A Farewell to our CEO, Steph Cousins

This week we are saying goodbye to Steph Cousins—with great appreciation and more than a tinge of sadness.

It’s rare to find someone who combines a great heart, a keen intellect, unflinching moral integrity, humility, humor, passion, and a crazy degree of optimism—but that is Steph, and that’s why we will miss her so much.

Steph joined this mission as a volunteer working with John Cameron in Australia in 2016 while she already had a full-time job at Amnesty International. Once we all decided to merge the work in Australia with the initial work in Canada and the Middle East, Steph became the first TBB employee in Australia. Together with John, she persuaded the Australian government to formally support the world’s first refugee labor mobility pilot.

In 2020, Steph became our Global Co-CEO and then in 2021, our CEO. Steph successfully navigated a global pandemic and a funding crisis. She took a big leap and entered TBB into a highly competitive global philanthropic competition for bold new solutions for refugees. This brought us new funding, new champions, and increased global attention. Since then, under her leadership, Talent Beyond Boundaries has expanded our impact through partnerships with the UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration, and collaboration with the private sector.

The governments of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States have either expanded, opened, or pledged to create economic migration pathways for refugees. More than 2,500 refugees from 24 countries have secured new careers and stable futures through labor mobility. TBB now has nearly 70 paid staff operating in 15 countries, along with a host of partner organizations working with us.

And while Steph is leaving her full-time role at Talent Beyond Boundaries, she is not leaving the cause—or even going far. She has been awarded a fellowship from The Myer Foundation to develop a program supporting young refugees to migrate to Australia for university and vocational training programs.

Steph, it’s been an absolute pleasure and privilege to be your partner in this ambitious quest. We’ll miss the constant contact, but we’re confident that our friendship and collaboration will continue.

Sending you off with lots of thanks and love,

Mary Louise, Bruce and John

TBB Co-Founders