Luke Terry awarded 2024 Helen Lynch AM Leadership Award

Serial social entrepreneur Luke Terry has been selected from among the network of 830 Westpac Scholars as this year’s Helen Lynch AM Leadership Award recipient.

Offered to one Westpac Scholar annually, the award was established last year in honour of Helen Lynch AM, a founding director of the Westpac Scholars Trust and a long-time advocate for diversity and inclusion throughout her trailblazing career.

 

Revealing the news, Helen says Luke’s selection reflects his “immense commitment” to creating a more inclusive Australia, a quality that goes to the heart of the award which recognises and supports individuals who demonstrate leadership, collaboration and impact.  

 

“I’ve been incredibly impressed with Luke’s service to Australia and his courage and drive to lift the social enterprise sector,” says Helen, whose many career accolades include becoming Australia’s first female bank manager and a director of Westpac’s board.

 

“Since being awarded a Westpac Social Change Fellowship in 2017, not only has Luke been the driving force behind White Box Enterprises, which has enabled the creation of more than 800 jobs for people experiencing disadvantage, he’s also led major, ground-breaking collaborations to help social enterprises in Australia to thrive,” she says.

 

“Luke’s massive heart and abundance of energy are matched with a bold vision to ensure that every person in Australia who is struggling to find a job has a pathway to employment through social enterprise. It’s a commendable vision and I’m thrilled that we can continue to play a role in supporting Luke’s leadership growth.”

 

Recipients of The Helen Lynch AM Leadership Award – chosen from the alumni of Westpac Scholars which grows by 100 scholars each year, known as the W100 – receive a bespoke leadership development experience valued up to $10,000. Luke is the second recipient following last year’s inaugural winner, Laura O’Reilly OAM.

 

Luke says the award provides a “huge validation” of the work undertaken by White Box Enterprises, the organisation he co-founded and has led since in 2019, an intermediary that has so far raised more than $50 million to develop large-scale jobs-focused social enterprises.  

 

“I’ve had the privilege of working alongside Helen Lynch as a member of Westpac Scholars Trust’s Social Change Fellowship assessment panel and I know what an incredible leader she is and all that she stands for,” Luke says. “So, to be selected for this award, created in her honour, is very special.”

 

 

The seed for White Box Enterprises took root for Luke – who’d previously founded social enterprise start-up Vanguard Laundry – during his study tour as part of his Westpac Social Change Fellowship. He designed the enterprise’s model to address major constraints that he and many other social entrepreneurs routinely confronted – chiefly, access to catalytic capital and affordable working spaces.

 

To date, the businesses created by White Box Enterprises have included professional data services firm Australian Spatial Analytics, commercial laundry enterprise Beacon Laundry, and infrastructure services enterprise Civik – each of which are contributing to an overarching goal to create 5,000 jobs by 2030 for people who face complex barriers to work.

 

But building these job-enabling enterprises has been just the tip of the iceberg. White Box has also been leading initiatives to help strengthen the entire social enterprise sector with a view to scaling job creation. These have included spearheading a first-of-its-kind three-year $3.8 million Payment By Outcomes trial in partnership with the federal government’s Department of Social Services; bringing the Social Enterprise World Forum to Australia in 2022; and catalysing a soon-to-be-launched sustainable employment loan fund to bridge the gap between purpose-driven businesses and social impact investors.

 

Luke says the award has come at an important time in his leadership journey, allowing him to tap into coaching and new sources of inspiration to help better prepare him for the next phase of White Box’s growth.

 

“This award will provide me with the opportunity and energy to recalibrate my leadership style and build stronger skills to support the team and be the type of leader I want and need to be for my family, community and White Box,” he says. 

 

Published 22 August 2024