“An earthquake, a missed flight back to Australia, and an expiring visa turned my Indonesian holiday into an emergency flight to Tokyo with a girl I had just met. That then sparked an 18 month adventure to Europe. That earthquake really taught me that sometimes you just gotta roll with the punches and turn a challenge into an opportunity. I ended up working for a med tech start-up in Berlin that had a real purpose, which helped to really open my eyes to what is possible. And I realised for me, my purpose is climate change, or rather, taking action to stop it. I wasn’t passionate about climate change growing up, but that’s changed over time. I think I’ve always been someone who’s looking for a challenge and my background in consulting taught me to look at bigger and bigger problems. And I don’t think there’s a bigger problem at the moment than climate change. Visiting the Great Barrier Reef, for example, really helped to bring an appreciation for nature and also just to see the destruction that’s happening in Australia. You see these beautiful photos of the coral, but you get there and everything’s dead. It’s really a whole other thing to viscerally experience it. I think I spent a lot of my early career focusing on getting promoted or increasing my salary or these kinds of arbitrary goals. But now, I have a purpose and a mission. It's been harder than I ever imagined, but it’s so much more much more rewarding because I’m progressing towards something meaningful.”
Make Your Change is a non-profit startup, providing a "one-stop shop" for the environmental justice, sustainability and climate action movement in Australia.