Mark Cooper

Mark Cooper’s true dedication to leadership, management and growth comes from a wealth of international leadership experience spanning many decades, multiple cultures, generations and countries. He has held leadership positions in a variety of C-Suite and operational roles in both the public and private sectors. Roles have included working in Australian Defence Intelligence, executive leadership roles in commercial, government and not-for-profit sectors, to founder and director of five respected startups.

Like all great leaders, Mark has learned what it means to be a resilient leader, having navigated the ups and downs of success in today’s disrupted marketplace. It’s little wonder he cares less for the academic theory of leadership and more about the practical, pragmatic, outcome-focused delivery he has proven to work. His extensive experience and focus on delivery are centred on well-researched best practices and ‘real life’ examples. Mark assists organisations in building the ‘team of teams’ to deliver optimal value to customers, the business and shareholders. Every workshop with every team or individual is focussed on helping an organisation add value to the prescribed productivity agenda. For companies being left behind in the innovation stakes, Mark helps them rise to the challenge of 21st-century thinking.

Mark is a master of organisational process, having successfully implemented solutions across many government and commercial entities, including health, telecommunications, and manufacturing. Mark also believes in the power of inspiring the greater team to achieve a greater goal. As founder and principal of DEFINING LEADERS, he’s dedicated to helping leaders from small and large enterprises realise their true potential, achieve their goals, and exceed expectations and targets. Mark offers superior consulting services across a variety of industry sectors, in leadership development, strategy planning and execution, and optimising business and team performance.

Daryl Bates AM DSM

Daryl Bates is known, and has been awarded, for his leadership excellence. His distinguished career saw him among the most senior in the Royal Australian Navy and provided him with extraordinarily broad and valuable experience, from commanding over 2,000 people to being accountable for over $10 billion worth of assets. He was considered the ‘fix-it’ guy in the Navy with assignments that required very significant change, including cultural change and business improvement. His experience includes orchestrating twelve nations’ ships and aircraft in counter-terrorism operations across the troubled waters of the Middle East and working with global leaders, including the United Nations.

It’s during his military career that Daryl became adept at analysing the most complex of issues and grew his passion for improving leadership and cultural change. As head of Navy’s training, he developed the leadership development framework for this arm of the Australian Defence Force and, despite no longer wearing uniform, is now a lead facilitator for Navy’s ‘Senior Leaders Program’, targeted at its highest ranking leaders. As leader of the Department of Defence’s learning and development organisation, Daryl redesigned and improved the professional development structure for over 20,000 defence public servants, a framework which has subsequently been used as the basis for employees across the entire Australian Public Service.

Daryl has successfully held a number of CEO roles, been a member of several Boards of Directors and founded two startups. He can be relied on to make high-pressure decisions, drive revenue and improve the bottom line for complex enterprises, both large and small. Today, as founder and principal of his own startup, DEFINING LEADERS, Daryl offers elite leadership consulting services across a variety of industry sectors, in transformational leadership, leading in adversity and innovation.