Board of Directors

Our board of 5 comprises the following people:

Shakti Durga is chairman, founder and currently CEO of SMHC. She is the spiritual leader (guru) within the organization and has provided the intellectual property upon which the teachings of the school are based. She has a rapidly growing following with devotees from diverse backgrounds, including many professional and highly educated people. She was a practicing barrister for 16 years. Since retiring from law in 2001 she has written 5 books on wellbeing, created 10 meditation or chant music CD’s and constructed 4 x six month professional/vocational training programs which are run through the centres. She has trained hundreds of therapists and scores of teachers who are now able to spread the work for and on behalf of SMHC. 

Shiva Kata Tjuta (Hugh Keller), senior partner and head of large commercial litigation with international law firm Blake Dawson for over 30 years, recently retired and now on the board of the real estate company L. J. Hooker, also property and hotel group Thackral Ltd. He is managing director of a group of private companies with a multi-million dollar property and cash management portfolio on behalf of an Australian family. He is Shakti Durga’s life partner and co-founder of SMHC. He is a strategic thinker who has responsibility for compliance issues within SMHC.

Ananda Netti (Antoinette Sampson) is the artistic director of SMHC. She is former senior creative director and head of acting at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA), which is an affiliate of NSW University. She was an academic there for over 10 years and managed the successful Australian Theatre for Young People, the patron of which was Nicole Kidman. She consults with company heads and prominent people to promote clear and effective communication and public speaking skills and has been instrumental in the development of that side of our training programs. She is responsible for our very popular Shanti Music and Shanti Arts programs and founder of Peace Angels.

Sandalphon (David Cole) is a chartered accountant and has over 11 years experience as a management consultant. He is a facilitator for the successful Free To Be Me seminar series. His business and leadership counselling and mentor programs are highly effective bringing desired changes in individual and organisational performance.

Bhadra Shakti (Tanya Diesel) was with Deloitte Consulting in the USA, South Africa and Australia for over 10 years; worked with large Australian Corporates: AMP, Baulderstone Hornibrook and Lendlease before joining Zaffyre International, a boutique management consultancy consulting to various Fortune 500 companies. As Managing Director and CEO she led revenue growth of 900% over 3 years. She has now founded her own strategy consultancy called Aspirall. Tanya consults with some of the leaders of Australian industry and government at high levels. Tanya joined us in December 2010 and shares her considerable skill with us to provide ‘lift’ in all areas of the organization.

The caliber of our board is strong, intelligent, potent, committed and capable. All of the board members serve because they so appreciate the value of the unique work that we do and have experienced our health related and personal development training programs first hand.