Trailblazing with CorbettPrice is back in a new weekly format!
Join us from Tuesday, November 5, for our new podcast series “Thriving in Uncertainty,” where we get comfortable in ambiguity, talking with leaders as they share their personal experiences in overcoming challenges and navigating change effectively to propel their workforces forward into the future.
Together, we’ll discuss topics including growth and adaptability, next-generation leaders, and taking the path less travelled with our impressive new line-up of trailblazers from across the Australian public sector. 25-minute episodes will drop weekly and be available to listen to from our website or across Apple podcasts and Spotify, helping you gain fresh and unique perspectives at a time that’s most convenient for you.
Our new series also takes on a more personal lens, exploring what it takes to be resilient and persevere through significant reforms, which our trailblazers have been inspired by in their own career and professional journey, and how their influencers have helped shape them into the leaders they are today.
Our Trailblazers
Found out more about our Trailblazers:
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With 20 years of senior public sector experience, Janet has led educational and community transformation programs, including the National Disability Insurance Scheme, workforce strategy, and the Families NSW strategy for the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet. Janet has a passion for children and young people, with a background in nursing and child and adolescent psychology, previously serving as the NSW Children’s Guardian and receiving a Public Service Medal for outstanding service, particularly through the protection of children. She is a National Fellow of IPAA and the Vice President of IPAA NSW.
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As Chief People Officer for the Department of Customer Service (DCS) Jody is focused on growing a diverse and inclusive workforce to build out the experiences we offer for both our people, and our 8million+ customers across NSW. With extensive experience in transformation, service delivery, governance, and people development, Jody is committed to driving initiatives that foster transparent ethical behaviours, enhance employee engagement, and equip teams with future-ready capabilities.
Jody has a wealth of experience across the NSW public sector, where she has been instrumental in championing transformation, supporting workplace wellbeing, and promoting an inclusive, speak-up culture. Jody’s background is leading significant reform in service provision and running large multidisciplinary teams in complex environments, including in Family and Community Services, and Service NSW, and more recently as Chief Operating Officer of DCS.
Jody oversees strategic people initiatives that align with the Department’s commitment to delivering exceptional customer service. In 2020, Jody was recognised with a NSW Public Service Medal for outstanding public service to the community.
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Mandy is a proud Aboriginal woman whose mob is Gamilaroi (Quirindi in north west NSW).
Mandy Young was appointed the Chief Executive of the State Insurance Regulatory Authority in June, 2024. Prior to this, Mandy was the Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer for the Department of Customer Service responsible for enabling 14,000 staff in multiple portfolio agencies with responsibility for a $4b budget. She drove significant reforms across corporate functions to better enable portfolio agencies to deliver to the citizens of NSW.
With a NSW Public Sector career spanning over 20 years, Mandy has dedicated her career to driving better outcomes for people and communities, improving service delivery, and implementing large-scale socioeconomic and justice changes for the citizens of NSW.
Mandy has diverse leadership and public sector experience, having held Executive Director and Deputy Secretary roles within the NSW Departments of Customer Service and Communities and Justice and its predecessor agencies.
Mandy holds a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of New South Wales.
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Dr Rachel Bacon is currently the Deputy Commissioner Integrity, Reform and Enabling Services at the Australian Public Service Commission. Rachel has also been appointed to the IPAA ACT Council where she works to promote excellence in public administration.
Prior to this Rachel worked at the Department of the Prime Minister & Cabinet (PM&C), as Deputy Secretary Public Sector Reform, helping to shape and deliver a suite of reform initiatives to make people’s interactions with government simpler, easier – and make life inside the public service understood and valued.
Over the previous four years, Rachel has worked for the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts as Deputy Secretary of the Regional, Cities and Territories Group, delivering place based policy and services for communities around Australia. Rachel has also spent time in the Department of Environment and Energy, running the Policy Analysis and Implementation Division, and as Deputy Chief Executive Officer with the Northern Territory Government’s Department of the Chief Minister.
Rachel has led a number of taskforces (many based in PM&C) to deliver whole of government priorities in areas such as environment regulation reform and Australia’s engagement with Asia, and has worked in teams to improve implementation capability, deliver strategic policy projects, and support government in areas such as counter terrorism, native title and refugee law.
Rachel’s PhD focused on administrative law and organisation change.
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After starting her career as a private practice Barrister and Solicitor, Kate realised that she was destined to follow a less “planned” but more “intentional” path, with careers and roles that better aligned with her personal and professional values. So she left behind the view of Sydney Harbor and unfulfilling hours at the desk, and returned home to Canberra where she began an eclectic career working in the Commonwealth Public Sector. Kate was appointed as the CEO of IPAA ACT in January 2024.
Kate describes herself as the quintessential “accidental public servant”. After she took a 6 month contract in the APS, she found herself in a rewarding public sector career spanning almost two decades. Her career mantra has been “good things with good people”. She has worked across a variety of roles as a senior executive in public policy and programs, HR and corporate services, property and security, policy implementation and National Cultural Institutions.
In addition to her professional executive career, Kate is a philanthropic leader, working across a variety of Australian charities and not-for-profit enterprises, including co-founding the CoRE Learning Foundation. Kate is a proud Auntie and Auntie Mother to some wonderful First Nations young people, and is a passionate advocate for inclusion and belonging.
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Appointed as Commissioner for Public Sector Employment in 2014, Erma Ranieri is driven to create a world-leading public sector that makes a difference for the South Australian community through an agile, flexible, and inclusive workplace.
Throughout her extensive career in the public and private sectors, her dynamic and inclusive leadership style has helped organisations optimise productivity while also enhancing employee wellbeing.
Erma was awarded the Public Service Medal in the 2021 Australia Day Honours list, for her long-standing advocacy of gender equality, diversity and disability employment and her commitment to public sector reform.
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Maree has worked in the APS for 16 years across a range of policy, program, regulatory, corporate and service delivery functions and she has held senior roles at Services Australia, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection and the Australian Customs Service.
Prior to the APS Maree had seventeen years in the private sector and held roles at the Shell Company, Osborne Computers and Austar United Communications. Prior to her move to the public sector, Maree worked as a consultant for eight years, with a specific focus on organisational change, strategic planning, maximising competitive advantage and building organisational capability.
Maree has a Bachelor of Economics from ANU, Executive MBA from the AGSM at UNSW and is a Certified Practicing Accountant.
Weekly episodes:
Tuesday 5 November
In our first episode, we are joined by Janet Schorer, a senior public sector leader and Chief Delivery Officer at TAFE NSW, to discuss growth and adaptability. In this open and inspiring chat, Janet shares experiences from her early career of how other leaders helped her grow and develop and how she leans on these experiences to grow and develop others today. She also explains how important it is for leaders to put themselves in someone else’s shoes, acknowledging that the world is now different from what it was, that workplaces themselves are different too, and that it’s through a connection with purpose that you can keep yourself, and your team, motivated through times of continuous change and uncertainty.
Tuesday 12 November
In our second episode, we are joined by Jody Grima, Chief People Officer at the NSW Department of Customer Service, for an open and compelling conversation as we talk about leading change and preparing workforces for the future.
Jody shares how there is no 'rinse and repeat' process for approaching change and that the first step is to be on the ground, understand the environment in which you're working with, what the culture is, and sensing the appetite for change. She also talks about other critical success factors, such as transparency and communication, and how without these, you risk losing trust very early on in the change process.
Tuesday 19 November
In episode three, we are steering off course - literally! Mandy Young, Chief Executive at the NSW State Insurance Regulatory Authority or SIRA, joins us to discuss ‘Taking the path less travelled.’
Mandy has diverse leadership and public sector experience, with a background in social work at the Department of Communities and Justice. She has also worked as the Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer for the NSW Department of Customer Service during COVID-19. During this episode, Mandy provides specific examples from her time during these roles and the significant involvement and subsequent impact of the initiatives that Mandy has driven and been responsible for.
Tuesday 26 November
This is part one of our two-part episode on a growth mindset approach to change with Dr Rachel Bacon, Deputy Commissioner of Integrity, Reform, and Enabling Services at the Australian Public Service Commission.
In part one, we delve into the components of a growth mindset and integrity within the APS with Rachel. She explains how the literature on high-potential leaders has evolved over the past decade: once focused on high IQ as the primary predictor of leadership potential, the emphasis has shifted toward the importance of a growth mindset. Rachel discusses how a growth mindset is closely tied to learning agility, which involves curiosity, openness, and a willingness to continuously learn. This openness to new experiences transcends culture, age, and gender.
Tuesday 3 December
In part two of our conversation with Dr Rachel Bacon, Deputy Commissioner of Integrity, Reform and Enabling Services at the Australian Public Service Commission, we discuss the APS Reform, which she has been heavily involved with, and how she keeps herself and others motivated on long-term projects that are hugely significant, have many initiatives attached to them, and require enormous patience and perseverance.
Listen in as Rachel shares the details of the design approach for the APS Reform Agenda, including how they determined the six guiding implementation principles using extensive research they conducted into global best practices on similar-scale projects. She also provides an introspective look at how she remains resilient and perseveres on long-term change projects .
Tuesday 10 December
You often hear about 21st-century leaders in government, but what about 22nd-century leaders? It’s an intriguing concept to ponder, especially considering that Gen Alpha, children born between 2010 and 2024, will play an pivotal role in stewarding our community, country, and world into the next century.
Join us in exploring this topic and much more with Kate Driver. Kate is the CEO of IPAA ACT and the co-founder and board member of the CoRE Learning Foundation, linking education, industry, community, and government to meet the needs of students and deliver future sustainable workforces for the Australian Industry. Listen in as Kate moves beyond the excitement of science fiction hype to provide pragmatic insights on the jobs and industries of the future, framing the importance of sustaining and improving life for humans at scale.
Tuesday 28 January
Developing, supporting, and guiding this next generation of leaders is imperative. Erma Ranieri, Commissioner for Public Sector Employment for South Australia, joins Andy this week to discuss the topic of next-generation leaders and offer her lived experiences of being an authentic leader who’s driven to support others through a whole-person approach and provide fairer opportunities for all.
Erma shares examples of some of the numerous mentoring programs that she’s led, detailing what it means for leaders to take a whole-person approach to support their workforce’s mental health and how she’s used her past setbacks to forge a new path for others in avoiding the disadvantages that she encountered earlier in her career.
It’s a powerful conversation that will leave you wanting to make a difference in supporting those around you.
Tuesday 4 February
Failure is often regarded as a bad word in the workplace. No one wants to fail or intentionally sets out to, and it can make you feel pretty terrible when something you are working on goes wrong. Reframing failures positively by rallying around those colleagues and helping them work through them can turn failures into successes, and importantly, it can build resilience in a team, which is essential for embracing challenges, turning them around, and thriving in uncertainty.
Joining us to discuss this further is Maree Bridger, Chief Operating Officer at the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, and the Arts.
In this compelling chat, Maree shares experiences from her career from times when things haven't gone to plan and how she has kept moving forward and turned things around through active listening and engagement. She also offers a different perspective on how organisations view innovation and how often, when you are in the trenches, you don't necessarily look around you to realise how far you've come.
More episodes coming soon…