The story behind Guiding Growing Minds.
Our Founder
Dr Billy Garvey
GGM founder Dr Billy Garvey is a dad, podcaster, author and a developmental paediatrician with over 20 years’ experience working with children and families in a number of settings. He is passionate about helping those who care for kids – parents, educators, sports coaches, clinicians, family support workers – by advancing their ability to guide healthy child development and mental health.
“I’m about finding the ‘sweet spot’ between the medical textbooks and real life when it comes to looking after our kids.”
Billy strives to continue to learn how we can best support the children in our lives. His foundation is 14 years of full time university education and dual subspecialty medical training, but he hasn’t stopped there. Billy continues his learning through ongoing formal clinical professional development and trains our current and future workforce across a variety of clinical, education and family service professionals.
Despite his role as a senior specialist at one of the world’s biggest and most prestigious peadiatric hospitals, Billy felt like there was more he could do. In 2019 he was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to travel the world to explore how we can better meet the needs of families and their children. Guiding Growing Minds was born from this vision.
Billy’s pathway to becoming a medical specialist is a little different. He was born and raised in Frankston, a tough outer-suburb in Melbourne Australia, working in varying part time roles from age 14, including as a hospital cleaner, childcare worker, factory line worker, bartender, supermarket night fill and forklift driver.
It was his time working in childcare (and also his experience getting kicked out of high school) that drove his desire to pursue developmental paediatrics and use his upbringing and life experience to help support other families and kids.
Guiding Growing Minds strives to be that support. We share our knowledge through meaningful pathways that utilise creative storytelling, authentic collaboration and genuine optimism to bring out the best in all of us. We imagine a future where no child is left behind and work hard towards making that vision a reality.
Our Advisory Board
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Lyndelle Zuccolin is the founder and managing director of strategic management consultancy, Just Add Colour and board director of Skate Australia. She is an experienced senior executive with 25 years experience across sport, retail and not for profit organisations, including well-known brands such as Quiksilver, DC Shoes, PwC and Geelong Football Club. Lyndelle is CPA qualified, with executive portfolio experience across marketing and consumer business, finance, IT and systems development, project management and people and culture. In addition to Skate Australia, Lyndelle is also board director and vice president of Barwon Sports Academy and former board director of Vic West Telco.
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Terri Scanlon is a devoted mother to two beautiful boys, one orchid child whom has ASD/ADHD, and one fiery redhead who keeps her on her toes. Professionally, she's a key member of the major gifts team at the Royal Children's Hospital Foundation, where she excels in stewarding a diverse range of donors, from those contributing $1000 to multimillion-dollar gifts to the hospital. With expertise in grant writing and project management, Terri combines her passion for medical research with a PhD in Cancer Immunology, focusing on paediatric brain cancer treatments using CAR T cells. Outside of work, she enjoys gardening, staying active, and playing Lego for hours on end with her sons. Terri's dedication to helping people, philanthropy and making a positive impact on the world shines through in all aspects of her life.
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Miffany has worked in agriculture and managed investments with post-graduate qualifications in Applied finance and Investment. She is the co-owner of retail businesses Minimax and Teds Cameras. She is also a Director of Murdoch Children's Research Institute. She is a mother to four children
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Evan has worked in podcasting and radio for over 15 years, first as General Manager of Sydney community radio station FBi Radio and then founder of Kinderling Kids Radio before it was sold to LiSTNR. Prior to working in audio, Evan spent a decade working in investment banking in Australia and the US.
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Adam is the CEO/CIO of a Melbourne-based family office, chair of Conscious Investment Management, and holds a number of directorship and committee appointments including Jamieson Coote Bonds, Gurner Queensland Investment Fund and Hawthorn Football Club Investments and Audit & Finance Committees. Previously, Adam was Head of Consumer, Retail and Healthcare investment banking at Goldman Sachs in Australia.
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Nick Speer is an experienced Private Equity Investor who has played a leading role in over 20 successful investments, across a range of sectors. Nick is currently a Partner and Head of Australia & NZ for Affinity Equity Partners, a large pan-Asian buyout firm deploying their US$6bn Fund V. Prior to Affinity, Nick was a Managing Partner and spent 9 years at The Riverside Company, a US headquartered global mid-market private equity firm with more than US$10 billion FUM. Nick is also an Investment Committee member for the Melbourne Grammar School endowment fund. He received a PLD from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Commerce (Honors in Finance) from The University of Melbourne.
Guiding Growing Minds is all about harnessing the potential of our community to build a better world. We are very fortunate that the following organisations share their expertise and energy to ensure that our work is of the highest quality and always growing.
