A word from our co-CEO: Alexie Seller
For me, the role of CEO at Enterprise Learning Projects was a dream come true.
I believe that empowering community entrepreneurs is the most effective way to support communities to achieve their goals. And this philosophy is what underpins ELP’s work.
It is also why I’m so excited by our announcement that Yolŋu business leader and ELP Board Director Liandra Gaykamaŋu and I will now jointly hold the CEO position.
I know that an all-Indigenous board and a new Indigenous co-CEO will create the best outcomes for the entrepreneurs we partner with, because when support is led, governed and informed by the people it aims to serve, the results can be transformational. We want our entrepreneur partners to feel safe, enabled and empowered. And we know that when they are thriving, it will in turn impact their broader community.
Liandra is a powerhouse. I already knew this from hearing her important contributions to our board, watching her run her amazing swimwear brand and teach at the local high school, all while being the mother of three children and based in remote Milingimbi in North East Arnhem Land. But it’s become even more apparent in the early moments of working together in this new structure.
It is such a privilege to together lead ELP into this next phase of operation. Liandra and I will be working side-by-side to bring world-class entrepreneurial support to the remote Indigenous communities of Australia. Liandra’s personal experience as a remote Indigenous entrepreneur affords her deep insights into the needs of this community, and she is also uniquely skilled to be able to deliver on this vision as the lead for our new incubation program, which is about to kick off. I look forward to supporting her with my experience in community-led social enterprise, collaborative partnerships and non-profit governance. We are both also relishing the opportunity to learn from each other in the process.
As we make this announcement at this moment in time, I know it seems like a leadership transition is an obvious outcome and that it would (and should) have been easy to get here. Conceptually and philosophically that is, of course, true. But transitioning the leadership of an organisation is no easy task. It takes strategic vision, careful planning, deliberate execution and, importantly, humility to allow for issues or outcomes that are impossible to foresee. Each of these steps are crucial to success.
We will be sharing more about how we got here, and what it takes for an organisation to authentically address and move through changes like these in the coming months and years—no doubt alongside many other learnings. We know we’re not the only ones who have been on this journey but we’re hopeful that our individual story can inspire more transitions like this and more open conversations within our sector and community.
If you have a specific question about our journey to this point, or our work more broadly, please get in touch.
We look forward to continuing the conversation.
“I believe that empowering community entrepreneurs is the most effective way to support communities to achieve their goals. And this philosophy is what underpins ELP’s work.”
