Say yes, and figure everything else out along the way.
Pascale Helyar OAM is a changemaker, futurist and seasoned financial storyteller whose career spans three decades in financial services, including 15 years as an entrepreneur.
Motivated by a conviction that complex financial systems should serve everyone, she has turned innovation into action by founding, advising and scaling startups that tackle entrenched gender inequities in wealth. Her most notable venture, Grow My Money, was a world‑first platform that let users convert everyday shopping into mortgage or superannuation savings and was acquired by Finder, demonstrating Pascale’s rare ability to build practical, scalable solutions that attract market leaders.
Pascale’s career blends senior institutional experience with entrepreneurial grit. She held senior marketing roles at JPMorgan Asset Management, BT Financial Group and BNP Paribas before moving full time into the startup ecosystem. Her leadership has repeatedly beaten the odds: she is a twice‑exited founder who has secured VC funding and taken multiple businesses through successful liquidity events. For services to business and women’s affairs she was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM), reflecting both impact and recognition at the national level.
An accomplished communicator, Pascale distils complex superannuation and wealth concepts into clear, actionable guidance - a superpower that underpins her work as an author, media commentator and speaker. Her debut book, ‘Rich Woman, Poor Woman’, explores the systemic challenges women face with superannuation and offers pragmatic pathways to change. She is the creator of the Dare To Be Rich platform and regularly contributes op‑eds to national outlets including the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Morningstar.
Pascale also brings policy perspective and advocacy experience, having served as Director of Communications for the Australian Gender Equality Council. Sought after by corporate and conference clients alike, she delivers evidence‑led, story‑driven keynotes that educate, mobilise and inspire behavioural change - equipping organisations and women with the knowledge and tools to close the gender wealth gap.
Talking Points
The Financial Action Gap
Australians are more financially literate than ever. They are also less financially secure. Pascale Helyar OAM draws on three decades in financial services, fintech and public policy to explain why the gap between financial awareness and financial action is the real wealth problem, and what closes it. This Keynote moves beyond budgeting basics to address the psychological, structural and systemic forces that keep people stuck. Audiences leave with a clear picture of where their money behaviour breaks down and a practical framework for changing it.The Financial Action Gap
Key Takeaways
• A diagnostic tool to identify where the action gap shows up in your own financial life, whether in super, savings, debt or investment decisions.
• A 7-day action plan: the minimum viable steps that create momentum and compound over time.
• Decision rules that remove friction and make wealth-building behaviour more automatic than effortful.
The $525,000 Decision Most People Don’t Make
The difference between financial security and financial stress often comes down to a handful of decisions made, or deferred, at the wrong moment. Pascale unpacks the specific choices, primarily around superannuation, property and long-term asset building, that have the greatest impact on lifetime wealth outcomes. She brings the research, the real numbers and the lived experience of a twice-exited founder to make abstract concepts concrete and avoidable mistakes visible. This is the Keynote that makes audiences feel the cost of inaction and, more importantly, the accessibility of action.The $525,000 Decision Most People Don’t Make
Key Takeaways
• The three to four high-leverage financial decisions most Australians either delay or make by default, and how to approach each with clarity.
• A reframe of superannuation from abstract retirement savings to an active, manageable wealth asset.
• Practical steps to shift from passive financial participation to intentional ownership, regardless of income or life stage.
Why Women Don’t Act on Money, and What It’s Costing Them
Women consistently out-earn men on financial literacy scores. They also retire with significantly less superannuation, carry more financial anxiety, and face structural disadvantages that no amount of individual willpower fully offsets. Pascale Helyar OAM, founder of the world-first Grow My Money platform and author of Rich Woman, Poor Woman, brings both the systemic analysis and the practical playbook. This Keynote is evidence-led and solution-focused. It is relevant for mixed audiences and essential for organisations that take gender equity seriously.Why Women Don’t Act on Money, and What It’s Costing Them
Key Takeaways
• A clear-eyed account of the structural, behavioural and cultural forces behind the gender wealth gap, beyond pay equity alone.
• Gender-informed wealth strategies that account for career breaks, part-time work, longer life expectancy and compounding disadvantage in superannuation.
• A Financial Action Blueprint: the specific steps women can take now, and that organisations can support, to shift the outcome.
Your Money Is Making Decisions Without You
Most people aren’t bad with money. They’re busy. And in the gap between intention and action, default settings quietly determine outcomes. The wrong super fund. The wrong mortgage rate. Insurance that hasn’t been reviewed in four years. A savings account earning next to nothing. None of these feel urgent until the numbers are added up. Pascale Helyar OAM brings three decades of financial services experience to the question most Australians avoid: what is standing still actually costing you? This Keynote is practical, direct and immediately applicable. It works for any audience, any income level, any life stage.Your Money Is Making Decisions Without You
Key Takeaways
• A clear accounting of the five most common financial default settings and the cumulative cost of leaving them unchanged, across super, banking, insurance, debt and everyday spending.
• A simple audit framework audiences can apply within a week, identifying where inertia is doing the most damage in their own financial life.
• Behavioural strategies that make financial action easier than avoidance, building habits that work with how people actually think and behave, not against it.
MC, Host & Facilitator
Pascale Helyar OAM brings thirty years of financial services, fintech and public policy experience to the MC role, which means she can brief, question and connect speakers with genuine domain fluency. She holds the thread across a full program, contextualises complex content for mixed audiences, and keeps proceedings moving without flattening the substance. For finance and fintech conferences, investor forums, super fund events, industry summits and executive briefings, her presence on the lectern signals credibility before she says a word.MC, Host & Facilitator
Pascale’s MC engagements are tailored to the event. She works closely with organising teams on program flow, speaker preparation and audience framing, bringing the same rigour to the host role that she brings to her own Keynotes.
Best suited to:
• Financial services and fintech conferences
• Superannuation and investment forums
• Women in finance and gender equity summits
• Corporate innovation and startup ecosystem events
• Executive briefings and leadership panels
Video
Pascale Helyar OAM | Wealth Futurist & Changemaker; Odds‑Defying Business Leader | Saxton Speakers
Pascale Helyar OAM simplifies superannuation and financial decision‑making, helping audiences build confidence, clarity and long‑term wealth. With practical advice and real‑world insight, she empowers people to take ownership of their financial future.Pascale Helyar-Moray talking about her book Rich Woman Poor Woman
Pascale Helyar-Moray interviewed on Channel 9 News for Grow My Money
Audio
Pascale is an excellent public speaker, as well as a first-rate guest for media/podcast interviews; she is always very well informed on her areas of expertise, very polished in her delivery ... keep reading FinTech Australia
Pascale is an engaging and inspiration speaker - providing informative and actionable takeaways in a compelling, thoughtful and often entertaining manner. Her experience across a range of financial services niches gives her a strong knowledge base to pull from and enables her to speak both passionately and empathetically about the opportunities and challenges in the Australian finance space. I would recommend Pascale as a speaker for those in the finance space.
Pascale is a compelling and passionate speaker with the ability to command the stage whilst at the same time remaining eminently relatable. This rare combination makes her a compelling and captivating speaker who resonates with any audience. Pascale's experience as a businesswoman, leader, entrepreneur and advocate, together with her warm and dynamic personality shine through, regardless of the medium.
Pascale has immediate impact when she enters a room, she communicates with gravitas and those in attendance will most certainly be engaged by her delivery. I recommend her as a very high value presenter for any occasion.
Pascale hit home with our audience of over 150 women on getting theirfi nances/superannuation working for them. You could see that the women were taking everything in. Later in the day they were still talkingabout what they needed to do and how thought provoking the content was.
