Peita Davis has advised prime ministers, shaped national policy and built a thriving eCommerce brand — all while nurturing a love for sci-fi and forest walks.

When Peita Davis left school and went backpacking, she intended to return home to Australia and become a journalist. However, her journey took an unexpected turn.

“It was before 9/11, I was a teenager, and I chose to go backpacking in the Middle East. I quickly became obsessed with the region and international affairs. It put my life on a completely different path,” said Peita.

After returning home, Peita completed her studies in Communications and International Relations, specialising in the Middle East and spent a year abroad in Lebanon. She rapidly built deep expertise about the region and joined the Office of National Intelligence (ONI), Australia’s intelligence agency.

There, she played a key role in shaping Australia’s policy and security frameworks. Her ability to navigate and solve complex challenges strengthened her expertise in strategic decision-making and long-term workforce planning.

Her work received the Australian Intelligence Community Award for outstanding reporting and analysis, and she regularly provided high-level assessments to the Prime Minister and senior ministers on political, economic and security developments in Syria, Lebanon, and the broader Middle East.

Creativity calling

A few years later, when the opportunity arose to take leave from her job and live in Kenya, she was struck by the quality of artisan-made products at the local village markets.

“When I was in Kenya, my creative side kicked back in,” she says. “And I just couldn’t shake it.”

She went on to launch Gingerfinch, an eCommerce store for ethical and sustainable goods from around the world. It garnered national acclaim, with products featured in prestigious interiors magazines such as InsideOut, Real Living, and Vogue.

Progressive skills policies

Today she is Director of Skills, Education and Research at the Business Council of Australia (BCA), the peak body representing over 130 of Australia’s largest businesses.

Peita’s role is to design and advocate for progressive skills policies on behalf of BCA members. She is committed to bridging the gap between industry needs and education policy, ensuring skills development aligns with labour market demands.

“We need a skilled and flexible workforce to meet our greatest challenges. Skills need to be refreshed over time and new skills learned as technologies and processes change,” says Peita, who recently completed a range of AI courses, including Generative AI for business leaders.

“Australians must be able to update their skills over their lifetime and they need a better set of options for acquiring new skills that match and track industry needs, through strong engagement between industry and the training sector.”

Lead the change

She believes the vocational and education sector (VET) has a critical role to play in addressing Australia’s skills shortages.

“A key challenge for the VET sector is that it has lost the trust of the business community. Getting that back is going to take time and it's going to take a fair bit of change,” she said. “I wanted to join the FSO Board to help advocate and lead the change that’s needed,” added Peita.

Driving this change will require forward-thinking solutions — and few innovations are reshaping the skills landscape as rapidly as AI.

“Generative AI is as big as when we first started adopting the Internet. It's going to change how we live in so many ways.”

However, she doesn’t see AI taking over. “AI can't ever replace relationships. The ability to communicate, collaborate, and build trust is the secret sauce that sets humans apart. That’s what’s going to differentiate us and why generalist skills are more important now than ever.”