Martin Brooker
Keynote Speaker, Educator, Advisor & Coach
Leadership is tested where complexity and ambiguity collide. Drawing on a distinguished 37 year career in the Royal Australian Navy, Commodore Martin Brooker (Retired) delivers powerful insights on leading through uncertainty, strengthening leadership capability and achieving results when the stakes are highest.
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Commodore Martin Brooker (Retired) is a highly awarded veteran of 37 years’ service as an officer in the Royal Australian Navy. A skilled navigator of complex environments and a respected team builder, Martin has an instinctive ability to identify where ambiguity, incongruence and complexity are undermining leadership capability — and to chart a clear path forward.
An experienced keynote speaker and strategic advisor, Martin draws on his lived experience leading men and women in harm’s way, openly sharing the mistakes made and the critical lessons learned. His powerful presentations explore how leaders can guide teams and operational forces through ever-changing, high-performance situations, where clarity is scarce and mission-critical outcomes must still be delivered.
Throughout his naval career, Martin’s operational service included command of an amphibious ship in the Middle East and the Pacific, leadership of the Navy’s elite clearance divers, and service as Deputy Commander of Australia’s Joint Forces in the Middle East and Afghanistan. He also led teams implementing major cultural change initiatives within Defence and was appointed Program Director for the Navy’s largest transformation program, New Generation Navy.
Since retiring from military service, Martin’s enduring fascination with the narrative of leadership — including the rise of the accidental leader and its impacts from an organisational to an individual level — has shaped his work in strengthening leadership capability. His considered insights, practical strategies and memorable leadership mantras consistently shift perspectives, leaving audiences with tools they reflect on, return to and apply long after the keynote concludes.
