Leanne Faulkner

Small Business Mental Health Advocate, Founder, Fortitude at Work

Sydney

Leanne Faulkner has a Degree and Masters in Adult Education (UTS) and comes from a background in organisational development and employee training, working in senior positions in large international organisations before transitioning to small business, founding Billy Goat Soap in 2004 and was awarded the NSW Business Chamber President’s Prize in 2009, acknowledged with the Excellence in Small Business Growth Award in the same year and in 2010 became the Myer Supplier of the Year in General Cosmetics, before being sold to The Heat Group in February 2012.

Today, Leanne advocates for more mental health resources to support small business owners, after having fought her own battle with situational depression triggered by tough business trading conditions in recent years in Australia . Leanne has worked with the ATO, The Australian Small Business Family Enterprise Ombudsman and the Victorian Small Business Commissioner on mental health initiatives for the small business community. She is also the Council of Small Business of Australia (COSBOA) representative on the Mentally Healthy Workplace Alliance – working to establish a national workplace mental health framework.

Leanne was awarded the COSBOA Business Champion Award for 2015 in recognition of the work she has done in the small business sector to raise awareness of mental health issues and resources needed and was the Project Coordinator of the Heads Up For Small Business mental health initiative working with both beyondblue and COSBOA. Her website, Fortitude at Work has been named in the Smart Company Top 20 business blogs, 2015 and 2016 and Fairfax newspapers identified her as one of the top nine female influential entrepreneurs in 2016 for her work in the small business/mental health sector. She is now also a COSBOA Ambassador, representing the mental health needs of the small business sector and lives on the Central Coast, NSW with her husband, sons and furry family members.