From trauma to purpose: foundation leader shares powerful life story

Lionhearted Foundation director Jeanette Allom-Hill has shared a deeply personal story of trauma, survival and rediscovery, urging local business leaders to lead with both head and heart.

Speaking at the Nambour Chamber of Commerce International Women’s Day breakfast, Ms Allom-Hill described a childhood marked by upheaval that ultimately shaped her approach to leadership.

“I was born to a 19-year-old mum in South Africa to a very elite family,” she said. “She was forced to give me up.”

Adopted into a missionary family in Zululand, Ms Allom-Hill said she was raised by a Zulu woman named Maggie, whom she affectionately called Manny Moo.

But tragedy struck during the Soweto riots in 1976 when Maggie was killed during an attack on their home.

“A black extremist group charged into our home and killed Maggie,” she said.

The family fled and eventually moved to Australia, where further challenges followed. “My mother left absolutely everything,” Ms Allom-Hill said. “She had a nervous breakdown and my young years all the way through school were filled with a lot of physical and emotional trauma.”

Determined to protect herself, she built a highly successful career. “I learned something really important: that I had to get very, very successful,” she said. “I had to protect my heart and I had to lead all-in with my head.”

But a turning point came when she began working in Nambour – an experience she said changed the way she approached leadership.

“I started to think with my heart and think with my instinct about what was really right,” she said.

That realisation led to what she now calls the “holy trilogy” of decision-making: head, heart and instinct.

“We have this incredible internal trilogy,” she said. “It created a wholeness in me – an ability to balance grace and grit.”

Ms Allom-Hill encouraged local business owners to apply a similar framework to their own decisions through what she described as three guiding principles: clarity, capacity and contribution.

“Clarity, capacity and contribution,” she said. “Think about what difference your business makes, protect your capacity, and ask what you’re giving back.”

She said true success ultimately came from serving others.

“I’m a very firm believer that the definition of a long and happy life is for someone who gives back to their community,” she said.

“If there’s any community that can change the world by standing shoulder to shoulder, it’s this one.”