Creating connections to combat gender-based violence

Through the work of our Centre for Social Purpose Organisations, our alumni are joining forces to help scale up a critical charity.

When our Centre for Social Purpose Organisations launched earlier last year, their mission was to help not-for-profits and other social purpose organisations thrive.

For Georgia Verry, CEO of Conscious Combat Club and alumni of the first cohort of their Emerging Social Purpose Leaders program, they are certainly holding true to that promise.

As well as transforming her skillset and enabling her to scale her charity, the program also introduced her to two influential advisors, Executive MBA alumni Mandy Xie, and Leesa Miller, alumni and CFO of WISE Employment.

Conscious Combat Club is a charity which provides a space for survivors of gender-based violence, particularly violence against women, to reclaim their body, confidence, and strength through trauma-informed martial arts.

For both Mandy and Leesa, the organisation immediately resonated with them.

Now these two women have officially joined the board and are helping Georgia drive lasting impact.

Leesa’s story

For Leesa Miller, being able to give back to the School which gave so much to her, has always been on her wish list.

So, when she saw an opportunity for her employer, WISE Employment, to partner with the School’s new Centre for Social Purpose Organisation, she pitched it to her board.

“At WISE we are focused on Earning, Learning and Living Well. So, there is a strong alignment in the education piece between the work MBS is doing, and WISE Employment,” she said.

“To me the synergy just makes complete sense, in that the Centre’s vision is to really increase and grow the capability of the for-purpose ecosystem.”

The synergy also rang true for the Board, and WISE Employment came on as the foundational sponsor of the Centre, providing $1.1 million to support not-for-profit and social purpose organisations through education opportunities and research initiatives.

It was a chance meeting at dinner though, which then led Leesa to Conscious Combat Club.

“One of the pillars of WISE Employments sponsorship, is this beautiful program, the Emerging Social Purpose Leaders Program,” she said.

“I sat next to Georgia at the graduation dinner for the inaugural cohort, of which Georgia was one of the graduates.

“We struck up a conversation about Conscious Combat Club her start-up, the challenges she was juggling and the inspirational impact she hoped to create.

“Before long, I was helping her navigate a property lease negotiation, of many spinning plates she was managing at that time, my involvement evolved quite naturally from informal advice into ongoing support.

“After completing my GAICD, I had capacity to take on a formal governance role and joined the CCC Board in May this year.”

Leesa hopes to see Conscious Combat Club open up the conversations and drive wider impact, bringing on corporate sponsors to work with the organisation but also offer the program to their own staff.

“Conscious Combat Club is at its infancy. What we do know is that it's not just the 62 women who lost their life in 2025 to violence who are impacted. That’s just the tip of the iceberg,” she said.

“If you come right back to the top of the filter, 1 in 4 women over the age of 15 years have experienced violence by an intimate partner. Behind these statistics are shattered lives.

“And that is something we’re not talking about, and something there is immense stigma about.

“I hope as the movement grows, we begin to see this change.”

Mandy's story

For Mandy, she never foresaw as the youngest member of her Executive MBA cohort, she’d finish the program with her very first board position.

But it was the connections she built and the strength of the School’s network which helped drive her.

“What I got from the EMBA was this ability to really supercharge my black book of connections, quickly and meaningfully,” Mandy said.

“I think that that's been really powerful because it's led to incredible collaboration in terms of the work that we're doing at Conscious Combat Club. And honestly, I could not have gotten to where we are today without the connections and the belief of other people within my specific EMBA cohort.”

Mandy’s connection to Georgia and the Conscious Combat Club, began in class, when they were tasked with providing pro-bono strategy work for a not-for-profit organisation.

“We were provided a list of charities, and Conscious Combat Club immediately stood out to me,” Mandy said.

“I actually spent about a year of my life when I was an aspiring amateur boxer. I fell in love with the ability the martial arts and combat sports gives you to really push your boundaries and keep proving to yourself that you can grow and expand.

“At the time I was contemplating my career and was feeling complacent, so I really understood how sport has the ability to pull you out of a situation, and that obviously is what Conscious Combat Club is all about.”

After meeting Georgia and visiting the club in Abbotsford, Mandy was naturally energised by the opportunity to work with her.

After her 8-week class obligation ended, Mandy was invited to join the Board in an official capacity.

“To meet people who are doing really great work, and really deeply care about something that you care about too, it’s special,” she said.

“It’s been really nice to find those connections and work together to make an impact.”

In the future, Mandy would like to see the impact the CCC has, to continue to grow.

“I’d like to see a club in every major city within Australia, so there is a safe option for women across the country to be able to access our service," she said.

As for the Club’s annual fundraising event, Rounds for Respect, she sees it becoming a movement.

“The event sees us come together and complete a round of exercise, for every woman who has lost their life to violence. Last year there were 62 rounds,” she said.

“It’s such a powerful event, I think it has legs to become the next Movember.”

To find out more about studying at Melbourne Business School, visit our Degree Programs or Short Courses page.

To find out more about the work we are doing for Social Purpose and Not-For-Profit Organisations, visit out Centre for Social Purpose Organisations page.