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people and culture breakfast website

ARC People & Culture Breakfast 2026

Brought to you by Rest

From Inclusion to Belonging: Creating Retail Workplaces Where People Thrive

ARC’s People & Culture Breakfast in Melbourne brings together retail leaders to explore how businesses can move beyond diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) commitments to create genuinely inclusive workplaces where people feel valued, supported and empowered to thrive. 

With diverse and dispersed workforces across stores, distribution centres and support offices, creating a genuine sense of belonging requires more than policies and initiatives. It calls for inclusive leadership, meaningful employee engagement and workplace cultures where people feel safe, supported and able to progress. 

This breakfast will explore how retailers can embed belonging into the everyday employee experience, strengthen workplace culture and measure the impact of their efforts. 

The discussion will explore: 

  • The role of inclusive leadership in building workplace cultures where people feel valued and respected. 
  • How retailers can strengthen engagement and create a greater sense of belonging across frontline and dispersed workforces. 
  • The importance of psychological safety, career progression and equitable opportunities for development. 
  • Practical ways to measure the impact of inclusion and turn commitments into meaningful outcomes for employees and businesses. 

Join ARC's People & Culture Community

We’re launching ARC’s People & Culture Community at the breakfast, an exclusive space for ARC members in retail people and culture roles to connect, with access to events, webinars and member-only content.

Speakers

Dennis Bastas

Head of People
Coco Republic

Elizabeth Drewett

Head of People and Culture​
Dissh

Amy Matthews

GM People Experience & Organisational Capability
Rest

Helen Slucki

Director People Services, Australia
​Savers

Colleen Starick

Head of Diversity & Inclusion
Bunnings

Lindsay Carroll

Chief Legal & Industrial Relations Officer
ARC

Glenn Fahey

Chief Policy Officer & Chief Economist
Australian Retail Council

Event details

Early Bird - Single Ticket

Venue: Zinc at Fed Square

Member: $199.00
Non Member: $249.00
Quantity: 0
Total: $0.00

Join ARC's People & Culture Community

We’re launching ARC’s People & Culture Community at the breakfast, an exclusive space for ARC members in retail people and culture roles to connect, with access to events, webinars and member-only content.

Full speaker lineup

Dennis Bastas

Head of People

Coco Republic

Dennis is the Head of People at Coco Republic and an experienced People leader who believes great workplace cultures are built when people feel connected, supported and clear on how they contribute to the success of the business. 

With experience across retail, supply chain and manufacturing in Australia and New Zealand, Dennis has led People strategies spanning culture, leadership development, talent and succession, workplace safety and organisational transformation.  

His experience also extends beyond traditional People leadership, having led Coco Republic’s logistics function alongside his People remit. This gave him firsthand operational and commercial experience and a deeper understanding of how people decisions translate into business performance.  

Dennis is passionate about making People strategy practical and commercially relevant, and creating workplaces where people can perform, grow and genuinely feel they belong. 

Dennis and the Coco Republic People team were recognised with the ARC Retail Award for People & Culture Excellence, an achievement he credits to the strength of the team and wider Coco Republic business. He also serves as a Board Member of SeeAbility (NFP), contributing experience in people, governance and risk management. 

Elizabeth Drewett

Head of People and Culture

Dissh

Amy Matthews

GM People Experience & Organisational Capability

Rest

Amy Matthews is the General Manager of Organisational Capability & People Experience at Rest. She leads Rest’s strategic workforce planning, enterprise capability, culture, leadership, talent management & acquisition and learning functions helping prepare the organisation for the future of work. 

Amy is passionate about building effective organisational culture ecosystems, developing leaders and building effective team to help businesses navigate workforce transformation, AI and changing employee & consumer expectations. 

Helen Slucki

Director People Services, Australia

Savers

Helen Slucki is Director of People Services Australia at Savers Australia Pty Ltd, where she leads the development and execution of their people strategy. She oversees a broad portfolio spanning workplace relations, talent acquisition, learning and development, employee engagement, remuneration and benefits, payroll, health and safety, succession planning, and people systems. With experience spanning executive leadership, organisational transformation and human resources across retail, manufacturing and consulting, Helen brings a practical and commercial perspective on building inclusive workplaces that deliver positive outcomes for both people and business. 

Helen is passionate about creating workplaces where people can thrive and belong. She has led initiatives focused on leadership capability, diversity, equity and inclusion, employee experience, and organisational culture, while ensuring people strategy enables sustainable business performance and growth. She also sits on Savers’ Global People Services Leadership Team, DE&I Steering Committee and ESG Committee, and is a member of the SaCSA retail strategic advisory group.  

When she’s not talking about all things people, you can find Helen treasure hunting in the shoes and jewellery section of a Savers store. 

Colleen Starick

Head of Diversity & Inclusion

Bunnings

Colleen Starick is the Head of Diversity & Inclusion at Bunnings, where she has worked for over 14 years. Throughout her career, Colleen has partnered with leaders across the business to embed inclusion into everyday workplace practices, helping create environments where people feel valued, respected and able to thrive. With a strong commercial and people focused lens, Colleen leads Bunnings’ Diversity & Inclusion strategy, driving initiatives that support gender equity, First Nations engagement, inclusive employment, parental leave, cultural diversity and belonging.  

Her work is focused on translating inclusion from aspiration into action, ensuring it is embedded in leadership, recruitment, career development and the team member experience. Colleen is particularly passionate about creating workplaces where every individual can bring their authentic self to work and build a meaningful and long term career. 

Lindsay Carroll

Chief Legal & Industrial Relations Officer

Australian Retail Council (ARC)

As the Chief Legal & Industrial Relations Officer at Australian Retail Council, Lindsay (she/her) oversees one of the largest in-house team of workplace relations advisors and lawyers orientated to the retail and quick services industries. Lindsay is a leading workplace relations specialist and regularly provides advice on the full spectrum of workplace relations and work health and safety in Australia. 

Compliance with workplace laws can be challenging but with an unwavering focus on delivering practical support to NRA’s members and clients, Lindsay’s team consistently achieves solid outcomes for the retail industry. Lindsay is also an experienced work health and safety lawyer with experience in work health and safety management system review, incident response and management and in defending criminal prosecutions arising from safety incidents. 

Lindsay started her legal career with global law firm, Norton Rose Fulbright and prior to joining the NRA, was a trusted advisor to the mining, oil and gas, and construction sectors in an employer association to the resources industry. 

Agenda

11:30 AM

Registration, Refreshments and Networking

12.00 PM

Welcome to Country

12:05 PM

Welcome & Opening Remarks 

Nicole Sheffield, Board Chair, Australian Retail Council

12:10 PM

Fireside Chat: From Shop Floor to CEO: Amanda Bardwell on Leadership and The Retail Fundamentals

Chris Rodwell, Chief Executive Officer, Australian Retail Council (ARC)
Amanda Bardwell, Group CEO & Managing Director Australian Food, Woolworths Group

1:00 PM

Fireside Chat:

Nicole Sheffield, Board Chair, Australian Retail Council (ARC)
Erica Berchtold, Chief Commercial Officer, David Jones

2:00 PM

Event concludes

Event partner

About Rest

Established in 1988, Rest is one of Australia’s largest profit-to-member superannuation funds, with more than 2 million members and around $100 billion in funds under management *.

We use our size and expertise to deliver competitive long-term investment performance to our members. We’re driven by our purpose to create super our members love and our mission to make the super experience simple. 

Rest has worked alongside businesses for more than 40 years – providing tools, insights and support to create better member and workplace super experiences. Today, more than 300,000* employers choose to work with us to make super simpler for their team members.

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