Dr Matthew Henricks
Psychology Entrepreneur of the Year Award
Award type: Showcase
Matt is a proud Organisational Psychologist who has been applying his expertise within a corporate training environment for about 14 years.
In 2011 he challenged the status quo within this industry by founding the Helping Hands Program Pty Ltd. This business has since gone onto build and donate 27,752 life-changing prosthetic hands to amputees throughout the developing world.
In 2015 he founded the Water Works Program Pty Ltd which has now donated life-saving water filtration systems to over 140,000 people living in refugee camps in Uganda.
Both Helping Hands and Water Works are training interventions that operate as business simulations. They bring to life a wide range of applied psychology principles including prosocial behaviour, the power of meaning and purpose, emotional engagement, and applied experiential learning. Both experiences are accessible, memorable, and profoundly human. Every hand built, every water filter assembled, becomes a symbol of connection between people who will likely never meet, but whose lives are now permanently intertwined. The difference made via both projects is tangible and transparent. However, both social enterprises are also profitable businesses in their own right, ensuring their long-term viability.
Though Matt recently sold both Helping Hands and Water Works to a large, registered training organisation, he continues to serve on the advisory board for both projects.
At present Matt services on the National Committee for the College of Organisational Psychologists as the advocacy and consultation lead.
He is also a member of the APS Professional Practice Working Group which is tasked with updating the APS Ethical Guidelines in line with the new Ahpra code of conduct. He was awarded his B.Sc. (Hons) at Macquarie University in 2000, his M. Psych. (Org) in 2007 at the University of NSW, and his PhD at the University of NSW in 2020. His PhD explored the malleability of employee attitudes toward change and their relationship with leadership.