Meet the team
Peter McAuliffe - Co-founder & Head of The Character Project
Peter McAuliffe is an experienced edutainer with over a decade of work in educational settings, community groups, and churches. His main passion is helping individuals develop both their inner character and their outer contributions. He aims to empower people to lead, influence, and serve with authenticity and purpose.
Peter’s journey began when he served as a college captain, which ignited his passion for inspiring students and staff to discover meaning in faith and spirituality. He believes in leading through influence rather than authority or power.
Before founding The Character Project, Peter worked alongside Luke McKenna, helping lead a team that delivered programs on topics like growth mindsets, grit, leadership, and well-being. Their work positively impacted over 300,000 people across Australia. More recently, Peter founded UPP Ireland, continuing his efforts to support teachers and principals in fostering personal development and leadership.
Peter has a strong background in behaviour coaching and faith formation, and he now focuses on conducting workshops and retreats that foster personal growth, character development, and a positive engagement with faith and spirituality.
Pete's greatest joy is the time spent with his wife Niamh and their three sons—Tobias, Boaz, and Judah—who bring endless joy and teach him how to love every day.
Luke McKenna - Co-Founder & Director of UPP
UPP founder, Luke McKenna is an educator and author who specialises in working with schools to build growth mindsets, grit, wellbeing and leadership for all students. Over the last 18 years, he has worked as a classroom teacher, middle leader and Assistant Principal. Luke has worked with educators and students across Australian Primary and Secondary schools from the Independent, Catholic and Public sectors.
He holds degrees in Business and Education, a Masters of Educational Leadership, and a Professional Certificate in Positive Education.
Luke has spoken at The Positive Schools Conference; the Adolescent Success Conference; Griffith University's Professional Development Network Conference; and ACU's Advisory Conferences in Canberra and Brisbane. His work has been published in the Australian Journal of Middle Schooling, Happy Schools and The Positive Times, and he is also the author of "Thrive: Unlocking the truth about student performance" (2015), Making Wellbeing Practical (2019) and Making the Shift- Becoming a Leader worth Following (2022).