A career grounded in the real world
I’m Lewis Gray, founder and principal consultant at Gray Risk Advisory. My career has taken me through military operations, healthcare, universities, local government, independent schools, sport and consulting. Each environment has taught me something different about how organisations make decisions and how good intentions become useful practice.
The thread through that work is straightforward: understand the operation, listen to the people who know it, identify what matters and help make the next decision clearer.
Foundations in the Royal Air Force
My professional foundations were built in the Royal Air Force as an Environmental Health Technician. Work around military bases and deployed operations brought environmental health, occupational exposures, food safety and operational preparedness into the same picture. Technical advice had to be sound, but it also had to work in demanding conditions.
Alongside that role, I founded and coached the RAF Marham Rowing Club and coached women’s rowing at West Norfolk. In 2018 I received an Air Officer Commanding No 1 Group commendation for combined contributions to operational environmental health, rowing and community relationships. That experience reinforced the value of preparation, leadership and relationships.
From operational risk to organisational decisions
After moving into Australian professional life, I worked at Macquarie University on health, safety and risk. Travel safety and emergency management were central parts of that experience, connecting policies and assurance with the practical needs of staff and students working beyond campus.
At Bupa Health Services, my role as Senior Risk Specialist expanded that perspective. I helped develop an enterprise risk framework across a national healthcare network of approximately 200 sites, supported risk workshops and connected operational controls with governance and management reporting. The scale mattered, but the real challenge was helping different parts of the organisation use the framework in decisions.
Leadership carries its own responsibilities
My association with Pymble Ladies’ College began in coaching in 2018 and progressed into rowing coordination from 2021. Managing programs meant working with coaches, students, families and school leaders while balancing performance, wellbeing, staffing, budgets, equipment, travel and events. I also took on responsibilities across other sports at different points.
As Director of Sport at St Catherine’s School in 2025, I led a broad sporting portfolio and developed sport governance and risk arrangements. Recruiting key rowing staff and clarifying responsibilities were practical foundations for program delivery. Those roles taught me to see safety and governance through the eyes of the people accountable for making an operation work.
Bringing assurance and delivery together
A risk assurance assignment with Manningham Council focused on fraud and corruption controls, policies, risk registers and internal controls. The work involved gathering evidence, testing findings through consultation and preparing recommendations management could use.
At Marsh in 2026, I delivered OHS consulting, audits, management-system reviews, psychosocial risk work and emergency management support. My career record also includes safety leadership training for Scania Australia and a crisis exercise with the Western Bulldogs. These examples reflect experience across professional roles, rather than being presented as GRA client engagements.
In September 2026 I commenced a Senior Safety Advisor contract with South East Water, supporting safety management-system uplift. It is current work, with change planning, consultation and training support being developed. I do not present the wider program’s intended benefits as completed results.
Why Gray Risk Advisory exists
I founded Gray Risk Advisory in November 2025 to bring that breadth into a focused, independent practice. Clients work directly with me, from understanding the problem through to practical delivery. Where a challenge calls for complementary expertise, the Delivery Partners model offers a way to agree the right people, scope and responsibilities.
My aim is to leave an organisation with clearer decisions, stronger systems and work it can carry forward. A useful report is part of the job. Helping people understand what to do with it is just as important.