I’m a Queenslander, married to licensed builder Rob and we have four children and a Staffie. 😊

I was raised by my mother, a Registered Nurse, along with my brother and sister in the western suburbs of Brisbane before we moved north to the Sunshine Coast in 1988. My childhood summer holidays were spent on Noosa River, catching yabbies and watching the Ashes with my dad. I started working at 13 and had various jobs at Red Rooster, Table Eight and David Jones to help support myself through Uni. After finishing school, I spent a year as an exchange student in Germany which taught me resilience and the ability to connect with people from different backgrounds.

After graduating with degrees in Commerce (Accounting) and Arts (German) from the University of Queensland in 1998, I was recruited to BP’s graduate program in Melbourne then posted to London, where I spent four years developing skills in communication, strategy and technology as well as financial and people management. While managing a team of 300 staff as an Area Manager for fuel & convenience stores, I worked with people from a variety of different backgrounds which taught me tolerance, respect for cultural differences and problem solving. Returning to Australia, I built my career and completed my Masters degree in Human Resources after discovering that working with people and helping them to contribute was where my interest and skill lay. Executive level jobs in human resources and general management were supplemented by my growing involvement in community work.