Media | Donna Groves

Energetic and motivating, Donna knows how to captivate a crowd.

Donna is the author of SHINE – which details her personal transformative wellbeing journey. As well as being an author and wellness warrior, she is the founder and Managing Director of international consultancy firm Comacon and the co-founder and chairperson of the National Community Engagement for Infrastructure Forum.

Over her 30 year career, Donna has given countless talks and positioned herself as an expert on community engagement and wellbeing.

Donna grew up in Western Sydney and now resides in the Mornington Peninsula with her husband, youngest daughter and her puppy. She is also a committed philanthropist and advocate for the environment, social justice and women’s rights.

Donna Groves

Managing Director, Comacon
Co-founder and chairperson, NCEIF
Author, SHINE

During her 30 year career, Donna has had experiences that she only dreamed of.

She loves working with people, hearing their stories and understanding their perspectives. Donna is inspired by ensuring all voices are heard (not just the loudest) and loves that infrastructure leaves a legacy and serves communities. Donna has been grateful to spend her career working with communities, especially lower socio-economic and Indigenous communities. With a deep respect for both communities and the technical specialists she works with, Donna seeks to build rapport, gain trust and work towards viable solutions for all. The more challenging the task, the more Donna enjoys the project.

During the day Donna can be found on infrastructure construction sites around Australia, in high-vis outfits advocating for superior community, sustainability and environmental outcomes on behalf of her consultancy business clients (and ultimately the communities they serve).

Donna loves infrastructure because it supports economic development, in particular for marginalised communities.

Donna has lost count of the number of infrastructure projects she has worked on. At last count it was over 200. She has worked on roads, water projects, rail projects (both freight and passenger), ports, gas, groundwater, housing estates, parkland development, Indigenous programs and many more. Yet every project gives her a new opportunity for learning and developing. What she loves most about this industry is that there is never a blanket solution. She is always given the opportunity to try new approaches and seek new solutions.

Donna is the Managing Director and Founder of Comacon.

Comacon has grown to include a team of over 140 (many of which are located overseas). Comacon is currently undergoing a structure change and will soon be an employee-owned organisation and Donna sees that as the embodiment of her work in community engagement.

Donna is an advocate for holistic wellbeing and personal growth.

She is available to speak on the following topics:

• Wellbeing in the workplace
• Mental health and the construction industry
• Health
• Nutrition
• Cooking
• Exercise
• Perimenopause/Menopause
• Wellbeing tools

Q&A

Prepared Questions and Answers

What inspired you to write ‘SHINE’?

Unlike a lot of people in Melbourne our work continued during the lockdown, but it was a lonely sort of work. Working in community engagement and physiology on infrastructure you’re normally dealing with a lot of people, and talking with everyone from decision makers, politicians to project managers. While the government took the opportunity to continue infrastructure work in Melbourne, a lot of our work was done from home, which we found quite unusual. While I was working long days there wasn’t much of a social scene happening and there were things changing within me, I gave up drinking during Covid. When I stopped drinking, I found I had more time, and we were doing a lot of exercise. I started to implement changes within myself which are detailed within the book – nutrition changes, lifestyle changes, reading and journalling more. Then the journalling led to a book.

SHINE is very personal, was opening up difficult?

It's such a personal journey and there are nerves about putting it out there. There are certain things I acknowledge in the book that are hard to acknowledge, it’s hard to acknowledge your faults or challenges that you’ve faced or how you’ve dealt with them. I also learnt to embrace my feminine side and that compassion and kindness are not weaknesses, they are strengths. At the same time, opening up felt comfortable. I have a lot to say, and it honestly just flowed from me. If anything, I had to hold back a little. I’ve certainly grown into myself, and I now look in the mirror and I’m happy with who I am. When I say look in the mirror, I’m talking about shining from the inside not the outside.

What can readers hope to learn from this book?

I hope readers walk away feeling empowered to embrace their authentic selves and focus on what truly matters in life. I hope they know they’re not alone in navigating life and find some of the tips and advice contained in these pages valuable. I want readers to lean into the discomfort and tackle life’s challenges as that’s where true growth happens.

What is the most meaningful part of the book and why?

The most important thing was learning self-love. People get the impression that very confident people and I’m naturally a confident person, but they assume everything is fine on the inside as well. Turning 50, my girlfriends are all turning similar ages, there is a lot happening. A woman’s journey is quite interesting and when we’re younger we are often judged by what we look like and then we start to get a bit older and some of us embrace perimenopause, menopause and the changes that are happening. Some of us don’t and do everything to stop the ageing process. SHINE is about what’s important, it’s about living a more meaningful life and focusing on what’s inside as that’s what really matters. I have daughters and I don’t want them to grow up to think that their value is what they look like. Let’s face it growing up in the 70s and 80s, even though we started to talk about the Women’s Liberation Movement, women’s rights and career opportunities, it was still what we looked like that was dominant. We need to focus on women as being empowered beings, as being important not for what we look like but instead the value and wisdom we hold.

What was the most challenging part of writing this book?

Procrastination, everyone suffers from it. Also, imposter syndrome particularly because SHINE is non fiction and I’m talking about my journey. I’ve worried about perceptions, and I’ve learnt a lot through my adoption of stoic philosophy. I’ve learnt to care less about what other people think but still care about them. Other people’s opinions are not what drives me any longer and that’s been a very valuable lesson. It’s about living up to my values and my purpose.