Our leadership
We're led by experience with a focus on people, performance, and lasting outcomes.
Small and Mighty Group is led by experienced C-level executives who bring strategic depth and real-world leadership experience, informed by formal education and decades of professional practice. Founder and CEO Tara James and Executive Director Torben Soelvsteen have founded, led and advised organisations across a wide span of industries, geographies and stages of growth.
They understand the realities of executive accountability — balancing strategy, people, performance and delivery — because they have lived those roles themselves. Their advice is informed not only by theory or frameworks, but by experience gained through making decisions, leading teams and delivering outcomes under pressure. This depth allows them to speak the language of leaders and boards, providing guidance that is credible, grounded and directly applicable.
Unlike traditional consultancies, Tara and Torben work directly with clients and remain close at hand throughout each engagement. Because of this, Small and Mighty Group only work with a select number of engagements at a time, ensuring Tara and Torben remain closely involved to deliver meaningful impact for organisations of every scale.
Experience you can count on
Meet our leaders
Tara James, CEO & Founder
Tara James is an award-winning CEO, strategist and founder with more than two decades of experience supporting organisations through growth, transformation and commercial change. As Founder and CEO of Small and Mighty Group, she works with boards, CEOs and executives and global teams to turn complex challenges into clear, actionable strategies that deliver long-term impact.
Tara brings broad commercial and strategic experience, including deep expertise in marketing and communications, investment and customer attraction, new market entry, and the development and launch of products and services in Australian and international markets.
Since establishing Small and Mighty Group in 2016, Tara has built a trusted enterprise advisory firm with an international client base spanning commercial, government and not-for-profit organisations. She has worked in highly regulated and innovation-driven sectors, including MedTech, biotechnology, clean technology, manufacturing, law, retail, and financial services. Her work sits at the intersection of strategy, leadership and execution, supporting organisations to align capability, culture and systems with their growth ambitions.
A commercially astute and hands-on leader, Tara is known for her ability to balance ambition with clarity, helping organisations scale without losing focus, purpose or people. She is a strong advocate for sustainable, purpose-led business and supports leaders to deliver commercial performance alongside long-term social and environmental responsibility.
Education & Affiliations:
– Bachelor of Business (Marketing), Charles Sturt University
– Graduate Diploma in Law, Southern Cross University
– Graduate, Company Directors Course, AICD
– Business Models for Sustainability, Copenhagen Business School
– Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality Strategy, RMIT
– Member, Australian Institute of Company Directors
– Member, UN Global Compact Network Australia
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Torben Soelvsteen, Executive Director
Torben is a highly experienced executive leader and organisational psychologist with more than 30 years of global experience. He has worked with organisations across Europe, Asia, Australia and the United States, supporting leadership development, organisational change and people and culture initiatives in complex, highly regulated environments.
He brings broad experience across organisational development, leadership, coaching and change management, with particular depth in designing and leading enterprise-scale people and culture programs. Torben has developed and delivered leadership and capability initiatives for multinational organisations with up to 470 stores and locations, supporting sales performance, customer experience and frontline capability. This work has been delivered simultaneously across multiple countries, in close partnership with local leaders to adapt approaches to different cultural and operational contexts.
Alongside this work, Torben has deep insight into mental health in the workplace and the practical conditions required to support sustainable performance, wellbeing and engagement. He is also an experienced CEO, having established and led a Danish subsidiary in Australia, giving him a strong commercial understanding of leadership accountability, growth and execution.
Torben’s calm, considered approach and depth of experience enable him to work effectively with senior leaders, boards and teams, particularly where trust, alignment and long-term capability building are critical.
Education & Accreditation:
– Master of Organisational Psychology
– Bachelor of Education
– Diploma in Leadership and Management
– Company Directors Course, Copenhagen Business School
– Registered Change Management Practitioner (APMG International)
– Certified in personality and team assessment frameworks, including Extended DISC and Master Competence Analysis
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Our experience spans a wide range of industries
What sets Small and Mighty Group apart is the breadth of experience gained from working with widely recognised brands and global organisations across a broad range of industries. This depth of exposure spans different markets, business models and stages of growth and provides a level of perspective far greater than that of traditional consultancies.
Sometimes there are situations when organisations don't just need advice — they need leadership.
Our leaders can step into your organisation in an interim executive or fractional leadership role to provide stability, direction and momentum during periods of transition, growth or change. This may include assuming CEO, executive or senior leadership responsibilities for a defined period or scope, ensuring priorities are progressed while permanent leadership or internal capability is established.
We provide organisations with experienced executive leadership when it is most needed, without the risk or commitment of a permanent hire, and allows leadership support to scale up or down as circumstances evolve.
Our impact
Enhanced strategies for long-term profitability
Our work focuses on strengthening organisations for sustained performance. Through real-world outcomes and measurable impact, we demonstrate how clear strategy, aligned leadership and execution supports long-term growth.
Why we’re different
Human-centred and outcome driven
Unlike traditional consultancies that stop at strategy, Small and Mighty Group brings a unique and flexible hands-on approach. Our global experience allows us to provide advice that is credible, relevant and impactful while working from within your organisation.
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