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Peter Baines    

Australia's Leading Leadership Expert & Author of "Doing Good by Doing Good"

Peter Baines OAM, one of Australia’s foremost leadership experts, has road-tested leadership the hard way. In his 22 years with the NSW Police he led teams responding to acts of terrorism and natural disasters on a scale not previously experienced by Australian police.

Baines was part of the leadership team that travelled to Bali in the aftermath of the bombings in 2002, and in early 2005 he was called to lead international teams in response to the Boxing Day tsunami in South-East Asia. He headed up multiple rotations into Thailand tasked with identifying those who had died. His leadership theories were fully tested in this harrowing environment.

After witnessing the devastating effects of the tsunami, creating sustainable leadership became a passion. Having been especially deeply touched by the number of children left without parents by the disaster, he was inspired to set up an organisation that could make a real difference in the lives of these children. In late 2005 he founded Hands Across the Water to raise funds for, and awareness about, the orphaned children of Thailand.

Hands has raised more than $30 million to date. They have built several children’s homes across Thailand, purchased a rubber plantation to create a sustainable and regular income, constructed a community centre in the Khao Lak region of Thailand and a Digital Learning Centre in the northeast. The charity now has operations in seven different locations in Thailand and provides a home for several hundred children every night, but its main focus is on the long-term future of the children and the communities in which they live. They have also supported more than 30 children through university, all of whom have graduated and look forward to a life of choice rather than chance. His final years with the NSW Police were spent on secondment to the National Institute of Forensic Science, where he worked on national and international capacity-building projects around counterterrorism and leadership. He spent time advising Interpol in France and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in South-East Asia.

Baines has received numerous awards, including an Order of Australia Medal in 2014, for his international humanitarian work. In 2016 he was awarded the Most Admirable Order of the Direkgunabhorn (Fifth Class) by the King of Thailand. In 2010 he was an NSW finalist at the Australian of the Year awards. He was the first Australian to be awarded the international honour of a Rotary Professional Excellence Award in 2008. He received the NSW Police Service Medal and the Australian Federal Police Operations Medal for his work in Asia.

He was the first NSW Police Officer to be awarded the Humanitarian Overseas Service Medal and Australian National Medal. He has completed university studies in Law and Forensic Science and postgraduate studies in Management.

Today Baines helps businesses build effective sustainable leadership programs through the unique mix of his leadership and corporate social responsibility initiatives. He is Director of International Operations for Hands Across the Water and sits on a number of boards.

In 2023 Baines wrote his third book, "Leadership Matters: Stories and Insights for Leaders, Achievers and Visionaries", published by Wiley. Baines has written two previous books, Hands Across the Water, published by Pan MacMillan, and Doing Good by Doing Good, published by Wiley.

Speech Topics

Leadership Matters

True leaders are identified by their actions and reactions, it’s what people do not the position they hold that really makes a difference. In the Leadership Matters keynote, Peter shares with the audience insight into the value of:

  • How the actions and reactions of a leader is of greater value than the position or title they may hold
  • Why having a clarity of purpose will benefit an individual and a company, particularly when their resolve is tested
  • The importance of presence in our leaders and the two essential messages it conveys
  • How to focus on results and not excuses
  • Not letting perfect be the evil of good
  • Why hope is not a plan
  • How communication can leave a lasting impression
  • Building a legacy.

Challenge of Our Time

Peter Baines is a well regarded international leadership speaker who for many years has been speaking to audiences on the topic of leadership. He has focused on the importance of presence in leaders, having a clarity of purpose and building meaningful shared experiences.

In the new keynote the Challenge of our Time, Peter reflects on the value of finding a journey that is worthy of our heart and soul. He considers what are the six growth areas before our leaders of today and our emerging leaders of tomorrow and provides a way to meet those opportunities.

Peter draws on lived life experiences of leading international teams through crisis and disaster as well as twenty years as an internationally recognized humanitarian. He continues to deliver his stories in a uniquely captivating way.

Audience members will leave with a deeper understand of how to:

**Scale the Solution to the Problem

  • Not let perfect be the evil of good
  • Importance of starting
  • Hopes are greater than our fears

**Trust Trumps Competence

  • Recognize that building trust will outweigh competence
  • Consistency and culture will trump competency
  • Our struggles shape our purpose

**Courageous Leadership

  • Doing the right thing, not necessarily what’s popular
  • Growth is found on the edge of our limitations
  • Courageous leaders build their own redundancy

**Authentic Optimism

  • Dangers of cruel optimism
  • Accepting we can’t overcome what we don’t face
  • Give information you get understanding

Perils of Risk Avoidance

  • Recognizing the value of accepting risk
  • Risk of reaching for rules
  • Consider long term implications of short term risk avoidance

Creating Resilient Leaders

  • Benefit of believing
  • Not letting the struggles of yesterday define tomorrow
  • Growth is found on the edge of our limitations

Offerings

Workshops - In addition to the keynote presentations that Peter often delivers when opening or closing a conference he also runs longer programs to explore in greater detail his experiences and learnings.

Operation Delta - a half day simulation exercise where delegates following on from Peter’s Leadership Matters keynote, are then tested how they would respond to a similar crisis as one unfolds before their eyes and they call the shots in how to respond facing leadership and moral dilemmas.

Multi day programs - Over 2-3 days Peter takes the delegates through an intensive journey through the work that he has done with very hands on practical and engaging learnings.

Journey of Change - This is an event where the value is best experienced with teams of up to 15 20 pax . Peter leads teams into Thailand and over 3-4 days he combines leadership and values based learning with Hands on experience. It’s a mix of reality and luxury.

Thailand Social Venture Experience - Travelling through the various homes that have been built by Hands this is a leadership experience unlike any other. Leaders in a group of 20-40, will spend time with the Asian of the Year, a charity founder known as the Angel of the Slums and other inspirational leaders.

Corporate Bike Rides - Staring in 2009 as a fundraiser the success of the rides and the magic that has to be experienced to understand the true value has seen the demand for these rides grow. From 17 people in 2009, to 250 people in 2014, Peter is now leading “closed” rides for corporate teams over five or eight day tours through Thailand.

Peter has a number of keynote themes from which he constructs a keynote according to the desired outcomes and audience of each client.

  • Those contextual themes are:
  • Leadership Matters
  • Leadership without Authority
  • Importance of Presence in Leaders
  • Clarity of Purpose
  • Values based leadership
  • Results not Excuses
  • Building Strong Teams
  • Experiences Matter
  • Engineering Experiences
  • Why building Engagement is best achieved through Shared Experiences
  • Creating Legacy through Leadership
  • Engagement leading to Commitment and Results.
  • Doing Good by Doing Good
  • The benefits of social ventures
  • Turning your CSR from a cost centre to a profit centre
  • Concept of Shared Value
  • What is Caring Capitalism

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