Business In Colour
by Div Pillay & Sadhana Smiles
Business In Colour is a podcast that inspires, empowers and mobilises leaders and allies to understand and act for greater diversity. Hear our stories so that you understand our journey, our experiences and our wants. We bring to you leaders who are doing incredible work in this space. We know this work is not easy, we know the challenges leaders face. Our hope is that by listening to the leaders on the Business In Colour podcast, you make a commitment to act for positive change. Our businesses must reflect the colours of the communities we work and live in.Hosted by Div Pillay and Sadhana Smiles.This show is for you if you are interested in:Leadership in BusinessWorkplace diversityInclusion practicesInnovative inclusionCreating change Equity in the workplaceHigh performing cultures People and customer diversity and inclusionCulturally diverse leadershipGet in contact with Div & Sadhana via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/divpillay/https://www.linkedin.com/in/sasmile
Episodes
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EP. 137 Perinatal Mental Health Priority/Frances Bilbao
In this episode of Business in Colour, Sadhana and I speak with Frances Bilbao, the founder of Mum’s Matter Psychology — a clinical psychologist and business leader who is transforming access to perinatal mental health care for mothers across Australia. Frances brings a rare combination of...
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EP 136 The Menopause Gap/ Grace Molloy
In this episode we speak with Grace Molloy, CEO and Founder of Menopause Friendly Australia. Grace is an Australian Registered Nurse with a Big 4 background in financial audit, business development and commercial partnership and is a Telstra Best of Business Award Winner. In this episode, we…
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EP 135 Making People Visible/ Betty Exintaris
In this episode of Business in Colour, Sadhana and I sit down with Associate Professor Betty Exintaris — an award-winning educator, curriculum innovator, with more than 25 years of experience shaping how students don't just learn, but belong. Betty is also the Associate Dean of Learning and...
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EP. 134 Identity at Work/Charmaine Panickar and Krystin Low
In this episode, Sadhana and I talk to two remarkable women — Charmaine Panickar and Krystin Low — the worthy winners of the Business in Colour 2025 Collective Impact Award, on behalf of AGL Cultures. Charmaine and Krystin are both Melbourne-based in-house lawyers at AGL, and the Co-Leads of AGL...
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EP 133 Freedom Lends a Hand/Azadeh Dastyari
In this episode of business in colour, I had the absolute privilege of introducing a woman whose name alone tells you who she is. Azadeh means freedom. Dastyari means those who lend a helping hand. Born during the Iranian Revolution, raised in Blacktown, Western Sydney — she embodies her name....
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EP 132 Ripples of Change/Malini Raj
In this episode, Sadhana and I sit down with someone who has been in this fight long before diversity and inclusion became a corporate buzzword — and who is very much still in it. Malini Raj grew up as one of the only culturally diverse kids in her school, she longed for swapping her curry for a...
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EP 131 Allyship & Impact/Dr Chischona Schmidt
In this episode of Business in Colour, I talk with Dr. Chrischona Schmidt — an arts professional, researcher, and fierce advocate for First Nations cultural expression, who has spent more than 18 years working alongside community to elevate First nations arts and storytelling. Chrischona is the...
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EP 130 Finding Home & Healing/Nyachan Nyak
In this episode of Business in Colour, I talk with Nyachan Nyak — the visionary founder and CEO of the Nas Recovery Centre, and a purpose-led leader transforming mental health and substance use support for African communities through culturally tailored care and lived experience leadership.…
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EP 129 Creating Health Equity in Systems/Dr Ashna Basu
In this episode of Business in Colour we talk to Dr Ashna Basu who is a psychiatry advanced trainee in Sydney. She sits on the Board of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists and is the Chair of the Young branch of the Medical Women’s International Association. Ashna has...
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EP 128 Purpose-led Leadership/Donna de Zwart
In this episode of Business in Colour I talk to Donna DeZWart who is an accomplished leader with over 30 years of experience in consulting and the education sector, including 10 years as a CEO in the for-purpose sector. Donna leads Fitted for Work that specifically focusses on the employability…
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EP 127 Inclusive by Design/Sonia Sarangi
Sonia Sarangi is a registered Architect – the first Architect on Business in Colour – Sonia is the co-founder of Andever, a Board Member at ArchiTeam and Ausdance Victoria…a mentor to many and a Mum of two. She is the daughter of South Asian immigrants to the Middle East who then undertook her…
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EP. 126 Young People as Knowledge Brokers/Kano Ravalji
In this episode of business in colour we interview Krushnadevsinh Ravalji [Kano as he is popularly known] who is the founder of Third Culture Australia and Youth Commissioner at the Victorian Multicultural Commission. As a passionate advocate for D&I, Kano works to empower young people and...
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EP. 125 Elevating Safety at Work/Prabha Nandagopal
In this episode, we connect with Prabha Nandagopal who is an award-winning human rights, discrimination lawyer and advocate, having worked for over 18 years in a variety of areas from business and human rights to asylum seeker and refugee policy. She is the founder of Elevate Consulting Partners...
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EP. 124 Career and Culture Ceilings/Suji Sanjeevan
In this episode of Business in Colour, Sadhana and I talk with Dr. Suji Sanjeevan, a Melbourne-based doctor turned ambiance innovator, who masterfully blends science, artistry, and creativity. She is a graduate of King’s College London, beginning her career in policy development and research at...
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EP 123 Racism & Mateship in Australia/Sisonke Msimang
In this episode, Sadhana and I speak with Sisonke Msimang who is a renowned writer, speaker and facilitator. Her work is focused on race, gender and power. She’s been a columnist with the Guardian, written for a range of international publications and served as program director at the Centre for...
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EP. 122 Adversity to Advocacy/Peter Malley
In this episode, we talk to Peter Malley who generously shares his journey to becoming a disability advocate, drawing from his own lived experience. Peter has been a consulting traffic engineer for 20 years with a passion for master planning and lending his transport engineering expertise to...
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EP 121 The Power of Positive Psychology - Empowering Women in Trades /Hacia Atherton
In this episode, we speak with Hacia Atherton, founder and CEO of Empowered Women in Trades (EWIT), is a pioneering advocate for gender equality and psychological wellbeing in Australia's skilled trades. Under her leadership, EWIT aims to boost female representation in the trades from 3% to 30%…
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EP 120 Unlocking Your Personal Power/Rugare Gomo
In this episode I speak with Rugare Gomo who is a high performance life and business coach, speaker, author, lawyer, podcaster, Zimbabwean Australian who lights up this episode and the world with his infectious zest for life. Rugare has such positive mental models that he generously shares all...
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EP 119 A Beginner's Mindset in Entrepreneurship - A Gut Instinct/Rachel Castelino
In this episode, we speak with Rachel Castelino who is the founder of Blume Prebiotic Tonic), a company dedicated to promoting gut health through delicious prebiotic beverages packed with natural ingredients and plant fibre. Rachel educates us in this episode about the difference between…
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EP 118 Lead DE&I from you Stand/Michelle Lim
In this episode, we speak with Min-Shi Michelle Lim, a former professionally trained ballet dancer, who uses her behavioural psychology and neuroscience background in the diversity, equity, inclusion and ethics space. She is well regarded for her advocacy and practitioner experience, named as one...
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EP 117 The Language of Chai - Identity, Integrity & Empowerment/Uppma Virdi
In this episode of Business in Colour, I talk to Uppma Virdi who is a trailblazing female entrepreneur. Just when her legal career in a disruptive start-up was about to take off, she made the decision to run her own business called Chai Walli. She built this business from the ground up, making it...
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EP 116 The Rise of the Interim Executive & Power Skills/Jacinta Whelan
In this episode of Business in Colour, Sadhana and I talk to Jacinta Whelan, a partner with Watermark Executive Search. Jacinta is an award-winning author, thought leader and popular speaker on the concept of Interim Executives, Portfolio Careers and future ways of working. She leads the…
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EP 115 The Choice to Feed Fearlessly - Mumamoo/Miriam Weir
In this episode of Business in Colour we talk to Miriam Weir who is one of four Directors and co-owners of Mumamoo, a premium, scientifically designed, grass-fed, cows milk product. Proudly South Australian owned and Australian made. They are the National Winner 2024 Accelerating Women’s category...
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EP 114 Active Followership & Humanistic Leadership/Lee Goddard
In this episode of Business in Colour Sadhana and I talk to Lee Goddard who was appointed as the inaugural Executive Director and CEO of the Australian Missile Corporation. He is also a Non-Executive Director of AUSTAL and the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation, and an Advisor to the…
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EP 113 "Act on Values, Kindness, Wise Optimism & a Very Clear Vision" /Colin Mackey
In this episode of Business in Colour, Sadhana and I talk with Colin Mackey, a mining engineer and procurement executive who has recently returned to Australia from living and working in Serbia. Colin shares the influence of his upbringing in the UK and his time working on major construction...
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EP 112 Youth-led Impact in Business /Rosie Thyer
In this episode of Business in Colour Sadhana and I chat to the inspiring Rosie Thyer Rosie is the chairperson of Culture Spring, a youth-led social agency that aims to transform organisations, institutions, and workplaces to make them more inclusive and culturally safe for Australia’s young...
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EP 111 Ask What I CAN Do - Disability & Gender Advocacy/Tricia Malowney
Tricia Malowney is a disability and gender advocate. She calls herself an accidental advocate and credits her mother for her can-do attitude and confidence. We talk about the slow progress for disability in Australia, compared to the UK. Some of the reasons Tricia cites are: the flaw in the ABS...
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EP. 110 Believe in the Twenty Percent - Disability Inclusion/Emma Olivier
Emma Olivier is the founder and CEO of Twenty Percent, a Disability Advisory working with Corporate Australia. With over 30 years of consulting experience and born without a left hand, she understands from her own lived experience the challenges and opportunities of having a disability in the...
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EP 109 Solutions for Advancing Women in STEMM
Dr. Morley Muse is a Chemical, Environmental and Renewable Energy Engineer with expertise in waste-to-energy generation, wastewater treatment, renewable hydrogen generation, biofuels production and energy transition including storage, transmission and waste heat reuse. She has worked across...
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EP. 108 Use Your Hypervisibility/Lisa Martello
Lisa Martello is a construction project Director with a depth of experience leading high-profile rail, engineering, demolition, and construction projects in the UK and Australia. Think…bridge upgrades, tunnel ventilation projects, stations, and structures. She is also a Board Director and Chair…
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EP 107 The Personal is Political with Gender Equity/Angela Pippos
Angela Pippos is a Journalist, TV Presenter, Radio Personality, Documentary-maker, Author and more. In this episode, Angela shares her early love of sport, being a middle child, her parent’s influence growing up in a Greek-Australian family in Adelaide. She reflects on her father’s start…
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EP 105 Invoke Empathy, Incite Action/Samantha Payne
Sam Payne is the CEO and Founder of The Pink Elephants Support Network. After experiencing her own pregnancy losses she identified a gap in terms of emotional support for couples experiencing early pregnancy loss & fertility challenges. Did you know that 100 - 150,000 women and their partners in...
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EP 104 Pay The Power Forward/Meggie Palmer
Meggie Palmer who is the Founder of PepTalkHer, an app that empowers women to track their achievements. Meggie and her team work with ASX and Fortune 500 companies to close the gender pay gap. She is a Queenslander based in New York. She is also an accomplished as she calls it, Recovering...
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EP 103 Embodied Leadership/Saru Gupta
Embodied leadership is a powerful approach that sits at the intersection of body awareness, emotional intelligence, and nervous system regulation. Today, we’re so driven by our heads, that we’ve forgotten how to listen to our bodies, which is where our power comes from. This disconnect is...
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EP. 102 The Evidence Behind the Voice Referendum/Dr Shireen Morris
Dr Shireen Morris is a lawyer and an expert in constitutional reform and Indigenous constitutional recognition with Academic publications on constitutional law, racial discrimination and native title. She is also an actress, singer, songwriter and lyricist. Shireen is of Indian Fijian heritage,...
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EP 101 "I get knocked down but I get back up again" - YES/Rachelle Towart
Rachelle Towart OAM, is the Managing Director of Australia’s First Indigenous Executive Search Company, Pipeline Talent. https://www.pipelinetalent.com.au/ As a 100% Indigenous-owned business certified by Supply Nation, Pipeline Talent understands not only the importance of implementing a…
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EP 100 Embrace Your Story Fearlessly/ Yasmin Poole
Our 100th episode of Business in Colour is with Yasmin Poole, a public figure in Australia and globally known for her youth advocacy and activism. Through this episode, we get a window into Yasmin the person and where this advocacy was born. She recounts being a busker at the age of 8; the GFC’s...
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EP 99 Transforming Trauma Powerfully / Yemi Penn
Yemi Penn is a Nigerian, British-Australian leader who has a portfolio career – she is an author, TedX speaker, Mechanical Engineer, PhD candidate, Consultant, business owner and serial entrepreneur. She talks about being okay with failure and really giving herself the permission to dream and...
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EP 98 The Power of Bla(c)k and Women of Colour in Business/Priyanka Ashraf
Priyanka Ashraf is an ex-lawyer turned technologist building an anti-racism tool called Maya Cares (launched 2023) supporting the mental health & wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Black and Women of Colour (WoC). She is also the Founder and Director of the Creative Co-operative...
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EP 97 Health from the Inside Out/Jenifer Lee
Jenifer Lee is the Founder of Wildly Strong, and winner of the Telstra Best of Business Awards for ACT, 2023. Jenifer is an industry-leader in women’s body transformation and lifestyle coaching and in this interview you will know why her approach is so different. She is on a mission to educate,...
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EP 96 Fahm - Understanding/Dr Fariba Behnia Willison
Dr Fariba Behnia-Willison is an endo-gynaecologist, pelvic floor and reconstructive specialist. Fariba and her practice, FBW Gynaecology Plus was named the 2023 Telstra Best of Business Awards National; Accelerating Women and Championing Health Winner. Fariba also founded Desert Flower South...
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EP 95 Creating Inclusion in the Space Economy/Mani Thiru
Mani Thiru blends her love for space and satellites with poetry, writing, bharathanatym and more. She is a fierce advocate for women and indigenous peoples to participate in STEM. She is the winner of the Women’s Agenda, Emerging Leader Award and Stevie Awards, Female Entrepreneur of the year. In...
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EP 94 The Path Less Trodden/ Mona Shindy
Captain Mona Shindy was born in Egypt in 1968 and migrated to Australia with her family at the age of three. Her 32 year Royal Australian Navy career saw her serve on a number of the nation’s most technologically advanced warships which took her to all corners of the world. She saw active service...
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EP 93 "No is a FULL sentence"/Natassia Nicolao
Natassia Nicolao is the CEO and Founder of Conserving Beauty. Div first met Natassia as the Victorian State Winner, Telstra Best of Business Awards in the Accelerating Women Category. Div judged her at the Nationals and she wowed as judges. Here is an under 30, biochemist who leveraged the...
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EP 92 Valuing Lived & Living Experiences/Emily Unity
Emily Unity is a well-known mental health advocate, a software engineer and a creative designer. Emily has won a range of awards and we are so proud to be in conversation with them: to name a few of those Awards: 25 Under 25 Winner, named by the Future Minds Network; Multicultural Honour Roll,...
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EP 91 Don't Erase Yourself, Occupy Space/Tigist Kebede
Tigist is an Ethiopian who was born in Sudan and came to Australia as a child under the humanitarian program. Her parents named her Tigist which means patience, after a family friend shared that Tigist is the patience her parent’s needed to have hope for the future. You will hear Tigist’s…
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EP 90 'No one is coming to save us, we have to save ourselves'/Nasalifya Namwinga
Nasalifya Namwinga was born in Zambia, she left at the age of 11 with her family and lived in the UK and then New Zealand. She completed her schooling and tertiary education in New Zealand and is a senior clinical psychologist. She worked across a number of clinical and non-clinical settings…
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EP 89 The Power of AND - A Message from a Solo Dad/Michael Ray
Michael Ray is an advocate for Equality and Change, an Author and Speaker, well known for his contribution to the gender equity conversation from a Solo Dad’s perspective. In this episode, Michael shares his journey into fatherhood later in life, becoming a solo dad while his daughter was still...
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EP 88 "2 ears, 1 mouth: As a CEO Transmit Less, Receive More/Graeme Beardsell
Graeme Beardsell, CEO of Fujitsu, Asia Pacific, a global technology, digital transformation business. Graeme takes us through his growing up years, the influence of his parents, leaving school in 6th form, turning down a job in IT, his start in IBM and move to Asia, where he spent 20 years living...
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EP. 87 Commitment to Community/Vincent Nair
Vincent Nair is the Executive Chair & CEO of Smartech Business Systems. Born in Fiji his parents migrated to Canada. He shares with us his journey to Australia and the commitment Smartech has to people around diversity and inclusion
About this show
Business In Colour is a podcast that inspires, empowers and mobilises leaders and allies to understand and act for greater diversity. Hear our stories so that you understand our journey, our experiences and our wants. We bring to you leaders who are doing incredible work in this space. We know this work is not easy, we know the challenges leaders face. Our hope is that by listening to the leaders on the Business In Colour podcast, you make a commitment to act for positive change. Our businesses must reflect the colours of the communities we work and live in.Hosted by Div Pillay and Sadhana Smiles.This show is for you if you are interested in:Leadership in BusinessWorkplace diversityInclusion practicesInnovative inclusionCreating change Equity in the workplaceHigh performing cultures People and customer diversity and inclusionCulturally diverse leadershipGet in contact with Div & Sadhana via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/divpillay/https://www.linkedin.com/in/sasmile
Hosted by
Div Pillay & Sadhana Smiles
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