fiduciary discipline with broader responsibility — particularly when volatility and political pressure compress decision-making timeframes.

What does ethical reasoning look like when trade-offs unfold across decades? How do leaders remain anchored in purpose when market cycles and media cycles pull in different directions?

Stewardship is reframed not as caution, but as leadership maturity — the discipline to hold long horizons in short-term environments.

Key Themes & Talking Points:

• Intergenerational accountability
• Governance under volatility
• Ethical reasoning across time horizons
• Trust sustained over decades

Will Hetherton, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer - Future Fund

How do leaders of global organisations align performance, trust and long-term responsibility?

Leadership at scale carries a particular gravity. Decisions made in boardrooms ripple through workforces, communities, capital markets and national systems. The larger the enterprise, the wider the consequence.

This episode explores the tension between performance and responsibility in global organisations operating under intense scrutiny. How do leaders sustain commercial discipline while maintaining social licence? How do they navigate transition, geopolitical complexity and stakeholder expectation without eroding institutional trust?

Purpose is examined not as a statement of values, but as a stabilising anchor when competing pressures intensify. When every decision carries reputational, economic and societal implications, ethical judgement must operate in real time.

The conversation surfaces what leadership capability looks like at scale — and how legitimacy is built, sustained or lost.

Key Themes & Talking Points:

• Social licence and institutional legitimacy
• Ethical reasoning under competing stakeholder claims
• Navigating transition in global systems
• Trust as a leadership outcome

Caroline Cox, Chief Legal, Governance and External Affairs Officer - BHP

What kind of leadership does the next chapter demand?

In environments of heightened scrutiny and institutional fragility, leadership requires moral clarity and disciplined restraint.

Through a Defence or national service lens, this episode explores how leaders remain anchored in purpose when obligations are formal, stakes are high and public legitimacy must be protected.

The series concludes by examining leadership as guardianship — holding authority on behalf of others and sustaining institutional trust in times of uncertainty.

Key Themes:

• Duty and obligation
• Ethical reasoning in high-stakes environments
• Institutional legitimacy under pressure
• Leadership as guardianship

Jo Tarnawsky, Former Chief of Staff to the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia

What guides leadership when compliance is not enough?

Financial institutions operate within highly regulated environments — yet regulation cannot resolve every dilemma.

This episode explores the limits of compliance-based governance. When risk models fail to capture social consequence, where does judgement reside?

Leaders reflect on how moral clarity, disciplined reasoning and institutional culture shape decisions under uncertainty. Purpose operates as a stabilising anchor when formal controls are insufficient.

Key Themes:

• Governance beyond compliance
• Moral judgement under uncertainty
• Risk, accountability and consequence
• Trust in financial institutions

Michael Saadie, CEO & Chairman JBWere

What does purpose demand when affordability and supply chains intersect?

Retail and consumer-facing sectors operate at the frontline of cost-of-living pressures. Leaders must navigate supplier relationships, workforce expectations and consumer affordability simultaneously.

This episode examines how fairness is interpreted across interconnected value chains. What responsibility does a leader hold upstream and downstream? How are trade-offs made transparent?

Purpose becomes the anchor that clarifies responsibility across complex economic ecosystems — ensuring commercial viability does not erode trust.

Key Themes:

• System-wide fairness and accountability
• Supply chain responsibility
• Cost-of-living pressures
• Transparency and stakeholder trust

Callum Smith, Chief Merchandise and Marketing Officer Kmart Australia Limited and Dr Peter Collins - Executive Director, Peter Collins and Associates 

How do leaders balance fairness, sustainability and responsibility in essential services?

Education and health systems operate at the centre of public trust. Leaders in these environments face deeply human dilemmas — balancing equity, funding pressures, regulatory requirements and workforce strain.

This episode explores how purpose anchors judgement when no option is without cost. How do leaders prioritise access, sustainability and fairness simultaneously? What happens when institutional resources are constrained but community expectations are not?

The conversation reveals the moral weight carried by leaders in essential services — and how disciplined judgement sustains legitimacy in environments of constraint.

Key Themes & Talking Points:

• Equity and access in essential systems
• Contextual ethical dilemmas
• Resource allocation under pressure
• Trust in public institutions

Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, CEO and Group Managing Director Australian Unity and Dr Peter Collins - Executive Director, Peter Collins and Associates 

EPISODE ONE: PURPOSE AS an Operating System

How does purpose move from statement to organisational discipline?

Purpose often appears in strategy documents — but far fewer organisations successfully embed it into governance, incentives and daily behaviour.

This episode explores how leaders translate purpose into operational systems. How are decisions filtered? How are trade-offs made visible? How is accountability reinforced?

The discussion surfaces how ethical reasoning capability is cultivated across leadership teams — not just at the top. Culture, performance metrics and governance structures must align if purpose is to guide behaviour under pressure.

Purpose becomes an operating system — shaping judgement before crisis arrives.

Key Themes & Talking Points:

• Embedding purpose in governance and strategy
• Leadership modelling and cultural alignment
• Incentives, accountability and behavioural signals
• Building distributed ethical reasoning capability

Will Harvey, Professor of Leadership - Melbourne Business School and Dr Peter Collins - Executive Director, Peter Collins and Associates 

What does purpose look like in the next generation of leaders?

As new forms of leadership emerge at the intersection of technology, behavioural insight, and social impact, how will purpose evolve? In this closing conversation, guests explore how data, economics, and human motivation can work together to drive a more inclusive and values-aligned future — one where purpose becomes an active force for systems change.

Key Themes & Talking Points:

• The next frontier of purpose-driven leadership
• Data, behavioural science, and the future of civic engagement
• Redefining leadership impact for emerging generations
  

With Thomas Walker - CEO of Think Forward & Hosted by hosted by Elly Hanrahan and Indigo Atkinson, Global Voices

Purpose isn’t a solo act — how do we co-create meaning and impact together?

This conversation examines how shared purpose builds momentum, trust, and collective action. Guests explore the beauty and friction of co-leadership and reflect on what it takes to align across difference in pursuit of the greater good.

Key Themes & Talking Points:

• Aligning across difference
• The dynamics of co-leadership and collaboration
• Purpose as a system-wide, relational practice

With Beth Eggleston - Co-Founder & Director at Humanitarian Advisory Group & Hosted by hosted by Elly Hanrahan and Indigo Atkinson, Global Voices