Most Empowering Indigenous Youth Programmes CEO 2026: Anthony Cavanagh Ganbina is a First Nations run-and-led charity aiming to empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to achieve true social and economic equality with non-Indigenous Australians within the next two generations. The organisation is steered by CEO Anthony Cavanagh, whose own personal journey has driven a lifelong desire to enact change. As Anthony is named in the Australian CEO Excellence Awards 2026, we caught up with the CEO to learn more. Colonisation has had significant impact on Australia’s Indigenous population, with long-lasting trauma and intergenerational events. Many ramifications of colonialisation still shape lives to this day, seen in socioeconomic disparities, health issues, and the loss of language and cultural language. As a result, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are much more likely than nonIndigenous Australians to experience low education attainment, high unemployment rates, and welfare dependency. Since its inception in 1997, Ganbina has empowered 2135 children and young people from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to unlock their full potential and strive for a life free from these limiting barriers. The organisation works with young people throughout their primary and secondary school years to ensure that they can access the right education, career training, and life skills they need in their formative years in order to forge successful paths into adulthood. At the helm of this mission is Anthony Cavanagh, who has served as the CEO of Ganbina for 13 years. Anthony leads the Ganbina team with a passion for creating hope and opportunity, making extensive efforts to support his team in delivering on the Ganbina promise to the Indigenous community, supporters, and funders. He encourages each member of the team to keep their promises, uphold their commitments, and encourage Ganbina’s children and youth to be the best possible version of themselves. Anthony worked in community services for 25 years before joining Ganbina. He has gained invaluable experience working in a variety of settings, including supporting people with disabilities and disadvantaged children in a boys’ home. The CEO has found his life path to be ultimately driven by a desire to give back, sharing his own personal experiences with the hope that he can help children and young people envision a future for themselves that does not follow the same path he did. “From a very early age, I experienced a lot of family trauma,” he shared with us. “I had an alcoholic father, and my mother escaped with me, my brother, and sister. She, however, began associating with bikies and a drug syndicate a few years later. One day, she left home and never came back. The three of us were abandoned.” Anthony was 13 years old at the time. He and his siblings were separated, and Anthony was left to fend for himself. He slept on the streets, making his own decisions and planning an uncertain future with very little adult input or role-models around him. Through this chaos, Anthony managed to complete his education and graduate from high school. He asserts that his time at school was a key driver that kept him moving forward during this incredibly difficult period. After graduating, Anthony went to work. He was skilled with his hands, and undertook much manual labour for the first three to four years following high school. Then came his first professional services job in the late 80s, which provided him the opportunity to work in government welfare at a boys’ home. Once he built more experience, Anthony was offered more managerial and supervision roles, and he jumped at every opportunity. While some of these roles stretched his abilities at the time, each and every position taught Anthony an invaluable lesson. “What I endured as a young person has helped me to understand what disadvantage looks like,” he reflected, “and how education is the key for Indigenous people to overcome generational disadvantage, breaking the cycle for themselves and future generations. I was born into entrenched socioeconomic disadvantage and came out the other side. If you had told 13-year-old me – who was stealing fruit from market stalls and sleeping in alleyways – that one day I would become a CEO, I would have laughed at you.” Now, Anthony is passionate about the impact that education can have on a young person’s life, regardless of their life circumstances. He pours this passion into his work, so much so that it reflects throughout the entire Ganbina team. As CEO, he has made it his mission to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth, ensuring that more Indigenous children and youth can enjoy a more positive perspective of their future, with a solid education behind them and a prosperous professional pathway before them. Ultimately, Anthony aspires to be the very best leader and CEO he can be. One of the key aspects of his strategy to achieving this is to surround himself with the experts. “It is impossible for one person to know everything and, with the growth and scope we’ve experienced over the years, I’ve surrounded myself with experts in various fields when I have been limited in my own capacity,” he said. “It’s important to recognise when you need help.” Initially, Anthony was limited by Ganbina’s financial capacity. He was prevented from hiring the expertise he sought until he first built the financial capital and stability Ganbina needed. In the early stages of his time with Ganbina, he learned that many of its long-term financial supporters were preparing to end their relationships with the organisation. These funders provided 40% of the organisation’s budget and without replacing that money, the team would have been forced to close its doors. Faced with this new hurdle, Anthony tasked himself with sourcing new funding and partnerships for Ganbina. Instead of having one or two large funders providing half of the annual budget, however, he made a strategic pivot and sourced more funders to support with much smaller amounts. This created a lower risk profile for Ganbina, though the admin and management of these new funders rose significantly, with Anthony spending approximately 70% of his day on reporting and letter writing when he really needed to focus on sourcing funding for programmes. “I knew I needed support, so I hired my first executive position with an executive assistant
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