TESTIMONIALS

I Mary-Beth Hosking is one of the best event chairpersons I have ever worked with. Her ease on the microphone, interviewing skills, and engaging personality make her a true asset to any event. I would not hesitate to recommend her to anyone looking for an exceptional event host.

Mike Cullen - Operations Director, Quest Events

At our recent PMO Conference in London, Mary-Beth Hosking delivered an outstanding presentation that captivated our audience from start to finish. Her journey from a singer and office temp to PMO to CEO was both engaging and entertaining, providing valuable insights that resonated with everyone. The content perfectly met our event's brief, offering practical takeaways and inspiration. Attendees loved the session and were actively participating throughout. Given the high quality of Mary-Beth's delivery and the overwhelmingly positive response, we would definitely consider inviting her back for future events.

Lindsay Scott - Director - House of PMO (United Kingdom)

Mary-Beth graciously took time out of her busy schedule to speak to the Betting, Product, Design, and Data Science teams at Sportsbet. She delivered an inspiring talk on building a personal brand as a woman in the wagering industry, starting with identifying and pursuing one's north star, even as it evolves over time. She emphasized the importance of recognizing transferable skills, maintaining a success journal for reflection and performance reviews, and engaging in transparent dialogue with leaders about career aspirations.

Mary-Beth shared a constructive framework for these conversations and highlighted the crucial role of mentors, coaches, and networking in career development. Her enthusiasm for enjoying one’s work was infectious, and she demonstrated remarkable confidence, clarity, and passion that energized the entire room. Her bold yet empathetic approach to career challenges is something everyone can learn from.

Mary-Beth's generosity with her time and willingness to share her experiences and insights were invaluable. We are deeply grateful for her visit and highly recommend her as a speaker to inspire strength, motivation, and passion in any team.

SANDY IYER - General Manager – Data Science - SportsBet

Mary Beth has an exceptional ability to engage her audience from start to finish. Her Dynamic and charismatic speaking style captivated and drew the audience in. She was able to skilfully entwine her knowledge and leadership with her humour and anecdotes with valuable insights. We have engaged Mary Beth as a keynote speaker as well as an MOC in previous events.

Mary Beth was not only a captivating and skilful MOC, but she was also a delight to work with and came more than prepared to jump in where need be and easily held the attention of the room.

As a keynote speaker Mary Beth not only was well researched with actionable content that was incredibly useful to the audience but was also incredibly motivating and entertaining.

We would not hesitate and would welcome Mary Beth back as an MOC or speaker to any of our events in the future.

Stephanie Tolmie - Director, Operations, Focus Network

I’ve had the pleasure of working with Mary-Beth for our Australian CIO Summits in the past, and I must say her ability to weave personal anecdotes with broader insights made her involvement not only informative but also genuinely inspiring. Mary-Beth has brought an incredibly positive energy to our summits, and what stood out most was her warm personality, authenticity and passion in what she does for a living. Her unique approach in combining diverse perspectives and lateral thinking to tackle complex problems in a way that was both engaging and thought-provoking, not only captivated our delegates but also sparked great conversations that continued well beyond the sessions. Given that we’ve formed a wonderful rapport and have collaborated a few times seamlessly, I would be glad to join forces with Mary-Beth once again for our future events.

Jaggmeet Kaur - Senior Executive Producer, APAC Summits

Mary-Beth is among an exceptional breed of professionals who possesses the rare capacity to speak among C-level executives as a learned peer, while also steering robust conversation as a moderator in command. Her expansive career is testament to her diverse talents and transformative leadership. From singer to drawcard speaker, and CIO to CEO, Mary-Beth is a woman of substance and skill. Her positive energy is infectious as it is refreshing, and she lights up any room she enters – leaving those in it better informed! If you’re seeking an expert speaker or accomplished moderator who leads by example, Mary-Beth is your go-to person!

Angela Horvat, Managing Director of 6 Degrees Media

After meeting Mary-Beth many years ago through our joint passion to get more women into STEM through VIC ICT 4 Women, I read her book “When Now Means Now”. Despite having had three distinct career pillars myself, I have only worked for three different organisations, and in all that time, have never had to do much career planning. It was fascinating, and extremely invaluable, to use the templates from the book to consider your past job roles not only from what skills you learnt, but also using a joy rating.

What is even better is drawing on Mary-Beth’s wonderful insights, vision and empathy through review and discussion to develop a more accurate, and more aspiring, version of your past to create an even more inspiring career plan for your future. I would highly recommend her CP2 Program if you aren’t sure where you are heading next with your career.”

Caroline Stainkamph

CP₂ Graduate

Mary-Beth and I worked together closely for several years. In that time, she saw my potential and enabled me to grow as a leader. The mentoring and coaching she provided over her time at Specsavers gave me the opportunity to flourish and stamp my mark on what I do and the way I do it. Mary-Beth took a gamble and promoted me against the view of HR, she had the courage to push against the status quo showing me that she had my back and supported my transition to a senior managerial role becoming second in command in her team.

Mary-Beth has a deep understanding of how people operate and the way to get the best out of them, enabling cohesive and highly performing teams to deliver to their stakeholders.

Andrew Pollitt - Lead Project Manager – Specsavers

In the last 8 months, have had the pleasure of working with Mary-Beth as my mentor, who has provided me with advice and guidance around potential avenues to develop my career.  During that time, Mary-Beth was a patient listener and displayed a deep understanding and empathy for my concerns, this has recently led to my decision to change gear in my career by taking up new responsibilities in a different organisation. 

I admire Mary-Beth for her warm optimistic approach and passion and I have no reservations in recommending her as a mentor and leader, as she continues to motivate me to reach for a higher standard.

Melanie Northrop - PMO Manager – Seven Consulting

It’s not often you can directly reach out to a senior executive and need nothing from them but a moment in time and a platform to discuss all things in our tech space and that is exactly what she did for me and continues to do so.  

There are some people who are just like magnets and especially for women running quite solo races like myself, Mary-Beth is one of those magnetic humans.

Especially when it’s quite a lonely place for women in tech and cyber, I cannot thank her enough for taking time out to coach, mentor, and guide.

Maria Papas - Sales Director Australia & New Zealand - Varonis

I met Mary-Beth at the CDO conference held in Melbourne in May 2022. To me, meeting a female leader in a male dominated industry, meant excitement, admiration, and hope.

After the conference, I reached out to her, if I could learn from her career journey and experiences as I knew her advice would be invaluable on my career journey, and she kindly offered her time. During our meeting, not only did she share her experience and invaluable insights on navigating the career path as a female but also, she was keen to listen to my story, to learn about my passions and aspirations, to see how she could help me on my career journey.

She connected me with people from her professional network who could provide further insight on my career path and aspirations. At the end of our meeting, she emphasized that she would be there, anytime if I needed any further advice on my career. That statement meant and still means a lot to me! To me, she’s not only a successful female executive, but a successful female leader who is genuinely passionate to pave the way for the next generation of female leaders.

I have so much respect and admiration for her and look up to her as a role model whom I know I will always have her support on my career journey.

Mahtab Ameris, PhD - Senior Consultant - McGrathNicol

I have worked in Technology over 25 years, 16 of which was in the male dominated field of Transport and Logistics. I first met Mary-Beth Hosking in 2011, when I came to work for her as an IT Business Analyst at Toll Intermodal. From the interview I got the impression that she would do everything in her power to provide a working environment where the successful candidate would be challenged, supported and given every opportunity to develop both professionally and personally. I was fortunate that Mary-Beth saw something in me, and that I was the successful candidate for that role, because that is exactly how it played out.

I have had (and continue to have) the enormous benefit of her experience, wisdom and knowledge that she has always freely shared with me over the years. And I have watched her share it with others too. She has taught me not to be afraid to question things that I don’t understand, want clarity on or that I don’t agree with. The feedback that she provides is frequent, always honest and always constructive.

Anna van Tatenhove - Senior Business Analyst – Tennis Australia

I have had the pleasure of working with Mary-Beth Hosking twice in my career, over a period of 6 years. During this time, I have found Mary-Beth to be an authentic and courageous leader who places great emphasis in building cohesive, collaborative and well skilled teams that are fully engaged in the direction Mary-Beth has set.

Mary-Beth brings boundless energy, commitment to quality, enthusiasm and passion for life that are genuine and on display a daily basis. Some examples of this leadership:

Courage to seek and receive feedback. Mary-Beth regularly engages with her leadership team and promotes honest and direct feedback. This is further enhanced by Mary-Beth taking the time to regularly engage and build relationships with non-direct reports to get a pulse check on the wider team and further enhance team cohesion.

• Courage of convictions. Mary-Beth was always clear on her principles and values. Mary-Beth always strives to do what is right and to do things well, rather than what is expedient. Mary-Beth took the time to build detailed training needs analysis of the entire team (including non-direct reports) and provided a platform for team members to upskill and improve. Like most things, there is never a right time to do things for training, but Mary-Beth always encouraged the team to improve their skills and knowledge, as investment in people is the right thing to do.
• Courage to innovate and think differently. Mary-Beth is always pushing the envelope to find new and better ways to do things. Mary-Beth will engage with her team, colleagues, professional network, and research to find better and more efficient ways. In doing this Mary-Beth will recognise when things are not working as expected and will re-engineer them or try a different approach.
• Courage to have difficult conversations. Mary-Beth had an unenviable task of taking on the build of a new system (Business unit wide) that was reported to be mostly complete. Only to find out a short time into the role, that the system had been built on code that could not satisfy the business requirements and would not be supportable long-term. To protect the team and the business Mary-Beth had the conversation with the Managing Director to scrap the work to date (at significant cost) and start from scratch. Mary-Beth in her skill as a leader was able to re-set the direction and secure funding to complete the system.
• Courage to do what is right for team members. By genuinely caring for team members, Mary-Beth attracts broad team loyalty that only good leaders earn. A particular example for me was when Mary-Beth identified a role that I was better suited for in the organisation. Mary-Beth actively encouraged me to take the role even though it would leave a gap in her senior management team. Taking on a new role as not the best thing for Mary-Beth but it was the best thing for me and the business, so I am always grateful for this.

Mary-Beth is a bold and confident leader who can help drive organisations forward and create growth both for the organisation but the people she leads. Mary-Beth creates a team culture of trust and respect, which makes team members deeply engaged. Mary-Beth sticks to her principles, is willing to innovate, take risks, adapt, and does not shy away from a challenge. I have only touched on the tip of the iceberg, with Mary-Beth’s leadership qualities, I am more than happy to discuss further and can be reached on evan.charles.harris@gmail.com.

Evan Harris - PM Delivery Partner - Kmart

Mike Cullen - Conference Producer - Quest Events

Mary-Beth’s people first focus is evident in her leadership with empathy, she always has an innovative idea to help challenge your mindset. Mary-Beth has the energy and drive to bring more women into the STEM fold, which she does by mentoring women within and outside of her organisation, speaking at women in leadership events, and focusing hiring efforts on bringing in female talent. 

She is well placed for these activities, as she leads authentically with her values on a daily basis, which inspires others to make tangible change as she does.  She provides examples from her own leadership journey as a woman, so that her mentees feel that they too have the opportunities for success.

Kate Isley - Employee Experience Manager - MentorShe 2021