Mandy Richards
Graduate Certificate in Trade Mark Law and Practice, 2004
Mandy Richards is a visionary social entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of Global Sisters, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to helping women achieve economic security through financial independence via self-employment and the leveraging of income to achieve economic assets. Her career spans leadership roles in social ventures and international development, with a focus on gender equity, human rights, and poverty eradication.
My name is Mandy Richards. I graduated from UTS in 2004 and I did a graduate certificate in trademark law. Winning the award is a lovely honour and these sorts of things are wonderful for raising the profile of our work at Global Sisters. Ultimately that leads to us being able to create more impact.
One key thing that I learned when I was at UTS is that anything is possible. I was working in the innovation space and everything I've learned has led me to this point now where I'm focused on social innovation and creating more social justice in Australia.
I think my experience at UTS and studying intellectual property law really made me look at the world a little differently. Identifying and looking at where people's rights are to their property, what it is that they're creating and how they own it and then how that can be protected and the benefits that that flow from that.
To my fellow alumni, I guess my message would be that if you have a dream, don't wait for it to be all mapped out and perfect. Just start. And if you have a really clear end point that you want to get to, then you'll get there.
Since founding Global Sisters in 2016, Mandy has supported over 8,000 Australian women—many of whom are single mothers, women with disabilities, refugees, or survivors of domestic violence—to build viable micro-businesses and move toward economic independence. Through free online education and wraparound business support and a vibrant community, Global Sisters has become a transformative force in women's entrepreneurship.
Mandy’s leadership is driving national systems reform. Global Sisters is two years into demonstration projects supporting solo mums and women living with disabilities to transition off income support and into sustainable self-employment. In the next six months Global Sisters will launch an innovative housing ownership pilot for women on minimum wage and social security. Her work challenges outdated welfare policies and advocates for inclusive economic systems.
Her impact has garnered international recognition. In 2024, Mandy presented Global Sisters’ award-winning Impact Roadmap© at APEC, and the organisation received a $500,000 grant from the Citi Foundation’s Global Innovation Challenge to address homelessness. She also launched Sister Pitch, connecting women entrepreneurs with major brands and facilitating over $1 million in business opportunities in 2024 alone. $10 million of expert pro bono business support has been facilitated for emerging women-led micro businesses in Australia.
Mandy’s achievements have been recognised through numerous accolades, including being named the top Innovator in Pro Bono Australia’s Impact 25 Awards, serving as a coach for the Cartier Women’s Initiative and being named 2025 CEO of the Year in the Third Sector Awards. Her work continues to empower women from diverse and marginalised backgrounds across Australia.
UTS gave me the legal grounding in innovation to pursue a career focused on social impact, solving old problems with new approaches. It was the beginning of a journey that led Global Sisters to lift up thousands of Australian women on their journeys to achieve financial independence and economic security through entrepreneurship.