Leader in Residence is one of the distinguishing anchors of the QUT Leadership Institute, an annual appointment for leaders who embody our 'Leadership as Legacy' mission through their lived experience and expertise.
This role brings visible, real-world leadership authority into the institute, and sets QLI apart from the faculty-led leadership education offered elsewhere.
Each Leader in Residence is an ambassador, strategic adviser and thought leader for QLI, a public face at our forums, a sounding board for the executive director, a presence in our programs, and the author of signature leadership thinking.
The archetypes we look for are deliberately broad - a global CEO or boardroom statesperson, a public leader or policy architect, a technology and innovation visionary, or a globally known, purpose-driven leader with high social impact.
QLI inaugural Leaders in Residence
Each inaugural Leader in Residence has led at the highest level, through conditions most people never face, and each has left people and organisations stronger for it. They don't share a background. They share a way of leading, and a generosity with what they've learned. Among them, Najoh Tita-Reid holds the international Leader in Residence appointment, connecting QLI's work to leadership practice across global markets.
John Bertrand AO
Inaugural Leader in Residence
John Bertrand AO is an international yachtsman, businessman and philanthropist who skippered Australia II to victory over the United States in the 1983 America's Cup, ending 132 years of American dominance in the longest winning streak in modern sporting history. The Confederation of Australian Sport called it the greatest team performance in 200 years of Australian sport.
John competed in five America's Cups and two Olympic Games across 25 years of international competition. He is a triple world sailing champion and an Olympic medallist. He holds a Master of Science from MIT, a mechanical engineering degree with honours from Monash University, and an honorary doctorate from Victoria University.
As an entrepreneur, John has built companies across the marine, property development and media industries, including co-founding a digital media company listed on NASDAQ. In philanthropy, he chaired the Alannah and Madeline Foundation from 2002 to 2017, building it into a major advocate for child safety and digital wellbeing. As Chairman and President of Swimming Australia from 2013 to 2020, he led one of the great turnarounds in Australian Olympic history, taking the team from a single gold medal at London to the most successful Australian Olympic swim team of all time at Tokyo.
John is Chairman of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame and a Legend of both that and the International America's Cup Hall of Fame. His biography, Born to Win, was among the largest-selling in Australian publishing history. He continues to mentor Olympians and business leaders, and still competes at the highest level in international yacht racing.
Kristina Karlsson
Inaugural Leader in Residence
Kristina Karlsson is the Founder of Dream Life and was the Founder and Creative Director of the global Swedish design and stationery brand kikki.K. Much loved the world over, she is a best-selling author, keynote speaker, podcast host and Forbes Ambassador, on a mission to inspire 101 million people to write down their dreams and make them happen.
After growing up on a small farm in country Sweden, Kristina arrived in Australia at 22, half a world from family and friends, with little money and no clear idea what to do with her life. She wrote her dreams down on paper, then built them. Selling all she owned, she created kikki.K from the ground up into a globally loved brand with award-winning retail stores across five countries, a team of about 1,500, and an online presence serving design lovers in more than 150 countries, reaching total revenue of around $650m.
For more than two decades Kristina was the creative force behind an authentic, founder and purpose-led brand. After a tumultuous experience through the Covid pandemic, she parted ways with kikki.K in heart-breaking circumstances, a story with many hard-won lessons.
She has since founded Dream Life, an inspiring and empowering brand turned global movement, with followers in more than 160 countries. Her book 'Your Dream Life Starts Here' has sold about 100,000 copies, and her podcast has passed three million downloads. Kristina brings real business and personal experience of building, losing and starting again, and shares it in a human, practical and high-impact way.
David Moffatt
Inaugural Leader in Residence
David Moffatt works with organisations where scale, complexity and community impact intersect. For more than four decades he has led and governed businesses across infrastructure services, telecommunications, financial services and media in Australia, the United States, Europe and Asia, often during periods of significant transformation. His focus has been consistent: build resilient organisations, strengthen culture, simplify operations, and create lasting enterprise value.
As a CEO, CFO and Chairman, David has guided multi-billion-dollar companies through organic growth, mergers, acquisitions, integrations and stock exchange listings. He was Chief Financial Officer and Group Managing Director, Consumer at Telstra, and Chief Executive Officer of GE and GE Capital Australia and New Zealand. He is Chairman of Ventia Services Group, Chair of Apollo's Australia and New Zealand operations, and Chair of the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia, having earlier served as CEO of Lebara Group and a director of Foxtel.
David maintains long-term commitments to education, health and community organisations within civil society, including more than 30 years supporting autism services as founding director and Foundation Chairman of Giant Steps.
David holds a Bachelor of Business from QUT, was named QUT's Outstanding Alumnus and awarded Doctor of the University. He is Chair of the Faculty of Business and Law Strategic Advisory Council. His passion today centres on guiding leaders and boards toward clarity, performance and strong stewardship.
Najoh Tita-Reid
Inaugural international Leader in Residence
Najoh Tita-Reid is one of the most commercially accomplished marketing and growth executives of her generation, with 35 years of transformation leadership across P&G, Merck, Bayer, Logitech and Mars. As the QUT Leadership Institute's international Leader in Residence, she brings a global operator's perspective to the questions Australian boards and executives are grappling with now.
Her career spans billion-dollar brand building, enterprise turnarounds and large-scale AI implementation. At Bayer she reversed a declining business from minus 10 to plus 9 per cent revenue growth in 24 months. At Logitech, as Global CMO across 120 countries, she led a transformation that grew net sales 73 per cent and doubled profit. At Mars Petcare, as President and Global Chief Growth Officer, she led one of the largest agency ecosystem transformations in consumer goods history, embedding AI across planning, production and measurement inside a US$30bn business.
She now operates independently at the nexus of AI and growth, translating AI investment into commercial value and governance frameworks into operational reality. Her distinctive contribution is that of a senior operator who has implemented AI at enterprise scale, not as a pilot, but embedded in the machinery of a global business, exactly the combination boards need as they navigate AI governance.
Najoh has been named a 2026 AdWeek Marketing Vanguard, one of Campaign US's CMO 50, and one of Fortune's Top 50 Entrepreneurial CMOs, and holds AdWeek's Brand Genius Award. She co-founded the Alpha Institute Agentic Growth Council and the Black Executive CMO Alliance, building opportunity for the next generation of marketing leaders.