About

Register

“What we do today, defines our Australia tomorrow.”

– Michael Combs, Founder of CareerSeekers and CareerTrackers

About

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:

  • Mid-career Professionals – those with tertiary qualifications and professional work experience from their country of origin, who strive to re-establish their careers in Australia. These participants undertake paid internships lasting twelve weeks that provide local experience, a local reference and help them establish a network within their chosen profession.
  • University students – full-time university students who undertake paid internships during university breaks in an effort to link their studies with practical work experience. The CareerSeekers university program aligns to existing corporate internship programs.

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

CareerSeekers explained

Our Board

Penny Graham (Chair)
Independent Director

Anthony Ewan
Partner
EY

Michael Greene
Deputy Managing Partner
Norton Rose Fullbright

Edward Santow
Industry Professor – Responsible Technology at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS)

Bwe Thay
Deputy Chairperson
Victorian Multicultural Commission

Chantal Mousad
Senior Manager, Business Control and Monitoring
Westpac

Jalal Albshara
(Voluntary)

Advisory Committees

Ian Narev
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
SEEK

Susan Clear
Director, Social Impact Investing
Macquarie Group

Manish Jayswal
Head of Consumer Finance Risk and Portfolio Insight
Westpac

Daniel Veytsblit
Founding Partner
Backbone Partners

Nyadol Nyuon, OAM
Executive Director, Sir Zelman Cowen Centre, Victoria University

Our Team

Michael Combs

Founder

John Gelagin

Chief Executive Officer
john.gelagin@cs.org.au

Carolyn Sykes

Operations Director
carolyn.sykes@cs.org.au

Anne Shimada

Program Director
anne.shimada@cs.org.au

Kati Regan

Program Director
kati.regan@cs.org.au

Simon Jones

Program Manager (Student Stream)
simon.jones@cs.org.au

Rebecca Farzam

Program Manager (Mid-Career Stream)
rebecca.farzam@cs.org.au

Laalanne Rind

Senior Advisor (Careers Specialist)
laalanne.rind@cs.org.au

Bel Momani

Senior Advisor
balquees.momani@cs.org.au

Dung Tran

Senior Advisor
dung.tran@cs.org.au

Jemina Burman

Advisor
jemina.burman@cs.org.au

Khalid Saadat

Advisor
khalid.saadat@cs.org.au

Shaheen Whyte

Advisor
shaheen.whyte@cs.org.au

Rouzbeh Nabipourshiri

Advisor
rouzbeh.nabipourshiri@cs.org.au

Victoria Hills

Advisor
victoria.hills@cs.org.au

Dana Bragina

Administrative Assistant
dana.bragina@cs.org.au