Wendy Simpson was running a school for troubled teens, earning $36,000 a year and fielding the occasional death threat, when she flew to Connecticut and stayed in the homes of millionaire business leaders. She came home, looked at her husband Jeff and said, “I reckon if I really wanted to, I could have a go at that.” His reply: “Well, why don't you?” In this episode of Insight, Wendy traces an unlikely path from a humble Baptist church in Melbourne's northern suburbs to the corporate boardrooms of Australia and the negotiating tables of Shanghai. Along the way she talks about community living shaped by liberation theology, fostering 13 teenagers, pioneering Australia's first small business awards, and the day she was told she couldn't be a “Young Lion” because she was a woman. She also speaks openly about three cancer diagnoses, a first-in-human clinical trial, and the words she believes God spoke to her at her lowest point: “You can live in fear or you can live in faith.” This is a conversation about calling, courage, and seeing God's image in everyone, whether that's in a boardroom or among the homeless people at her local church. About Wendy Simpson Wendy Simpson is a Member of the Order of Australia, has been nominated to the Australian Businesswoman Hall of Fame, and was named one of the Australian Financial Review's 100 Women of Influence. The daughter of a low-paid railway worker, she studied at RMIT and Melbourne University, taught at what was then considered Australia's most disadvantaged school, and ran a school for juvenile delinquents before moving into policy roles with the Victorian government under Premier Joan Kirner. Her corporate career took her through QBE Insurance, TNT and Alcatel, including seven years based in Shanghai leading work across 17 Asian countries. With her husband Jeff she bought and ran an engineering business and now works in commercial property development. She serves on boards, sits on the Sydney Prayer Breakfast Committee, and is helping start Redemptive Ventures Australia. Key Moments & Highlights Growing up in Melbourne's northern suburbs with op-shop clothes, no car and no phone, and a dad on one of the lowest wages in the Victorian railways Earning as much at 15 in the fruit-and-veg section at Coles as her father did, and learning the logistics lessons that shaped her career Reading The Female Eunuch alongside the Bible, discovering the Christian women who fought for the vote, and leading 100 students in a lunchtime Bible study after John Smith's God Squad came to her school Why liberation theology led her, in her mid-20s, to teach at a school for juvenile delinquents, where she received death threats Helping launch Australia's first community-funded youth homelessness program, and she and Jeff fostering 13 teenagers so they could stay at their local schools Friends warning that a Rotary business exchange to Connecticut was “going to the dark side,” and the wrestle to follow what she believed was God's call anyway Prayer, a sense that small business owners felt unappreciated, and pitching the first small business awards to Premier Joan Kirner, then pulling off the night with Kirner and Jeff Kennett both on stage mid-election Being told she couldn't join QBE's “Young Lions” because she was a woman, and bringing the CEO to Telstra to start championing women instead A three-week trip to fix a telephone factory in Shanghai that became 18 months of internet negotiations at the table with China's top three leaders Losing 70% of their new business's staff in one morning when immigration officers arrived, after a con artist had taken the workers' money for visas Three cancer diagnoses since 2010, a first-in-human clinical trial, and the moment she heard God say: “You can live in fear or you can live in faith” Her hope for redemptive entrepreneurship Find Out More Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org Special Thanks To Excelsia University College Christian Finance Vision Christian Media
