Our story
Founded with purpose
Leaders on Demand was established in 2018 to create scaleability for Chief Executives so they can boost leadership capacity and capability, when it is most needed.
Driven by passion
70 years’ collective experience as interim executives leading organisations through turnarounds and holistic transformations culminated in the Leaders on Demand business model being developed and launched by our three founders.
Today, their passion for helping leaders make a difference is focused on growing Leaders on Demand to support our customers with the increasing demands they are tackling and in response to increasing referrals to new customers with big agendas.
Our founders and executive team
David Hewish
Customers
With international experience as CEO, CFO and CRO across many sectors, David understands the courage and commitment demanded of a leadership team that strives to deliver the full potential of their organisation.
David is known for delivering outcomes by building teams that thrive in response to adversity and perform under intense scrutiny. His courageous leadership style and muck-in attitude are the hallmarks of over twenty complex turnarounds with billions of dollars and thousands of jobs at stake.
Never shy of jumping into hairy situations and leading tough conversations, his record is distinguished by the curiosity he inspires to confirm everyone’s role in executing the chosen strategy.
As chief customer officer, David’s priorities are:
- Deliver the Leaders on Demand vision to the Australian market and adapt the strategic, operational and tactical plans in response to market dynamics
- Work closely with CEOs and their teams to anticipate our customers' needs and meet their expectations
- Integrate the benefits of Leaders on Demand with channel partners to tailor responses to customer needs.
Julia van Graas
People
Authentic, people-centred, and resilient, Julia is trusted by leaders and their teams when they are navigating their most challenging issues and striving for ambitious outcomes. She offers insights and perspective that leverage her experience as an advisor, organisational coach, business owner, and interim executive.
Julia is known for supporting leadership teams and their boards through complex restructurings, turnarounds, and transformations.
A passion for creating braver leaders and courageous cultures, Julia’s strength is in building trust and leading the tough conversations so leaders and teams flourish and reach their full potential. She is a certified Dare to Lead™ facilitator and IECL (l2) organisational coach.
Julia is our chief people officer. Her focus is to:
- Search, select, recruit, retain, develop, and reward our people
- Develop ways for Leaders on Demand to impact performance and improve outcomes in collaboration with customers and channel partners
- Support a community for courageous leaders where connection, curiosity, comradeship and collaboration are encouraged.
Stewart Winspear
Operations
A former Managing Director at both Alvarez & Marsal and AlixPartners, Stewart has led some of the world’s most complex turnarounds and demanding transformations as a chief executive, chief financial officer and chief operations officer.
Prior to this, he was IBM’s Chief Financial Officer in Asia Pacific. He had full responsibility for the financial performance of Business Partner operations in the region with over 13 thousand partners across 15 countries.
Calm under pressure, Stewart is renowned for maintaining objective focus on the practical response to the dynamics of competing priorities.His contribution is frequently sought by boards and executive teams facing complex situations that demand high-stakes decisions and flawless execution.
Our chief operations officer, Stewart's role is to:
- Run the commercial, financial, and legal operations for the Leaders on Demand enterprise
- Maintain process discipline and provide operational and commercial support to each of our Leaders on Demand
- Deliver scalable technology that supports growth of the business to meet demand and planned expansion into other markets.