Claire Thomas

Claire Thomas is the CEO and Founder of Empact Group, overall AFR Best Place to Work 2025. Guided by Empact's purpose to Empower to Act, Claire leads a team working across government, corporate and community sectors on complex transformation, workforce uplift and human-centred change. A former public servant with more than a decade across central agencies and national policy roles, Claire brings a direct understanding of what it takes to lead reform inside systems that are slow to move, under pressure to deliver, and often under-resourced to do both. As a late-diagnosed 2E ADHD leader, Claire brings professional expertise and lived experience to conversations about neuroaffirming leadership, workplace design and inclusive cultures. She advocates for environments where diverse ways of thinking are treated as a strategic asset, built into how organisations work rather than accommodated around the edges. Under Claire's leadership, Empact has built a reputation for combining high performance with leadership practices that are grounded in its values of Trust, Care, Curiosity, Courage and Impact. Her work focuses on helping leaders navigate complexity, build psychologically safe and high-performing teams, and create conditions where people can contribute fully. Claire speaks and facilitates on leadership, public sector transformation, neurodiversity and the future of work, with a consistent focus on what actually shifts when organisations get this right.