Geraldine Coy

International author of Brave Truth, an accomplished corporate senior manager, a business owner, a diversity and community worker, a leadership and personal development coach, an agent for positive change and a mother.

One of six children, Geraldine was schooled in South Africa and England. As a child she was very physically active, competing in the State diving team and later gaining an international windsurfing instructor’s license.

Growing up in South Africa during a time of turmoil and tension ignited Geraldine’s passion for racial and gender equality and respect. She studied Clinical Psychology and English at university before becoming the first female manager in the steel industry in South Africa when she took up the position of Personnel Manager for Trident Steel – a company with more than 2000 employees.

In a cultural setting that precluded black South Africans from aspiring to skilled and semi-skilled jobs, Geraldine made significant positive change by creating a program that brought these employees into management positions.

In 1984, Geraldine married and in the next few years had her first two children. She joined a consulting company in Cape Town and was offered a partnership within six months before moving on to work in the management development field to prepare communities for the transition to a democratic South Africa. Geraldine’s skills as a mediator, a human resource specialist, a protector of human rights and a promoter of peace and equality were in high demand in the years that followed. She was involved in many important ways towards the end of the apartheid movement and in establishing a democratic South Africa.

While juggling family demands and the arrival of her third child, Geraldine’s involvement in formulating public policy, participating in the running of the 1994 election, mediating community and industrial disputes and her role on the National Peace Secretariat, all led up to her role in a commission of enquiry that published a report of findings into violent atrocities committed in two of Cape Town’s townships. After this report was published, Geraldine received threats against her family that resulted in the family relocating to Australia for the safety of her children.

Relocating was a difficult time but Geraldine’s skills were soon in demand in a new senior national managerial role at Telstra. This was the beginning of her career in Australia. She was subsequently headhunted by Bakers Delight to become their General Manager of Organisational Effectiveness, before moving on to Executive Director of Human Resources and Change Management for WorkSafe Victoria and other senior corporate roles.

Now the owner of the highly successful Red Tin Shed – an executive coaching business, Geraldine is helping others to achieve their professional and personal goals as well as continuing to pursue her own goals of creating positive change in communities.