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  • Co-founder and Non-Executive Director, Left Right Think-Tank
  • Chair of the Board of Directors, Youth Tree
  • Board Member, Australian Youth Affairs Coalition
  • WA Young Citizen of the Year 2011

Rick Newnham CitWA, 24, is a founder of the Left Right Think-Tank, Australia’s first inde­pend­ent and non-partisan think-tank of young minds.

Founded in early 2008, Left Right’s mission is to involve young people in public policy. Its vision is for a society that seeks and embraces the ideas of young people.

In 2011 Rick was recog­nised as the Young Western Australian Citizen of the Year for his work in estab­lish­ing the Left Right Think-Tank.

Serving as found­ing CEO for three years Rick has guided Left Right Think-Tank through expan­sion into 5 Australian cities, build­ing a team of more than 70 young Australians enga­ging their peers in public policy. As CEO Rick instig­ated the estab­lish­ment of the Australian Youth Led Convention, the pree­m­in­ent con­ven­tion for leaders of Australian youth-led organ­isa­tions, which is a part­ner­ship project between the Left Right Think-Tank and the Australian Government.

Throughout 2007  –  2008 Rick was Australia’s most senior Defence Force Cadet while he served as the National Cadet Under Officer of the Australian Army Cadets based in Canberra, rep­res­ent­ing the 16,500 Army Cadets nation​wide​.In 2010 Rick was a Steering Committee Member of the Australian Youth Forum and is a past Board Member of the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition.

Rick is a gradu­ate of the University of Western Australia where he studied stra­tegic man­age­ment and cor­por­ate finance. Having pre­vi­ously worked as a man­age­ment con­sult­ant for KPMG Rick has exper­i­ence in both gov­ern­ment and com­mer­cial pro­jects. Rick’s pre­vi­ous project part­ners through the Left Right Think-Tank and KPMG include ABC, Chevron, Shell Australia, the US Consulate and the WA Department of Treasury and Finance.

In 2011 Rick was named by Triple J as one of Australia’s “25 Under 25 + Smashin’ It” and was a fre­quent guest on Triple J’s Hack as CEO of Left Right.

In 2009 Rick met Her Majesty the Queen of England as part of offi­cial duties when he trav­elled to London as Australia’s Youth Representative for Commonwealth Day.

Rick is now a Commercial Analyst at Shell in Upstream International and is founder of the Australian Young Energy Network, a peer-to-peer learn­ing com­munity run by young pro­fes­sion­als working across the energy industry.

Continuing his active involve­ment in the com­munity, Rick is now an Official Ambassador for Australia Day, a Celebrity Ambassador for National Youth Week and is a board member for Left Right Think-Tank.

Read more about Rick at his Triple J 25 under 25 profile or his 2011 Young Australian of the Year Finalist profile.