Faith Styles: Building Human Capability for a Future-Ready Water Workforce

In this episode of Utility Leaders: Live from the Road, James Foden sits down with Faith Styles to explore a topic that should be at the centre of every utility’s workforce strategy: human capability.

Recorded from the Wonderland Caravan Studio, this conversation was filmed while Faith was Group Manager, Future Workforce at South East Water. Faith has since founded Intersect Co, a leadership systems practice supporting founders, owners and senior leaders to understand how leadership behaviour, particularly under pressure, shapes team performance.

Faith shares South East Water’s approach to building a human-centred capability framework across its workforce. The discussion explores why technical capability alone is no longer enough, and why adaptability, curiosity, collaboration, innovation and the willingness to say “I don’t know yet” are essential to the future of water.

We also unpack how organisations can better identify untapped potential, create internal career pathways, strengthen leadership capability, and stop losing great people simply because they cannot see a future inside the business.

This is a practical conversation for utility leaders, people and culture professionals, technical leaders, and anyone thinking seriously about how we prepare our sector for what comes next.

Connect with Faith:

Intersect Co | Faith Styles on LinkedIn

Connect with James:
Telos Co | James Foden on LinkedIn

Utility Leaders is brought to you by Telos Co, proudly supporting WaterAid.

What does 50 years of a water utility have to do with trophy fish?

More than you might think.

This week we’re unlocking another episode from the Utility Leaders Season Two vault.

My guest is Darron Barlow, CEO of Gladstone Area Water Board, GAWB.

We originally recorded this conversation to celebrate GAWB’s 50th anniversary.

Then life changed pretty quickly for me.

Midway through releasing Season Two, I was diagnosed with bowel cancer, the podcast stopped, and some great conversations never made it out.

Darron’s was one of them.

So I owe him an apology for how long this has taken.

But listening back reminded me why I started Utility Leaders in the first place.

Because the water sector is about far more than pipes, pumps, treatment plants and capital programs.

It is about people, communities, industry, leadership and purpose and occasionally, apparently, trophy fish.

Across the conversations I have with leaders throughout the Australian water sector, the organisations that stand out tend to understand something important:

Infrastructure might be what you build.
Purpose is why people care.

GAWB has now been part of the Gladstone region for more than half a century, and this conversation looks back at that journey while also exploring leadership, infrastructure and what comes next.

We’re making up for lost time now, releasing episodes from the Season Two vault while simultaneously taking Season Three of Utility Leaders on the road.

Utility Leaders is a Telos Co podcast, created to tell the stories of the people, organisations and projects shaping Australia’s water sector.

And yes, you’ll have to listen to find out how the trophy fish made it into the conversation.

What water industry story do you think deserves to be told next?

Connect with Darren here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenabarlow/

Connect with James here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fodenjames/

Find your next project or job here: https://www.telosco.com.au/

Episode 21, Season 2: Tom Muller, CEO of WaterAid Australia

Guest: Tom Muller, Chief Executive, WaterAid Australia
Utility Leaders Podcast

What does it actually take to deliver sustainable access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene, particularly in communities where infrastructure, funding and workforce capability can look very different to Australia?

In this episode of the Utility Leaders Podcast, James Foden sits down with Tom Muller, Chief Executive of WaterAid Australia, to explore the work happening behind the WaterAid name and the role the Australian water industry continues to play in supporting that mission.

Tom joined WaterAid Australia in 2015 following a career spanning international development and Australian social policy, including working in Afghanistan and homelessness services. After eight years as Director of Policy and Programs, he stepped into the Chief Executive role, overseeing WaterAid Australia's work across Australia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Cambodia, alongside its broader regional engagement across Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

The conversation explores why delivering water and sanitation is far more complex than simply installing infrastructure.

Tom explains how WaterAid focuses on understanding the local context, building capability and developing solutions communities and institutions can operate, maintain and finance over the long term. He also shares examples where technically impressive infrastructure has failed because the workforce, maintenance systems or access to replacement parts simply weren't there.

• Tom's journey from international development and human rights work to leading WaterAid Australia

• How WaterAid Australia operates across Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Cambodia

• The relationship between WaterAid Australia and the broader global WaterAid Federation

• Why access to water, sanitation and hygiene is fundamentally a human rights issue

• Why successful infrastructure needs to be designed around local context, capability and long-term sustainability

• The importance of local workforce capability, operations and maintenance

• How WaterAid works with governments, women's rights organisations, disability organisations and technical partners

• The role of gender, disability and inclusion in water and sanitation programs

• How WaterAid uses locally relevant communication, including netball in Papua New Guinea and traditional village law in Timor-Leste

• Tom's approach to leadership and building an open, transparent and inclusive organisational culture

• WaterAid's exploration of how it may contribute to First Nations water issues in Australia

• The relationship between WaterAid Australia and the Australian water industry

Tom leaves the industry with an important challenge.

Supporting universal access isn't only about donating money. He wants people working across Australia's water sector to continue using their knowledge, networks and influence to advocate for the importance of water, sanitation and hygiene within their communities, supply chains and with government.

For an industry built around providing one of life's most essential services, it's a powerful reminder that access to safe water and sanitation still isn't universal.

Connect with Tom Muller:
Tom Muller on LinkedIn