Darwin Innovation Hub hosted its NextGen Leaders panel event on Friday evening, bringing together four senior professionals from across the Territory’s defence, hospitality, governance, and arts and culture sectors to speak openly about leadership, career challenges, and what it takes to create lasting impact.
The event ran from 5:30 to 7:00pm at DIH’s Smith Street venue, drawing a strong turnout of young professionals, business owners, and community members. Entry was free.
The panel was moderated by Himanshu Rai, President of Young Professionals Rotaract NT, who guided the conversation across topics including decision-making under pressure, professional setbacks, and the longer-term question of what leaders leave behind.
The Speakers
Group Captain Melissa Neilson, Commander of Northern Command and a senior Australian Defence Force officer, spoke about the weight of command and what real accountability looks like when the stakes are high. Her perspective grounded the conversation in something more concrete than the usual leadership framework talk.
Madusha Olupathage, Cluster Operations Manager for Hilton Garden Inn and DoubleTree by Hilton Esplanade, brought the operational reality of running two large hotel properties simultaneously. He spoke to the unglamorous side of leadership, covering people management, systems, and the decisions that happen well outside business hours.
Shani Carson, Assistant State Manager (NT) for the Australian Institute of Company Directors and Councillor for Richardson, addressed leadership through the lens of governance and public accountability. Her dual role gave her a useful vantage point on both corporate and community responsibility.
Eric Holowacz, Chief Executive Officer of Larrakia Cultural Centre in Darwin, brought a perspective rooted in cultural leadership and community stewardship. Leading an organisation dedicated to preserving and sharing Larrakia heritage places a particular kind of responsibility on its leadership, one that extends well beyond the usual measures of organisational performance.
The Conversation
All four speakers were candid about difficulty, including professional missteps, hard calls, and the periods where things didn’t go to plan. That honesty gave the session a different quality to the polished keynote format. The panel format, with Himanshu keeping questions focused and the exchange moving, held the session together across four quite different career backgrounds.
Common ground emerged around legacy, not in the grand sense, but in the practical question of what systems, culture, and people you leave better than you found them.
Networking
After the panel, the room opened up for informal networking over food and drinks. The mix of sectors represented on stage seemed to carry into the conversations afterwards, with attendees moving across the usual professional clusters.
Darwin Innovation Hub is proud to support Young Professionals Rotaract NT in delivering events like NextGen Leaders that connect emerging and established professionals across the Territory.
