– Michael Combs, Founder of CareerSeekers and CareerTrackers
CareerSeekers is a non-profit organisation supporting Australia’s humanitarian entrants into professional careers. Our program provides in-depth preparation and support to both refugees and people seeking asylum who are either currently studying at university, or looking to restart their professional career in Australia.
Our program supports two distinct groups of asylum seekers and refugees:
In 2015, Founder of CareerTrackers, Michael Combs, sought to expand the successful model he had established to support pre-professional Indigenous university students. With the establishment of CareerSeekers, corporate Australia’s focus on multicultural diversity was applied to tackle the issue of underemployment of asylum seekers and refugees.
CareerSeekers is endorsed as an Item 1 Deductible Gift Recipient organisation
Penny Graham (Chair)
Independent Director
Penny Graham has over 27 years’ experience in infrastructure and has worked extensively in Australia, Asia and the UK. Her work has involved the funding, development and delivery of major infrastructure projects.
Penny is an Independent Director and currently lives and works between Sydney and Singapore.
She is currently a member of the Strategic Committee for the Assisi Hospice in Singapore, a leading provider of palliative care. She was Deputy Chair of the Sydney Motorway Corporation which developed and financed the Westconnex Project in Sydney NSW from 2014 to 2018 and an Independent Director on the Advisory Board for the Sydney Light Rail Project from 2013 to 2018. She has advised both European pension funds and Australian superannuation funds on infrastructure investment portfolios and has extensive experience as a Director on Infrastructure Investment boards and on asset boards understanding the business and operational side of infrastructure assets.
Anthony Ewan
Partner
EY
Anthony is a Partner in the EY Sydney Assurance practice with over 19 years of experience. He is responsible for providing assurance and accounting advisory services to a diversified portfolio of blue chip clients primarily in the real estate, funds management and public sector entities.
Anthony has spent the majority of his career based in Sydney yet his career experience includes secondments to the USA (New York) and the UK (London), the latter for 3 years in both real estate audit and transaction advisory (inbound IPO) roles. He was also based in Canberra for 3 years with a focus on Federal Government clients.
Anthony is a member of the Executive Leadership Team for EY Oceania Assurance, a practice with over 1,500 employees. He is also a council member on EY Oceania’s Diversity and Inclusiveness Council and EY’s Purpose and Corporate Responsibility Council. Anthony is currently the Independent Audit Committee Chair of the Australian Indigenous Governance Institute.
Michael Greene
Deputy Managing Partner
Norton Rose Fullbright
Michael Greene is a graduate of Macquarie University where he earned a combined Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws Degree and he is also a graduate of the University of Sydney where he earned a Master of Laws Degree. He is a commercial disputes lawyer with almost 30 years’ experience.
Michael held a number of leadership roles at Henry Davis York, served several terms on the firm’s Board and from 2014 to 2017 was the Managing Partner. On the merger of Henry Davis York with global firm Norton Rose Fulbright in December 2017, Michael became the Deputy Managing Partner and Head of the Government Practice of the combined firm. He also sits on the Management Committee of the national partnership as well as the Executive Committee of the global firm.
Michael is listed by Chambers Asia-Pacific as a “leader in the field” of Government. He is a CEO Ambassador for the Workplace Gender Equality Agencies Pay Equity campaign and a Non-Executive Director of Streetwork, a Sydney based charity which provides support for “at risk” young people.
Dorothy Hoddinott AO
Education Sector
Dorothy Hoddinott is one of Australia’s more widely recognised school educators. She is a strong public advocate for human rights and was awarded the Australian Human Rights Medal in 2014 in recognition of her advocacy for disadvantaged young people, particularly refugees and asylum seekers.
Dorothy is Ambassador for the Refugee Advice and Casework Service (RACS) and Presiding Pro-Chancellor of the University of Sydney.
Nyadol Nuon OAM
Executive Director, Sir Zelman Cowen Centre, Victoria University
Nyadol is a former lawyer, community advocate, writer, media commentator and public speaker. Nyadol is a Senior Consultant in the Community Crime Prevention Unit of the Department of Justice and Community Safety, Victoria, where she leads engagement with African-Australian and South Sudanese-Australian communities.
Nyadol was born in a refugee camp in Itang, Ethiopia, and raised in Kakuma Refugee camp, Kenya. In 2005, at the age of eighteen, she moved to Australia as a refugee. Since then, Nyadol has completed a Bachelor of Arts from Victoria University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Melbourne.
Nyadol Nyuon is a vocal advocate for human rights, multiculturalism, the settlement of people with refugee experiences and those seeking asylum. Her advocacy efforts in these areas have been recognised on multiple occasions including receiving the Victorian Premier’s Award for Community Harmony and the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Racism, It Stops with Me Award. She is currently an advisory board member of Melbourne University Social Equity Institute and the Community Refugee Sponsorship Initiative.
Edward Santow
Industry Professor – Responsible Technology at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS)
As Human Rights Commissioner Ed leads the Commission’s work on technology and human rights; refugees and migration; human rights issues affecting LGBTI people; counter-terrorism and national security; freedom of expression; and implementing the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT).
Ed’s areas of expertise include human rights, public law and discrimination law. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, a Visiting Professorial Fellow at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Human Rights and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and serves on a number of boards and committees.
In 2009, Ed was presented with an Australian Leadership Award, and in 2017, he was recognised as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
From 2010-2016, Ed was chief executive of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and was previously a Senior Lecturer at UNSW Law School, a research director at the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law and a solicitor in private practice.
Jalal Albshara
(Voluntary)
Ian Narev
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
SEEK
Ian is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of SEEK.
Ian joined SEEK in April 2019 in the dual roles of Chief Operating Officer and CEO of Asia Pacific and Americas. Before joining SEEK Ian spent 11 years at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. He was CBA’s Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director from 2011 until 2018. Prior to joining CBA Ian was a partner of McKinsey and Company.
Ian has non-profit board roles in education and the performing arts, and advisory board roles in private equity and fintech.
Ian holds a Bachelor of Arts and Law (Honours) from the University of Auckland, and Masters of Law from Cambridge University (International Corporate Law) and New York University (International Relations).
Founder