Graeme Simpfendorfer is a former Detective Sergeant, investigator, senior community leader, and now a highly regarded corporate keynote speaker whose work focuses on leadership under pressure, ethical decision-making, resilience, and the human cost of responsibility.

​

Graeme’s career in policing began after witnessing an armed robbery while working at a rural bank in New South Wales, a defining moment that led him to join Victoria Police in 1994.

​

Over nearly three decades, he served across metropolitan Melbourne before being promoted to Detective and later transferring to the Victoria Police Homicide Squad, where he refined his investigative craft under some of the most respected figures in Australian policing.

​

He went on to lead specialist teams in high-risk, fast-moving armed robbery and serious crime investigations, earning departmental commendations for his leadership in complex and high-profile cases. His career culminated as Officer in Charge of Wodonga Detectives, where he was responsible not only for operational outcomes, but for the wellbeing, ethics, and performance of his people in some of the most challenging circumstances imaginable. He resigned from Victoria Police in 2021.

​

Graeme is a recipient of the National Emergency Medal (Black Saturday Bushfires), National Police Service Medal, Victoria Police Ethical Service Medal, and National Medal for 25 years of service. He holds a Bachelor of Policing (Investigations), a Postgraduate Certificate in Fire Investigations from Charles Sturt University and recently attended the Australian Institute of Company Directors course.

​

Following his policing career, Graeme founded Peregrine Consultancy, working across investigations, governance, security and risk. He is also widely recognised as the Lead Investigator on Channel 10’s Logie nominated hit television series Hunted Australia. In 2022 it debuted as the #1 new TV show nationally and provided audiences with a rare, real-world insight into surveillance, behavioural analysis, leadership, and decision-making under pressure.
 

A defining chapter of Graeme’s public leadership journey came with his recent TEDx talk, which explored vulnerability in leadership, male role modelling, and the often-unspoken cost of carrying responsibility. Built around the central question, “Would the boy I once was, look up to the man I am today?” the talk challenged conventional ideas of strength, particularly for men in leadership roles.

​

In this address, Graeme spoke publicly for the first time about being a victim-survivor of child sexual abuse, reframing vulnerability not as weakness, but as a foundation for integrity, accountability, and authentic leadership. His message resonated deeply with audiences by confronting silence, stigma, and the pressure many leaders feel to appear invulnerable, often at great personal and organisational cost.

​

Today, Graeme’s keynote presentations draw powerfully on this lived experience, alongside decades of frontline leadership, to help organisations rethink what strong leadership actually looks like. He speaks candidly about moral courage, trust, mental health, and the responsibility leaders carry, not just for outcomes, but for culture, people, and the example they set.

​

Graeme is regularly engaged by corporate, government, board and community audiences seeking a speaker who combines credibility, compassion, and clarity and who is unafraid to address the hard conversations that shape truly resilient leaders and organisations.