Margo Ward

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Margo Ward
Founder & CEO KidsXpress Ltd (Sydney)

Biography

Growing up in the rural depths of the South Island of New Zealand, Margo Ward learnt resilience, isolation and independence early in life. The youngest of nine children, Margo’s Father was a nationally revered All Black and her Mother a pioneer of modern physiotherapy. Understanding trauma first hand was a big part of Margo’s early experiences as she spent the majority of her first 5-years in an oxygen tent away from her family due to chronic illness.

Nature, nurture and an inner drive to achieve developed in her formative years set the path for Margo; she would dedicate her life to finding and supporting those isolated, vulnerable and in pain. After studying as a nurse and teacher Margo’s career took her to the UK where she was introduced to the therapeutic concept of ‘Play Therapy’ which accesses the value and creativity of art, music and drama with phenomenal therapeutic effect .Uniting her qualifications, personal experience and passion Margo returned down-under to apply her skills as the Head of Play Therapy at Sydney Children’s Hospital. While working predominantly with chronically ill children within Oncology, Palliative Care and ICU, Margo saw the opportunity to broaden the scope of her work into the fields of executive management and organizational culture. Margo encountered high levels of resistance and bureaucracy along this journey and developed finely tuned skills for engaging stakeholders, problem solving and creating a new model for looking at trauma and grief counseling.

In 2005 Margo decided to take her model to the private sector with the objective of creating awareness, support and a means to scale the programs she had developed. It was here that KidsXpress was born, a world-first expressive therapy program. Through this process Margo emerged with clarity and conviction catapulting her into the world of social entrepreneurship as she undertook engaging investors from across the private & corporate sectors. In short time Margo established a highly credentialed board including renowned economist Dr John Hewson as Chair, a talented and passionate team of therapists and sponsors, referral pathways and a robust set of program effectiveness data metrics to get the attention of government and other youth support services.

Today Margo continues to lead KidsXpress as it broadens its scope, reaching new heights as experts within the field of expressive therapy and work with traumatised children. In the early years of KidsXpress Margo was awarded a Humanitarian Service Award by the Rotary International. In 2011 Margo won a scholarship to attend the Executive Leadership Program at Stanford University, an experience that has not only underpinned the next stages of national expansion of her social impact interests but also opened up opportunities to address societal issues on a broader scale.

In addition to her role as CEO of KidsXpress, Margo works with leading corporations and not-for-profit boards in the area of culture development, motivational speaking, talent retention and corporate social responsibility. Companies including Microsoft, Mi9 and General Securities Australia (GSA) regard Margo as a valued member of their executive and a key contributor to the development of their values, vision and purpose. Margo joined the board of UnLTD in 2015 and this year has taken on her first corporate board position with Chubb Insurance Australia.
Margo describes herself as being driven, creative and intrigued with exploring the notion that curiosity, vulnerability and authenticity are the keys to building strong culture, self-aware leaders and successful organisations across the corporate, sporting and not-for-profit sectors.

An inspirational speaker, Margo is available to present on; leadership, creativity & innovation; motivation; social entrepreneurship; personal development; culture; curiosity.