Sonia Sarangi is a registered Architect – the first Architect on Business in Colour – Sonia is the co-founder of Andever, a Board Member at ArchiTeam and Ausdance Victoria…a mentor to many and a Mum of two. She is the daughter of South Asian immigrants to the Middle East who then undertook her own migration journeys to Singapore and finally Naarm /Melbourne. The duality of being an insider-outsider as a result of these multiple journeys is one that has deeply shaped her and her practice and this...
Aug 03, 2025•40 min•Season 6Ep. 127
In this episode of business in colour we interview Krushnadevsinh Ravalji [Kano as he is popularly known] who is the founder of Third Culture Australia and Youth Commissioner at the Victorian Multicultural Commission. As a passionate advocate for D&I, Kano works to empower young people and multicultural communities nationwide. His dedication to equity has earned him accolades such as the VicHealth Future Changemaker Award and Wyndham City’s Young Citizen of the Year . In this episode, Kano g...
Jun 18, 2025•39 min•Season 6Ep. 126
In this episode, we connect with Prabha Nandagopal who is an award-winning human rights, discrimination lawyer and advocate, having worked for over 18 years in a variety of areas from business and human rights to asylum seeker and refugee policy. She is the founder of Elevate Consulting Partners and SafeSpace@elevate, which she established to support and strengthen the work of organisations committed to positive social change. In this episode, Sadhana and I talk to Prabha about her growing up ye...
May 08, 2025•41 min•Season 5Ep. 125
In this episode of Business in Colour, Sadhana and I talk with Dr. Suji Sanjeevan, a Melbourne-based doctor turned ambiance innovator, who masterfully blends science, artistry, and creativity. She is a graduate of King’s College London, beginning her career in policy development and research at leading institutions, including the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. In 2015, her career took a transformative leap, when she co-founded Light & Glo Designs alongside her husband, Dr. Sanjeevan,...
Apr 02, 2025•46 min•Season 5Ep. 124
In this episode, Sadhana and I speak with Sisonke Msimang who is a renowned writer, speaker and facilitator. Her work is focused on race, gender and power. She’s been a columnist with the Guardian, written for a range of international publications and served as program director at the Centre for Stories. She is also the author two books - Always Another Country: A Memoir of Exile; and Home and The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela. In this episode, Sisonke generously shares her upbringing, leaving ...
Mar 06, 2025•46 min•Season 9Ep. 123
In this episode, we talk to Peter Malley who generously shares his journey to becoming a disability advocate, drawing from his own lived experience. Peter has been a consulting traffic engineer for 20 years with a passion for master planning and lending his transport engineering expertise to large-scale developments. He has contributed expert advice to a range of significant projects including town centres, residential subdivisions, mixed-use developments, healthcare, and educational facilities ...
Feb 13, 2025•40 min•Season 5Ep. 121
In this episode, we speak with Hacia Atherton, founder and CEO of Empowered Women in Trades (EWIT), is a pioneering advocate for gender equality and psychological wellbeing in Australia's skilled trades. Under her leadership, EWIT aims to boost female representation in the trades from 3% to 30% by 2030. Hacia is well recognised, being a celebrated winner of the Victorian Telstra Business Award for Accelerating Women. Hacia gives us so much in this interview, her personal journey of knowing and e...
Nov 21, 2024•51 min•Season 6Ep. 121
In this episode I speak with Rugare Gomo who is a high performance life and business coach, speaker, author, lawyer, podcaster, Zimbabwean Australian who lights up this episode and the world with his infectious zest for life. Rugare has such positive mental models that he generously shares all throughout this episode…He can and has navigated barriers and hurdles because he is clear about living his dream and creating his own path. In fact he has generously written a book about this life and it h...
Oct 24, 2024•52 min•Season 5Ep. 120
In this episode, we speak with Rachel Castelino who is the founder of Blume Prebiotic Tonic), a company dedicated to promoting gut health through delicious prebiotic beverages packed with natural ingredients and plant fibre. Rachel educates us in this episode about the difference between probiotics and prebiotics and unsung hero of our body – the gut – how gut health is linked to mental health, skin health, and more. What we learn is that Australians don’t get enough plant fibre and we just don’...
Sep 07, 2024•33 min•Season 6Ep. 119
In this episode, we speak with Min-Shi Michelle Lim, a former professionally trained ballet dancer, who uses her behavioural psychology and neuroscience background in the diversity, equity, inclusion and ethics space. She is well regarded for her advocacy and practitioner experience, named as one of the 40 under 40 Most Influential Asian Australians. In this episode, Michelle shares openly and generously about her health journey and the impacts it has had on her as a young person and well into a...
Aug 14, 2024•44 min•Season 7Ep. 117
In this episode of Business in Colour, I talk to Uppma Virdi who is a trailblazing female entrepreneur. Just when her legal career in a disruptive start-up was about to take off, she made the decision to run her own business called Chai Walli. She built this business from the ground up, making it her and her team’s mission to preserve the Indian culture of teas and spices…by bringing the most authentic chai blends to the Australian market. In this episode I explore Uppma’s personal and professio...
Jul 31, 2024•44 min•Season 8Ep. 116
In this episode of Business in Colour, Sadhana and I talk to Jacinta Whelan, a partner with Watermark Executive Search. Jacinta is an award-winning author, thought leader and popular speaker on the concept of Interim Executives, Portfolio Careers and future ways of working. She leads the Melbourne office of Watermark and has over 25 years’ experience starting and leading Interim businesses in Hong Kong, New York and Australia. This episode is a must listen for both candidates and organisations w...
Jul 24, 2024•45 min•Season 6Ep. 116
In this episode of Business in Colour we talk to Miriam Weir who is one of four Directors and co-owners of Mumamoo, a premium, scientifically designed, grass-fed, cows milk product. Proudly South Australian owned and Australian made. They are the National Winner 2024 Accelerating Women’s category of the Telstra Best of Business Awards. Along with Charlotte Chambers, Belinda Humphris and Kristina Scutella, Miriam is leading the charge on changing the narrative of feeding journey’s against some si...
Jun 05, 2024•40 min•Season 5Ep. 115
In this episode of Business in Colour Sadhana and I talk to Lee Goddard who was appointed as the inaugural Executive Director and CEO of the Australian Missile Corporation. He is also a Non-Executive Director of AUSTAL and the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation, and an Advisor to the Minderoo Foundation. Prior to assuming his current industry roles, he was dual appointed as Commander, Maritime Border Command and Operation Sovereign Borders, responsible for the law enforcement and operationa...
May 16, 2024•50 min•Season 6Ep. 114
In this episode of Business in Colour, Sadhana and I talk with Colin Mackey, a mining engineer and procurement executive who has recently returned to Australia from living and working in Serbia. Colin shares the influence of his upbringing in the UK and his time working on major construction projects. We are lucky enough to have Colin walk us through his decision making, leadership and management approach of how he built a diverse team - how he persisted and motivated them.. and others to realis...
May 10, 2024•42 min•Season 5Ep. 113
In this episode of Business in Colour Sadhana and I chat to the inspiring Rosie Thyer Rosie is the chairperson of Culture Spring, a youth-led social agency that aims to transform organisations, institutions, and workplaces to make them more inclusive and culturally safe for Australia’s young multicultural community. Rosie taught me the distinction and benefit of youth led initiatives rather than just occasional youth advisory and in this episode we explore the many ways in which younger people n...
Apr 26, 2024•45 min•Season 5Ep. 112
Tricia Malowney is a disability and gender advocate. She calls herself an accidental advocate and credits her mother for her can-do attitude and confidence. We talk about the slow progress for disability in Australia, compared to the UK. Some of the reasons Tricia cites are: the flaw in the ABS data, low funding, the low or emerging understanding of invisible disability; how many people look at what people with a disability can’t do, as opposed to what they can do…and much more. She asks us to n...
Apr 12, 2024•33 min•Season 5Ep. 111
Emma Olivier is the founder and CEO of Twenty Percent, a Disability Advisory working with Corporate Australia. With over 30 years of consulting experience and born without a left hand, she understands from her own lived experience the challenges and opportunities of having a disability in the corporate world. This episode is packed with practical guidance to start and progress the conversation in your organisation on disability inclusion. Why is Emma’s organisation called Twenty Percent, well I ...
Apr 04, 2024•47 min•Season 5Ep. 110
Dr. Morley Muse is a Chemical, Environmental and Renewable Energy Engineer with expertise in waste-to-energy generation, wastewater treatment, renewable hydrogen generation, biofuels production and energy transition including storage, transmission and waste heat reuse. She has worked across academia, government, and industry including in consulting and construction. Among her various work and accolades are: being a board director with Women in STEMM Australia, being appointed as an ambassador fo...
Mar 20, 2024•51 min•Season 5Ep. 109
Lisa Martello is a construction project Director with a depth of experience leading high-profile rail, engineering, demolition, and construction projects in the UK and Australia. Think…bridge upgrades, tunnel ventilation projects, stations, and structures. She is also a Board Director and Chair of the Diversity & Inclusion Portfolio for the National Association of Women in Construction in Australia . And a Professional Mentor for the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre . Follow her Instagram profi...
Mar 15, 2024•50 min•Season 5Ep. 108
Angela Pippos is a Journalist, TV Presenter, Radio Personality, Documentary-maker, Author and more. In this episode, Angela shares her early love of sport, being a middle child, her parent’s influence growing up in a Greek-Australian family in Adelaide. She reflects on her father’s start - cleaning the floors and being a Props Boy at Channel 7 to a Producer, Director and part of the management of Channel 7 and 10 in Adelaide. She recounts being the first in her family to go to University, her st...
Mar 03, 2024•48 min•Season 4Ep. 107
Sam Payne is the CEO and Founder of The Pink Elephants Support Network. After experiencing her own pregnancy losses she identified a gap in terms of emotional support for couples experiencing early pregnancy loss & fertility challenges. Did you know that 100 - 150,000 women and their partners in Australia experience the heartbreak of losing a baby during pregnancy, often under 12 weeks? In this episode, we are privileged to hear Sam and her advocacy journey to normalise pregnancy loss; to en...
Nov 02, 2023•44 min•Season 5Ep. 105
Meggie Palmer who is the Founder of PepTalkHer, an app that empowers women to track their achievements. Meggie and her team work with ASX and Fortune 500 companies to close the gender pay gap. She is a Queenslander based in New York. She is also an accomplished as she calls it, Recovering Journalist, with a career spanning, Channel 10, CNBC, Dateline and SBS. In this episode, Meggie recounts the moment she realised as a journalist that she was underpaid compared to her male counterparts. She rec...
Oct 25, 2023•36 min•Season 5Ep. 104
Embodied leadership is a powerful approach that sits at the intersection of body awareness, emotional intelligence, and nervous system regulation. Today, we’re so driven by our heads, that we’ve forgotten how to listen to our bodies, which is where our power comes from. This disconnect is underpinning our mental health woes, stress, burnout and exhaustion as ambitious leaders and individuals. By activating body awareness, we can build energy, lead with understanding, and become internally aligne...
Oct 16, 2023•39 min•Season 5Ep. 103
Dr Shireen Morris is a lawyer and an expert in constitutional reform and Indigenous constitutional recognition with Academic publications on constitutional law, racial discrimination and native title. She is also an actress, singer, songwriter and lyricist. Shireen is of Indian Fijian heritage, born in Melbourne to migrant parents. This episode is special because we have Shireen give us a fact-based approach to understanding what the Yes referendum is all about and we have a special co-host in N...
Oct 09, 2023•48 min•Season 5Ep. 102
Rachelle Towart OAM, is the Managing Director of Australia’s First Indigenous Executive Search Company, Pipeline Talent. https://www.pipelinetalent.com.au/ As a 100% Indigenous-owned business certified by Supply Nation, Pipeline Talent understands not only the importance of implementing a rigorous process to source and select candidates with the capability to excel in executive roles – but also a support framework to set them on the path to success. Rachelle’s goal is to place an executive into ...
Oct 04, 2023•43 min•Season 5Ep. 101
Our 100th episode of Business in Colour is with Yasmin Poole, a public figure in Australia and globally known for her youth advocacy and activism. Through this episode, we get a window into Yasmin the person and where this advocacy was born. She recounts being a busker at the age of 8; the GFC’s impact on their family business; her mother's story shaping her own story and finding her voice on issues of racism, sexism and classism. She recalls her reaction to Julia Gillard becoming Prime Minister...
Sep 06, 2023•49 min•Season 4Ep. 100
Yemi Penn is a Nigerian, British-Australian leader who has a portfolio career – she is an author, TedX speaker, Mechanical Engineer, PhD candidate, Consultant, business owner and serial entrepreneur. She talks about being okay with failure and really giving herself the permission to dream and execute ideas – something interestingly - we both found outside of our home countries. You will hear Yemi’s journey of discovery to find her voice and to use it to empower others. We talk about those moment...
Sep 01, 2023•43 min•Season 4Ep. 99
Priyanka Ashraf is an ex-lawyer turned technologist building an anti-racism tool called Maya Cares (launched 2023) supporting the mental health & wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Black and Women of Colour (WoC). She is also the Founder and Director of the Creative Co-operative working closely with the startup community through the program Anyone Can (launched in 2022), supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Black and WoC startup founders and operators to not jus...
Aug 24, 2023•48 min•Season 4Ep. 98
Jenifer Lee is the Founder of Wildly Strong, and winner of the Telstra Best of Business Awards for ACT, 2023. Jenifer is an industry-leader in women’s body transformation and lifestyle coaching and in this interview you will know why her approach is so different. She is on a mission to educate, empower and equip women with everything we need to know to change our minds about our body and with that she often sees client’s bodies change to match their healthier minds. She works from the inside out...
Aug 17, 2023•47 min•Season 4Ep. 97
