Meet our team

Penny Bingham-Hall is a non-executive director of Fortescue and the Deputy Chair of both the Advisory Council of the Climate Governance Initiative, Australia and the Salaam Foundation.

Penny has broad industry experience in construction, mining, infrastructure and property, and is an experienced company director in publicly listed, government and not-for-profit organisations. She has a particular interest in climate action and environmental sustainability and is a passionate champion for Indigenous employment and business.

Penny is a former director of Dexus Funds Management, BlueScope Steel Limited, Australia Post, Port Authority of NSW and Macquarie Specialised Asset Management. Penny was also Chair of Vocus Group, Taronga Conservation Society Australia, the NSW Freight and Logistics Advisory Council, the inaugural Chair of Advocacy Services Australia, Deputy Chair and Life Member of the Tourism & Transport Forum and a director of Infrastructure Partnerships Australia, SCEGGS Darlinghurst Limited and the Global Foundation. She was a senior executive at Leighton Holdings Limited (now CIMIC Group) before becoming a non-executive director.

Penny is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment and a member of Chief Executive Women.

Mr Barnes is the founder and Managing Director of YIMBA Legal & Consulting. He is a Director of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria, the Chair of Westpac’s Indigenous Advisory Committee, a Member of Westpac’s Stakeholder Advisory Council, the Chair of the NSW Aboriginal Housing Office and the Australian First Nations Co-Representative on the Indigenous Peoples Economic and Trade Cooperation Arrangement (IPETCA). He has been the Chair of Ngyuluway DesignInc, a Director of the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence, Bangarra Dance Theatre and the Australian Indigenous Leadership Centre, a Member of the NSW Law Society Indigenous Issues Committee and UTS’ Indigenous Industry Advisory Group, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building and a founding member of Ngalaya Indigenous Lawyers Association.

Damien has an extensive background in law, commercial management and engineering, providing advice on a range of areas including: infrastructure; construction; transport; energy; resources; renewables; environment; planning; property; Indigenous Business; native title; cultural heritage; RAPs, ESG and FPIC. His employment experience includes senior legal and management roles with; law firms King & Wood Mallesons and DLA Piper and in-house with UGL, McDermott CBI, O’Donnell Griffin, Power Minerals, NTSCorp and government.

Damien is a Bidjara man from central QLD with family connection to Woorabinda and he provides extensive pro bono assistance to Indigenous communities and organisations. He holds an Executive MBA, a Law Degree, a Civil Engineering Degree, a Graduate Certificate in Indigenous Leadership and is an accredited mediator.

Jenni is an accomplished executive with extensive leadership skills and a strong dedication to Indigenous communities. She possesses over 30 years of senior executive experience in government policy, strategy, and operational management. As a Yadhiagana/Wuthathi, Torres Strait Islander, and Guringji person, and married to a Noongar man with four children and four grandchildren, Jenni has a profound connection to Indigenous communities and has devoted her career to advocating for equal opportunities for all Aboriginal people, including access to services, employment, and cultural understanding.

As General Manager for Rio Tinto, she effectively applies her leadership skills and commitment to equality, enhancing the company’s performance through internal audits while remaining steadfast in her support for Indigenous communities. Jenni is fervent about driving organisational change and promoting equity and inclusion for all Australians. She holds a Bachelor of Business Degree in Accounting and has served as Director of the Clontarf Foundation Board since 2023.

Brad Cooke is a Bidjigal man from the La Perouse Aboriginal community in Sydney and an experienced leader whose career has been built across community, business, government, media and the not-for-profit sector.

Grounded in culture and community, Brad has developed a reputation for bringing people together, building trusted relationships and creating practical outcomes. His work is driven by a strong belief in Indigenous economic participation and the importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people having the opportunity to lead, build businesses and create pathways for future generations.

Brad is Co-Founder of Indigenous-owned creative solutions company Campfire x and has extensive experience in strategic partnerships, community engagement, communications, broadcasting and creative production.

His work has included national campaigns and major documentary and television productions, including The Knowledge Keepers, 1973 – The Indigenous Touring Team to New Zealand, and Away From Country.

Storytelling has been a constant throughout Brad’s career, but for him its value lies in its ability to create connection, understanding and opportunity.

He has worked as a broadcaster and producer with NITV, ABC Grandstand and Koori Radio and, since 2008, has been the lead commentator for the New South Wales Aboriginal Rugby League Knockout on NITV, becoming widely known as the “Voice of the Knockout.”

As a Director of Supply Nation, Brad brings deep community connection, commercial understanding and a commitment to strengthening Australia’s Indigenous business sector.

Anita Lee Hong M HumRights, BSc (ACMD), Grad Cert Tchng is a Butchulla and Darrba woman. Ms Lee Hong’s work has provided considerable leadership, expertise and advice in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander matters. She is currently the General Manager of the Gurriny Yealamucka Health Service at Yarrabah, Far North Queensland.

Ms Lee Hong’s academic career was as Lecturer and Program Coordinator at the Curtin University’s Centre for Aboriginal Studies before becoming Associate Professor Director of the Centre 2002–2010. She later served as Professorial Director of the Oodgeroo Unit at the QUT 2010–2019. She received many honours and awards for her outstanding contributions to academic excellence, corporate excellence, leadership, teaching and learning and teaching innovations. She has an impressive list of publications in respected academic journals and has made numerous presentations at academic and professional conferences.

Daniel Miller is a Yuin man, a First Nations group from the South Coast of New South Wales.

He is currently Chair of Parks Victoria and a Director for Alpine Resorts Victoria board and is a member of the Yuma Yirramboi Board. Daniel also holds Board positions with Yurringa Energy and Original Power. Previously, Daniel was the Chief Executive Officer at the GunaiKurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation (GLaWAC) and prior to this role he was General Manager at GLaWAC.

Daniel holds a Bachelor of Organisational Leadership, an Advanced Diploma of Land Management and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Anne is an accomplished ASX listed and global company non-executive director (NED) and currently on the boards of Paladin Energy Limited, Metals Copper Limited, Weebit Nano Limited, Trifork AG, and New South Wales Treasury Corporation.

Anne recently stepped down from the Boards of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (6 years as Chair of the Audit Committee and member of the Risk Committee, preceded by 3 years chairing 4 substantial subsidiaries of the Bank), and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee of Global engineering services company Worley Limited, operating globally in the Oil and Gas, Chemicals, Mining and Renewable Energy sectors. Prior NED and Chair roles included Blackmores Ltd (Chair), Amotiv Ltd, the Citadel Group Ltd, Cuscal Ltd, HT&E Limited, Pioneer Credit Ltd, TAL Superannuation Fund, and HBF’s private and general insurance companies.

Anne is also dedicated to supporting the non-profit sector through her involvement with the Australian Indigenous Minority Supplier Office Limited (trading as Supply Nation).

Anne’s demonstrable areas of expertise include strategy development and execution, governance and risk management, to deliver value creation for shareholders through exercising strategic oversight of technology transformation. Self-driven education in AI technologies and ensuring organisations implement resilience against cyber threats has been a professional passion and investment. Her proficiency in industry standards, includes NIST, Essential 8 and governance over AI policy and use.

Throughout her 30-year executive career, Anne has held significant leadership positions in corporate and private banking, the global energy sector (Worley Limited) and technology 9 Citadel Group and Weebit Nano Limited) with institutions including Bank of Singapore (OCBC Bank), Westpac Banking Corporation, Cell Aquaculture Limited and the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd.

Scott joined Smartgroup in July 2023. Scott has more than 20 years’ experience in financial services and regulated industries with a strong track record leading and transforming organisations.

Scott has held executive positions in a number of organisations including as a Group Executive with Commonwealth Bank, and as a Managing Director with Citigroup in Hong Kong and New York.

Scott is a Fellow and Adjunct Professor (Industry) at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and a member of the Vice Chancellor’s Industry Advisory Board and is a Board member of Supply Nation. Scott holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Sydney, a Bachelor of Laws from UTS, an Executive MBA from INSEAD and an Executive MBA from Tsinghua University.

Katie is a proud Noongar / Yamatje woman from Boorloo (Perth), living and working on Naarm (Melbourne).

Katie has more than 20 years’ experience in leadership and business across multiple sectors but always working in the intersect of developing organisations through people interventions in order to deliver purpose, impact and social change. She is a deep practitioner in organisation development and change, a strategic innovator with entrepreneurship credibility and she brings complex stakeholder management achievements from the private and for-purpose sectors.

Katie currently leads the Global Diversity Equity and Inclusion Centre of Expertise at BHP, following a successful 5 years leading the Culture and Inclusion portfolio at Coles Group. In 2024 she was recognised by the Australian Human Resources Institute as the DEI HR Champion of the Year. She is also a Graduate and Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors Course and currently serves on the Boards of Aboriginal Hostels Limited and Gippsland Water Corporation.

Personal Life

Michael McLeod has been described by a senior Federal politician as one of Australia’s most valuable sons. Michael and his family are part of Australia’s stolen generations. At the age of two, Michael and his siblings were taken from their parents – never to be reunited as a family. Michael grew up on his own in state ward homes and foster homes. He first met his mother at his father’s funeral. By his mid-twenties, he struggled with addiction and by his early thirties Michael was homeless and living on the streets of Sydney. A successful rehabilitation program has seen Michael clean and sober for fifteen years. He then started his own niche telecommunications business and today Message Stick is a growing multimillion dollar business that has no debt. The business paid back the initial start-up capital in its third year.

Message Stick Group

Message Stick is owned by Aboriginal Australians and was started in 2003 to show that Indigenous Australians can own and manage a services business that engages with large corporations and government agencies. The business does not seek any sponsorship, donations or social grants whatsoever. The principals of Message Stick are business ownership, asset ownership, wealth creation and personal accountability are the key features for ending poverty of Indigenous Australians.

Message Stick has two core competencies; Unified Communications (comprising of Audio, Video and Web Conferencing services), and Professional Services (including SAP Consultants and services).

Message Stick’s customers include Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, Leighton, KPMG, Goldman Sachs, Gilbert + Tobin, Lend Lease, BUPA, Allens Linklaters, Qantas, Accor Hotels, Clayton Utz, Salmat, Compass Group, Staples and Johnson & Johnson.  Michael is particularly proud of his numerous New South Wales state and federal government customers who include Prime Ministers and Cabinet, AusAID, and Reconciliation Australia.

Message Stick is also working closely with the federal government, the Chamber and the Business Council of Australia to change government policy approach to Indigenous Australians – with significant success. The government is now shifting from a complete welfare and subsidy based focus to developing policies around supporting real economic development, including business ownership and entrepreneurialism.

Building Supply Nation

After building Message Stick into a shining example of how an Indigenous business can engage with large corporates and government, Message Stick were being regularly asked “What do you give back to the community?” It decided to give back the most valuable commodity it had – it’s intellectual property.

Message Stick had proven that the idea of Indigenous businesses engaging with corporates and government would work, now it just needed to share that knowledge with other Indigenous businesses. Message Stick researched what other western nations (with socially and economically marginalised Indigenous minorities) had done in the area of Indigenous economic development.  Whilst researching, they came across the USA experience of supplier diversity.  They then contacted the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) in New York and asked if they would be willing to support their efforts to learn about the USA experience. These discussions started in 2006 and only in 2008 did things start to take form.

The timing of Kevin Rudd’s 2008 ‘Apology’ speech raised awareness and acknowledged that the federal government were serious about ‘Closing the Gap’.

Message Stick took on the project of formalising business plans and funding submissions and on the 18th of September 2008 were joined by their American supporters who flew into Canberra to assist. These supporters included Ms Harriet Michel (then President of NMSDC) and Mr Ronald Langton (National Director of Minority Business Development Agency, US Department of Commerce). This influential group attended various meetings with key government agencies with the goal of obtaining government funding and support for the set up of an AIMSC pilot.

One year later on the 1st of September 2009, the Minister for Employment Participation, Senator the Hon Mark Arbib and the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, the Hon Jenny Macklin MP announced that the government would invest $3 million to pilot AIMSC over 3 years.

Message Stick along with their many other supporters had finally achieved their goal of acquiring the government’s support in creating Australia’s first ever minority supplier development council. The next year saw the development and planning phase of AIMSC and on the 15th of September 2009 at Mural Hall in the Australian Parliament House in Canberra the official launch of AIMSC was held.

Becoming Inaugural Patron of Supply Nation

In November 2024, Michael retired as a director and was appointed as Supply Nation’s inaugural Patron.