Paul Rushton-Clarke, the 455th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, doesn’t like baked beans or chickpeas, I discovered. But he is fond of oranges. If two people had to divide an orange, most would opt to cut it in half, Paul says. But if they asked about each other’s goals, [...]
Vanessa Hetherington, the 454th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, is playing a role in making the construction industry a better, fairer place. As a committee member of the National Association of Women In Construction, Vanessa is part of an association that aims to make construction more female-friendly, through things [...]
Ian Hoskins, the 453rd person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, is an award-winning historian who has advanced our understanding of Sydney, New South Wales and Australia. In his first book, ‘Sydney Harbour: A History’, Ian told the story of one of the world's great harbours. That later inspired him to [...]
Nikhil Autar, the 452nd person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers and the 2024 New South Wales Young Australian of the Year, is a doctor, an entrepreneur and a man with a remarkable mindset. Nikhil’s life changed forever when he was 17 and was diagnosed with leukaemia. That forced him to [...]
Julie Babineau, the 451st person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, grew up in cold Canada, so it’s no wonder she appreciated the weather and lifestyle of sunny Sydney when she moved to Australia in 1996 as part of an executive interchange program. Julie returned to Canada in 1998 when her [...]
Joanna Perry, the 450th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, is on a mission to Make Accounting Great Again. Joanna, who is a qualified accountant, says the profession suffers from an image problem. On the one hand, accounting is associated with boring people doing mundane tasks; on the other hand, [...]
Antony Wilson, the 449th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, gets irritated when he watches sport and hears spectators critique the players. “If you think you can do better, why don’t you get on the field and do something about it?” he thinks to himself. Antony has decided to heed [...]
Anshu Vaidya, the 448th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, is an analyst with a love for data. So when he gained access to a trove of property data in a previous career, he felt compelled to dive deep into the numbers, to understand why different markets record different growth [...]
“You’re a dick, but you’re a funny dick,” Christian Elderfield’s teacher said to him when he was in year 11. Christian, the 446th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, took his teacher’s words to heart and started entering comedy competitions. Christian turned out to be good at writing and delivering [...]
Christine Wan, the 445th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, has a love for communicating and education. Christine used to be a financial adviser, before deciding she could do more meaningful work as a teacher. Unfortunately, though, the public school system can be very bureaucratic, which can make it hard [...]
