Smiths Creek, New South Wales, Australia
Stephen is a senior executive who now lives in the Wollumbin (Mt. Warning) area of Northern NSW, Australia. Stephen has extensive management consulting experience gained through more than 22 years of public & private sector work in Australia, New Zealand, Asia and the USA. Today, Stephen is focusing all of his energy in areas where he can positively contribute to Human Sustainability and to that end he is working to become 'sustainably authentic' through the way he and his family live, the programmes and activities that they support, where they spend/invest their money and how they earn their living. Stephen is Managing Director and Co-Founder of a Gymea Eco Retreat & Spa a sustainable residential retreat centre, a director of Organic Farm Share a community oriented sustainable enterprise and he is a Director of the Murwillumbah & District Business Chamber of Commerce. In 2009 Stephen retired from his senior Partner Role with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, where he was responsible for Deloitte's Australian Government Consulting Practice. Stephen is passionate about developing his skills and experience to make a positive contribution to the challenge of global sustainability. Stephen is an ideologist who is constantly striving to maximise the value delivered in everything he does. Skills: Stephen is an experienced management consultant specialising in the provision of facilitation & strategic planning, organisational improvement, analysis, programme design & management.
Put simply, the mission of Soul Orienteering is to provide people with the tools, experiences and methodologies to support them to understand, improve and to propel them to take purposeful action that will align their life experience with their potential. There is a lot of coping in the world, and Soul Orienteering (SO) is about delivering pragmatic approaches to navigate from surviving to thriving. Without all the woo-woo and religious connotations; soul orienteering is about navigating life using your soul as compass, or in other words, using the wisdom of your higher intellect or self, to inform your decision-making process in the context of what life-elements enrich you. Other important attributes of SO, is providing the frameworks and tools to take the necessary action and the objective review and support that verifies you are progressing towards your desired vision state in a simple of step-by-step manner. There are obviously work needs to be done to transform ones’ life, there are no silver bullets, and I’m sure that there are many ways to assist people to live a rich and purposeful life, and in my experience Soul Orienteering is an incredibly comprehensive and pragmatic alternative for people searching for answers and solutions to these opportunities. Our contribution is to assist others with the tools and experiences necessary to welcome in meaningful and demonstrative positive change into their lives.
Gymea Eco Retreat & Spa, Uki is a sustainable retreat & day spa centre offering a sustainable, residential retreat centre to retreat hosts and community groups who provide transformational events and experiences in the area of mind-body-spirit. The mission of Gymea Retreat & Spa, Uki is to create a highly influential sustainable, ecologically and socially responsible retreat that will achieve long-lasting impact on human sustainability through the delivery of world-class sustainable learning and ecotourism experiences in northern New South Wales of Australia. In short we aspire to provide an appropriate venue and environment that will assist and motivate others to co-create a sustainable world through engaging people in the realms of possibility. In the past two years Gymea Eco Retreat & Spa has made some material progress in improving it's sustainable credentials and most notably illustrated by us winning the 2014 & 2013 Most Environmentally Sustainable Business Award for the Tweed Shire. We a proud & honoured to receive these independently evaluated awards and although we still have a way to go, we look forward to evolving Gymea Eco Retreat & Spa to a State, National or most importantly international human sustainability best practice standard. Gymea consists of 20 en-suite double rooms, day spa, restaurant / cafe, 220sqm octagonal hall, 20m therapeutic Magnesium resort pool. The day spa is complete with modern hydrotherapy spa, sauna, steam-room and plunge pool. Spa services include a full range of massages and organic body treatments. Positioned on 50A of secluded naturally undulating rainforest with stunning views of Mt. Warning, Gymea Eco Retreat & Spa provides our guest with a real opportunity to soak up the beauty, unwind and relax whilst being 35min from Gold Coast Airport, 40min from Byron and just 4 minutes from the village of Uki.
Organic Farm Share, is a publicly owned farm project with the aim of ensuring food security for our community, the regeneration of land, and positive financial returns to our owner-members. Organic Farm Share blends a unique form of enterprise with the values of a co-operative. Taking back the control of our food supply and establishing regional food security can only be truly achieved through participation, or more specifically, ownership. Organic Farm Share is a local food system that utilises regenerative and integrated farming practices, which return necessary nutrients back into the soil. This is achieved through organic farming, polyculture planting, the use of beneficial bacteria, animal integration, and localised compost systems. The Organic Farm Share (OFS) farm is situated in Northern NSW and will service owner-members from Byron Bay to Brisbane with a unique organic food delivery system that significantly reduces food-miles and packaging whilst ensuring fresher healthier food, a substantial financial saving, and regeneration of the environment.
As a relatively new member of the Tweed Valley business community, I felt compelled to take the opportunity to join the Board of the Murwillumabh and District Business Chamber of Commerce and offer up my skills and experience gained during my professional career. I am a passionate about joining the dots between the creation of a thriving town and making tangible improvements in regeneration and human sustainability and debunking the myth that to be successful in business you need to compromise. I’m excited by the opportunities that are presented to the MDBC, and I see significant potential for the Chamber to come together as a single voice to support what’s working in the region and to have the courage to suggest, influence and make changes to the areas that need work.
Morningside C.A.R.E. Inc. is a Not-For-Profit charity that supports the works of ICDP (International Child Development Programme) in Australia. For more information please see: http://www.icdp.info/ Morningside C.A.R.E. Inc. also owns and operates Sine Cera Rainforest Retreat an 80 person seminar and accommodation venue located in Northern NSW. For more information please see: http://www.sinecera.org.au/
Chairing the meetings of the board including the Annual General Meeting (AGM); Organizing and coordinating the board's activities and input via: • governing the organization via clear articulation of organisational strategy and risk management frameworks, supported by broad policies and objectives; • selecting, appointing, supporting and reviewing the performance of the Management Team; • ensuring the availability of adequate financial resources; • approving annual budgets and regulatory reporting requirements; • accounting to the stakeholders for the organization's performance; • setting the salaries and compensation of management team; • timely input to Management Team questions or requests for information; • provision of operational support to the Management Team.