HEARTHSTONE
Executive Women's Leadership Program
Cultivate the power, purpose and presence to advance your career and define your legacy.
We work where the system doesn't
Leadership isn’t just a title — it’s the capacity to drive change. Right now, we need more women at the top, shaping the future.
Despite remarkable strides in the fight for equality, women hold fewer than 1 in 5 CEO and board chair positions in Australia.
Hearthstone's mission: to equip women with the power, purpose and presence to advance to the top echelons of leadership, and shape positive, equitable futures.
We believe the key to this transformative work is 'vertical development.'
Why vertical development?
Leadership is more than what you know.
Building upon your technical expertise, vertical development expands your worldview and equips you with a toolkit to thrive in high-pressure, disruptive, and chaotic environments.
You start to think in more complex, sophisticated ways. You bring vision and technical execution together. You shift from managing change, to actively leading it.
This is how you influence the system.
This is how you create a lasting impact for the next generation of leaders.
Curated, immersive program design
Transformation happens when you engage not just your mind, but your entire body.
Hearthstone is designed to engage all of your senses and challenge you physically, emotionally and mentally. It brings you to your growth edge (where real transformation occurs) in ways traditional learning simply can’t.
Through immersive, embodied experiences, you’ll actively practice new ways of leading, ensuring that change sticks.
This shift doesn’t just change how you lead — it can change your life.
At Hearthstone, you will:
Cultivate presence and power
Fuel your vertical development
Fuel your vertical development
Expand your influence to lead at the highest levels of leadership.
Fuel your vertical development
Fuel your vertical development
Fuel your vertical development
Thrive in complexity and ambiguity. Work smarter, not harder.
Forge lasting connections
Fuel your vertical development
Re-ignite energy and focus
Collaborate with exceptional peers who support, inspire and challenge you.
Re-ignite energy and focus
Illuminate your path to purpose
Re-ignite energy and focus
Be immersed in an artfully curated, luxurious sanctuary where everything is taken care of.
Illuminate your path to purpose
Illuminate your path to purpose
Illuminate your path to purpose
Achieve your greatest ambitions and define your leadership legacy.
Spark whole system change
Illuminate your path to purpose
Illuminate your path to purpose
Lead boldly and create inclusive opportunities for leaders of the future.
Meet your facilitators
This supercharged collaboration is led by two trailblazers in leadership development and social entrepreneurship, Christina Ryan and Dr. Hayley Linthwaite. Both are accredited vertical development coaches with decades of experience driving transformational change.
Christina Ryan
Christina is a globally recognised human rights advocate, leadership development specialist and executive coach dedicated to advancing equality through bold, systemic change.
As Founder and CEO of the Disability Leadership Institute, she has pioneered the field of disability leadership through groundbreaking development initiatives and worked to empower diverse leaders and transform systems.
A third-generation feminist, UN delegate, TEDx speaker, and 2025 Australian of the Year ACT finalist, Christina bridges activism, leadership, and intersectionality to challenge systemic barriers and build equitable, inclusive futures.
Dr Hayley Linthwaite
Hayley is a highly established executive leadership coach, facilitator, creative provocateur for changemakers, and pioneer in the emerging field of embodied leadership.
For over 30 years, Hayley has worked with Fortune 500 corporations, social enterprises, academic institutions and global communities to navigate complex, ambiguous environments and drive change.
She empowers leaders to create lasting change by integrating movement-based practices with the latest insights from systems change, neuroscience, and adult development. Her cutting edge approach uses whole-of-body experiences to catalyse vertical development and train for real-world disruption.