Linda Walsh, AVID Property Group
As the General Manager Marketing and Customer, I drive the strategic marketing and customer direction for AVID Property Group nationally.
What’s Your One Thing?
I am passionate about advocating for women in the workplace – no matter their age or specialisation. By providing opportunities and freedom of expression in every day work practices and special projects, we are able to showcase their skills and create a positive change to the business by acknowledging these valuable contributions.
Stan Fitzroy-Mendis, City of Sydney
As the Area Planning Manager, Development Assessments, last year my team determined a quarter of a billion dollars of development supporting the sustainable growth of Sydney.
What’s Your One Thing?
The City of Sydney reports a positive 6.8% pay gap in favour of women compared to the national gender pay gap of 13.9% favouring men. The City supports the Diversity Council Australia’s Counting Culture project. This guides organisations in measuring and improving workforce cultural diversity.
Holly Brennan, AVID Property Group
As the National Sales Manager, my role is to spearhead the direction of the sales function, and to develop a cohesive and market-leading sales force capable of driving revenue outcomes from AVID’s state-based development projects.
What’s Your One Thing?
My “One Thing” is bringing the awareness of Unconscious Bias to the forefront of discussions around Diversity and Inclusion. Unconscious Bias spans all aspects of diversity, including gender, age, race, and sexual orientation, and by putting this on the radar we can increase a sense of inclusiveness within property industry.
Natalie Reilly, Coronation Property
As Head of Marketing at Coronation, I specialise in brand management, stakeholder engagement and driving impactful campaigns that resonate in highly competitive markets.
What’s Your One Thing?
My one thing is the belief that true diversity and inclusion thrive when we connect on a human level, it’s been said many times before but treating others as you would like to be treated has never been more important. Each of us carries unique experiences and perspectives that enrich our communities and workplaces. By nurturing genuine relationships, we not only celebrate our differences but discover our commonality. When we value each voice and contribution, we create a space where everyone feels seen, heard, and empowered.
Holly Reynolds, Left Field Communications
As the Founder and Managing Director of Left Field Communications, I lead an energised team to support changemakers for good in our industry by helping to create relevant and impactful communications and engagement opportunities at every stage of the planning and development lifecycle.
What’s Your One Thing?
I believe it takes a village to create a village, and I’m passionate about learning from and helping to lead our next generation of changemakers. My #onething is to continue to challenge myself and my team to keep learning and keep disrupting the notion of ‘the norm’. For me, diversity is the richness of life, and we can’t achieve inclusion without understanding and valuing our differences in all their forms.
Gemma Bassett, Mecone
As an Associate Planning consultant I work closely with Developers and LGA’s to deliver a variety of redevelopment projects. I’m currently working on a number of shop-top housing developments which will transform and extend the Chatswood CBD.
What’s Your One Thing?
I’m passionate about illuminating the various lenses through which we each ‘see’ the urban environment. When we take the time to acknowledge and celebrate those differences we collectively come up with much better, more inclusive built-environment outcomes.
Kathy Chehade, Xavier Knight Pty Ltd
Responsible for the People and Operations arm of our business. I work in close collaboration with the Leadership Team to deliver XK’s strategic vision, which includes People & Culture, Customer Experience, IT, WHS and Business Risk Management to drive growth, positive change, and high performance.
What’s Your One Thing?
Increasing D&I awareness though coaching conversations and education of our leadership team. Empowering them to lead and manage diverse teams through a lens of inclusivity.
Madhulika Joshi, Intrax Consulting Group
As General Manager- Forensic and Remedial at Intrax Consulting group, I lead a diverse, national team of expert forensic and remedial engineers. My team travels far and wide across Australia to investigate and solve problems for home/property owners, insurers, builders, lawyers, asset managers and government bodies.
What’s Your One Thing?
Being respectful and open minded is crucial if we want to build inclusive teams and provide equitable opportunities within our industry. My one thing is to be respectfully curious when I meet someone who is different from me, it could be gender, neurodiversity, cultural, racial, educational, generational or any other difference. As a leader, I consciously surround myself with advisors that have diversity of experience like the legends in the UDIA DE&I committee. This exposure encourages me to think differently, be more aware of conscious and unconscious bias, which then allows me to effectively build more inclusive teams and provide equitable opportunities to individuals within my team.
Joel Di Fonzo, Perennial Consulting Engineers
Civil Engineer responsible for delivering stormwater management
designs and site grading for commercial, industrial and residential
developments, as well as schools and hospitals.
What’s Your One Thing?
I endeavour to be defined by my values and performance alone. I
do this by approaching others in the same way; by being
considerate, continually learning, and recognising that everyone
brings their own unique capabilities and experiences to their work.
Mona Chao, Hyecorp Property Group
A highly experienced Design lead with a career spanning over 16
years in property development, design management and
construction / product delivery.
What’s Your One Thing?
The key to project successes lies in the collective backgrounds, critical thinking, and collaboration of a diverse group of team members. Throughout my career, I have advocated for professional education and gender diversity within architecture, construction, and property.
Being a leader of large project teams, I have a responsibility and on-going opportunities to create diverse and inclusive workplaces – for each team member should be valued, nurtured, and acknowledged.
Heidi Crawford, Crawford Brown Consulting
As a Certified Organisational Coach, Trainer, and experienced People & Culture Leader, I am dedicated to empowering individuals and organisations, enabling them to reach their full potential.
What’s Your One Thing?
As an experienced leader in People & Culture, Trainer, and Organisational Coach, I am dedicated to partnering with organisations to enhance their employee engagement, culture & retention. My mission is to assist leaders in understanding how to foster an inclusive culture through training and coaching initiatives. I am particularly passionate about raising awareness of mental health and menopause.
Thomas Wright, Chalk & Behrendt
Senior Associate responsible for assisting the firm’s Indigenous clients to build businesses and to use and activate their extensive landholdings.
What’s Your One Thing?
Shifting the dialogue from Aboriginal community consultation to community partnerships. Nearly 60% of Australia’s landmass has some form of Indigenous right recognised in it. It’s time the property industry engaged with those communities as partners, and not just stakeholders invited to comment.