Major Matina Jewell (Retired) is one of the most highly decorated women in Australian military history. More than another inspirational life-story, Matina shares the learning from her experiences allowing you the opportunity for a personal journey of introspection and perspective:
- Authentic leadership in some of the most hostile environments on earth
- Having courage in the face of crippling adversity
- Resilience and finding opportunities in periods of change
Matina Jewell // A Military Trail-Blazer…
- Commanded the Army Department aboard Australia’s largest Navy ship at just 23yo
- The first woman in the Army to complete the physically demanding Navy Diver course
- Fast roped from helicopters, boarded ships smuggling contraband and served with elite American Navy Seals in the Arabian Gulf
- Tracked-down militia leaders in the Solomon Islands
- Trained in three languages
- Holds a Masters in Project Management
- The only Australian to be awarded two Republic of Lebanon War Medals, including the Lebanese War Medal for acts of bravery on the battlefield
Matina Jewell // A Veteran Change Champion…
- Former Prime Ministerial Advisor, National Mental Health Forum Advisor and ANZAC Centenary Commissioner
- 2016 Telstra Business Woman of the Year Finalist – Entrepreneur
- ‘One of the 10 “smart thinkers” who shaped 2015’ – CPA Australia
- Subject of a two-part ABC Australian Story’ feature and Foxtel International program ‘I Survived’
- Best-selling author of her memoir ‘Caught in the Crossfire’ - with Australian-first QR Codes allowing the reader to view footage beyond the front-line!
- Ambassador for the Australian Peacekeepers Memorial’ and ‘Thankful Project’, a global movement partnered with the UN to help eliminate violence and empower women and children globally
- Mentor, facilitator and advisor to leading organisations globally, and;
- Mum to busy two and four year olds girls!
Speaker Topics
Rather than ‘telling leaders how to lead’, Matina shares what she learned from her experiences in a way that resonates deeply, allowing the opportunity for a personal journey of introspection and perspective.
- Authentic leadership: Demonstrating authentic leadership takes great courage, even when it is not in your job description to help inspire others and be the catalyst for teamwork and cooperation.
- Seeing change as opportunity: Leading to create a culture that thrives through change and facing fear to ‘have-a-go’ and find a way forward in high-pressure situations, despite changing circumstances.
- Resilience: Personal, team and organisational resilience to ‘bounce back’, hard-and-fast!
- Team purpose: Ensuring crystal-clear ‘mission alignment’ to help garner deep engagement.
- Adapting for success: Creating a high performance culture (effective team environment)
- Communicating in a crisis: Why it’s vital to communicate and really knowing your team; mental health and how your support could help turn-around a life. The importance of humour.
- Performing under pressure: Managing stress and being comfortable operating outside your comfort zone; the opportunity for learning and growth.
- Thinking ‘outside the box’: Making-it-work and the importance of planning and practising before the ‘crisis’.
- Risk management: Decision making frameworks that create a culture that empowers individuals and teams to be decisive, while managing risk. Why ‘no decision’ is sometimes the worst outcome.
- Gender and culture: Drawing on diversity to strengthen teams and working in male-dominated multi-cultural environments.
Matina’s Style
- Matina's relaxed, yet professional style is almost incongruent with her gruelling combat experience.
- Matina uses the latest multimedia technology and her own video footage shot on-the-ground from the world’s hotspots to snap her audience into-the-moment and ‘…just when you think there can't possibly be more... she takes your breath away again!’
- Feedback almost always includes commentary around being ‘…inspired and deeply moved at a number of levels’.
Workshops & Facilitation Topics
Matina helps at the highest levels to support organisational leaders and their teams, all around the world, thrive through change.
Team Effectiveness
…for immediate & long-lasting impact!
- Define your team’s united PURPOSE
- Move from a WORK-GROUP to a TEAM
- How to foster the six critical elements for your best TEAM ENVIRONMENT
- 10 vital elements to harbour for TEAM EFFECTIVENESS
- IMMEDIATE IMPACT: War-game your ‘ACTIONS ON’ plan
- LONG-LASTING IMPACT: Receive custom on-going ‘reminders’ to stay accountable is (available on request).
Other Workshop Topics:
- High Performance Culture
- Authentic Leadership
- Personal, Team and Organisational Change and Resilience
Testimonials
From a place of war and violence, injury and betrayal, Matina Jewell emeges with grace and wisdom and still retains her humour and youthful spirit. Matina takes her audience to a world we know little of and astounds us with her courage and integrity. A speaker to inspire the young and remind those older what is possible amidst adversity.
- Australian Rural Women's Award
Matina was an excellent presenter and a great addition to our conference. Her story was engaging, inspiring and captured the attention of everyone in the room. Matina tailored her approach to our audience and objectives really well. Matina was professional and friendly and a pleasure to work with.
- Head of Recoveries, BankWest
Matina delivered a captivating presentation that was motivating and inspiring. Everyone in the room was silent, fascinated by her story. She has an ability to recapture the moments of her experiences and emotionally move the audience, whilst drawing out key messages that we can apply in our own lives. The standing ovation she received was thoroughly deserved.
- Managing Director, EASA
Not only was Matina the ultimate professional in the sharing and presentation of her personal experiences in a critical incident, she also engaged with the diversity of the audience by sharing her experiences in a way that the members of SES could understand. I highly recommend Matina as a speaker of high calibre and one of Australia's unsung heroes.
- Manager Critical Incident and Counselling Services NSW SES
WOW!! What an amazing Australian we have in Matina Jewell. Matina's moving, awe-inspiring presentation showed us how a remarkable team leader/member works under pressure. She was an 'inspiration' to all who attended our Shoalhaven's Women's Conference.
- Lynnette Kearney, Coordinator Shoalhaven Women's Conference
Matina Jewell surprised the audience with the story of her operational service as a young Australian Army Officer. It is an emotional and inspiring story worth hearing. It will leave you with admiration for what these young Australians are doing on our behalf and the burdens we ask them to bare.
- Chief Executive Officer Sydney Legacy
I’d definitely be giving Matina a 10 out of 10. She put in time to be prepared and speak with us directly about our objectives for the conference and took that all into consideration. She was responsive to the audience, extremely professional and prepared. Obviously she’s an extraordinary person and has an extraordinary story anyway but from an audience perspective it takes preparation and intelligence still to make it relevant, meaningful and compelling. You have no idea how often speakers just won’t work to the brief of your objectives and just wheel out the same old same old speech!
- Managing Director GRC Institute
