The Australian business minds behind a crime-preventing safety mascot and a company dedicated to inclusion have been honoured with places in the global 2021 Class of Influential Leaders.
Constable Care Foundation chief executive and Curtin University MBA graduate David Gribble was recognised in the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) initiative, which honours graduates using their business education for impact in unique ways.
Div Pillay, chief executive of Mind Tribes and Monash Business School alumni, also earned a place in the 2021 Class of Influential Leaders.
MindTribes promotes the business benefits of inclusion and racial and cultural diversity. It partners with clients to tackle inequity in the workplace.
The two Australian-based leaders were among 25 business school graduates from across the world recognised for contributions to society by the AACSB, which is a global nonprofit association connecting educators, students, and business.
Gribble has been at the helm of Constable Care – a Western Australia charity delivering community safety programs to children, teenagers, and families – since 2011.
The 30-year-old charity is taking youth education to the next level under his leadership and it’s become so much more than its origins as a mascot and puppet show.
Constable Care offers eight programs including Arility, an innovative augmented reality safety education app bringing road safety lessons to life on classroom iPads.
He said the leadership and management skills he developed studying an MBA had played key roles during a major restructure of the foundation to focus on innovation and sustainable growth.
“It was very much a deliberate decision for me to study an MBA to make the leap up from specialist services manager to general manager,” he said.
“The MBA was most certainly a factor in me being selected for my current CEO role.
“The advice I give to prospective MBA students is the same advice given to me by my lecturer in my first unit of the MBA.
“An MBA will take time but just keep plugging away and you’ll get through it and reap the benefits.
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“They are also the same words I encouraged my daughter with who is now working her way through an MBA.”
Gribble said the Class of Influential Leaders recognition for his work with Constable Care was “an honour”.
He also valued “giving back” to his alma mater, Curtin University, by serving as deputy chair of the MBA and Executive Education Advisory Panel in the Faculty of Business and Law. Gribble also mentors emerging leaders in the university’s Next Step Mentoring program, where he advises undergraduate and postgraduate students looking to begin or advance their career in the nonprofit sector.
Div Pillay – CEO and co-founder of Mind Tribes
Pillay co-founded the company Mind Tribes and her work has been recognised by her peers.
On top of the 2021 Class of Influential Leaders honour, Pillay was a Telstra Business Women’s Awards Judge in 2020 and was named one of 100 Women of Influence in 2018–19 by the Australian Financial Review and Qantas.
She also received the prestigious Monash Business School Alumni Excellence Award in 2019.
Pillay’s said her master’s program in human resource management played a crucial part in her career.
“Monash Business School was really pivotal in my personal, professional and entrepreneurial development,” she said.
“It gave me opportunity and choice, which I took and maximised.”
ACSB president and CEO Caryn Beck-Dudley the Class of Influential Leaders honourees were a perfect example of business education in action.
“AACSB-accredited business schools are committed to creating positive societal impact in a variety of ways,” Beck-Dudley said.
“These alumni are demonstrating that business education is indeed a force for good. We are inspired by their efforts and honoured to recognise them.”
