Matthew Wright-Simon Email & Phone Number

Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Engage Change is a collaborative consultancy connecting people with impact. Along with a range of collaborators across Australia, we engage businesses, institutions, governments, communities and networks to regenerate our natural, social and economic systems.We do this with:• strategy – exploring better futures with purpose• facilitation – co-creating and curating connection• mentoring – building on leadership strengths•.emceeing – bringing everyone's stories together•.storytelling – articulating and sharing inspiration•.activation – delivering changemaking projects and experiences.If you are ready to deepen engagement and embrace change for your community, your cause or your customers, let's talk.

Adelaide, Australia

Together with founder Katrina Webb, my role is to co-create experiences and resources for a values-led professional community with a focus on inspired leadership for the greater good. This role combines my passion for what goes on behind the scenes, in front of and between people in search of better outcomes for all. It also draws on my expertise in strategy, mentoring, storytelling, facilitation (I am also summit emcee), community building and engagement online and off.We deliver summits (one-day events), leadership labs (deep learning workshops) and recently delivered a very successful six-part e-series. Our programs offer a wide-range of perspectives, experiences and opportunities to be inspired and to connect. These events showcase courageous trailblazers from around the globe who motivate, challenge and prepare us to become the leaders we want to be.

Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

I am Dean and one of the founding trustees of the Adelaide branch of The Awesome Foundation. We provide microfinance for social and micro enterprise and great ideas that just don't fit traditional funding models. Every month we give $1000 of our own money to someone with an awesome idea – no strings attached! We passed the $60,000 mark in 2020 and still going strong.

Adelaide, Australia

Professional engagement practice focused on strategy and mentoring, facilitation and event hosting and communications direction and delivery in a variety of places, publications and digital realms. Excellent networks are engaged in the delivery of project work. This work extends from micro-businesses and start-ups to global institutions, government at all levels (with an emphasis on the local) and organisations in the not-for-profit and social enterprise sectors.

Adelaide, South Australia

As CEO of Ecocreative I balanced leadership of a creative sustainability consulting business with a senior hands-on role focused on big-picture strategy, facilitation, research, writing and creative direction for many communications, brand, design and engagement initiatives. Ecocreative creates engaging brands, stories, products and experiences for clients in the government, community and business sectors. Our focus in this period broadened from the environmental sector into the social sector, engaging with coworking (with a strategic relocation) and becoming a certified B Corp, the first South Australian creative consultancy to do so. Strong consulting themes in this period included nature-based engagement and community development; the links between educational and research institutions and social responsibility; and broadening the sustainability agenda into wellbeing. We have also supported various community organisations and initiatives, including curating, facilitating and participating in public forums.Our clients across Australia are focused on education, natural resource management, social enterprise and innovation, science and research, philanthropy, behaviour change, ecotourism, climate change, urban design, sustainable agriculture, Indigenous culture and ecotourism.

This role represented an emphasis on executive leadership while a creative director role was developed for Ecocreative, including responsibility for creative and administrative team leaders. In this period the business engaged in more commercial sustainability work alongside projects in education, renewable energy, natural resource management and research.

I founded Ecocreative to provide communications support to educators and environmentalists. Under my leadership and with my involvement in projects that balanced thoughtful written and visual communications, the consultancy grew substantially to service a broad range of sustainability sector clients in business, government and community organisations.My focus throughout this period was to expand the scope of Ecocreative's work and influence, build and inspire a creative team of values-driven people and involve ourselves in important sustainability projects across Australia, mentor young creatives and students and regularly involve ourselves in public forums and activities focused on ethical enterprise. As Creative Director, I led teams of designers, writers, editors, illustrators, photographers and many other collaborators in the creation of a huge body of work in publications of all varieties, websites, interactive multimedia, brand identities, artworks, interpretive installations and trails and multi-faceted and often long-running campaigns a wide portfolio of clients in business, government and community organisations

Adelaide, Australia

Double Denim is a start-up social enterprise committed to women’s recovery from homelessness. I'm supporting co-founder (and the creative talent behind the designs), Josie Wright-Simon.Every Double Denim heat (and cold) pack makes a difference – for every one sold, we donate $5.00 to Catherine House to support women out of homelessness. For every 100 packs sold, we donate 10 heat packs to be given to women transitioning from recovery programs.Our sustainable hand-made heat and cold packs are 100% plant-based. They feature ethically produced ‘end of cycle’ denim and certified organic cotton fabrics. They are filled with Australian lupin beans and we want everyone to join our mission to 'share the warmth'.

Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Specialised role to broaden and diversify networks, audiences and attendance for two major events - ‘In Conversation with Changemakers’ supporting homelessness services Hutt St Centre and Catherine House In August and also Australian of the Year luncheon in late November.

Adelaide, Australia

Social Capital connected and led a movement that has expanded to more than 800 social innovators, entrepreneurs and purpose-driven enterprises. Engagement work principally involved co-designing the 2017 Social Capital event series starting with a large conference in Entrepreneurs Week, building on the success of our 2016 conferences.In my role I worked closely with Social Capital's co-founders to develop broader and deeper connections with those who are growing the 'social economy'. Central to this was building on the Social Capital brand and designing and helping curate an ongoing event and engagement program, including an annual conference and a salon-style evening networking series. I led a small team of practitioners and expert volunteers and together with partners, presenters and participants we networked the many people who are leading this social, cultural and economic movement into the mainstream.

Adelaide

This role was extraordinarily diverse in its challenges and represented some of the most rewarding volunteer work I've done. TEDxAdelaide is focused on the very best of our city (the heart of our city state) and it was a pleasure and a privilege to have a key leadership role in this event’s organising team, bringing people with world-changing ideas to those who seek inspiration and motivation.My TEDx work included:• connection: strategy and tactical action in linking participants, partners, volunteers, audiences and the wider community (including TED) to ideas that can change perception• curation: recruitment and selection of speakers, theming and response to Adelaide’s role in international thought leadership, with a strong focus on science, the arts, social issues and the environment• mentoring: guiding and coaching speakers and their content creation (helping transform an interesting presentation into a great TED talk) and how this flows through to video compilation, editing and production• creative direction: designing the event and experience (from online to the stage) and overseeing the visual communications and execution of the TEDx brand and storytelling (in close work with the Marketing and Communications Director) • community building: growing capability and fostering professional development and networks across TEDx and into social, public and private institutions and associations.

Adelaide

Following election to the position by representatives of the various campuses of this newly amalgamated university, I established a new media department. Central to this was founding and editing Entropy* magazine, a fortnightly student tabloid with a focus on investigative journalism, graphic design, cultural review pages and political commentary (all of which I commissioned from students). I developed a commercial model and new revenue streams to boost circulation off campus through bookstores, galleries, music shops and other universities. Entropy* gained a devoted following in its first year and was seen as central to the student culture of this new institution.This work was followed by a 2-month contract to produce UniSA's first student guide.

The Regenerative Practitioner, Community Involvement

The Regenerative Practitioner course provides a deep dive into the fundamental shifts in how we think and how we work that underlie.

Governor'S Leadership Foundation, Leadership

The Governor's Leadership Foundation (GLF) program is the Leaders Institute's renowned flagship program. This extraordinary program takes.

Certificate, Foundations In Effective Public Participation

This unique IAP2 training program equips participants with practical tools for designing and implementing effective community engagement.

Education record

Throughout this period I travelled to more than 40 countries in Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East. This transformative.

Bachelor’S Degree, Visual Arts

Activities and Societies: Editor of Poppycock magazine This four-year degree featured majors in printmaking, sculpture and theory.