ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY: We acknowledge and honour all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Traditional Custodians of Country and recognize their unique and continuing connection to land, waterways, skies, culture and community. We pay our respects to Elders past and present.
Save the date: April 1-2, 2026
Global Followership Conference Asia Pacific
at Queensland University of Technology
Brisbane, Australia
Conference Co-Chairs
Alain de Sales, Lecturer, QUT Graduate School of Business
Dr. Alain de Sales blends extensive real‑world expertise with academic insight. Over two decades he has led strategy, digital transformation, and policy initiatives for multiple organisations across the globe in both the public and private sectors. He was the Managing Director and co‑founder of My Civic Voice, which aimed to improve national civic‑engagement, and co-founded Total e-Strategy to consult on digital transformation. He is the former chair of the Global Courageous Followership Hub – Teaching Followers Courage.
At QUT’s Graduate School of Business, Dr. de Sales lectures on leadership and followership, drawing on his PhD research into courageous followers confronting destructive leadership. He holds a Computer Science BSc (First‑Class Honours), an MBA, an MBIT and a Graduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education, all awarded with High Distinction, underscoring his commitment to both practice and scholarship.
Otto Henfling, Managing Director, Trusted Leadership
Otto Henfling is an Australian Strategic Governance Consultant and former CEO with more than forty years of leadership and maangement experience, including over sixteen years leading for-purpose organisations at CEO and Board level. He works with boards and executive teams on governance, risk and strategic planning, with a focus on cultivating trust-based, mission-aligned cultures. Otto’s doctoral research explores leadership and followership as reciprocal influence relationships through which individual purposes converge into common purpose within the human services sector. As Co-Chair of the Global Followership Conference, he is committed to fostering dialogue that bridges scholarship and practice, highlighting how followership deepens our understanding of leadership and organisational life. He based in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia.
Asia Pacific Steering Committee
Alain de Sales (CO-CHAIR), Lecturer, QUT Graduate School of Business
Otto Henfling (CO-CHAIR), Managing Director, Trusted Leadership
Lana Leslie, Kamilaroi woman, Founder and Managing Director, Gunnedah Hill Business Solutions
Jeff Scobie, Former CEO at Macarthur Disability Services
Ruth Sims, Organisational development and communications professional at Followership Whisperer
Marc Hurwitz, Chief Insight Officer, FliP University & Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Conrad School of Entrepreneurship & Business University of Waterloo
Samantha Hurwitz, Chief Encouragement Officer at FliP University
Graduate School of Business
at Queensland University of Technology
At QUT’s Graduate School of Business we are leaders in life-long learning, enabling our students to reach their full potential.
Our mission is to co-create accessible and impactful executive education experiences alongside industry, government, non-profit sectors and our community. These industry-collaborated programs aim to benefit organisations and society in our complex world.
We achieve this by working with our partners to design and deliver research-led programs that aim to develop high-performing, future-focused leaders who can respond with agility to changing operating environments.
Our belief that education and curiosity is ongoing is central to our life-long learning approach. As a result, our programs are designed to be accessible to a diverse range of leaders from all backgrounds and sectors. We also offer a range of scholarships and learning support for our programs.
Our range of course offerings cover short courses and graduate certificates through to our MBA programs. These programs are paired with our expert support to prepare you for your next career move.