About the Crew

OurSay is a company limited by shares (OurSay Pty Ltd) run by a board of directors and supported by a team of amazing supporters.

The OurSay Board

Eyal Halamish – The Visionary

Hailing from the suburbs of Chicago, Eyal now eats Vegemite instead of deep dish pizza. A former college campus activist, he now works as an ‘activist in a suit’ in risk management and stakeholder strategy for multinational mining companies in Australia. Eyal’s strength is asking questions and listening. He is a risk communicator, listening to community and stakeholder needs, and translating these into policy.

Eyal is The Visionary, and makes sure that everyone gets a say. But when deliberation is done, he makes the final call.

Super power: the last vote.

Gautam Raju – The Creator

Gautam has done everything from editing a website devoted to hardcore punk music, to doing policy work in the Victorian State government, to his current position working for Teach for Australia, where he recruits Australia’s best and brightest to teach in disadvantaged schools. Gautam is passionate about NGOs, and about making the world a better place.

Gautam is The Creator, the creative force behind OurSay.

Super power: freedom to think outside the box during meetings.

Matthew Gordon – The Glue

Matthew spent some time in party politics, before becoming frustrated with political parties’ irrelevance to the electorate. He believes we need new institutions to address the systemic failures of the traditional institutions of democracy. He is excited about building a society and a media culture where these new institutions can emerge and flourish.

Matthew works for the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) of Victoria. He spends his days thinking about biochemistry, music, philosophy, waste management and public policy. Typically at the same time.

Matthew is The Glue, and balances the group of go-getters at OurSay.org. He keeps the peace, and is the voice of reason. If the people, systems and house are in order, then The Glue is sticking.

Super power: zen amongst the chaos.

Linh Do – The Voice

When not playing truant (for good causes!) from university, Linh can be found delivering TEDx talks and running amok at UN conferences. She spends her time advocating for sustainable development and better youth engagement.

Linh is The Voice. She is a social media gun, and is passionate about inclusivity and community building. She keeps OurSay.org in touch with youth political advocacy.

Super power: being more than one person at all times.

Luke Giuliani – The Solver

Luke can make websites. And robots. That fly. As the technical director at Melbourne web development consultancy Squareweave, he excels in transforming dreams into hard business realities.

Luke is The Solver, and asks the hard questions which ground the dreams of the OurSay team into funky languages like PHP, HTML, Ruby and Habari. Super power: knowing what works, and what doesn’t.

Nic Frances – The Shaker

Nic is a global leader in rethinking sustainable social enterprises, and recently attended the World Economic Forum as a Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur. Nic is the most professionally distinguished member of the OurSay team.

Nick has worked as everything from a stockbroker to a priest. He was the CEO of the Brotherhood of St Laurence, and has written a book called The End of Charity, based on his experience there.

Nic believes that we need to put good ideas about social justice and environmentalism into practice by selling them. We need to figure out how to make environmentalism and social welfare profitable.

Nic is The Shaker, and he knows how to think business in new ways.

Super power: new business models for social good.

Our Supporters

We owe our existence to many people and organisations who, like us, believe in using technology for social change. These include:

• Readings Bookstore who provided initial funding to help build the OurSay.org website.
• The Centre for Sustainability Leadership for providing us with the networks to make OurSay happen.
• The guys at Squareweave for the web build and design.
• Our amazing network of innovators, volunteers and supporters.