Dr. Stephen Duns

Stephen Duns is a CEO, leadership advisor and author whose work sits at the intersection of power, care and human development. He also works part time as a Professor of Business Leadership. Across nearly four decades, he has held senior executive roles and led organizational change in health, community services and public sector systems, helping leaders navigate complexity without losing their humanity.

Stephen is the author of Expert to Leader, The Inquiry Habit and ADAPT: Change as a developmental journey. His writing explores the developmental edge of leadership, where competence alone is no longer enough and presence begins to matter as much as performance. As a CEO, he puts these ideas into practice every day, inside the ordinary pressures where leadership is tested and where grace, when it comes, is usually brief and quietly consequential. He lives on a bush block outside Melbourne with his husband and their dogs, where he continues to write, advise and stay curious about the moments that shape us more than we realize.