The IACC Mentoring Program has provided me the luxury of access to a selection of Australia's most experienced and accomplished Senior/Executive level professionals.

The program instills an openness amongst all the individuals involved. Throughout my three year involvement I've continually being taken aback by the Mentors' willingness to participate. Despite hectic schedules they have made themselves available, taken the time to really listen to my aspirations/issues, provided independent and honest feedback, as well as a few home truths! They have demonstrated humility, shared their own hard earned experience of success and faux pas with the ultimate goal of seeing their Mentee succeed.

This should be one of the priorities for any Irish Australian business professional, one which I value highly and each year the depth of the relationships I form here have become invaluable to me!

Over the past couple of years I have had the benefit of participating in the Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce Mentoring Program. At the beginning of the program I felt that I had a lot to offer my industry but I wasn't quite sure how to take my career and industry interaction to the next level. Through the IACC I was fortunate enough to be paired with some outstanding Mentors who instilled the confidence in me, and challenged me, to reach my potential. I learned how to think strategically and was able to bounce ideas off great sounding boards.

Fast forward to this year and in the time I’ve been mentored through the IACC program I have changed job to my dream role as the Sustainability Manager for the Residential portfolio of a large industry leading international developer. I have been appointed to several state and national committees on sustainability in the property and construction industry, have completed a masters of science in environmental design with distinction and have been recognised by the Green Building Council of Australia as their inaugural ‘Future Green Leader’ award recipient for young professionals’ contribution to sustainability.

Furthermore this year during the Mentoring Program I was team leader for the winning entry in the international design competition for the worlds most sustainable shopping centre, was listed as a finalist in the Dulux Study Tour competition (awarded to Australias 5 best emerging architects annually, winners TBC), commenced tutoring architecture and planning masters students at Melbourne University, completed my professional registration as an Architect and participated and contributed to approximately a dozen industry events, conferences and publications on sustainability in the built environment. This is all not to mention successfully participating in, and contributing to, the IACC Horizons peer mentoring group and being listed as a finalist in the inaugural IACC “Young Professional of the Year Award” in 2015.

Throughout all of these exciting events and fortunate outcomes I have had the solid support and guidance of industry experts through the Mentoring Program who have helped me carve my own journey as an individual in Australia and its fair to say that the outcomes may have been quite different were that support not there. The IACC have created a fantastic opportunity for young people in Australia to benefit from the experience of senior industry leaders. I could not recommend the program enough and I encourage every young person to give it a go. Everything you put into it will come back tenfold!