04/08/2026
Christina E. Foxwell was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, into a family of
Pentecostal ministers and raised on love and service. As a girl of mixed heritage she
met racism and judgment early, and at seventeen, when she told her father she
wanted to become a minister, she was told that girls did not do that. It was an early
lesson in the limits placed on women, and the start of a life spent dismantling them.
She married at twenty-one and worked in a department store, then saved to study and
built her own way up: through sales director, general manager and partner roles, and
on to two global executive teams, working across Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Asia
and the United Kingdom. Early in her career she led a team written off as
underperformers and, through purpose and connection, helped them become the
highest-performing team in a global franchise. Many of them lead organisations of
their own today.
Her path also ran through real hardship: childhood abuse, domestic violence, and later
divorce and post-traumatic stress. She built armour to survive, then learned that the
same armour was keeping her from the life and the leadership she wanted. A
diagnosis of PTSD finally made her stop running and begin to heal, and that healing
became the foundation of everything she now teaches.
In 2008 she moved to Australia with her two small children and two pink suitcases,
and in 2012 founded Ignite Purpose, now a global practice in resilience, leadership and
culture, with measured outcomes for doctors, nurses, executives and leaders on four
continents.
Meet Christina this Sunday, Women’s Day💖
All welcome.
