WINNER: Australian HR Director of the Year

Ben Mansour

Holly Giblin

Organisational Development Lead

Holly is the Organisational Development Lead at Penrith City Council and has over 13 years of experience across private and public sectors, spanning a breadth of People and Culture-related functions including Work Health and Safety, Payroll, Human Resources and Industrial Relations, and Organisational Development. Most recently, Holly has been the lead on Council’s in-house and custom-built Capability Framework, where she has poured her passion and creativity into the development and implementation of a framework designed to uplift the capability of all employees at Council and provide more meaningful learning opportunities that will ultimately drive positive outcomes for the community.

Organisational Development Lead

Holly Giblin

facebook.com/barwonwater

@ruytongirlsschool

Joshua Fayle

People and Culture Manager

Joshua Fayle

@TDSLaw

Joshua Fayle is the People and Culture Manager at Penrith City Council. He oversees the Human Resources, Organisational Development, Work Health and Safety, and Payroll and Systems teams. Joshua provides a high level of strategic advice on a range of industrial relations matters. Joshua leads the design and implementation of initiatives to improve and strengthen the employee experience across the employee life cycle.

Ben Mansour is Vice President of People & Corporate Relations at Anglo American. He has held executive leadership roles at Anglo American, Rio Tinto and Virgin Australia. In 2025, he was named winner of Australian HR Director of the Year award and was also recognised in the HRD Hot List of HR leaders.

Linda Ross

People and Children Manager

Linda has over 27 years’ experience in leading People and Culture teams, incorporating OD, WHS, HR, Payroll and Systems. This experience spans hospitality, theme parks, airline, manufacturing and, for the last five years, local government industries. Linda is passionate about achieving sustainable business outcomes with people at the forefront of everything. In the last three years, in addition to the People and Culture department, Linda has led the Children Services portfolio encompassing 44 children services – 18 long day care, five pre-schools, 15 before- and after-school care and six vacation-care services. The timing of her appointment has seen her lead the portfolio (as well as People and Culture) through the unprecedented times of COVID. In the last financial year, 3,100 children aged 0–12 years attended the services, and Linda loves the difference that this portfolio makes to the community including young people. In Linda’s spare time she contributes to finding a cure for cancer, by volunteering and most recently cycling with Tour De Cure and raising much-needed funds for researchers.

People and Children Manager

Linda Ross

Amita King

Organisational Development Manager

Amita leads Penrith City Council’s Organisational Development (OD) Team and brought with her extensive private sector OD experience upon joining Council three years ago. She has worked across a number of industries including Telecommunications and Retail, leading change management, internal communications, learning and development, leadership, talent and much more. Her passion lies in leading organisations to continually evolve and enhance strategic performance and organisational culture through the investment in contemporary people-centric frameworks and programs that grow and unleash the potential of their people.

Organisational Development Manager

Amita King

As an independent, forward-thinking girls’ school we are committed to preparing girls for a lifetime of learning, leadership and engagement in our global community. We believe in girls. At Ruyton Girls’ School we foster the individuality of each girl in a caring and safe environment, nurturing her intellectual, physical, social and emotional qualities that are essential to flourish. Powerful learning is central to the Ruyton culture, building on our strong academic reputation. We focus on advancing the learning of every girl through the engagement of intellectual curiosity, building their knowledge and skills about how to learn, and supporting them to achieve their personal best and be exemplary citizens. We believe in real-world learning beyond the classroom, collaborating with the wider community to promote growth, discovery and sustainability. We empower our girls to lead lives of purpose with courage, character and compassion. Through the development of values and action-focused learning they are inspired to pursue equity and justice for self and others. By embracing diversity and raising their voices, our girls effect positive change and make a difference.