ROBERT JOSKE MANAGEMENT 

Speaker — Comfortable in chaos: leadership, planning and executing missions in uncertainty, with resilience and teamwork.

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Matt Stevens has led a unique 40-year career as an Infantry soldier and officer, commanding at every tactical level within Australia's Special Forces — from SAS Patrol Commander through to Special Operations Task Group Commander. Across tours in Bougainville, East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan, Matt built his career planning and executing under conditions most organisations only imagine: incomplete information, shifting threats, compressed timeframes and irreversible consequences. He has built and led high-performance teams from first principles in the Army's most demanding circumstances, translating that into a disciplined approach to planning that holds up when the plan meets reality. Matt tailors every presentation to his audience, relating leadership, decision-making under uncertainty, resilience and problem-solving to real, lived operational experience.

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Matt's leadership has been recognised with a Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) for command and leadership in action in Iraq, a Conspicuous Service Cross (CSC) for developing Australia's East Coast Counter-Terrorism capability, and a Commendation for Distinguished Service as an SAS Squadron Commander in Afghanistan. He also holds the US Bronze Star for command and leadership during the Battles of Mosul and Tal Afar in 2017 — operations that demanded continuous re-planning against a fast-changing, ambiguous threat picture.

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Throughout his career, Matt has planned and executed complex, highly sensitive special operations across multiple theatres globally, where the margin for error was effectively zero and the plan had to survive contact with a constantly shifting picture. In his keynote, Matt translates this into a practical framework audiences can take straight back into their own organisations — planning with clarity and discipline when information is incomplete, stakes are high and circumstances change in real time. Rather than simply recounting operational stories, Matt empowers leaders to apply the same planning rigour and adaptive execution to their own high-stakes challenges, driving optimal outcomes for their teams and organisations.

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Beyond operational command, Matt has deep expertise leading high-performance teams through the most challenging circumstances — from counter-terrorism operations to national crisis and disaster response — planning, coordinating, synchronising and executing operations nationally and globally in Australia's national interest. He planned and mobilised the largest call-out of Army Reservists in the 2019 Bushfire Emergency and led the Army's planning response to COVID-19, and continues to serve as a coach and mentor to senior Defence leaders, building the judgement and composure needed to lead through complexity.

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In the corporate sector, Matt delivers leadership, resilience, crisis management and strategic planning development for clients spanning construction, industrials and professional sport, including the National Rugby League, coaching leaders to build the same planning discipline and adaptability his Defence audiences rely on. He is also President of the Australian Army Rugby League.

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Matt holds a Bachelor of Professional Studies (HR) from the University of New England and a Master of Arts — Strategy and Management from the University of New South Wales. He is a graduate of the AICD Company Directors Course, the Institute of Executive Coaching and Leadership (IECL), the National Security College at the Australian National University, and the United States Special Operations University.

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Matt is based in Sydney and is exclusively managed by Robert Joske Management.

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Speaking Topics:

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LEADERSHIP AND A LIFE IN THE SAS

A Keynote for Corporate and Operational Leadership Audiences

 

The Keynote

Not a lecture on leadership theory — a first-person account of leading people through selection, high-consequence operations and personal loss, distilled into lessons any organisation can use. Matt draws a direct line from the SAS Regiment's ethos and selection philosophy to the practical mechanics of building trust, communicating purpose and sustaining performance under pressure. Session length is tailored to the client, from a 20-minute address to a longer facilitated session with Q+A.

 

Core Themes & Takeaways

• Trust and mission command — why trust cannot be surged, and how it is built and lost

• Purpose as a leadership tool — filling the information void before rumour and uncertainty do

• What separates a team from a genuinely high-performing team

• Resilience and human performance — stress physiology, sleep, exercise and diet

• The After-Action Review — a practical discipline for consistent team improvement

• Self-care as a leadership discipline — sustaining yourself so you can sustain others

 

Why It Resonates With Resources & Industrial Leadership

Underground, remote-site and high-hazard environments share more with Special Operations than most leadership content acknowledges: distributed teams, irreversible consequences, and decisions made with incomplete information under time pressure. Matt's material speaks directly to leaders responsible for safety culture, workforce trust and performance in exactly these conditions — reinforced by his current work assessing leadership and culture within underground mining operations.

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CADET TO COMMANDER

A Life of Service — From the Northern Beaches to Special Operations Command

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The Keynote ​

This is a first-person account of a life built one rung at a time — from Cubs and Scouts to Army Cadets, from an Army Apprenticeship and a trade as a mechanic with 5/7RAR to the gruelling test of SAS Selection, and from there through 40 years of continuous service and every rank in Special Operations Command. Matt speaks candidly about Counter Terrorist duties, deployments to Bougainville and East Timor, and multiple tours of Afghanistan and Iraq, including command of a Special Operations Task Force in the Battle of Mosul. He then brings the story forward to today — the deliberate transition from operational command to corporate speaking, leadership coaching and mentoring, and what 40 years of service have taught him about building people, not just teams. Session length is tailored to the client, from a 30-minute keynote to a longer facilitated session with Q+A.

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Running alongside the operational story is a deliberate, lifelong discipline of staying grounded. For 36 years — through postings, deployments and command — Matt has played in a band, The Externals, a constant outside the military identity. He has competed in windsurfing at national level, and leaned on family, rugby league and surfing to stay level under the weight of a high-pressure career. He speaks openly about this as a deliberate practice, not a coincidence: the same discipline that builds an operator also has to be turned toward protecting the person underneath the uniform, and this part of the story offers a practical, honest account of how sustained performance and personal wellbeing are built together, not traded off against each other.

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What makes this keynote different? Most leadership stories start at the top and work backwards. Matt's runs the other way — an unbroken thread from a suburban Scout hall to command of a Special Operations Task Force in a live urban battle. Few speakers can trace that full arc: the discipline of trade training as an Army Apprentice, the making of an operator through SAS Selection, command at every tactical level on operations where the outcome mattered, and now the deliberate second career of translating that journey into language a corporate audience, a leadership team or a room of young people starting out can actually use.“I didn't start in the SAS. I started in a Cub Scout hall on the Northern Beaches — everything since has been the same lesson, learned at a bigger scale.”

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Core Themes & Takeaways

• The making of an operator — how early lessons in Cubs, Scouts and Cadets shaped a lifetime of service

• Trade before rank — what an Army Apprenticeship and years as a mechanic with 5/7RAR taught about standards and discipline

• Passing Selection — what SAS Selection really tests, and what it reveals about resilience under pressure

• Command earned, not given — leading through Counter Terrorist duties, Bougainville, East Timor, and multiple tours of Afghanistan and Iraq

• From operator to mentor — translating four decades of operational leadership into coaching the next generation

• Staying grounded under sustained pressure — 36 years playing in a band, competing in windsurfing at national level, and leaning on family, rugby league and surfing to stay level through a high-tempo career

• Service beyond the uniform — what a life built on Cubs-to-Colonel teaches about purpose, mateship and legacy

 

Why It Resonates With Corporate Audiences

Every organisation is built on people trying to grow into the next version of themselves — a graduate becoming a manager, a manager becoming a leader, a leader learning to build others. Matt's story is a lived example of that process taken to its furthest point, from a suburban youth movement to command of a Special Operations Task Force, and it resonates because the underlying lesson is universal: capability is built in stages, under people who invest in you, long before the stakes get high. It has proven equally relevant to leadership development programs, corporate off-sites, graduate and cadet audiences, and organisations — including his current work assessing leadership and culture within underground mining operations — looking for an authentic account of what sustained growth and service actually cost and deliver.

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PLANNING AND LEADING THROUGH CRISIS

A Keynote for Corporate Leadership Audiences

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The Keynote

Crisis does not wait for a plan to be finished. This keynote is a first-person account of planning under pressure, making decisions with incomplete information, and leading people through moments where the cost of hesitation — or the wrong call — is measured in real consequences. Matt draws directly on planning high-stakes operations, commanding through the Battle of Mosul, and leading through personal and organisational loss, translating military planning discipline and crisis command into a framework any organisation can apply before, during and after a crisis. Session length is tailored to the client, from a 30-minute address to a longer facilitated session with Q+A.

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What Makes This Keynote Different? Most crisis-leadership content is theoretical — built by consultants and academics who have studied crisis rather than commanded through one. Matt's material is built from the other direction: forty years of planning and leading real operations where the plan broke down, the information was incomplete, and the outcome mattered. Few speakers can draw on commanding a Special Operations Task Force in a live urban battle, running structured selection and command-succession processes at every rank, and personally leading people through operational loss — then translate that directly into language a board, an executive team or a frontline workforce can use on Monday morning.

“I don't talk about crisis leadership. I talk about the crises I planned for, the ones I didn't, and what I'd do differently.”

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Core Themes & Takeaways

• The planning paradox — why rigid plans fail and disciplined planning still matters

• Decision-making under uncertainty — acting decisively on incomplete information

• Command presence — how a leader's visible state sets the ceiling for team performance

• Communication in the information void — controlling the narrative before rumour does

• Tempo and adaptation — reading a crisis as it evolves and re-planning on the move

• The After-Action Review — converting crisis experience into lasting organisational learning

 

Why It Resonates With Corporate Leadership

Every organisation eventually faces its own version of a crisis — a market shock, a cyber incident, a restructuring, a reputational event, a leadership transition under scrutiny. The setting changes; the leadership problem does not: incomplete information, distributed teams, time pressure, and people watching their leader for cues on how to act. Matt's material is sector-agnostic by design, drawn from an environment where the stakes were absolute, and it has proven equally relevant to boards, executive teams and operational leaders across finance, professional services, technology, healthcare and industrial sectors — including his current work assessing leadership and culture within underground mining operations.

 

Representative:

Robert Joske Management Pty Ltd

Tel: + 61 2 93281444

Mob: + 61 412 211 510

Email: robert@joskemanagement.com.au