Tharini Rouwette

Tharini Rouwette is the CEO and founder of COMPELL, an organisation dedicated to advancing multicultural Australia in politics. Over the last decade, prior to forming her organisation, she volunteered her time and energy campaigning on various issues impacting marginalised communities. Impacting a small group of people was no longer satisfactory for her and hence she wanted to do something big that would positively impact the lives of bigger groups of marginalised communities in Australia. This is why she formed COMPELL.
At a professional level, Tharini hails from a strong media and tech background having worked in a digital media capacity with companies such as Amazon, Adobe, Singtel/Optus and Google. At a personal level, she used her skills to campaign for political parties and grassroot organisations across Singapore, US and Australia. As an experienced political campaigner, she has worked on campaigns the likes of Bernie Sanders’ in America where she managed a 500-strong volunteer team to campaign for the 2020 presidential candidate all the way from Australia. Bernie Sanders may not have become POTUS but Tharini’s team won him the Democrats Abroad votes to have him become a significant influence in the Biden administration.
Tharini is the first ever in Australia, to set up a networking group for multicultural Australians interested in understanding AUSPOL and potentially running for office. The group provides mentorship and support for those interested in getting their feet wet in any spectrum of Australian politics. She’s also the first ever to create a podcast, “Allies in Politics – A Person of Colour’s Rough Guide to Australian Politics”, dedicated to helping listeners better understand Australian politics. It so far has over 1000, politically engaged multicultural listeners and counting. Tharini has also conducted numerous workshops that delve into multicultural issues.
As a daughter of migrants and coming from a multicultural background, Tharini is always identifying ways to improve outcomes for multicultural Australia through brave and innovative ideas.