Your Luminate Team

MEET LUMINATE'S
FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR, 
CHERIE CANNING

Cherie's passion lies in inspiring people to achieve their potential by developing their 'human skills'.

Cherie Canning is a passionate optimist, an avid traveller and the Founder and Director of Luminate Leadership.

With two decades of leading and developing leaders at Luminate and previously at Flight Centre Travel Group, Cherie is passionate about people and their growth. Her authentic communication style and engaging workshop content continue to deliver results and leave a lasting impact.

When Cherie and her husband Andy were thrown a COVID redundancy curve ball in 2020, it was time for the next chapter in their careers. There was not a doubt in Cherie's mind about the kind of work she wanted to do; it was to speak and facilitate workshops to inspire and influence the development of leaders.

After searching the job market for the ideal role, she decided to stop waiting for someone else to take a chance on her, and instead decided to take a chance on herself, and that is when Luminate Leadership was born.

Cherie is known for her passionate energy, a genuine love for people and raw vulnerability and authentic style that shines through in all that she does. Her intention is to embrace and enhance the human based Leadership skills such as connection, empathy, collaboration, and courage in as many Leaders as possible.

These days, Cherie calls Brisbane home, with her husband Andy, daughter Chloe and their puppy Coco.
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MEET LUMINATE’S LEADERSHIP FACILITATOR,
MANDY DUDSON

Mandy's passionate about training leadership concepts to inspire personal growth & improved performance, her purpose is to inspire, educate and connect participants in every training she delivers.

Mandy joins Luminate after over 15+ years working in leadership roles including Area Manager & State Manager positions for Global household brands. Mandy has followed her passion for leadership L&D having recently designed and delivered leadership, sales and cultural engagement programs for major retailers. Mandy has a proven ability to align business goals to leadership needs which makes her an asset to every business. 

As an experienced Facilitator, Mentor and Coach, Mandy's professional, friendly, and customer centric approach has led her to achieve outstanding results for her clients.

Mandy's highly interactive workshops have participants staying engaged while also using techniques to assist the participants in retaining their learning.

Mandy is a proud mum to 2 daughters and lives in Brisbane with her husband.
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MEET LUMINATE’S GENERAL MANAGER,
ANDY CANNING

Andy brings a wealth of experience and knowledge from a career in sales, operations and buying roles.

Andy is a Dad, Husband and the General Manager of Luminate Leadership.

Prior to joining Luminate, Andy held leadership roles across specialty retail businesses, where he excelled in sales, operations and buying positions.

Throughout his career, Andy has consistently been a top performer, winning global awards in Sales and Account Management, as well as leading category performer 3 years in a row as a Category Manager.

Andy brings a pragmatic and analytical skill set to the team at Luminate. He is engaging and thorough, and tackles tasks with empathy for the end user experience, going above and beyond to ensure a great client experience.

When Andy’s not in the office, he’s likely to be found in the kitchen or on the golf course.
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MEET LUMINATE’S MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID INSTRUCTOR, WADE HURST

Wade has vast experience in the mental health space, having worked in the student accommodation world, providing pastoral care support to students and residents who were often suffering from poor mental health.

Through this, Wade developed a strong desire for the community, especially those in the workplace, to have a greater understanding of Mental Health, Mental illnesses and how people can respond if they need to support someone with poor mental health.

Wade is Luminate Leadership's dedicated Mental Health First Aid Instructor and is available to facilitate MHFA in your organisation as well as a variety of mental wellness, resilience and wellness programs.

When Wade's not facilitating workshops, you'll find him at his beloved Australian Rules football club.
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what our clients
have to say

We just can't stop booking sessions with Luminate, they're fantastic.
We are currently running 3 of Luminate's sessions in each state around the country and the feedback has been brilliant. Our people have found the sessions incredibly engaging, challenging and valuable. Cherie relates to people in a special way which is what produces amazing results.
She's extremely commited and a great communicator.

LIN PIH - NATIONAL LEADER AT 99 BIKES

I reached out and engaged Cherie to facilitate a multi-day personality type’s workshop and strategic planning session with a group of Business leaders in my organisation, and I could not have been more impressed. I briefed Cherie on the outcomes I was trying to achieve at the outset, and Cherie ran with it and delivered an incredibly powerful session; spending time in advance to deeply understand our Business and team dynamics to help tailor the content for maximum effect.

Simon McNally - National Director at Cover-More Group

Our business in Asia has engaged Cherie on a number of occassions over the past few years to facilitate leadership workshops and conduct team leader training. Cherie is a passionate facilitator and her personal experience as a business leader created empathy and credibility with her audience. With her ability to understand our learning outcomes and thorough preparation, she was able to adapt the content and delivery to accommodate the cultural nuances of our Asian leaders and their varying levels of leadership maturity. Great use of real life examples from her own leadership experience coupled with an engaging style of delivery made Cherie one of our most sought-after facilitators. I would not hesitate to recommend Cherie to any business looking for a facilitator or coach to make an impact on leadership development.

suyin lee - managing Director at discova

Cherie is a natural. Within an instant she had the group engaged. Her ability to read the room and tailor off-the-cuff content is the mark of a true professional. We left the session educated and empowered and will definitely have her back to facilitate groups in future.

carene carroll - Founder of Modern Mamas

Cherie is one in a million! Her passion, energy and dedication to help individuals and teams reach their full potential is phenomenal. Cherie works above and beyond the call of duty to create an experience to remember in her workshops. She has changed lives and transformed businesses. She is the most efficient and effective person I have ever had on my team.

Fiona Taylor - Senior Leadership Expert AT Flight Centre

Our staff were privileged to have Cherie Canning present a workshop on Team Building using Myers Briggs. Cherie explained the material with humour, clarity, and accuracy. She is an incredible presenter with a very personable style. The material was presented at the perfect pace for both beginners and those with previous knowledge of the subject matter. I especially appreciated how inclusive Cherie was. She encouraged active involvement and successfully kept participants on track.

Julia Druery - Director at little + CO

Cherie’s workshop was nothing short of brilliant. Cherie is warm, relatable, highly engaging and creates a truly safe place to share and reflect. She gave us the opportunity to pause for a moment and take a deep dive into the things that really matter; something that I find I seldom make time for in today’s fast-paced world. I left feeling motivated, empowered and energised, and perhaps most importantly – focused. Cherie is anything but your average presenter, I can’t recommend her highly enough.

Emma Russell - Owner of Emma Russell Creative

We originally engaged Luminate Leadership to do a 'Conversations With Courage' course for a few of our business units and we were so impressed that we asked Cherie to facilitate our Senior Leader 2 day conference and also present an HBDI session for us as well.  Throughout the whole process, I found Cherie to be open, willing and exceptionally skillful.  The way Cherie was able to deliver a 2 day workshop with only a couple of briefing sessions was extraordinary.  Cherie utilised both her training prowess and business knowledge to navigate us through the 2 days with ease.  Her ability to both keep us on track, but offer humour and mastery all at once was second-to-none.  A very big thank you to Cherie and Luminate Leadership and we'll be looking for opportunities to engage with her again.

Julia Leary - Regional Director - APAC intelliHR

Cherie is a star! If your business is passionate about leadership and organisational development, you couldn't ask for a better partner to take you on that journey. As soon as we finished our initial engagement, we began looking at other areas we could invest in to foster growth in our people and teams. Cherie's engaging style, ability to connect on a personal level and understanding of her field delivered an enlightening and transformational experience for everyone involved. Cherie was born for this role! Thank you Luminate.

Mike Davis - CEO FELIX

You're in good company!