Corey Payne, MCom (Sydney), MBA Cf, GAICD
Executive Director
Corey is the Founder of the Future Direction Network.
He is a passionate advocate of further education and has been recognised for his work in this field on multiple occasions. Currently, Corey works in retail operations where he is responsible for teams of people across multiple geographies.
In 2013, Corey was awarded the NSW Young Australian of the Year for his work in helping young people from disadvantaged backgrounds continue their education at university.
In 2012, Corey was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship to conduct global research into how sport is used as a platform to engage disadvantaged youth into further education.
Prior to this Corey spent over a decade as a professional sportsman in the National Rugby League (NRL) representing the Canterbury Bulldogs, Wests Tigers and the St George Illawarra Dragons in over 130 matches.
Corey holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Master of Commerce with Merit from the University of Sydney, an MBA from the Macquarie Graduate School of Management and is a graduate of the HPI School of Design Thinking (dSchool) and the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Corey has also studied abroad in China at Tsinghua University where he completed a summer exchange.