Innovation

Lisa Obst

As a WHS Coordinator, I’ve taken the lead in embedding a safety-first culture at the foundational stage of our organisation’s WHS journey. My approach is grounded in education, empowerment, and compliance — helping individuals understand their duty of care and responsibilities under the WHS Act, while guiding them to take ownership of safety in their roles.
I’ve worked to bring people along on this journey — navigating diverse personalities, overcoming resistance, and building trust — all while maintaining a clear focus on compliance, onboarding, and continuous improvement. By applying the hierarchy of control and promoting practical, proactive solutions, I’ve helped shift WHS from a procedural obligation to a shared value.
My goal has always been to lead by example, foster accountability, and create a workplace where safety is second nature. I’m proud to nominate myself for the She Inspires in WHS award to celebrate the progress we’ve made and the culture that Beerenberg will continue to build.

Serese Selanders

Serese inspires me because she has blazed a trail of innovation in an industry where fewer than 5% of companies are founded and led by women. She recognized that lone workers needed a better lifeline in dangerous situations - so she acted. Serese developed patented technology, established industry-first strategic satellite partnerships, and created an integrated software and hardware solution that workers actually want to use. Now thousands of workers rely on SolusGuard safety technology daily to ensure that even when working alone, they are protected. What makes Serese truly inspiring is not just the solutions she created, but the bravery it took to imagine them in the first place. She stepped into uncharted territory, proved it could be done, and in doing so, gave hope to every woman who dares to innovate against the odds.

Isobel Fraser

Isobel is looking at ways of innovating training for our retail staff in regards to customer aggression by using VR training and other interactive services to make the training more real life. This gives our staff a greater understanding of different scenarios, how to early identify aggressive customers and provides training on how to early intervene and de-escalate.

Justine Youl

Justine inspires because she is reshaping what it means to be a leader in workplace health and safety. She has founded and grown SiteSherpa, a consultancy and technology company that empowers organisations across Australia. Beyond consulting, she has pioneered innovative digital solutions such as the SWMS AI Generator and Safety Sarah chatbot, which simplify compliance, directly engage workers, and make safety accessible regardless of industry or role. Her ability to combine vision, technical expertise, and genuine care for people demonstrates how innovation can truly transform workplace safety.

Maureen Riordan

Maureen has made a huge difference in my life when I was a student studying at TAFE Port Macquarie NSW, tutoring me in various subjects and helping me to overcome my fears and my limiting beliefs in myself so that I could achieve my goals and dreams I set myself to become a mental health peer worker despite having a physical disability. After completing my studies my dream came true and I now work for NSW Health as a Mental Health Peer worker giving hope, kindness, empathy, compassion in a trauma informed way while always being professional to all I work alongside in various services.These are all the qualities I put into practice in my own work life because Maureen showed them to me when working with myself and others in my class.

Priya Dharshini Kalyanasundaram

Priya transformed workplace safety by leading the deployment of AI powered risk detection, cutting incident response time from 24 hours to 2 hours. Her innovative framework not only reduced workplace injuries but also became a model adopted by sites.

Maureen Riordan

Maureen is a committed passionate lady who inspires others and works tirelessly to the commitment of educating others with their legal & ethical obligations to abide by the implementation of requirements for Work Health & Safety in the workplace. Her commitment comes from a life dedicated to educating others and using real life scenarios and examples to ensure a deeper level of knowledge is forged within industry. She has done this in many focus areas, lecturer at University, teacher at TAFE and within NDIS as a community & working with individuals to enrich their lives who have disabilities. Her innovation & passion to commitment for positive change is forever growing and informing the duty of care & commitment to enhancing knowledge of legislative guidelines that care for the welfare of people with a person first focus. Her dedication to educate and innovate is second to none and many an individual will recall being enriched by her commitment to the cause to educate well and make positive change. Her social person centred approach is what makes her a stand out and hence she is so well deserving to be acknowledged for an award for Innovation in this sector. A passionate woman who enriches lives through innovation and positive change. Maureen's moral compass is consistently aligned in the right direction for growth & change. She stands tall on her life long commitment to positive change for all and her innovation to enrich through life's experiences and education that promotes growth and knowledge for all.

Isobel Fraser

Izzy is bringing innovation and amazing support in how we think about our people inretail stores and how they can support customers qhilst staying safe.

Tania Stone

Tania is currently working with a software developer to enhance their SMS platform to better meet the needs of her agricultural clientele. Tania actively chooses to be part of the solution in all areas of business rather than complain that things do not meet her needs.

Sara Pazell

For development of the Psychosocial Risk Analyser (PRA) software that records and measures not only psychosocial hazards and risks, but also measures their interaction with physical health.

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View case study here.

Manjula Chinni

Manjula’s leadership style is deeply collaborative. Since she started with us not long ago, she immediately started to collaborate closely with frontline staff and operational leaders, ensuring that safety is not imposed from the top down, but built together grounded in open communication and mutual respect. Her deep understanding of ZircoDATA's operational landscape allowed her to design safety solutions that are not only compliant but truly practical and aligned with day-to-day realities. This mindset drives everything she does. Manjula leads with compassion recognizing the pressures the operations teams face and creating safe spaces for honest conversations about risks, concerns, and continuous improvement. She doesn’t just raise awareness she raises engagement, which helped her collate front line team member's safety concerns, daily challenges and encouraged everyone to share their ideas and possible solutions. She strongly believes to be hands on as much as possible, which allows her to better understand all aspects of daily tasks. A gifted communicator, Manjula brings safety messages to life through compelling storytelling. What sets her apart is her ability to connect emotionally with her audience turns procedures into principles, and policies into shared commitments. As a result, teams feel empowered, responsible, and aligned. She strongly believes in understanding the root cause for a failure and convert it as a lesson and an opportunity to improve as a whole. Since she started, she quickly refined, simplified and streamlined safety processes, maintained transparency, and is always available for either a meeting, brainstorm session, a visit to one of the centers, develop a process or innovate a bespoke solution. She is not shy to look for answers. Challenging the status quo is her forte. As she thinks for the organisation as a whole. Her narrative style, use of simple words and connecting with diverse staff members is her signature.