About DSX
Learn about our purpose, meet our leadership team, and discover how we're transforming disability services through collaboration and transparency.
Board of Directors
Nathan Smith
CEO of Utopia Care, SA
Nathan is an architect of integrated, wrap-around service models that prioritise collaboration, consistency, and individual outcomes in complex disability support. He has worked closely with Allied Health professionals, the Exceptional Needs Unit, and the Department of Child Protection to deliver intensive supports tailored to people with significant and evolving needs. With a strong focus on ethical practice and collaboration across services and systems, Nathan has led Utopia Care to national recognition, receiving the Enablement Award for Most Outstanding Provider of Personalised Support in the NDIS Sector for two consecutive years.
Rachael Henderson
Founder and Director of Approved by Frankie, NSW
Approved by Frankie is an independent registered Support Coordination organisation working alongside more than 1,400 NDIS participants across New South Wales. A Social Worker with experience at NSW Health and in the community sector, Rachael has a deep belief in ethical, person-centred practice. Rachael has built a team culture grounded in integrity, collaboration, and independence from direct service delivery. Her leadership blends frontline understanding with experience in business and market systems, bringing insight into how ethical governance and sustainable models can coexist in a complex social sector. Rachael values humility in leadership, recognising that lasting change comes through listening, partnership, and accountability.
Emma Lloyd
Founder and CEO of OneTribe Australia, SA
Emma is a Social Worker and Rehabilitation Counsellor with over 20 years' experience across disability, veterans' affairs, and injury insurance. A neurodivergent leader with lived experience of disability, she brings a fresh, human-led lens to the sector, blending evidence-based frameworks with trauma-informed, strengths-based practice. Emma and her team have developed an innovative service model that recently achieved Best Practice recognition across 21 audit indicators, setting a new benchmark for ethical and empowering support.
Andrew Wallace
Founder and MD of In Choice Plan Management, Qld
Andrew is a compassionate leader and advocate dedicated to improving the lives of people with disability. Since entering the sector in 2014, he has supported NDIS participants through self-management and plan management, always guided by a belief in choice, control, and meaningful inclusion. As the Founder and Managing Director of In Choice Plan Management, and other successful NDIS businesses, Andrew has used his extensive experience in leadership, advocacy, and education to focus on improving outcomes for people with disability. He also helped establish the Trilogy Care Audit and Compliance Program, setting new standards for quality, governance, and transparency within the Aged Care sector.
Kurt Walker
Founder and CEO of Newcastle Social Workers, NSW
Newcastle Social Workers was founded by Kurt Walker, an Accredited Social Worker (Australian Association of Social Workers) with a Bachelor of Social Work (Hons). Drawing from over a decade of experience in the disability sector and the personal insight gained from supporting a brother with a lifelong disability, Kurt is deeply committed to providing respectful, person-centred support. His lived experience drives the organisation's mission to empower individuals and families navigating the complexities of the NDIS.
Jade Burgmann
Founder and CEO of Wheelnutz Garage, Qld
Jade is a passionate and skilled disability leader driving innovation in mental health support, suicide prevention, and youth justice across Southeast Qld. As the founder of Wheelnutz Garage, she has pioneered an award-winning program that supports individuals with autism, intellectual disabilities, and acquired brain injuries, empowering them to develop vital employment skills and pathways to meaningful work. Operating across six locations, Wheelnutz Garage blends hands-on automotive training with mental health and social inclusion initiatives, creating a unique environment where people can learn, connect, and thrive.
Vivek Mahajan
Founder & CEO of Careable, Vic
Vivek is a compassionate leader and social entrepreneur dedicated to improving the lives of people with disabilities across Australia. As the Founder and CEO of Careable, a NDIS-registered provider specialising in psychosocial support, Vivek has built an organisation grounded in empathy, accountability, and empowerment — where compassion is at the heart of care. Beyond business, Vivek's commitment to community runs deep. Through the Careable Foundation, he leads initiatives that support individuals facing mental health challenges and social isolation, ensuring that no one is left behind.
Member Voices
Meet Axel. For a decade, people like him have been promised "choice and control." But that mostly meant choosing between bad and worse. Now he's speaking up about what real change looks like - and it starts with every participant getting a seat at the table.
"We're done asking politely for crumbs. Together, we'll build something bigger and better."
Click to watch Axel's story
Video Transcript: Axel's Message
Speaker: Axel
Hello.
I'm Axel.
You might not hear my voice much in meetings.
Or at all, come to think of it.
But I've got a few things to say now.
See… for a decade, people like me have been told we have choice and control.
Turns out, that mostly means choosing between bad and worse.
So we're doing something different.
Disability Services Exchange – or DSX – is flipping the model.
We're building a movement where every participant—yes, even the ones with zero words and a doll named Kevin—gets a seat at the table.
Not the fake table with three pre-approved options.
The real one—where we set the agenda, the prices, and the standards that reflect our reality.
Through tech, we'll make it possible for every participant to contribute, not just the ones with strong WiFi and a law degree.
You'll tell us what works, what doesn't, and who deserves your trust.
And your voice will be part of the data that guides providers—not in five years. In real time.
Because the truth is?
Most of us have never had a voice.
Not in planning meetings. Not in pricing reviews. Not in any "co-design" that wasn't already fully designed by someone else.
But that ends now.
We're done asking politely for crumbs.
Together, we'll build something bigger and better: fair healthcare, inclusive housing, actual policy change.
Because when we rise up—quiet or loud, verbal or not—we don't just fix the NDIS.
We rewire the whole system.
This is nothing about us…
without ALL of us.
Even Kevin.
End of transcript
Guy Turnbull
Meet Guy Turnbull, founder of Viva Mutual, a mutually-based NDIS provider in Adelaide. With a lifetime of experience in cooperative enterprises, Guy believes the NDIS can return to its original vision - where providers, participants, and workers all thrive together. Through collaboration, not competition.
"For me to win, you don't have to lose. It's about Us and Us, not Us and Them."
Click to watch Guy's story
Video Transcript: Guy's Message
Speaker: Guy Turnbull
Hi my name is Guy Turnbull. I'm the founder and managing director of a mutually-based not for profit called Viva Mutual. We are a registered NDIS provider in Adelaide delivering support to people with complex needs and disabilities.
I've spent my whole career developing and operating mutually-based organisations - social enterprises, businesses – and they're all based on this idea that for me to win, you don't have to lose. It's about Us and Us, not Us and Them.
I believe we can develop businesses and markets where the business, the consumer and the workforce all benefit mutually from that kind of organisation.
Markets and businesses based on fairness not greed, openness not secrecy and collaboration not dog-eat-dog. And that I think was the original intent of NDIS, where we could all thrive in a mutually-based ecosystem. Where we could all achieve our goals and objectives in a fair and transparent manner.
Fast forward to now and we seem so far away from that original intent. And part of that is the headwinds facing small registered providers. Consolidation is certainly going to take place in the market. The big providers, the multinationals, the multi-hundred million dollar organisations are already acquiring and eating up the smaller providers.
At the other end of the market we've had a boom from 50,000 unregulated workers to 300,000 sole traders and I've seen first hand some of the issues that that can cause in terms of quality and support for vulnerable individuals.
But there is a third way. We can collaborate. We can work together to try and get back to more of the Us and Us environment. So I'm therefore delighted to be a founding member of Disability Services Exchange. Here we can work together as small registered providers, and consumers, to create a better NDIS.
So please join me and become a fellow traveller.
End of transcript