Leanne is a former police officer with 33 years policing, law enforcement and training experience in the Australian Federal Police (AFP), culminating as Deputy Commissioner from 2014-2019. During this time, as Deputy Commissioner National Security, Leanne was the AFP representative at the Australia /New Zealand Counter-Terrorism Committee. From 2015-2019, Leanne co-chaired the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing. In 2016, Leanne undertook a 12-month secondment to the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department leading the Criminal Justice Group.

In 2020, Leanne led the National Security and Counter-Terrorism program for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute where she authored several articles on national security and public governance and was co-editor of the ASPI Counter-Terrorism Yearbook. In 2021, Leanne led BizRebuild, the charitable arm of the Business Council of Australia supporting economic and community recovery for businesses affected by major disasters.

Leanne is currently the Chief Executive of Government & Strategy at Risk 2 Solution Group and serves as a member on various Australian government and NFP boards and committees.