About Monique Chelin
Monique Chelin is an author, sustainability leader and company director whose writing is shaped by a career spent navigating complexity, change and human potential. Across business, leadership and storytelling, her work reflects a deep belief that meaningful progress – whether personal, organisational or societal – begins with awareness, responsibility and courage.
Best known as the author of Switch It On! Activate Your Personal Potential and the children’s book Enzo Finds His Friends, Monique writes with clarity, warmth and purpose, drawing on real-world experience rather than theory alone. Her books explore growth from the inside out – how individuals find confidence and direction, how values shape behaviour, and how small, conscious choices can create lasting impact.
Alongside her work as an author, Monique has built a distinguished professional career spanning more than two decades. She is the founder of MJC Sustainability, an international advisory practice supporting major capital projects and organisations across resources, infrastructure, energy, aviation, property and social enterprise. Her work has taken her across Australia, Africa, Asia and the Middle East, advising boards and executives on strategy, risk and long-term value creation. This global perspective – and her exposure to vastly different cultures, systems and communities – has profoundly influenced her worldview and her writing.
Monique’s path to authorship was not linear. She began her career as a geologist and environmental manager before moving into senior consulting and leadership roles with organisations including PwC, GHD and Nakheel PJSC in Dubai. Working at the intersection of technical rigour, leadership culture and sustainability gave her a unique lens on performance, resilience and personal responsibility – recurring themes that underpin her books.
Her transition into writing was driven by a desire to make these ideas accessible beyond the boardroom. Switch It On! was written to help individuals recognise their own agency, overcome inertia and reconnect with their capacity to lead purposeful lives. In contrast, Enzo Finds His Friends reflects Monique’s softer, more personal storytelling voice – using a simple, heartfelt narrative to explore kindness, belonging and empathy, while also raising funds for animal welfare causes close to her heart.
Beyond her professional and creative work, Monique is deeply committed to social impact. Since 2010, she has served as an Ambassador for Opportunity International Australia, advocating for microfinance as a practical pathway out of poverty. She is also a long-time supporter of initiatives that advance inclusive economic participation, environmental stewardship and animal welfare.
At every stage of her career, Monique has been drawn to work that bridges ambition with ethics, and achievement with meaning. Whether writing for adults seeking personal growth or children learning about friendship and compassion, her storytelling is grounded in lived experience and a genuine desire to leave things better than she found them.
Through her books, Monique invites readers of all ages to pause, reflect and “switch on” to what truly matters.