Peter McGuinness | CEO & Co-Founder
YOU CHOOSE

Peter McGuinness is co-founder and CEO of YOU CHOOSE Programs, a multi-award winning road trauma and harm prevention not-for-profit organisation which has engaged hundreds of thousands of participants through schools, businesses, community groups and sporting organisations around Australia, since 2017. YOU CHOOSE takes an innovative, social-mission approach to enabling young people as advocates of good choices in moments-that-matter - stimulating profound personal reflection about the connections between intentions, choices, actions and the people they profess to love and protect. With inputs from leading academics, well-being specialists, professional educators, police and - most importantly - young people from around the country, YOU CHOOSE reinforces traditional road safety and harm prevention methods by equipping participants to exchange permissions in advance to speak up when they must; and to recognise passivity and impulsivity in their social groups. These student-led philosophies provide a framework to embed enduring 'how we look out for each other' culture in school communities, which optimistically challenges legacy notions of 'luck' in context with preventable harm. The Griffith University Criminology Institute completed independent academic analysis of  YOU CHOOSE in 2024, which empirically demonstrates that the program stimulates self-regulating social cohesion, reduces harmful risk-taking intentions and projected behaviours, and identifies passive and impulsive dynamics in groups. In 2012, Peter and co-founder Melissa McGuinness's 18-year-old son, Jordan, was speeding and driving impaired when he collided with stationary vehicle containing five other young adults. Four of those people died on impact, as did Jordan himself. Since then, Peter and Melissa have worked tirelessly to save lives, families and communities from the tragic waste of wholly preventable road trauma and from all preventable harm; dedicating themselves to curiously seeking best-practice in cultural and social change around harm prevention. They are parents to younger daughters Montana and Kitty. Peter has a career background as an entrepreneur, senior corporate executive, professional economic developer, lobbyist and key-note speaker. He holds an MBA with 1st division honours and a Chancellor's Commendation for Academic Excellence. He has been awarded Emerging Leader of the Year Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits, the Australian Road Safety Foundation School Programs Award, AMP Tomorrow Maker and Australia Day Ambassadorship. Melissa holds an Order of Australia Medal, and is former Queensland Australian of the Year runner-up (x2) and Gold Coast Woman of the Year, among other civic acknowledgements