Women on Boards - Leaders and Directors in Conversation (Women on Boards)

Kerry Gleeson grew up playing cricket on the green with the boys in the northern part of Cotswolds in the UK. Her mantra was and remains: "Shoulders back, remember who you are and go get it." For the past two decades, Kerry has sat on ASX Boards as Director, Senior Executive and Board Advisor, working nationally and internationally across broad and complex industry sectors including mining and resources, industrial and agri-chemicals, manufacturing, transport and distribution and international education.

At age 12, Kerry knew she wanted to be a commercial lawyer and so she pursued her dream. In 1989, she commenced her legal career at the international law firm Eversheds in London and after 10 years of practicing law in the UK, she fell in love with her now husband and exiled to Australia. Leaving Halliwell Landau where she was corporate partner, she landed as Senior Corporate Associate with Ashurst in Melbourne.

With her daughter on her lap, she interviewed for the role of Group Executive for Incitec Pivot Ltd (AXS: IPL) where she remained nine years before entering her first independent non-executive role in 2014 with McAleese Group. Despite being well known, highly sought after and respected in the executive space, Kerry admits she takes deliberate action, knows intimately her value proposition and networks like a boss to get seen in the non-executive sphere.

Known for her strength in governance, legal and risk, it was a natural fit to align with the resource sector, particularly mining, which sees Kerry as NED for the Australian-based companies St Barbara (ASX 200) gold producer and explorer, and New Century Resources (ASX:NCZ), metal producer and world’s top 10 zinc producers.

Claire speaks with Kerry in this podcast about the positives of COVID, why you can’t assume roles will fly at you because you’ve had a successful executive career, and immeasurable rewards of networking.

What impact can I have, and how can I make the world a better place? It’s these questions which have driven Bobbie Foot; from growing up in a large rural Queensland farming family and qualifying as an occupational therapist to becoming head of Health, Safety and Environment at BMA Coal and being named one of the 2020 Global Top 100 Most Inspirational Women in Mining.

Bobbie now leads a team of over 200 professionals in the world’s largest mining companies and also applies her many transferable skills - from her deep understanding of risk management and social value - to her board roles as Co-chair and Director of the Minerals Industry Safety and Health Centre Advisory Board, Director of the University of Qld Sustainable Minerals Institute Advisory Board, and as an industry representative on the Coal Mining Safety and Health Advisory Committee.  

In this podcast Bobbie tells Claire how growing up in a remote community, coupled with her early years working in OT, taught her about the importance of collaboration and informed her drive to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all people and the environment, set high industry standards and develop a ‘culture of care’.  

As such, she is passionate about engaging and empowering people to collaboratively solve challenges and deliver win-win outcomes for the workforce, community and environment.

As a long-serving Women on Boards member, Bobbie is also a graduate of WOB’s Next Generation of Female Leaders program and has launched her own website, bobbiefoot.com, in a bid to drive collaboration between organisations and people in the HSE space. While initially hesitant about the ‘self-branding’ exercise she tells Claire, we should all be putting ourselves out there more. In fact it was this visibility which led to Bobbie being called on to speak at the United Nations in Geneva on mine closure and its impacts on women and girls.

Born in France and migrating in the 1990s, Helen Moore learned English as a second language as she grew up Yeppoon in central Queensland.  By her mid-twenties she had met her husband, had two children and had enrolled to study accounting as a mature aged student -  which she blitzed with distinctions.

From there Helen moved into government roles, rising to senior executive roles.  She talks about her most memorable role as CFO for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, which she says was a once in a lifetime opportunity, despite the risk management issues.

Having worked as a non executive director for the last twelve years, Claire chats to Helen about a range of issues, including the recruitment process, risk management, working on and with boards and more.

Helen Moore
NED, Santos Organics
Chair and Director, Moor Corporate Investments
Helen on LinkedIn 

Claire Braund on LinkedIn

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Associate Professor Ngaire Elwood AM is driven by a strong sense of purpose that grew out of a life-changing experience that inspired her, as an inquisitive science-loving teenager, to dedicate her life to improving therapies for kids with cancer. 

As a teenager, she was treated for osteosarcoma, a common form of bone cancer that had a survival rate of about five per cent prior to the advent of chemotherapy.

After her bone cancer diagnosis, her treatment involved an above-knee amputation, followed by 18 months of high-dose chemotherapy. Even with this ‘aggressive therapy’ the survival rate is about 60 per cent.

Now she is helping others survive cancer as head of the Cord Blood Stem Cell Research Program at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and director of Melbourne’s cord blood bank.

She has devoted her career to investigating, developing and providing improved therapies for the treatment of cancer, leukaemia and other disorders and is passionate about the therapeutic application of cellular therapies. 

Her research includes exploring the different types of stem cells that are in cord blood, investigating the use of cord blood in heart repair and the treatment of cerebral palsy, and improving the use of cord blood in bone marrow transplants for treating blood cancers and other diseases.

Ngaire was made a Member of the Order of Australia AM in the 2024 Australia Day Honours awards for significant service to medicine, particularly through stem cell research - an honour she tells Claire Braund was a “bit surreal” and that it is important as a female researcher and amputee to use the platform as a voice for women in STEMM, people living with disabilities and also to raise the awareness of cord blood therapies in Australia. 

In this podcast Ngaire also talks about the development of cord blood research around the world and in Australia - “it's a really exciting time… there’s so much we don't yet know and understand about cord blood biology and its benefits and ind it’s really fun to find out” -  as well as her board career and what skills and qualities medical scientists can bring to the board table, including strategic thinking, grant-writing, risk management and big picture thinking.

“It's knowing that the work you do makes a difference and can make a difference no matter how small the role may be. Whether it's as a research assistant, student or a board member. Everybody plays a role and can make a difference,” she tells Claire.

About Ngaire Elwood:

Associate Professor Ngaire Elwood AM, PhD BSc(Hons) MAICD, is an experienced senior leader. She has devoted her career to investigating, developing and providing improved therapies for the treatment of cancer, leukaemia and other disorders and is passionate about the therapeutic application of cellular therapies.

Ngaire has broad governance expertise, and holds a diverse board portfolio. She is the immediate past Vice President of the international Board of Directors for the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapies (FACT), Non-Executive Director on the Boards of the National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia and international Cord Blood Association, and previous Chair of the Board for the Australian Sickle Cell Advocacy Inc (ASCA). She was previously the Australia New Zealand (ANZ), Regional Vice President for the International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy (ISCT) and is a member of the ISCT Board of Directors (2018-2020; 2022-2024). She is Chair of the FACT Education Committee, is a FACT Cord Blood Bank Inspector and sits on the FACT Cord Blood Accreditation Committee, FACT Cord Blood Standards Committee, FACT Regenerative Medicine Task Force and the FACT New Business Development Committee.

Ngaire serves as Chair of the AusCord network of public cord blood banks and is a member of the TGA Advisory Committee on Biologicals. As Director of the BMDI Cord Blood Bank, a TGA-licensed manufacturing facility, Ngaire has extensive expertise in GMP, regulatory compliance and quality management. She sits on the MCRI Institutional Biosafety Committee for Genetically Modified Organisms and has broad experience in human research ethics, previously serving as a member of the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry National Ethics Committee. With a scientific research career spanning more than 30 years she has made significant impact in the field of cellular therapy, cancer, cord blood, stem cells and leukaemia. Ngaire was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in the category of "Change Agent" in October 2022. She was made a Member of the Order of Australia AM in the 2024 Australia Day Honours awards for significant service to medicine, particularly through stem cell research.

Find out more about Ngaire on LinkedIn

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Like Britain’s first female Prime Minister, Sarah grew up in a modest, hardworking family in a small English town before heading down the Oxbridge route and graduating from Cambridge with an MA in Natural Science. “We weren’t posh,” she tells Claire in this podcast.

Now based in Hong Kong, where she lives on a boat, Sarah pivoted to a portfolio career on governance and advisory boards in 2019 after more than 30 years working in the Australian and Asian power industries.

She now mentors startups, helping small companies overcome obstacles to growth, as well as working with larger companies and multinationals through strategic change, as they navigate the energy transition, invest in power generation, M&A, or enter Asian markets in any industry.

In this podcast, Sarah talks to Claire about living and working as an expat in Hong Kong post the 2020 crackdown imposed by Beijing, the differences between working on Asian and Australian boards, how she has navigated workplace bias in the energy sector and how she dealt with ‘imposter syndrome’. “It can be very easy to underestimate your abilities.”

A testament to seizing opportunities with both hands, and moving where life takes you, Sarah’s biggest piece of advice is “Just say yes - figure it out later.”

Find out more about what sparks Sarah Fairhurst's interests in this podcast.

LinkedIn  
Sarah Fairhurst
Claire Braund (host)

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A straight up-and-down journalist is how Marina Go describes herself prior to her foray into the boardroom. From her days as Editor for Dolly, Elle, Australian Good Taste, and Sunday Life, and then General Manager of Bauer/Hearst brand's: Harper's Bazaar, Elle, and Cosmopolitan, her path to the boardroom hasn’t been as bizarre as you may think.

Journalists ask questions, but what they’re particularly skilled at is listening.  And that is the makings of an effective director, Marina explains.

Marina's first board role was at Netball Australia, which she obtained via WOB. Today she has a full-time portfolio career, comprising Non Executive Director (NED) Autosports Group (ASX:ASG); Energy Australia; 7-eleven; Pro-PAC (ASX:PPG); and The Walkley Foundation, and Chair at Ovarian Cancer Australia; and Suncorp Super Netball Commission.

She has spent the past 30 years creating and building commercially successful brands that connect deeply with consumer groups across digital and print channels. Her focus is on reputational risk and digital innovation, but it is her passion for gender equality and balance that is becoming her legacy.

In spite of the challenges presented by traditional notions of male leadership, stereotypes and gender barriers, she has succeeded as Netball Australia’s first independent NED and Chair of the West Tigers NRL, which saw her nominated as the Australian Financial Review Boss True Leader in 2016.

'In Conversation with Claire', Marina confides that her most rewarding career move was launching Women’s Agenda, an independent female owned and run online publication, and the Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards.

At the turn of the century when most publications only featured women if they were a celebrity or a victim, Women’s Agenda “created a stink” by showcasing talented women from every sector and known background in business and leadership. It caused a ripple effect across mainstream media and put women on the radar.

At the close of the hardest year for many, Marina shares the emotional toll COVID-19 has had on the mental wellbeing of staff across the organisations she boards.

Marina Go

Independent Chair, Non-Executive Director, Remuneration Committee Chair, Editor, General Manager

Current Boards (November 2020)

• NED, Autosports Group (ASX:ASG)
• NED, Energy Australia
• NED, 7-eleven
• NED, Pro-PAC (ASX:PPG)
• NED, The Walkley Foundation
• Chair, Ovarian Cancer Australia
• Chair, Suncorp Super Netball Commission

To be good at cyber security you need to be able to think like a threat actor. That’s according to state-based cyber warfare expert Dr Sarah Morrison, who has herself embedded herself for the last 20 years in the technology and cybersecurity industry. 

No surprise then that Sarah is always the one at dinner parties reminding people to use secure passwords and update their anti-malware. What is more of a surprise is that Sarah - who has no less than seven qualifications in the area of criminology, investigation & intelligence and cyber security including a PhD in Russian Information Operations - left school in Year 10 to get an office job.

As she tells Claire Braund in this podcast, “I fell in love with computers around five when my brother won one and brought it home. At school we didn’t get to really use computers, but getting an admin job I got to use one!”

A few years later a book on criminology piqued Sarah’s interest so she went back to school and on to study the subject at University of Western Sydney.

Sarah works across the government, banking and higher education sector. More recently she has stepped into the cyber consulting and advisory arena in ASX and other organisations. She was recently appointed to a WOB Advertised advisory committee in the higher education sector because of her very specific cyber skills. In this podcast Sarah talks about how she keeps in with the fast-moving space of cyber security and intelligence, the threat of large-scale disinformation campaigns and the role of AI and why boards need to put cybersecurity “front and centre”.

LinkedIn  
Sarah Morrison 

Claire Braund (host)

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No stranger to working in disaster zones and supporting health services for areas in crisis, Dr Liz Paslawsky shares the most common problems she‘s witnessed within governance and business following COVID-19 and the greatest risks that are affecting boards, management and staff worldwide. She makes intriguing observations about board culture, dynamics and how we all need to think more strategically during the unpredictable time that COVID-19 brings.

Liz leads an exhilarating portfolio career serving on four international boards in the Ukraine, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, is a global consultant as well as a mentor to executive staff and board chairs. She is a Telstra NSW Business Woman of the Year winner, a business owner and has held CEO and senior executive positions in healthcare, banking and the not-for-profit sector.

Liz is a self-confessed “barrier basher” who has proven time over, that anything is possible. She has spent her life observing people to better understand human behavior — a skill-set she developed at a very young age growing up in a Ukrainian community in Queensland where she didn’t speak English. Her family lived off a small organic farm in the Ukraine before the Second War World hit, forcing them to flee on a boat they thought was destined for Austria. Instead, they arrived on the shores of Australia.

“In those days, there was an enormous amount of discrimination in school and because I didn’t speak English, I was labelled as having a disability. This was really formative for me to prove otherwise and has been a driver all my life.”

She has a Masters of Psychology and a PhD in Leadership for Workforce Empowerment under her belt and gave the keynote address at this year’s European Healthcare Design Global Summit. Her expertise in knowledge systems and bridging disciplines she attributes to her understanding of people and culture because in Liz’s opinion, intellect and strategy is irrelevant if you don’t understand culture.

LinkedIn  

Dr Kath Hall is an internationally recognised expert on transnational corporate corruption and foreign bribery regulation. Her career as a legal academic and writer has led to her advising a number of leading international organisations including the United Nations Joint Inspection Unit and Safra Centre for Ethics at Harvard University.

Dr Hall has advised the International Standards Organisation on the introduction of a global standard on best practice whistleblower policies and processes and between 2016-2020 was the lead researcher on a global project investigating positive organisational responses to whistleblowing in the public, private and not for profit sectors.

Dr Hall has a PhD in Law and Psychology from the Australian National University and brings a unique understanding of human behaviour into all her work. In this podcast Dr Hall talks to Claire Braund about how the landscape has changed in Australia and globally in relation to misconduct and corporate corruption and bribery and about the need for transparency and full disclosure in the boardroom - from appointing board members to disclosing potential conflicts of interest.

She also discusses whistleblower regulations, the implications for small to large organisations and why we need to take the issue seriously:

‘It is important for all organisations. We've seen it in Australia from sporting to church organisations, no one is immune from misconduct potentially occurring. We have to take it seriously putting these processes and practices in place."

LinkedIn  
Dr Kath Hall
Claire Braund (host)

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Resilient and tenacious - no two words could better describe long-term Women on Boards member Roberta Wright.

Despite being left totally blind after an operation to remove a brain tumour then having to fight for the right to keep her adopted baby - on the back of losing her brother to a drug overdose and father to cancer - Roberta is always looking to the future.

As she tells Claire in this podcast, there are always problems but it is about finding solutions.

Born in Queensland “with a passport in one hand and a globe in the other” Roberta’s yearning for travel and adventure saw her graduate from Queensland Agricultural College with a Bachelor of Business in Hospitality Management before jetting off to the UK on a working holiday visa. 

Returning home when her father was diagnosed with lung cancer, Roberta went into computer programming, before returning to the UK for 13 years.

It was while living in London, working for a drug and alcohol support service and caring for her newly-adopted eight-month old baby that Roberta’s life turned upside down. 

Ten weeks after Sophie was placed with Roberta she noticed problems with her sight. Doctors discovered a meningioma tumour, so Roberta underwent an operation to remove it. 

She describes the terrifying moment waking up in hospital and realising she couldn’t see. “I came out to nothing.”

Little did she realise things were about to get much worse. A week after being discharged from hospital, Roberta was told her adopted baby was to be taken out of her care. What followed was a drawn-out legal battle which ended in the High Court, with the judge finding in Roberta’s favour. 

Now living back in Brisbane with her daughter, Roberta is an active WOB member and is looking for her first board role. In this podcast she talks to Claire about overcoming adversity, learning to adjust  - “losing your sight doesn’t make your hearing better, you just have to make better use of your hearing” - and the challenges of raising a child as a blind parent. 

Helen Conway has, by her own admission, always been an agitator. As the experienced lawyer, senior executive, NED and workplace gender equality expert tells Claire Braund in this podcast, it was her “contrary nature” which compelled her to get involved when she saw something that was not right.

“I may have made a few enemies along the way, but you have to be courageous enough to stand up for what is right, and ultimately you get a return on that investment.”

Helen spent 10 years in private legal practice, including seven years as a partner in a major law firm in Sydney before moving into the corporate sector, where she worked as a senior executive in the insurance transport, energy, retail and construction industries for 18 years. “I love the cut and thrust of the commercial environment”.

At the same time, she undertook various directorships and the health transport and superannuation sectors.

But she's probably most famous for her next role, leading the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency through its transition into the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.

Helen has a long track record of supporting women. She was a member of the New South Wales Equal Opportunity Tribunal for a decade, including three years as its Senior Judicial Member, was involved with a halfway house for released women prisoners and helped set up the Women’s Legal Centre. She is now Chair of YWCA Australia and YWCA Housing as well as Chair of Women for Election Australia.  

In this podcast Helen talks about the pivotal role of the WGEA and why there is still a need to not just talk about gender equality, but to act. As she puts it: “A lot of people TALK about gender equality…I’m more interested in the doing.”

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Mary Sue Rogers graduated from university in the US in the 1970s at a time of the women’s rights movement. She landed her first job as a foreman solely because she was female where she was responsible for managing 30 men, all of which were strong union members. This wasn’t the only “first” for Mary Sue. She was the first female partner in IBM’s consulting business, the most senior consulting partner for PwC in Europe, and until recently, the only female board member on East-West Seeds.

Known for her experience in professional services, HR technology, the Not-For-Profit sector, social enterprise, agriculture and membership-based organisations, Mary Sue has worked in a range of company types from publically listed, start-up, family-run and small-medium enterprise. She is particularly passionate about start-ups and scale-ups, and building high performing teams, coaching senior executives and ensuring the right processes are in place to attract and retain talent.

She attests that all of her current board positions have been acquired as a direct result of forming strong and trustworthy networks, like when she started sponsoring children to go to school in Nigeria some 30 years to becoming NED, Chair of the HR Committee and Member of the Impact Investment Fund Board of Save The Children. She is also NED for WOB, NED and Deputy Chair for East-West Seeds, Advisory Board Member for Aiir Consulting and Board Member for Inclusiv Education.

During her time as a board member, Mary Sue has noticed that while great strides have been made to improve cultural and gender diversity at the table, ensuring there is diversity of executive career work experience isn’t regarded as pivotal on most board’s agendas, and this needs to change.

Zita’s story begins in Eastern Europe where she was born to parents of Hungarian heritage who found themselves living in the Serbian part of Yugoslavia. Based on a tip from a colleague that authorities were planning to confiscate the family’s passports, they fled to Austria in search of asylum. Following detainment and processing to confirm their refugee status, Zita and her family migrated to northeast Victoria, before eventually calling Melbourne home.

Zita’s curiosity led her to study Geology at university, but the advice of a professor sent her down a path of BioMed and a specialisation in immunology.

Today she is a Non-Executive Director for multiple ASX companies, including Pacific Smiles Group Limited (Chair), Monash IVF Group, Starpharma Holdings, and Visioneering Technologies. She is also on the Board of The Hudson Institute for Medical Research, a not-for-profit institute and on the Advisory Board for Luina Group.

Her Board career started out by representing industry bodies for the organisations and companies she was involved in, which sparked a real enjoyment for serving on committees. Zita was the first to nominate herself to attend functions and discovered early the importance of actively seeking Board opportunities and networking in the Board community. She got to know industry colleges, politicians, venture capitalists, bankers and head-hunters, and found herself transitioning from CSL Limited to Fresenius Kabi while accepting two Board positions with ASX listed companies.

Hear from Zita on the differences between being a NED and a Chair and why everyone needs a mentor. Zita is chairing the next WOBSX syndicate, a director-led, peer support program to assist women achieve ASX Board roles.

LinkedIn Zita Peach Claire Braund (host)

Brynnie Goodwill is an international law graduate from Columbia University who today finds herself growing organic produce in the lower Hunter of NSW and serving on multiple boards. She is deeply passionate about international politics and relations, and has always applauded the good dividends that diversity brings to the culture and dynamics of organisations and government.

The game-changer for Brynnie was during her time as a congressional intern in 1974, attending the Watergate hearings in Washington. She realised just how male dominated and dysfunctional the world of corporate law was. It geared Brynnie for a career in paradigm shifts, lateral thinking and strategy where she turned to the research of forward thinkers like Peter Senge of the Fifth Discipline and others who similarly recognised that business doesn’t have to be competitive — that it can be collaborative, value-based and holistically driven.

Over the past 25 years, Brynnie has helped grow emerging businesses in health, sustainability, education and other sectors. Her first board position was as chairperson for Kinma Primary and Preschool, an independent parent-managed school in Sydney's North Shore. Today she is the Head of Department for World Travels, Executive Director for BKG Group and a Non-Executive Director for Community Housing Ltd, Sydney North Health Primary Network, Women for Election Australia and Earth Trust. Because of her background in international corporate law, she is especially zealous about building socially responsive, sustainable businesses and encourages all women seeking to pursue boards to do just that — follow their passion.

American born, Brynnie actively sought out a life here in Australia on her quest for community more than 30 years ago — a “blessed” land that she acknowledges is due to the history and energy of the past, present and emerging traditional custodians.

As the world watches the election unfold in America, hear why Brynnie isn’t surprised by the current state of affairs in her former homeland.

As a law student at ANU, Women on Boards member Fiona David was already tipped as “destined to work on social justice issues.”

This was later confirmed when Perth-born Fiona spent a short stint in corporate law which set her instead on an international path to social justice issues. As she tells Claire in this podcast, it was then she realised she could use her legal skills “without having to be a lawyer in the traditional sense”.

Now a leading lawyer, criminologist and specialist in modern slavery Fiona has worked for over two decades at the intersection of crime, law reform and human rights and in 2018 was appointed inaugural Research Chair of Andrew and Nicola Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation. She has also written a book examining what governments can do in preventing and responding to people smuggling.

In this podcast, Fiona talks about her career journey - from being flung into the world of human trafficking in the Philippines with the UN in her mid-20s, advising the Attorney General’s department on its international human rights obligations in the Howard years, and helping Kenya improve its laws on people smuggling.

An expert on modern slavery she was also the first person appointed to Minderoo’s Walk Free Foundation leading the team that created the Global Slavery Index, 2014-2018, which provides date on prevalence and government responses to modern slavery in more than 160 countries.

She describes this as “an incredible opportunity to get in, and help shape the direction. Not just the direction of a project, not just the direction of a report, but the direction of a whole organization”.

Fiona’s is a fascinating career which has seen her travel to some of the most dangerous corners of the globe - from Tripoli and east Africa to most of south-east Asia - while listening to the heartbreaking personal stories of the victims of human trafficking.

As she says: “I am an adventurer deep in my heart. I feel very compelled to do what I can to help other people and to try and understand why people would put themselves in these incredibly risky situations. Why they got on boats in the horn of Africa, why they risked their lives crossing Sudan, why they risked their lives crossing the Mediterranean to try to get to Europe.”

Bosnian-born Gorana Saula speaks three languages, has three passports, four drivers’ licenses and loves to travel. And with her passion for gadgets and all things tech it’s no wonder friends of the former CEO and electronics engineer call her James Bond. 

The Non Executive Director has had a wide range of executive leadership roles in defense, telecommunications, and electronics manufacturing.

Attending university in Croatia she holds two master's degrees in electronics and business and is known as a woman who loves innovation - her first job out of uni was leading a project to develop tech for self-guided missiles.

Gorana has experience working in many countries - from Germany and California to New Zealand and Brisbane - and brings a different perspective and international mindset and cultural sensitivity to all her organisations.

In this podcast she talks to Claire Braund about making the dangerous journey from war-torn former Yugoslavia with her husband and two children, leaving behind her mother and disabled brother without knowing if she would ever see them again and how she went from arriving in New Zealand speaking very little English to becoming Director of Engineering in a microwave networking solutions provider, eventually leading it to become the only private New Zealand company listed on the NASDAQ. 

She also reflects on the challenges of attracting top talent, particularly during the dot.com era and mining boom, pointing to the importance of offering employees a good work-life balance to pursue their passions.

A self-described ‘champion for product innovation’ Gorana now chairs three boards and brings her deep expertise to organisations that create and innovate. 

LinkedIn Gorana Saula

Claire Braund (host)

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It is testament to experienced company director Gina Anderson’s adaptability and genial nature that she has been able to turn her hand to every opportunity afforded to her.

Born in country NSW and sent off to boarding school at 12, Gina Anderson attributes her boardroom success to maintaining those strong friendships forged at an early age and regularly checking in on old mates - as well as a touch of serendipity.

Keeping in touch with her large network, as well as simply ‘being in the right place at the right time’, has seen Gina secure many board roles - as well as “the job of a lifetime” as personal assistant to the Crown Prince El Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan in the early 90s. 

As Gina tells Claire in this podcast, she was even involved in the peace treaty between Jordan and Israel before another chance meeting at a friend’s wedding back in Australia drew her back into the corporate world and a seven-year stint in HR and senior management at Westpac.

It was a banking contact who sang Gina’s praises when she applied for a position on the board of Philanthropy Australia. “After I got the job, I was told I had been at the bottom of the list,’ she tells Claire. She went on to be Executive Director and CEO for five years. 

Now Gina is Chair of GDI Property Group and NED of GDI Funds Management as well as NED with The George Institute for Global Health.

She has also been an advisory board member of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, was co-founder and Chair of Women’s Community Shelters and is Philanthropy Fellow at University of NSW’s Centre for Social Impact.

In this podcast, Gina talks about the importance of networking and maintaining those contacts, describes what it was like going from struggling to find work during the recession in Australia to working for Jordanian royalty, and the reality of learning on the job.

Former Danish investment banker, Charlotte Valeur, is an internationally renowned and highly experienced Non-Executive Director and Chair who is committed to increasing levels of good governance globally through value-based leadership. Always destined to live and work abroad she admits, at the age of 22, Charlotte transferred from Denmark, her home, to London with the bank she was employed with at the time and has remained there ever since. Raised by an adoring father who encouraged and supported all of her choices, his words of advice have been key to her every success: “Jump life before life jumps you.” In this episode, Charlotte reminds that everything that happens to us in life is based on our personal decisions and no one else’s.

Intrigued by the behaviour of people, Charlotte studied psychology when she took some time off work when she had her children. It is these soft skills, paired with her innate knowledge of investment banking, that have set her apart in the Boardroom. Charlotte has extensive Board level experience with IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, and restructuring, and her portfolio of sectors range from construction, infrastructure, renewable energy, private equity, property, finance/investments/debt, higher education and the third sector. When she entered the world of Board governance, she had a feeling that the overriding principles of best practice were the same, no matter the country or the organisation. From Board composition, to risk management and oversight, to stakeholder engagement, she found from her lived experience that the principles were in fact the same.

When Charlotte first stepped into the Boardroom, she was alarmed that she was the only woman most of the time. Male Board members would justify the polarisation by saying there were no women with Board experience. This motivated Charlotte to establish Board Apprentice Ltd, a not for profit organisation that collaborates with Boards, governments, academia, the third sector and businesses in many different countries to achieve greater equality, diversity and inclusion for women and minority groups.

Today Charlotte is Non-Executive Director for Liang O’Rourke and NTR plc, Chair for Blackstone Loan Financing Ltd and FSN Capital GP and Advisory Board Member for multiple organisations.

When she first began chairing 15 years ago, the appalling slow pace of governance shocked Charlotte. Following the 2007, 2008 and 2009 financial crises, and now COVID, she confidently says we are witnessing a push for better governance and leadership.

Hear about Charlotte’s upcoming book, why her Autism diagnosis has in many ways made her a better Board member, and the benefits of her many transferable skills.

LinkedIn Charlotte Valeur | Claire Braund (host)

With a career spanning 25 years in local government where she rose from a Coordinator through to a Director, Helen Croxford emerges from a very solid background to now reside over Sport Inclusion Australia as its President and Chair of the board.

In this podcast Helen talks to Claire about how she rose through the ranks to become President after serving her apprenticeship on the State Chapter.  She gives us a peep into a "week in the life" and gives us some great insight into what a typical week looks like as Chair, including some of the projects she’s working on and the time commitment involved.

With a vision to make both herself and Disability Sport Australia obsolete, Helen’s vision is for every club to welcome athletes with a disability with open arms.  This vision extends to thinking outside the square to change the face of inclusion. With media training identified as a need for some of their athletes, Helen has taken it a step further and is not only having their athletes undertake the training, but is training the media how to talk to athletes with a disability. 

An important listen for anyone with an interest in sport and/or inclusion.

More about Helen Croxford
President at Sport Inclusion Australia
Director Global Games Sports Company
Committee, Cabrini Health Day Procedure Centre
Cabrini Health Community Advisory Committee member
Cabrini Health Master Plan. Executive User Group Committee member
Beyond Blue event management

Further Information about Women on Boards (WOB)

Kerry Ryan’s board career may have been unplanned, but her unorthodox legal career and the time she spent working offshore groomed her for the gig.

Today she is an experienced Non-Executive Director for Richmond Football Club, Aligned Leisure, Retail Food Group (ASX listed), Mental Health First Aid International and Kids First Australia. Her comprehensive legal career has seen her as commercial partner at the international law firm, Norton Rose Fulbright, and in-house counsel with the Packer Group in India. Her appetite for international business dealings has translated to her passion for diversity in her board roles from professional services (law and accounting), to retail and franchising, to sport, education, fitness, health and wellbeing.

At the time of the pandemic, Kerry fondly speaks of the Richmond Football Club’s stellar championship and the key characteristics that make the Club a formidable force in the Premiership. Most noteworthy is the Club’s commitment to inclusion and diversity, their relationship to community and their responsibility to make a difference.

At the same time, the retail industry hit near collapse in many parts of the world and to support both employees and customers alike, Kerry and the boards of Retail Food Group and Aligned Leisure were instrumental in advising fee relief, opening up negotiations with landlords, strategising COVID safe plans and endorsing health and safety measures.

Listen to Claire Braund and Kerry discuss the compulsion for boards to get too involved in times of crisis, why pigeonholing is detrimental to a board career and how to forge your own pathway. 

Kerry Ryan

• Non Executive Director at Richmond Football Club, Aligned Leisure, Retail Food Group (ASX listed), Mental Health First Aid International, Kids First Australia
• Previous board and advisory board roles include CPA Australia, Lexvoco and International Legal Services Advisory Council (ILSAC).

In this episode, Claire has the great privilege of speaking with former MP and OAM, Ros Kelly. She shares her personal and professional life story that was fuelled by a desire to escape a cycle of poverty and disempowerment by throwing herself into her education. With the support of her mother, she received a scholarship at St. Ursula's College, Ashbury, and later obtained a BA DipEd from the University of Sydney. She was the first woman in her family to complete high school, let alone university, where again, she threw herself into the opportunities that presented themselves.

She became a teacher, but was also politicised by the Vietnam War, so joined the Labor Party while at the University of Sydney. While a junior high school teacher, Ros got more actively involved in politics in Canberra and became the secretary for her branch. She was then elected the first woman member of the ACT House of Assembly and also became the first woman chair of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Schools Authority. She decided to leave her teaching days behind her as she pursued a career in politics, which later saw her become the first Labor woman federal minister in the House of Representatives and the first to give birth while holding office.

Ros resigned from federal politics in 1995, and has worked as a senior executive in environmental management since that time. She has been on the Board of Trustees of the National Breast Cancer Foundation, a trustee for the World Wide Fund for Nature and a board member of the Westpac Emergency Helicopter Service. In 2004, Ros was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for service to the community through promoting corporate environmental responsibility and fostering dialogue between business and conservation groups, to the Australian Parliament, and to women's health.

Hear directly from Ros why it’s important to take opportunities as they present themselves, to know who you are and to choose the right partner, because we all need someone who has our back. 

LinkedIn Ros Kelly | Claire Braund (host)

Elizabeth ‘Libby’’ Nankivell made history earlier this year when she was appointed Vice President of Queensland Rugby Union, becoming the first woman to hold the position in 139 years of the state’s governing rugby body.

In this podcast, the ‘self-confessed rugby tragic’ talks to Claire Braund about her passion for the game, and how that has translated into a meaningful career on rugby boards.

Libby acquired her love of the game from her late father and Darling Downs broccoli farmer Paddy O’Brien, who was a referee and referee coach who worked with Queensland Country Rugby, Queensland Rugby Referee Associations and Australian Rugby Union. 

As a girl, she’d run round the ovals collecting cans and spend all day wandering around the rugby fields. By the time she started school Libby knew all the positions and rules of the game.

Libby established Townsville women’s Rugby Union at university, also winning a gold medal at the 1994 University Games – the first appearance of women’s rugby at the event. She then followed in her father’s footsteps by becoming a referee and winning the Women in Sport referee/umpire of the year in 1998.

It was after attending a Women on Boards Women in Sport conference that Libby decided to start on her sport board journey.

After applying for “a bunch of different sport boards” Libby got a gig with Australian Schools Rugby Union and was also on the Australian Schools Foundation Board. She was then offered the Vice President role and now co-chairs the board with Garrick Morgan.

Libby says one of the biggest challenges for women in the boardroom, and on the field, is being accepted and respected. She says her refereeing experience is invaluable in the boardroom and has helped her develop a thick skin. Her dream role, she tells WOB, would be on a board with Rugby Australia and World Rugby. Certainly worth a try!

Having worked in the media for 30 years, on boards and with corporates, Tracey Spicer knows a thing or two about boards, culture and standing up for herself.

In this podcast, from one journalist to another, Tracey talks to Claire Braund about her journey, including the day she decided it was time to stand up for herself and told the network she was taking them to court.  And how after being sacked by email after the birth of her second child, she inadvertently became an activist on pregnancy discrimination, where she learned that noise creates change.  It was such a moving experience that Tracey decided to write a book about it "The good girl stripped bare."

After leaving broadcasting Tracey has had a broad portfolio career, anchoring, writing, hosting and advising corporates and boards. She shares stories, including how she worked with the CEO of a TV network who thought he had no issue with #MeToo because no one had ever called their Whistle Blower hotline. 

Tracey also talks candidly about her initiation of fire on the board of the NRMA 20 years ago, including the death threats between board member of this factionalised board.  Scarred, she has only recently mustered the desire to return to the boardroom, joining the board of an NFP, with more boards on the horizon. 

Tracey and Claire also talk feminism, class factions, culture and what Tracey would say to her younger self. 24 minutes of total entertainment.

LinkedIn Tracey Spicer  Claire Braund (host)

If anything can prepare you for battle in the boardroom, it’s being a politician in the middle of a crisis. 

Former-South Australian Mental Health Minister and Women on Boards member, Leesa Chesser (nee Leesa Vlahos) was thrust into the spotlight when allegations of elder abuse of dementia patients at the state-run Oakden nursing home were exposed leading, in part, to the aged care royal commission.

In this podcast Leesa opens up to Claire about what it was like being at the centre of a political scandal, and how vital lessons learned from the experience have helped in her boardroom journey.

“That time taught me a huge amount,” Leesa tells Claire. “There will always be failures, but how we respond to them in an appropriate way for an organization or institution or corporate entity is hugely important.”

Now after calling time on 25 years in politics, Leesa is drawing on her experience in politics and the health information management and human services sector, plus her lived experience caring helping her mother through mental health issues, to work on her board portfolio.

She says having had to understand and talk through complex pieces of legislation in Parliament has provided her with great skills to take to the boardroom table. 

And while she admits having a seat in a parliament is more “adversarial and shouty at times” than sitting in the boardroom, she says the same rules apply when it comes to negotiation, mediation and getting a consensus.

“What I've discovered in the journey walking away from politics after 25 years, is that the most surprising and rewarding Boards I’ve been on are not the ones that I would have predicted four years ago.”

She is now a NED and Chair of Governance, Remuneration and Nominations Committee at Community Options Australia, an advisory board member with virtual reality start-up Add Life Technologies which specialises in neurological rehabilitation technology and mentor and Advisory Board member for HCI Insights which is developing a learning application called Frank which she describes as “like a Fitbit for mental health and wellbeing”.

An avid shooter, sailor and CWA scone-maker, Leesa is also hoping to get her pilot’s license before retiring. As she tells Claire, “I’ve learned not to rule things in or rule things out.” 

Growing up in far north Queensland, Anne Pleash was a water baby from a young age, forming a love of swimming that would lead her to be just the 207th Australian to swim the English Channel (more Australians have climbed Everest). 

In this podcast Anne talks to Claire about public life, working with Bob Katter, her long built understanding of remote indigenous communities and how she was instrumental in introducing the Indigenous Art Code.  She also talks about her board aspirations and the importance of having “courageous conversations”.

Anne relives her English Channel swim, on a day marked with horrendous weather…..”as I eyed France at the 13 hour mark I was told to sprint my heart out for an hour, otherwise I’d be pulled out.” Listen to find out what happened.

Inspiring, down to earth and authentic.

As Australia celebrates NAIDOC week - an historically important celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and connection to Country - WOB Cultural Diversity Member and proud Yorta Yorta woman Claire Beattie discusses what steps First Nations allies can take towards reconciliation -  from helping more Indigenous women into leadership positions to buying from Aboriginal businesses. “Now it is time for individuals and organisations to think about procurement, employment, how you walk with First Nations people, your acknowledgement of country, how you create cultural and psychologically safe environments for your First Nations employees and how you work with Aboriginal businesses.”

As a special episode we have reproduced a webinar that Women on Boards co-hosted with the Governance Institute of Australia titled Diversity is half the circle. Culture, equity and inclusion are the other half. Moderated by Catherine Fox, Journalist and Author 

Panel Members:
Megan Motto FGIA, Chief Executive, Governance Institute of Australia
Dr Marlene Kanga AM, Non-executive director, Sydney Water Corporation
Claire Braund, Executive Director, Women on Boards

Introduced by: Catherine Maxwell FGIA FCG, General Manager, Policy & Advocacy, Governance Institute of Australia

With a background in law, finance, risk management Claudia Bels doesn’t seem like your typical risk-taking rev head. 

But this rally car fan admits she loves racing around in her sports coupe as much as scrutinizing spreadsheets for her various audit committees.

The daughter of German migrants Claudia Bels was one of 12 women who took part in Women on Board’s inaugural WOBSX Syndicate. Claudia is now a NED and committee Chair across a diverse range of sectors including banking and financial services, private health and e-waste recycling. She credits taking part in the director-led peer-to-peer support program with setting her on the path to several board roles in the private sector and with member-based organisations. 

As she tells Claire in this podcast, “it opened my eyes to the fact that the shiniest prize is maybe not the prize for me”. She also describes her WOBSX cohort as a “ready-made cheer squad” - a group of women who ‘get’ what it’s like to be a NED and who are always there to support and encourage each other on their board journeys.

Claudia’s strong commercial foundation bourne of years as a corporate executive structuring and negotiating international finance deals - from writing political risk insurance for a mine in Africa to large infrastructure projects in south-east Asia - proved to be the perfect playbook for how to work in a multidisciplinary team and eventually led to various board roles.

The turning point came when she took a deep breath and accepted the role of Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. “It wasn’t a game-changer at the time, but it turned out to be,” she tells Claire.

And while heading up audit committees might be a far cry from car racing, Claudia is still driven to finding her ultimate board role - for a motoring organisation. 

This week Claire talks to Suzie Riddell, the CEO of Social Ventures Australia (SVA).

Leading from the heart, Suzie Riddell is a unique combination of social and self-awareness and intelligence.

Graduating from accounting with the University Medal, Suzie talks to Claire about why she decided not to pursue a career in accounting, how she took a graduate role with Bain & Co when she didn’t really know what a consultant was, and how she boldly asked them to defer her starting date by a year, TWICE.

Suzie talks candidly about her self professed failed volunteer work in Guatemala, where she taught primary girls English, and reveals why she thinks her work with the girls had a negative impact on them.  Further down the track though, this experience inextricably shaped her life and guided her future approach to making an impact.

After finally starting her role at Bain & Co, she found it to be a surprisingly wonderful experience. With itchy feet after four years, Suzie started a role at SVA, where she planned to stay for two years.  Ten years on she’s still there, now as CEO.

Appointed to her first board at the YWCA NSW at age 27 and her second, Holdsworth Community, at age 28, Suzie says “I can confidently say that I would not have been selected as the CEO for SVA had not been for my board experience….from which I understood more, in my bones, about the complexities of running an organisation”.

She regales the importance of starting your board career early and backing yourself (she had the confidence to nominate herself and proactively seek her boss' nomination for the AFR Boss award 2017). 

She says that apart from helping her to truly understand the complexities of running an organisation, being on boards has provided her with invaluable access to a wonderful network of women and mentors whom she would not have met in her career roles.

This podcast is a must listen for anyone associated with the NFP space (Suzie explains their challenges so well); young and aspiring board directors; and anyone looking to understand what SVA does and why.

Fashion designer, newsreader, banker, lecturer: Mahjabeen Zaman has had all these careers in her sights since growing up in Singapore in the 80s with her parents who moved there from Pakistan.

Now Mahjabeen, who has called Australia home since 2017, can add three of those four jobs to her resume. Currently working as a senior investments specialist after also running her own highly successful fashion label (and dressing celebrities) in Asia for eight years, multilingual Mahjabeen is passionate about ESG and sustainability, and how it is driving investment thinking, and lectures on the subject at Macquarie University.

She is also Chair of Women on Boards Cultural Diversity Committee, a mentor for emerging leaders and a graduate of the news organisation Bloomberg’s New Voices program which provides one-on-one media training for top women executives in finance and business. 

In this podcast, Mahjabeen tells Claire her success is all down to setting milestones along the way every ten years. Despite her 40s target getting temporarily derailed when children came along, Mahjabeen has not veered far off her path. “Things that I aspired to but never thought would happen, have happened,” she says.

Mahjabeen puts her determination down to genes and watching her father build his own business up from scratch. Her family also fostered a love of travel and adventure, with Mahjabeen travelling to study at University of Exeter, UK, and then extensively around Asia and the Middle East while exploring emerging markets for Deutsche Bank, even picking up Bahasa - the form of Malay spoken in Indonesia - along the way.

In this podcast, Mahjabeen talks about how she has been very lucky to work with people from many culturally diverse backgrounds and why having a culturally diverse Board should not, under any circumstances, be ignored.

Tanya Cox has built an impressive board portfolio, which started through Women on Boards in 2001, where she says she did all of the obvious things, like looking on the Vacancy board. 

The trend of one board leading to another started with her inaugural board appointment to Disability Sport Australia, which led  to Wheelchair Sports Australia and then to joining the Australian Paralympic Committee, which she says provided great experience, friendships and connections.

Initially unsure what she could add to sporting boards, she found that her business expertise worked in unison with the sporting backgrounds most board members had, and really balanced out the skills’ matrix.  She stresses that you should never under estimate how much business experience you have and how valuable it can be to a board. 

Tanya is now a now a Non-Executive Director (NED) of the Green Building Council of Australia, which is comprised of the CEOs of leading property CEOs.  Continuing her trend, this led her to becoming Chair of the World Building Council, which comprises  14 board members and 70 countries, which has presented both great challenges and high levels of personal fulfillment.

Tanya says her career experience led her to areas that she didn’t expect, like becoming a NED for Equiem, who provides IT services to the property industry for which she served at Dexus. 

Tanya says that the most important thing is to get started…..find a Not for Profit Board and look at what you have to offer.  No two boards are the same.  It takes a lot more than one to call yourself a NED, so get experience across different boards. And remember boards provide connections. One thing can lead to another, even when you don’t expect it.

Now sitting on six boards, Tanya is at her capacity, but says she has never been happier despite the midnight Zooms.  Like any true success, Tanya is modest, understated and a true inspiration.

In this podcast Megan Motto, CEO of the Governance Institute of Australia, gives us a glimpse into her background, which had an unconventional start as a teacher in film and television and a professional dancer.

Megan gives us her (easy to understand) interpretation of what governance really is – with a few comparisons to scaffolding! She also talks about how she came to lead the Governance Institute, which has historically seen a legacy of older males at the helm.  We hear about Megan’s passion for diversity and how she boldly called Elizabeth Broderick in 2011 to set up a mirror group of Male Champions of Change for her industry at the time.

Megan and Claire also talk the value of governance training and how building a blended board and executive career makes you better at both roles.

If you’re thinking of expanding your governance education, this podcast will help you work out what the next steps might be.

Megan Motto
CEO Governance Institute
Director, Standards Australia
Director CEDA
Director and Chair, NSW Advisory Council

LinkedIn Megan Motto   Claire Braund (host)

From avoiding fisticuffs on the trading floor to conquering Wall Street and running her own financial market regulation consultancy, Sydneysider Amanda Mark is known for her fearless determination and big picture thinking.

It was always Amanda’s dream to work in financial services overseas, so after landing a job in Sydney for a money market broker as a chalky in the early 90s - one of four women on a trading floor of more than 250 men - Amanda secured a role in Morgan Stanley’s Sydney office before getting a transfer to the New York head office. It was in Manhattan that Amanda was to make her biggest impact, and it all started with her elevator pitch.

In this interview, long-time WOB member Amanda tells Claire Braund how she made a lasting impression in the New York office, and - never one to let an opportunity slip - caught the attention of the CEO after literally bumping into him in a lift early one Monday morning.

In this insightful and entertaining conversation, Amanda also discusses the evolving challenges of being a woman working in the financial markets, the devastating experience of being in New York during 9/11 and losing much-loved colleagues in the attacks, working through the GFC and clean-up and moving from the ‘sell and buy side’ to the ‘dark side’ of financial regulation in Australia.

Watch this interview on YouTube HERE

LinkedIn
Amanda Mark 
Claire Braund (host)

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Rebecca Frizelle is known widely for her strong advocacy for the city of Gold Coast. She is one of the largest employers in the area with more than 900 employees under the Frizelle Sunshine Group, her automotive business, presenting 24 global franchises. Her love of cars was ignited when she took up a part-time job in the motor business to help fund her law degree. While her law degree remains unfinished, her undeniable passion for the industry has her name written all over it. Rebecca is the Chief Operating Officer of Frizelle Prestige and a key shareholder in Frizelle Sunshine Automotive and Peter Warren Automotive. She is also the Dealer Principal of Audi Centre Gold Coast, Audi Centre South Brisbane, South Brisbane Jaguar Land Rover and Ferrari Gold Coast.

In this podcast, Rebecca talks of her courageous single mother of four who relocated their family from Canberra to Queensland in 1978 to create a brighter future. Her mother taught her that anything was possible and Rebecca has indeed proven this to be true. An unlikely candidate for a sporting role, Rebecca admits she had no interest in rugby league ten years ago. But that all changed however in 2014 when she became the first female Chair in the NRL code. She was appointed to the Board of the Titans and declared her love of the game. So much so that in 2017, she pursued a personal ownership stake in the Club, of which she is now a 50% shareholder along with her husband.

Rebecca’s portfolio includes directorship with the publicly listed Sunland Group Ltd, Audi Australia Foundation Board, LifeFlight Australia Ltd and Paralympics Australia. More recently, she was approached to join the Community Rebuilding Initiative (BizRebuild) Board chaired by General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove (Retd), to support businesses and communities affected by the 2019/2020 bushfires and to assist in the rebuild of these regional towns. Rebecca’s substantive career and generous contributions to the motor industry and rugby league were formally recognised last year when she was awarded an Order of Australia.

Hear why Rebecca believes sport unites community and her reasons for supporting local.

LinkedIn Rebecca Frizelle | Claire Braund (host)

It’s no surprise Dr Bronwyn Evans AM sticks by the mantra ‘everyone’s an engineer’. As CEO of Australia’s peak engineering body Engineers Australia and recognised as one of the country’s 100 most influential engineers, she can’t understand why everyone doesn’t want to work in her chosen field.

A passionate advocate for getting more women into STEM, it's Dr Evans belief that all children, regardless of gender, have the potential to become engineers.

“It starts right back at the assumptions we make around the play activities of kids. Every four-year-old’s a budding engineer, you’ve only got to watch them play. But, then, the language we use can really change the way we interpret their play,” she tells Claire in this podcast.

With a love for new ideas and technologies and an electrical engineer by trade,

Dr Evans has over 35 year’s experience in various engineering roles, including at Cochlear and GE Healthcare, as well as non-executive board experience in the construction, medical technology, and digital business sectors.

This year she was also appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for “significant service to engineering, to standards and to medical technology”.

She is an Honorary Fellow of University of Wollongong and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, a member of the Champions of Change STEM Group - working to boost the representation of women in leadership positions in STEM - and has also been recognised as a 100 Women of Influence.

In this podcast, Dr Evans talks about why it’s time to get the gender balance right in STEM, how COVID has paved the way for more technology reforms and why problem-solving engineers are the perfect fit for the boardroom.  

LinkedIn: Bronwyn Evans | Claire Braund (host)

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A fourth generation Tasmanian to Chinese parents, in this podcast Lisa Chung AM shares how she has embraced cultural and gender challenges throughout her successful career as a lawyer, Non Executive Director, Managing Partner and Chair. 

Moving from Tasmania to Sydney in her early 20s in a bid to leave the law, Lisa ended up taking a job at Blakes (now Ashurst) where she stayed for 20 years, rising to Partner, Managing Partner and Chair.

Lisa grew up in Hobart with a hard working family who taught her the importance of being adaptable and fitting it. Advice from her father has etched her career - "be comfortable having tea with the Queen at Buckingham Palace as well as a tradie".  

Lisa is an experienced Non-Executive Director, lawyer and Chair, with a long history sitting on the Boards of a range of commercial and for-purpose organisations, spanning a wide range of sectors (see notes). 

Passionate about people and place, Lisa’s executive and board roles have been industry agnostic, choosing roles based on their impact and connection rather the industry - demonstrated by her diverse experience, including:

• Chair of the board of a professional service partnership
• Chair of Urbis (a professional service company)
• Non Executive Director of an ASX
• Chair of a long standing NFP, The Benevolent Society
• Chair of an advocacy organisation
• Being on the board of Australian Unity, a mutual fund
• Chairing family companies 

In this podcast Lisa explores how she overcame cultural and gender challenges, the important role her mentors have played, as well as providing advice on how to approach a board  “interview” – or "peer discussion", as she likes to call it.  Lisa also talks about the benefits of being on multiple boards.

In 2020, Lisa became a member of the General Division of the Order of Australia for significant service to the community through charitable and cultural organisations.

Lisa Chung AM

Non Executive Director, Australian Unity
Chair, The Front Project
NED, Artspace
Maddock, Consultant

LinkedIn  
Lisa Chung AM   
Claire Braund (host)

Claire Braund spoke to 3AW Drive Host, Tom Elliot on 23 Sept 2023 about a decision by HESTA that they will vote against select director re-elections of ASX300 companies where the board has less than 30 per cent of female representation.

Claire says HESTA and other investment firms are taking a stance on “merit”,

“We like to think of merit as something objective … but it’s actually defined by culture, values and expectations … which means only some parts of merit are to do with how hard one works,” she told Tom Elliott.

Read HESTA's four key expectations for ASX300 companies in 2023-24 AGM season HERE

“Don’t take every knock back as a personal failure,” shares Leanne Heywood, accomplished full time NED for multiple ASX listed boards in this episode of In Conversation with Claire Braund. From her 1600-acre farm in Peak Hill in Western NSW, Leanne’s career wasn’t always home grown. When she was the General Manager for Rio Tinto’s Global Copper Concentrate, Leanne would travel to Mongolia one week a month, transitioning from 40 degree heat to minus 40 degrees in a 24 hour travel period, door-to-door.

Leanne reflects on her initial disdain for Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital city, which was unsafe at night and had limited eating options. She decided to change her attitude and became friends with the local women who taught her all about the city, and joined her to eat at local unique spots,  which changed her whole experience.

A Narromine girl originally, Leanne was the School Captain at Narromine High. The daughter of a bank manager, she and her family were accustomed to regularly changing homes and schools for her father’s career. This put her in good stead for a rollercoaster career that saw her latch onto the mining industry early, at a time when it wasn’t common for females to work in the sector and the discrimination was overtly obvious.

She has also spent time in the rural, government and not-for-profit sectors as an experienced leader of transformational change, leading divisional start-ups, organisational restructuring, disposals and acquisitions, including integration.

A long time WOB member, Leanne completed the WOBSX course, our director-led, peer support program to assist women achieve ASX Board roles.  And in March 2019, Leanne did just that — she built a portfolio career as an NED on high profile boards. She shares with Claire the personal hard yards she put in to ensure the successful career she leads today. That’s not to say she hasn’t had her fair share of turndowns! She’s learnt to bounce back and greet feedback with a strategic eye, because nothing is personal. 

Miriam Silva is an experienced board member and senior corporate roles across multiple industries including pharmaceuticals, banking and agriculture. Her influence extends across business, Government, media, Muslim and broader Australian communities.

Educated at The Wilderness School, a non-denominational school for girls in Adelaide, Miriam went on to read mathematics at Adelaide University before launching into the corporate world where she took on roles with ANZ & Elders before becoming COO for FleetPartners.

In 2022 Miriam was made an AM for significant service to the multicultural community of South Australia, and to women. She is also on the South Australian Women's Honour roll, one of the inaugural AFR 100 Women of Influence, winner of the Governor's Multicultural Award for the Private Sector in 2012, Patron and Life Member of the International Women's Day Association (SA) and is the Multicultural Patron for the SA Police Academy.

In this podcast, Miriam talks to Claire Braund about how a diminutive hijab wearing Muslim woman conquered corporate Australia, her rescue mission on the board of the Malek Fahd Islamic School and setting up the Young Directors program.

A cancer survivor, Miriam also discusses the role her faith and resilience have played in her board and career journey.

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Claire Braund talks to Nadia Moffatt about how she overcame an acquired brain injury and is leading by example.  Nadia has built a successful professional and board career as an experienced non-executive director, chair, committee member and advocate in the corporate, public and not for profit sectors across Australia. Current roles include:

• NED, Australian Communication Consumer Action Network;
• Member, My Health Record External Assurance Committee;
• Community Member, Governing Council, Northern Adelaide Local Health Network;
• Community Representative, SA Health Practitioners Tribunal; and
• NED, Brain Injury SA.

Professor Shirley Randell AO - PhD, Hon.DLitt, FACE, FIMLANZ, FAICD, FIPAA, AIE, MEd, BEd, DipDiv, DipREd

A true trailblazer, inspiration and exemplar of gratitude, service and living a rich life.

World renowned for her work with women in Rwanda after the genocide, Professor Shirley Randell AO has had a fascinating and eminent career as an educator, CEO  and board director across the globe.

Dr Randell was recognised in the 2012 Inaugural Australian 100 Women of Influence Awards, the 100 World of Difference Awardees in 2013 by The International Alliance of Women, and the Inaugural Winner of the Sir John Storey Lifetime Achievement in Leadership Award by the Institute of Managers and Leaders Australia and New Zealand. She is an Officer of the Order of Australia and Distinguished Alumni of the Universities of Canberra and New England, Armidale, Australia.

In this fascinating podcast, Dr Randell talks to host Claire Braund about how her career literally went full circle, from teaching in remote Aboriginal communities with her husband at age 18, having four children by the age of 24, returning to study, divorcing and building her illustrious career as an educator, activist, CEO and board director.  After which, she returned to work in remote communities across the globe in Papua New Guinea, Asia and Rwanda to advance female education and equality.

Appointed to her first board at age 34 in the 1960s, Shirley cut a lonely female figure around the boardroom table, teaching her the true value of mentors and working with other women (she counts Joan Kirner, Jenny Blackburn and Susan Ryan amongst her mentors and colleagues) as well as the importance of working with men to achieve results for women.

Still working and serving hard at age 80, Shirley is the epitome of success, grace and gratitude.

Full Profile - Dr Shirley Randell
LinkedIn Dr Shirley Randell,  Claire Braund (host)

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Growing up in Tropical North Queensland, clarinet-playing, science-loving Marguerite Evans-Galea felt like a “square peg in a round hole”. But thanks to her supportive family and a lifelong mentor - who also happened to be a university professor - Marguerite was inspired to pursue a career in STEM.

As she tells Claire in this podcast: “He really did inspire me to thrive. He said, ‘think outside the box, go have a future, believe in yourself’. Those words stuck like glue and were a real inspiration.”

Today Dr Evans-Galea is a leading research scientist, neurogenetic disease specialist and Non-Executive Director who has had a long and distinguished career in Australia and the USA.

She is Director of STEM Careers Strategy with the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, co-founder and co-chair of Women in STEMM Australia and Honorary Fellow at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and has been a member of Women on Boards since 2012.

In this podcast, Dr Evans-Galea talks about how she studied classical music at university before switching to science and falling in love with molecular biology. “I loved the concept of exploring something I couldn't see and DNA was my favorite thing in the world. I'd read a book in grade 11 about the pursuit of the double helix and found it fascinating.”

She also discusses the challenges facing many women in science and shares her own experience when she was let go from her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Utah in 2000 when she got pregnant. As she says: “I felt like I’d been hit with a wet fish”.

Claire and Dr Evans-Galea also talk about the importance of mentors and role models for women in STEM, what scientists and ‘boffins’ can bring to the boardroom and why we all need to take time to connect.

Karen Loon is a Non-Executive Director, and a former senior Big 4 partner. She has worked with the world’s leading banks and is a recognised thought leader and speaker on workplace diversity and inclusion - inspired partly by her own experiences in Australia.

“What really struck me was that I was sitting in boardrooms or sitting in meetings, where there was pretty much I was the only Asian in the room, let alone an Asian Australian woman in the room,” Karen tells Claire in this episode.

She was formerly PwC’s Singapore and Asia-Pacific Diversity Leader and a member of its award-winning Global Diversity Leadership Team. 

A fourth generation Asian Australian who grew up in country music mecca Tamworth in northern NSW, has qualifications in system psychodynamics and governance from INSEAD, and research interests in identity work and organisational change.

Her book Fostering Culturally Diverse Leadership in Organisations, features case studies or lessons from those who smashed the bamboo ceiling. 

In this interview with Claire Karen talks about what we can learn from leaders who smashed the bamboo ceiling and how critical C Suite and other leaders are in creating, changing and challenging culture within an organisation and why board chairs and directors need to think more openly about the benefits of diversity on their boards.

As she says: “To create the most effective boards or organisations you also need environments that encourage innovation, courage, agility, and those things may not happen if people are scared”.

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Sarah-Jane “S-J” Kurtini and Stephen O'Young founded  Tinybeans in 2012.  After moving to Australia with her husband and small daughter, SJ built a reputation as a savvy social media strategist while taking on part time work that she could do while her daughter was napping.  This led to an introduction to Stephen O’Young.

Stephen had the idea for TinyBeans as he sought to track his second son's developmental milestones. Finding that no one would take him seriously as an Asian male trying to launch an App for children, he was looking for a female business partner with marketing expertise. He outlined his concept to SJ, who was sold on the idea after a 30-minute meeting. And the rest they say is history.

Hear how Stephen and SJ built TinyBeans to have more than three million users, 100+ million memories, App of the Day three times, AND how they learned about governance, drew straws to be on the board, flipped the board and listed on the ASX. 

SJ gives a warts and all account of the eight year journey, which saw her move from Australia to New York (which she says was an amazing experience for her family) and now back to Australia's Central Coast, where she is now taking  step back and having a six month sabbatical as she ponders her next project.

Make every day count. That’s the advice from architect and urbanist Professor Helen Lochhead, who was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the 2024 Australia Day Honours for distinguished service to architecture and urban design, to building regulation reform, to tertiary education, and to professional organisations.  

A graduate of both the University of Sydney and Columbia University in New York, Helen is a woman who has certainly made every day count. A recipient of many prestigious travel scholarships and Fellowships including Fulbright, Bogliasco and the Harvard Lincoln/Loeb Fellowship, Helen also became a Churchill Fellow in 2010 to study recent models of urban regeneration that demonstrate a holistic approach to climate change and sustainability. 

In her roles as Deputy NSW Government Architect for 9 years and then through various academic positions and board roles, Helen has worked on and influenced some iconic projects, including Sydney Olympic Park and Sydney Harbour Foreshore.

She has achieved a significant level of peer recognition and been much awarded. In 2019 the Australian Institute of Architects awarded Helen the Paula Whitman Leadership in Gender Equity Prize for her outstanding and determined individual contribution to the advancement of gender equity in architecture. And in 2015 she was appointed the first female Dean of the Faculty of Built Environment UNSW in Sydney and Pro Vice-Chancellor, Precincts in 2020.
An undoubted role model, champion and mentor for current and future female architects, Helen talks to Claire Braund about the challenges and highlights of being an architect and urban designer, the value of mentors and what architects can bring to the boards of organisations.

“What we can do as architects can make a difference to people's lives.  And it's not just about designing beautiful buildings, it's actually about transforming people's lives.”

Podcast host: Claire Braund

Women on Boards (WOB) is an independent and action-oriented organisation founded in 2006 by Claire Braund and Ruth Medd, with a proud history of supporting women to leverage their professional skills and experience into leadership and non-executive-director roles. 

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Michele Adair is a long-time WOB member with great passion for housing all Australians.

As Chair of Community Housing Industry Association NSW and CEO of affordable housing provide Housing Trust on the NSW South Coast, Michelle’s goal is to ensure all Australians have access to the basic human right to somewhere to live.

Aligning her board roles with her values and purpose is very important to Michele. In this podcast she tells Claire how she was drawn to these roles because of the diversity of policy and the complexity of the policy framework.

Michele’s interest in social housing also comes from personal experience, after she found herself a single mother with two young children struggling to keep a roof over their heads in her 30s. It was, she says, ‘a pretty tough gig’ getting by on just $2 a week after paying her rent.

It’s a situation, says Michele, that could happen to any woman - our mums, our grandmothers, our aunties, the ladies next door. “Our housing system is broken and in desperate need of reform and we’re not even scratching the surface,” she says.

A paradigm shift – from governments, the private sector and for-purpose organisations – is needed, she says, to address the housing shortage problem which currently sees 180,000 people on the social housing waitlist.

In the podcast Michele also talks about what’s involved being on the board of affordable housing organisations - from overseeing huge commercial developments and joint ventures to the joy of giving keys to a home to someone who desperately needs it.

In this episode, Claire speaks with Maryanne Puli Vogels, the Chair of Timboon and District Healthcare Services about Australia’s leading online solution for building governance performance. The service is known as the Governance Evaluator and organisations across sectors and disciplines are innovating the way that they function, predict risks, identify gaps, create reports and generate insights through this technology.

Maryanne has a long history in online education dating back to the early 1980s and when she joined the Board of Timboon and District Healthcare Services some four years ago, it was a baptism of fire. She had never been on a Board before and five months into her role, was elected as Chair. The government had recently introduced the new term rule of nine years, which also meant the Board lost six of its existing members and therefore, a lot of history. Maryanne found herself chairing a brand new team who were just as ‘green’ as her.

Maryanne discovered that the organisation had an existing license with Governance Evaluator, yet the service hadn’t been properly utilised or leveraged. It was music to her ears. She dived into the technology and found access to a world of information and knowledge that would not only improve her personal ability to Chair, but to service the multi-purpose organisation and its increasingly growing community.

Each Board member completed an online questionnaire to help identify their insights into the organisation and then worked with a convenor to understand their strengths and areas for growth. A dynamic report was then produced that detailed the organisation’s risks, skills, strategies and gaps, and particularly highlighted how to improve its clinical governance. Four years on and Maryanne can only speak highly of the platform that is intuitive, easy to use, enables simple reporting and is invested in supporting the organisation in the long-term with ongoing data and acumens — not just the current Board members.

As a WOB partner, all WOB members receive preferential member pricing for the Governance Evaluator. 

Find out more about Governance Evaluator here

LinkedIn Maryanne Puli-Vogels | Claire Braund (host)

You may well think Dr Amber Tan has the world at her feet and job offers flowing in. A former Malaysian national who was born and raised in Ipoh (the gateway to the Cameron Highlands hill station), Amber migrated to Melbourne in 2011 with her partner and received an Australian Postgraduate Award scholarship in 2013 to complete her PhD at Monash University. A feat she accomplished in 2017 with no amendments. 

Her thesis critically examined national security and public order laws in Malaysia and their impact on constitutionalism and the rule of law and Amber has also conducted extensive research into human rights abuses under these laws.

Prior to academia, Amber was in private practice as a litigator in Malaysia having won a full scholarship to study at law at Kings College London where she graduated with 1st Class honours in 2007 and as one of only five students in her class to be awarded an Exhibition Prize.

Yet Amber’s employment story is not one of which Australia can be proud. In this podcast with Claire Braund, Amber shares her story  - from her determination as a 14 year old to win an international scholarship to follow her dreams studying law in London to the systemic discrimination she experienced in Australia due to her multicultural background where she says “I felt like my career was crushed”.

Forced to wait tables and sell her paintings to scratch a living for two years, Amber recalls being asked if she spoke English when applying for legal roles. “They weren’t  even looking at my CV beyond looking at my name.”

Today Amber is on a mission to use her research into the challenges and discrimination facing Asian women in the workplace in Australia for positive change. As she says: “I don't want to be just part of another unfortunate statistic. I want to change the statistics".

LinkedIn

Amber Tan (guest)

Claire Braund (host)

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Growing up to Mediterranean parents, Jennifer Grech had to fight to finish high school and go to university.  Breaking family tradition, she graduated as a school teacher.  From there, Jennifer says she accidentally fell into a learning and development role in the pharmaceutical industry, where she worked internationally, ascending to director level at major pharmaceutical AstraZeneca.

After many years in the corporate world, Jennifer is now consulting, using her vast experience to assist organisations in leadership and transformation.  She has also decided that the boardroom is her next calling. 

In this podcast Jennifer shares her journey as someone relatively new to the board arena, including the systematic approach she has taken to learn about boards, how she has built her board collateral, and how she sees her eight applications as a learning process to help define her board value.

Jennifer provides a true and honest account of her challenges and what she’s learned so far. While she’s still is seeking her first elusive board role, we’re sure that with Jennifer’s experience, hard work and approach, that it won’t be long.  Watch this space!

Dr Monique Beedles was not your average teenager. At 15, as well as having posters of Murph Hughes and the Adelaide Oval on her bedroom wall, it was her dream to be CEO of Swiss multinational healthcare company Roche. To this end, she went on to study German and chemistry at school. “I was always interested in medical research from a very young age. But I didn’t know back then that to be the CEO of Roche, your name has to be Roche,” she tells Claire in this podcast.

Undeterred, Monique went on to study pharmacy and gained her first board role with the Australasian College of Pharmacy. Today she is an internationally recognised thought leader and bestselling author of books on strategy, leadership and asset management and a self-confessed cricket tragic. She also has a PhD in strategy, a Master of Finance, 20 years of board experience, is a qualified pharmacist and has been a member of Women on Boards for many years.

“I haven’t really followed the traditional path,” she tells Claire, while sharing her insights on asset management in 2023 - and the shift from traditional ‘physical’ asset management to intangible assets such as data and intellectual property. Monique and Claire also discuss the enduring relevance of her 2011 book Pivot Point about how business decision makers have to prepare for an uncertain future, and look at the challenges for boards post-COVID.

LinkedIn  
Dr Monique Beedles (guest) 

Claire Braund (host)

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Growing up in country Victoria and shadowing her father at work as a teenager, Kelly developed an interest in business that became etched within.

After leaving school she went straight to work in insurance, starting as a fresh-faced junior in a corporate organisation. A move she says, in hindsight, was fundamental to her boardroom success today.

Claire talks to Kelly about how she returned to university as a mature aged student; her diverse career in senior executive roles; and how her breadth of experience ideally positioned her to make an impact. 

They explore the benefits of board programs and developing a network and how the WOBSX program helped Kelly navigate the ASX landscape and secure two ASX roles.

Kelly Humphries
Non Exec Director: NSX Limited
Non Exec Director: Raiz Invest (ASX-RZ)
Non Exec Director: Accident Compensation Service
Non Exec Director: Latrobe Health Services
Commissioner: Victorian Building Authority

LinkedIn  
Kelly Humphries
Claire Braund (host)

Avril Henry in her own words, is a perfect example of what you can do when you’re willing to work hard and have someone who believes in you. Growing up in social housing in a low income family in a mining town in South Africa, at the height of apartheid, Avril was an “English speaking girl who was not expected to amount to anything”. In 2024 Avril - a recognised and awarded expert on leadership, diversity in the workplace, change management, and employee performance - was made a Member of the Order of Australia AM for significant service to business consultancy, project management and to women. 

“Where I came from was grounded in a background of inequity, which is why my life's work has always been about levelling the playing field - whether you’re old or young, female, a migrant or an indigenous person,” Avril tells Claire in this podcast.

Avril arrived in Australia in 1980 with a degree in accounting and economics from the University of Cape Town, with “two suitcases, $500 and a dream” - to live freely in a democratic society.  

Since arriving in Australia  Avril has had a long and varied and interesting career in finance and HR in South Africa, the UK, USA and Australia before setting up her own consultancy in 2003. An internationally-acclaimed keynote speaker and provocateur who is passionate about transforming leadership models, building diversity capabilities and reforming outdated workplace practices. 

In this podcast Avril talks about what motivated her to leave the corporate world and strike out on her own, her quest for fairness and equity and the challenges organisations face around diversity and inclusion.

An early entrant into the school of diversity, Avril has since forged a big reputation around linking diversity and inclusivity to leadership capability and financial outcomes, and says one of her proudest achievements was being part of the history-making Westpac team in 1995 who introduced paid maternity leave.

In this podcast Avril discusses the need to up the ante on gender pay equity and “antiquated” recruitment techniques. “We are making progress, but it needs to be much quicker.”

“When diversity and inclusion first  made it onto the executive and board agenda people talked about diversity and inclusion being for minority groups. I was the first person to come along and say, hold on, if women make  up 52% of the population and people from multicultural  backgrounds make up 53% of the population, and people with disabilities make up 20% of the population, you're  actually not talking about minority groups, you're actually talking about major parts of society and the workforce.”

Podcast host: Claire Braund

Women on Boards (WOB) is an independent and action-oriented organisation founded in 2006 by Claire Braund and Ruth Medd, with a proud history of supporting women to leverage their professional skills and experience into leadership and non-executive-director roles. 

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In this episode, Claire speaks with Arabella Douglas, a Yugambeh/Bundjalung woman with traditional ties to far North NSW and South East QLD. Aboriginality wasn’t something Arabella found within her growing up — it was a process of relating and reflecting to the world around her. At school, she always excelled, but it wasn’t until she moved to Sydney in year eight that teachers took the time to encourage her intellectual ability. Today Arabella’s specialty is providing diversity and indigenous insights into social and economic value. She has degrees in Business, Law, Economics and Aboriginal Studies, and is currently adding a PhD in Economics to her commendable CV.

Serving on boards for more than 10 years, Arabella never commits to more than two positions a year so she can completely devote herself to the organisations she chooses. Currently, she serves as the Crown Lands Manager Director for Reflection Holiday Parks and is a Member of the NSW Housing Appeal Committee. She also advises that anyone serious about learning and growing in their careers engage the support of an executive coach. Arabella’s coach changed the trajectory of her career, helping her to look at her profession objectively and then to groom it as if she wasn’t a part of it. It’s not always about taking the next step up the ladder — sometimes a sideways stride is the best possible move.

Following a nudge by her mother, Arabella, along with her very large extended family of 3000 people, created an innovative business model based on a cousin consortium called Currie Country — Arabella’s “heart work”. It’s a collection of small and medium-sized businesses that congregate on a platform because they are connected to biological ancestry and traditional routes on the Tweed-Byron Coast.

Hear why Arabella thinks it’s important to steer away from your C Suite strengths when stepping into the boardroom and why connection to land is not an Aboriginal monopoly.  

Dr Wendy Craik AM is often described as a woman of many firsts - the first female head of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the first woman to lead the National Farmers' Federation and the first woman Chief Executive of the Murray Darling Basin Commission.  So how does someone who started out with a science degree and PhD in zoology wind up on the board of the Reserve Bank of Australia?

An independent public policy advisor, particularly on issues related to natural resource management, Wendy has over 25 years' experience in public policy.  In this podcast Wendy talks to Claire about her long and interesting career, which has spanned much of our continent and concentrated around natural resource management. It’s a career which has seen Wendy move from documenting fish and coral off Far North Queensland in the 70s and 80s to more recently counting fire ants across the country and crunching numbers in corporate boardrooms.

It was while working at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority that Wendy made the switch from research to organisational management, before moving to the National Farmers Federation. It was, she says, a big switch moving from fish to farming and despite having no farming experience describes the jump as the best career move she ever made and one which allowed her to travel around Australia speaking to farmers.

This exciting time, not without its challenges, saw environmental issues and climate change coming on to the agenda, as well as issues around native title, the sale of Telstra, the introduction of GST and water politics. 

Now Wendy is chairing a national Steering Committee overseeing a 10-year program to eradicate imported fire ants. And never one to turn down a meaty challenge, in 2018 she embraced the opportunity to join the RBA board. While she admits it has been a steep learning curve, Wendy tells Claire it has been a fascinating journey.

Women on Boards marks UN World Day for Cultural Diversity with a panel discussion about cultural diversity and inclusion in board and leadership roles, with guests Shirley Chowdhary, AAP Board Member; and Women on Boards' Cultural Diversity Committee member and proud Yorta Yorta woman, Claire Beattie.

Tune in to listen to this insightful and real conversation, as the panel discusses:

• The backgrounds and lived experiences of our guest
• Why cultural diversity in board and leadership roles matters
• What is cultural inclusion and psychological and cultural safety - How we can support culture & inclusion
• Recognition that cultural diversity is challenging for many of us, and that we can be reluctant to ask questions because we feel ignorant....but that's okay if its done in a respectful way.

Shirley Chowdhary “The most important word that I think of when I think of cultural safety is authenticity. Because the truth is that at the end of the day, every single one of us, regardless of where we come from or who we are or what our background is, we want to be able to take our authentic selves into the workplace. And we don't want to have to change that according to who we are in a room with or who we're in a meeting with, or who's there that day.”

Claire Beattie "I think that everyone comes to work expecting to leave work either feeling the same way they started. So hopefully they start happy and they finish happy or even more enriched as the day goes on. Now, WHS is something that's treated very,very seriously, particularly on work sites and in infrastructure where I work. But people don't understand that psychological damage and emotional damage and trauma is just as hurtful and if not ongoing, as if you fall down a pothole and you twist your ankle or something more serious. So psychological safety and cultural safety go hand in hand. It's very important as leaders and as team members and workmates, that we understand that diversity inclusion is not a bumper sticker. It's not something that you just throw around and you think you've got it. There's a big difference between equity and equality as well. And I invite you to have a think about what those things mean.”

Shirley Chowdhary
Non-Executive Director, Advisory board member and Indigenous consultant.
Shirley is an internationally experienced board director with a diverse set of credentials across law, financial services, funds management, the NFP sector and journalism. Admitted as a lawyer in Australia and the State of New York, she has extensive cross-border experience across Asia.

She is a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion, and has invested throughout her career to address these issues. This work was recognized when she was selected as one of the 2019 AFR 100 Women of Influence.

One of Shirley’s most recent executive roles includes being Chief Executive Officer for the GO Foundation, an Australian Indigenous organisation founded by Adam Goodes and Michael O’Loughlin, providing holistic support and pathways for Indigenous students in Australia.

Shirley now has a portfolio that supports organisations to build collaborative ecosystems connecting shareholder value with a deeper connection to impact and purpose. She believes fiercely in diversity and inclusion as tools for innovation. Shirley is currently a non-executive director on the board of the Australian Associated Press, Chair of the Advisory Board of Octadoc, a health tech startup, and is consulting with a number of diverse organisations including the Criterion Institute and Australia’s largest NFP endowment, the Paul Ramsay Foundation. Shirley is a keynote speaker and presenter for Saxton Speakers and her portfolio includes an extensive array of mentoring and volunteering.

Claire Beattie
Executive Director Asset Activations School Infrastructure NSW, Department of Education NSW & Board member of PCYC NSW and WAGEC.

Claire is a proud Yorta Yorta woman and prominent senior NSW Public Servant with over 21 years of experience in government across agencies such as Transport, Treasury and Education.

Claire has been a three-time finalist in the Premier’s Awards, a Finalist in the Australian of the Year, Young Australian of the Year Awards and Finalist in the Women’s Agenda Awards. Claire is an advocate for young people and the community who believes in making a difference and being the difference. She embodies the spirit of inclusivity and diversity and wants every community and every young person to feel known, valued and cared for. Panel Host -

Claire Braund
Executive Director and Co-founder Women on Boards

WOMEN ON BOARDS' VISION is to have gender balance and cultural diversity within board and leadership roles. If you share our vision we invite you to join Women on Boards.

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We provide the personal networks, tools and resource to support your board and leadership journey at any career stage. Are you board ready?

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Georgie Somerset has built an impressive board portfolio, currently sitting on the board of the ABC, AgForce Queensland, the Royal Flying Doctor Service and Red Earth Community Foundation.

In this conversation, Georgie takes us back to her boarding school days, which she says laid a solid foundation of resilience and taught her how to problem solve – starting with catching a bus from Brisbane to Melbourne for 16 hours to get to school.

Georgie’s board career started at the Queensland Regional & Remote Women's Network in 2009, where she was founding vice president, took a break, then returned as president for seven years. 

Throughout this time, she continued to build her experience by grasping as many volunteering opportunities as she could. Georgie says she cooked lots of cakes and flipped many burgers. She says it was this foundation that taught her how to work with other volunteers and the value of true collaboration.

Georgie talks about her board progression, lessons learned and what inspires her, saying “my community foundation really feeds my soul” and “if you have the right framework and the right foundations, you can actually trust the process and the people to take you there".

Listen to the full fascinating interview.

Georgie Somerset's current board roles
President, AgForce Queensland
Director Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC)
Director Royal Flying Doctor Service (Qld)
Chair Red Earth Community Foundation
Director Children’s Health Queensland

Claire Braund talks to Kerrie Akkermans about how her journey has taken her full circle, from a young Girl Guide where her mother was Girl Guide Commissioner, to CEO of Girl Guide’s SA.  

A Willundera girl from South Australia’s wine region, Kerrie completed a BA, started a job and then returned to uni to complete a communications degree.

Founding her own consulting business at just 32 after her first child, Kerrie built an impressive client list of iconic Australian brands such as Hills Industries (aka Hills Hoist) and became a sought-after public speaker on lifetime value and customer experience.

Kerrie talks about her decision to return to the workforce following major life changes, including a divorce and the death of her parents.

The discussion provides valuable insights into how Kerrie built her board career through her broad network and by differentiating herself; how her career and board roles have been complementary; and how being on boards has helped her to become a much better CEO, teaching her to find common ground and understanding the importance of collegiality.

If you are on a board or aspiring to serve on one, you would know the name Susan Oliver. As a child, Susan was fascinated with construction sites and loved the smell of raw concrete. Her passion for the traditionally male-centric industry led her to be the first woman to graduate with a Bachelor in Building at the University of Melbourne. Her life has remained an exploration of risk-taking because being equally challenged and in awe of technology, science and big companies doing big things has not only kept her in the game, but leading the game.

Since 1996, Susan has been involved in the governance of global companies such as IFM Investors, Transurban Group, and the restructure of Centro Group. Her expertise is in rebuilding stakeholder trust and finding the potential in legacy assets, all whilst mapping a path for a company to succeed into an unknown future. Before joining boards, Susan enjoyed a long career in technology and futures consulting, culminating with leading the Commission for the Future for the Australian Government. The Honourable Barry Jones who is on the National Trust’s list of Australian Living Treasures, was pivotal to Susan’s journey — a mentor, inspiration and friend.

Close to Susan’s heart is a range of not-for-profit causes. She currently sits on the board of Melbourne Theatre Company, The Wheeler Centre and Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, and previously was governor and on the national board for The Smith Family. She helped to found The Big Issue in Australia, a fortnightly, independent magazine that is sold on the streets by homeless, marginalised and disadvantaged people, and co-founded Scale Investors to fund female led start-ups.

Hear from Susan why big companies need to stop reacting and start strategically and intelligently preparing for the dynamic world we live in.

Susan's current board roles include:

• Independent Member of Global Investment Committee for IFM Investors
• Advisory Board, Fishermans Bend
• Chair, The Wheeler Centre
• Founding Chair, Scale Investors
• Director, Melbourne Theatre Company
• Director, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra
• Judge, Entrepreneur of the Year

As a highly successful marketer, Cheryl Hayman is a portfolio director currently sitting on three ASX boards as well as not for profits.  

Hear Cheryl's story, from wanting to be an actress to studying marketing somewhat by chance. Cheryl discusses how she built a successful marketing career and transitioned her marketing skills to the boardroom.

Cheryl and Claire also explore the importance of culture, how to add value, how to know you're adding value and how to know when to move on.

‘If the door is closed, climb through the window’. That’s the message from board recruitment specialist and director, Bernadette Uzelac, who has been made a member of the Order of Australia (AM), for significant service to the community of the Barwon Southwest region in Victoria.

Growing up in Geelong, Bernadette was married with a baby and selling Mary Kay products by the time she was 18. Three years later she had completed a commerce degree and welcomed her second child. By the 1980s, driven by a hunger to put her own stamp on something, Bernadette started her own recruitment business - despite having no experience.

“I jumped off that great big cliff face into the black hole,” she tells Claire Braund in this podcast. “I had four weeks of annual leave payments, borrowed some money from my father to buy furniture, rented an office and waited for the phone to ring.”

Today Bernadette is an accomplished CEO, entrepreneur and business leader who sits on the Board of the Geelong Cemetery Trust, and was the first female president of the Geelong Business Club in its 50 year history .

In this podcast, Bernadette discusses the changing landscape of recruitment - from the ‘wild west’ of the 80s to today’s focus on gender-equitable practices and avoiding unconscious bias - and the increasing role of AI in the recruitment space. She also shares her top recruitment specialist tips for anyone seeking board roles and discusses the critical importance of networking.

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Sally Macindoe is Executive Counsel and Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Norton Rose Fullbright and Vice President at the MCC. But that's not how she started out.

In this podcast Sally talks to Claire Braund about her journey, from how she was appointed partner at Deacons (now Norton Rose Fullbright) while she was pregnant with her second child, to becoming an equity partner; being the first woman elected to their Board; and later appointed Chair of the Board / Partnership Council.  And how she stepped back from it all.

Sally discusses why she decided to make the unprecedented step back from being an equity partner, which caught all by surprise, and how she knew that "unless she made the change she wouldn’t be empowered to make change in her life”.

Sally says that she hopes that her path has inspired others that you’re not defined by your ranking in the equity partnership.

As Vice President of the MCC, Sally also talks about the challenges the MCC has faced during COVID and the sheer sadness and perspective that the empty stadium has brought.

Sally also discusses diversity and inclusion and how it extends to gender, race and now age, with four generations working in some firms.

Sally Macindoe
Executive Counsel (Planning and Environment)
Global Head, Diversity & Inclusion Norton Rose Fullbright
Vice President MCC

LinkedIn  Sally Macinoe  Claire Braund (host)

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In this podcast, Margot Foster AM OLY talks to Claire Braund about the very real challenges that face sports boards today from corporate governance, to best practice, to competing state and national interests, to the evolving responsibilities of directors.

Margot is the Director of The Lyceum Club, NST Member Selection Advisory Committee member of National Sports Tribunal Australia, Governance and Integrity Consultant at SIGPA and inaugural Chair of the World Athletes Election Oversight Panel (formerly IAAF), among her many roles.

A former Olympian and a lawyer, Margot has a finely honed understanding of team dynamics, high performance, attention to detail and excellence.

She won Gold in rowing at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland, and holds the title till this day. Her rowing profession came to a brutal end in 1988 when a panel of male selectors unilaterally decided they wouldn’t send any female contesters to the Seoul Olympics.

While the doors closed on her professional sporting career, Margot has remained at the strategic heart of countless sports boards since she was 18 and hasn’t looked back.

In 1989, Margot was appointed to the Melbourne Olympic Bid Committee for 1996 Games, which exposed her to power brokers lobbying to host the Olympics. It was at the time when no one talked about governance and Margot had to find her way autonomously. It taught her invaluable lessons and equipped her with the grit and determination needed to navigate the terrain of sport boards.

The challenges have been vast and varied, Margot admits, and governance remains at the peak of the list. Sports boards are driven by peoples’ passion and love for the game, but this is deeply rivaled by shifting government requirements, increasing risks, professionalization across the sector and changing television rights. Margot explains this is why the type of director required for sports boards is evolving amidst the inevitable and persistent challenges of member-based bodies, the federated model, and the fraught field of integrity.

In this podcast, Margot cautions sporting organisations that if you ignore history, you peril. 

Margot Foster - AM, OLY, Non-Executive Director

• Director of The Lyceum Club
• NST Member Selection Advisory Committee member of National Sports Tribunal Australia
• Governance and Integrity Consultant at SIGPA
  Inaugural Chairman of World Athletes Election Oversight Panel (formerly IAAF)
• Director and Vice President of Motorsport Australia
• Founder and Director of Talk the Talk Consulting
• Committee Member and Former President of Olympians Club of Victoria

LinkedIn  

• Margot Foster AM OLY
• Claire Braund (host)

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Mary Wooldridge is a woman who believes that if you want change on the big social issues then you get engaged in purposeful action to get policy change and action taken.

As Director of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, the issues currently in her sights are gender inequality, including closing the 14.2% gender pay gap, and ensuring that women and men are equally represented, valued and rewarded in the workplace.

As a Victorian Member of Parliament from 2006 to 2020 with several Ministerial portfolios (Mental Health, Community Services and Women’s Affairs) Mary had a strong reform agenda. This included establishing the Commissioner for Children and Young People and Australia's first Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People, instigating the Shergold Report into Reform of the Human Services Sector to improve partnerships between the government and community sector organisations, implementing the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022 and being instrumental in establishing Our Watch, the national family violence prevention agency.

 Prior to being elected to Parliament, Mary was the CEO of The Foundation for Young Australians and worked with McKinsey & Company and Consolidated Press Holdings. She is now Chair of the Australian board of Global Citizens - whose mission is to end extreme poverty worldwide by 2030

In this podcast, Mary speaks to Claire about why the Liberal Party should implement quotas for women, why we need to be ever vigilant about gender equality in the workplace and why Australia needs to invest in all industries in our COVID world, not just male-dominated industries like construction, to ensure men and women can both benefit equally from any government-funded recovery.

Further Information about Women on Boards (WOB)

Turning diversity into a superpower

Born in Tamil-speaking southern India, Anita Kumar was the first girl in her family to leave home at 17 to go to university.

Today Anita lives in Sydney and is an experienced CEO, social entrepreneur and passionate advocate for the rights of children and families, especially those dealing with complex life issues or living in vulnerable circumstances.

But her decision in 1990 to study engineering eight hours from home was less about following in the footsteps of her father - an early adopter of technology who worked at the University of Madras- and more about putting off marriage.

“It was just a way to get some time. I can’t tell you what a great opportunity that was for four years,” Anita tells Claire in this podcast. After her final exam, her parents were there straight away. “I knew what was coming.”

And so it was that Anita and her then husband arrived in Australia in the late 90s. In this podcast, Anita describes the isolation and difficulty negotiating a new life as a young mother in a strange country, the discrimination she faced applying for jobs in her early career and how she turned diversity into her superpower.

“I spoke fluent English and I had never faced discrimination before that but now it was hitting me from all directions. But all I can say is I wouldn't be who I am today, if not for those six years.”

From volunteering with Burwood Community Welfare services, helping domestic violence survivors, Anita then worked her way from an admin role at The Infant’s Home Child and Family Services in Ashfield to become CEO.

In 2012 she joined 150 other CEOs from around the world on the Executive Education program at Harvard Business School looking at non-profit management.

Since 2017 she has been the CEO of Early Start, a collaborative initiative between the Commonwealth Government, The Abbott Foundation and the University of Wollongong to positively impact on the life trajectories of children growing up in regional and remote Australia.

LinkedIn  
Anita Kumar  (guest)
Claire Braund (host)

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Building a franchising empire, family business and cultural diversity

Sara Pantaleo is a businesswoman who has always loved working and mentoring people.

Migrating to Melbourne from Italy with her family as a teenager, Sara went on to work with mainframe systems in IT operations at NAB. In 1996 she joined La Porchetta as Distribution and Administration Manager – taking a major shift from the corporate environment into family business. Appointed as CEO in 2005 and to the board in 2010, after her brother was tragically killed in a road accident, Sara was instrumental in driving La Porchetta’s growth to become the largest, licensed, a-la-carte restaurant franchise in Australasia.

Her passion for franchising as a business model has been reflected in service on the boards of the Franchise Council of Australia and Family Business Australia - the peak body for a sector that accounts for almost half a million businesses and 50% of the Australian workforce.

Sara is an inaugural member of WOB’s Cultural Diversity Committee and in this podcast she talks to Claire about growing up in Italy, making the move from the corporate world into running a hugely-successful family business and dealing with systemic gender and cultural discrimination along the way.

Find out more

Sara Pantelao

Claire Braund (host)

Women on Boards (WOB)

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Julie Green has been a member of WOB for more than 11 years, and during this time, has served on a range of significant boards. She grew up in the UK, went to The Frances Bardsley Academy for Girls in Romford in Essex, and continued her education right through to A level, which opened the doors to chartered accounting. Her years in London exposed her to audit, small and large companies, estates and taxation, making Julie the multi-disciplinary board member she is today.

She qualified at age 22, became a manager at age 23 and in 1987, was interviewed for a position in Melbourne that marked the beginning of her life in Australia. She was a business advisor for 10 years with chartered firms in the UK and Australia, including Ernst & Young, before she changed career paths. As one of the most senior women in her industry, she was surrounded by an environment of men, which encouraged her to think deeply about her core purpose in life. Julie discovered that she wanted to use her financial acumen to promote healthier communities and gravitated to community sectors where she could make the biggest difference.

This has seen Julie move into healthcare, water, transport, infrastructure and emergency services. Today, this sees Julie serve as Non-Executive Director for RAVC, Greening Australia, Loddon Mallee Waste & Resource Recovery Group Board, Advisory Board Member for RedGrid and Deputy Chair at Maldan Hospital. Many know of Julie from her time with the RAVC — which provides mobility, home and leisure services to 2.3 million members — and her active campaigning rurally to be successfully voted onto the board, where she has remained the past seven years.

In this podcast, Claire and Julie discuss the need for the environment sector to really innovate and leap frog for change, the difference between being a NED and on the Advisory Board, and what the workforce may look like in the next few years post-COVID. 

LinkedIn Julie Green | Claire Braund (host)

When it comes to getting the most out of your LinkedIn page, content is great but it’s no match for connection. That’s the message from LinkedIn expert Karen Tisdell, who talks to Claire Braund about how LinkedIn has changed over the years and the importance of content AND connection when it comes to directors putting themselves out there”. 

As she says, “if you have a really great profile and you’re putting out content but you haven’t made the effort to connect with people to build your network, then you’re just shouting into the wind”.

With a long background in the recruitment industry, Karen was an early adopter of LinkedIn, which she describes as “like a Rolodex of everybody you’ve ever met and everybody you’d want to meet”. 

Now an in-demand LinkedIn profile writer and trainer, Karen shares her tips on getting the most out of LinkedIn, how to own your profile through authentic and engaging storytelling and how to build real relationships with people who can help you reach your professional goals. "For board directors, putting content out is fantastic - but we know that success is so often about who you know and who knows you.”

Karen Tisdell (guest)

Claire Braund (host)

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In this Women on Boards Honours series, WOB Executive Director Claire Braund talks to the 12 WOB members who were recognised in the 2024 Australia Day Honours.

In this episode Claire speaks to Warrnambool cattle and sheep producer and founding member and chair of Food and Fibre Great South Coast, Georgina Gubbins, who was awarded an OAM for service to primary industry, and to the community.

As she tells Claire “I wouldn't probably be sitting here having received this award if it hadn't been for Women on Boards!.”

Georgina started her career as a nurse then moved to Victoria’s Western District in the mid-90s to help on the family farm with husband. After he walked out, Georgina stayed with her two daughters and built Maneroo into a well-known prime lamb and beef cattle property.

“I call myself an accidental farmer because I only stayed on farms so that my two children could have continuity of life. Their life had been ripped apart. That's why I took on the farming, to have stability for the children.”

In this podcast she talks about the challenges she faced becoming an independent and successful female farmer while raising two daughters and about the tragic death of her brother Simon, who died by suicide.

Known as one of Australia's best and most innovative sheep and beef producers on his farm Murroa, Simon shot himself in 2003. His death sent shockwaves across rural Australia and Georgina’s family determined from the outset that there would be no pretence about the manner of his death. As Georgina wrote an article in The Age later that year: "Things happen for a reason and are sent to teach us a lesson”

In 2012 Georgina’s family established the Simon Gubbins Scholarship to study agricultural science at New Zealand’s Lincoln University, aligning with her deep passion about affording career opportunities to young people in agriculture and agribusiness in Australia. 

Content warning: This podcast discusses suicide. If you or anyone you know needs help:

• 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732
• Lifeline on 13 11 14
• Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467
• BeyondBlue on 1300 22 46 36

Headspace on 1800 650 890

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This week, Claire talks to the ever-talented Ian Pollard, Director, well-known Chair, Executive Coach, actuary, statistician and author of six publications. With multiple degrees ranging from corporate finance to French and philosophy, Ian also played professional tennis, which took him to the USA at 18 in the Davis Cup squad. Injuries to both legs halted his tennis career and saw him return to his true love, academia.

One of six children, all actuaries, Ian talks fondly of his father, who played a pivotal role in shaping the person that he is today. In fact, Ian’s father was one of the first professors at Macquarie University and started the first ever actuary course there in the late 1960s.

Ian’s first job was a wonderful opportunity at Sydney’s first bank, Development Finance Corporation, which exposed him to the world of investment banking and led to his first Chair role at age 25. Since, Ian has served on countless boards and has passionately coached senior executives in leadership roles for more than 20 years. His deepest single interest, however, is how people, teams and organisations grow. Alongside his daughter Jess, Ian has co-authored books on the subject and together they lead workshops.

Hear about Ian’s wide and eclectic interests, the importance of improving our diversity in Australia and why corporations should be investing in their human capital.

We hope you enjoy this WOBChat with retired Brigadier Alison Creagh AM. Command Senior Chief.

Fittingly released on Anzac Day, this podcast is from a fascinating WOBChat we held on 11 November 2020 (WOBChats are our fortnightly online member learning and networking events).

Alison Creagh is a retired brigadier in the Australian Defence Force and was recently made a Member of the Order of Australia. 

In this WOBChat, Alison talks to hosts and WOB founders Claire Braund and Ruth Medd, as well as the WOBChat participants, about how serving has assisted her board career, her journey and her approach to governance. 

Alison’s board roles include:

• NED, SME Gateway 
• Advisory Group, archTIS
• President, Rowing ACT
• Chair, ACT Ministerial Advisory Council for Veteran and their Families
• Chair Board of Governors, The Road Home
• NED, The Hospital Research Foundation
• Defence Ambassador, ACT Defence Industry Advisory Board
• Member, AustCyber Node Industry Advisory Group
• Trustee, Commando Welfare Trust
• Classification Advisory Panel Member, Paralympics Australia
• NED, Veterans Film Festival
• Services Member, Veterans Review Board
• Adjunct Lecturer, UNSW Canberra
• Ambassador, Natasha's Wood Foundation

Kerryn is the Managing Director of Directors Australia, a national board consulting and non-executive director recruitment firm.

In this podcast Kerryn shares her diverse background, what she’s seeing in the recruitment space and offers advice for candidates.

With her early career aspirations to fly jets not possible, Kerryn wanted to work in the control tower, but on the guidance of her father ended up studying law, albeit unenthusiastically.  She tempered this by joining the Army Reserves in her first year of university to fulfil her desire to serve.

Kerryn ‘served’ for many years in various capacities while studying and working, where she excelled, winning the Sword of Honour as top student of her training regimen.  She credits her time in the army as the foundation of her deep leadership and management experience.

After graduating from university Kerryn worked as a lawyer for only a short time, before literally stumbling across a job in parliament. Her initial contract was for two months on the Fitzgerald Inquiry and she ended up staying for 10 years, ascending to senior management and working at the cutting edge across 25 parliamentary enquiries.

After 10 years in parliament and separating from her husband, Kerryn moved into consulting to help her balance family and work. She purchased the name ‘Directors Australia’ knowing it was what she wanted to do and has grown the business consistently ever since. 

Kerryn discusses how she joined her first board by accident and the key things she is seeing from her clients in the board recruitment space.  She provides advice for candidates on the things they need to clarify when applying for a board role, including 'what value will you bring to a board?' and 'how will you brand yourself?' - which she says candidates typically don’t do well.

Kerryn Newton
LLM, MBA, MA, Grad Dip (Applied Finance and Investment), FAICD, FGIA, FIML

• Chief Executive Officer, Directors Australia
• Board of Trustees, Brisbane Grammar
• NED, Energy Queensland

LinkedIn  

• Kerryn Newton
• Claire Braund (host)

Carmel Macmillan has more than 40 years’ experience in the marketing sector and more than 15 years as a Non-Executive Director (NED), but it is her transparency about her personal life and lived experience that has contributed to her successful career. She was one of the first women in Brisbane to be appointed manager of a large company. Unbeknownst to many of her colleagues, while juggling her corporate responsibilities for Golden Casket Lottery Corporation, she was also caring for her infant son who wasn’t meeting his development milestones. Times have changed and with the support of WOB’s My Mentoring Program, Carmel was given the confidence to articulate her story.

While Carmel’s son is classically considered to have a disability, Carmel is quick to identify his many extraordinary abilities. She shares in this episode how caring for her son inspired her to serve on purpose-driven organisations that align with her values, including NED for Women on Boards, the MS Society of Queensland and the Mater Foundation. Raised by her proud Italian family in Brisbane, a strong sense of community has always been integral to her choices.

Carmel’s board portfolio consists of national and state-based organisations in disability, health, commercial property, member-based and arts. She adds value through business transformation — specifically strategy, digital and innovation — while actively championing the client perspective within the Board environment.  She is now on the hunt for an organisation in the disability and aged sector, as she navigates caring for her 88 year-old mother who has Alzheimer’s Disease.

Carmel’s board roles include:

• NED, Women On Boards
• Board Director, The Mater Foundation
• Board Director, Multiple Sclerosis Society of Queensland

Victoria Weekes has had a long, impressive, and principled board career.  She is an accomplished non-executive director with experience across a diverse range of business sectors in listed and major private and public sector organizations.

Migrating to Australia at the age of two, she spent much of her teenage years on the family’s rural property where she learned to muster cattle. Victoria went on to complete a law commerce degree and then joined a major law firm, however she soon realized that private practice was not her cup of tea.  After just six months she jumped at the opportunity to move into finance, where she forged a successful executive career in banking and financial services, with C suite roles in ASX10 and major listed international companies including Citigroup and Westpac.

Victoria started her board journey at a young age after making a deliberate decision, so she could use her business and strategic skills across diverse sectors.  Her first board role was with Cure Brain Cancer. While finding the initial transition challenging, she went on to establish an enviable portfolio.

She was recently appointed to the Board and Audit & Risk Chair of Alcidion (ASX:ALC), a leading healthcare technology provider and is the immediate past Chair of Sydney Local Health District and former Chair of OnePath Custodians, ANZ’s $45b retail public offer superannuation fund acquired by the IOOF in 2020.    She is current Deputy Chair of SGCH Community Housing; a member of the Library Council of NSW since January 2019; and President of FINSIA - among her current roles.

A passionate advocate for gender equality, Victoria was a founder and the inaugural Chair of the Australian Gender Equality Council, a role which she discusses with passion and heart.

She talks openly to Claire about her period of renewal, surviving the witness box in the Banking Role Commission, the importance of establishing and consistently following your values, humility and how we really haven’t come as far as we think with the gender pay gap.

Hacia Atherton has defeated all odds. In this episode of In Conversation with Claire Braund, Hacia tells how she was crushed by her 600kg horse in 2017 when training to qualify for the World Equestrian Games. Doctors said she’d never walk, let alone ride again, but four years and 14 operations on, Hacia is more than walking — she’s inspiring others with her story of turning trauma into triumph as a keynote speaker and courage coach.

While in recovery, Hacia became a qualified Certified Public Accountant (CPA). She’s also the Chief Commercial Officer for her family’s business, Atherton, which has been in operation for over 130 years and is a world leader in manufacturing sterilisation and infection control equipment. A passionate advocate for increased female participation in skilled trades, Hacia established the not-for-profit Empowered Women In Trades in November 2020 because Atherton could never find female tradies. Her aim is to facilitate cultural change, safely improve workplace psychology and to educate women about the opportunities available across the 62 skilled trades in Australia.

If that’s not impressive enough, she’s also a Committee Member for the CPA Australia Emerging Leaders Network to guide the career development of young business professionals and serves as an Advisory Board Member for Real Time Learning Australia, following WOB’s Women in Leadership Program, which she attests, gave her the clarity on the direction of her career.

Hacia is one to watch as she continues to conquer her fears and empower women to smash stereotypes and raise the bar.

Christine Hawkins AM FAICD has had an illustrious executive and board career. In 2019 she was awarded  Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in recognition of her long-standing service to business, commerce and primary industry.

Among her many roles, Christine was the co-founder of the Grains and Legumes Nutrition Council, serving as the inaugural chair 2005-2009, and is currently the Managing Director of Cinnabar International, a corporate advisory business. She was the deputy chair for Grains Research and Development Corporation 2002-2005, where she prepared for the deregulation of the wheat industry, as well serving numerous other boards and committees.

Christine’s potential was identified early by the Reserve Bank of Australia, awarding her a university scholarship and then taking her on after graduating, where she worked for 10 years, interspersed with academic placements after the birth of her first child.

In this podcast, Christine draws on her extensive experience as a board director and Chair to provide invaluable advice on exactly what to include in your application, how to prepare for an interview and how to interview well - including what not to say.

Christine generously shares and discusses her “Director skills - lessons from the trenches”, explaining four answers you need to have prepared before any interview (a must for all current and aspiring board directors) and why it’s so important to be authentic.

Christine Hawkins AM FAICD
Managing Director, Cinnabar International PL
Chair, Australian School of Accounting
NED, Chair Fred Hollows Foundation Kenya
NED, Kimbriki Environmental Enterprises PL
Member, EPA NSW
Founder, Wheat Quality Australia PL
Chair (co-founder) Grains & Legumes Nutrition Council, 2005-2009
Deputy Chair, Grains Research & Development Corporation, 2002-2005

Dr Jan Tennent: Making the leap from the lab bench to the boardroom

In this Women of Honour podcast Claire Braund talks to Dr Jan Tennent OAM - an internationally recognised researcher with specialist knowledge of antimicrobial resistance mechanisms and the discovery and commercialisation of vaccines.

Jan was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for her service to research science, and to business, and today Jan says she hopes to use the OAM “a platform for my future work to remove barriers to women and indeed to all great scientists”.

But despite being six foot tall with a head of long white blond hair, Jan says when she moved from the lab bench to the board tables of big biotech companies “it was still really hard to get noticed around the boardroom”.

As she tells Claire Braund in this podcast, her ‘love affair’ with research began last century, on the first day of the second year of her science degree at Monash University. 

Now a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering and the Australian Society for Microbiology and a Principal Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Jan’s specialist skills and knowledge gathering in microbiology, molecular biology, antimicrobial resistance mechanisms and vaccine development came from 18 years working as an applied research scientist at Monash during her PhD, as a post-doctoral researcher in the medical school at Umeå University, Sweden, and then as a senior research scientist and program manager at CSIRO Animal Health, Parkville.

Through subsequent executive roles at CSL, Pfizer and ConnectBio, Jan gained more than a decade of experience in the translation and commercialisation of research outcomes to products and practices for the benefit of humans and animals. Her most recent executive role was as CEO of Biomedical Victoria, the premier voice for linking medical research to clinical care in Victoria (2012-2019).

These days, she says she is proud to mentor many ‘next-gen’ researchers and is inspired to apply and share my knowledge and experience through a number of advisory panel appointments and non-executive director governance roles including with the eviDent Foundation, Apiam Animal Health (ASX:AHX), AusBiotech, and Agriculture Victoria Services.

In this podcast, Jan talks to Claire Braund about falling in love with science, living and working in Sweden - “suddenly my world opened up way beyond Footscray and the suburbs of Clayton  to the other end of the world” - and what it was like working for more than a decade with CSIRO as a young female research scientist in the 80s and 90s.

She also discusses the highs and lows of working in the global bioscience space with top-flight companies including CSL and Pfizer and some of the major career challenges she has had to overcome as a leading woman in STEM.

Claire and Jan also chat about what prompted her to take on her first NED role with Tweedle Child and Family Health Service in 2011 and her subsequent move into the boardrooms of big biotech companies - and how having a science background helped around the boardtable. As she says: “In science there is no such thing as a silly question. And in fact it's exactly the same at the board table.”

Podcast Host: Claire Braund OAM, Women on Boards Executive Director and co-founder.

Subscribe (FREE) or join Women on Boards HERE.

She’s spent years working with children and animals (a combination many of us would steer clear of) and yet Gaye Hamilton says the transferable skills gained in secondary science education and zoo management paved the way for her varied and fascinating career and board journey.

“Children and animals are equally unpredictable but also rewarding when you get the chance to stick with it,” Gaye tells Claire in this podcast.

Today Gaye is Deputy Chancellor at Victoria University, Chair of the Western Bulldogs Community Foundation board and board member of Western Chances, a not-for-profit that helps young people in western Melbourne who are facing financial barriers achieve their potential.

But Gaye started her professional career as a high school teacher before joining the Zoo Education Service, working at Melbourne Zoo. She then went on to become Director of Werribee Open Range Zoo before moving to Museum Victoria as Director of Scienceworks in the mid-90s, redeveloping the museum and building and opening the new Melbourne Planetarium.

In 2002, Gaye became Director of Museum Operations with Museum Victoria, overseeing daily operations of Scienceworks, Melbourne Museum, Immigration Museum and the Royal Exhibition Building, the position she retired from at the end of 2004.

In the 1990s Gaye joined her first board with the Gould League of Victoria. There followed over the next 30 years board appointments where, as a trusted member of the western Melbourne community, Gaye has been able to indulge her passions for sport, education and the environment.

This has included positions on the Old Treasury Building Committee of Management, the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre Trust, the People and Parks Foundation board, the Western Bulldogs Football Club Board, the Zoos Victoria Board, the State Sports Centres Trust, the Council of Victoria University and most recently the Western Chances board and Chair of the Western Bulldogs Football Club Community Foundation board.

As she tells Claire: “It’s been quite the rollercoaster.”

Trish Egan is a born and bred Sydney girl, but she has had a lifelong love of horses from a young age, further fuelled when Dad would take her to the races as a child. Looking back, 12-year-old Trish - who secretly penned a letter to the Chairman of the Australian Jockey Club asking how she could secure her “dream job” of being a strapper - would never have thought she’d be taking the reins as Chair of the Australian Turf Club Foundation over four decades later.

Despite being told that “stables were not the place for young ladies” and perhaps she needed to think about a different career, Trish never gave up on her racehorse dream.

Now, after years after cutting her teeth with Unilever and going on to carve out a successful career in marketing and sales with multinationals such as SmithKline Beecham and Kellogg’s, then moving to the not for profit sector with Vision Australia and now as COO of Diabetes NSW & ACT, Trish’s board journey has led her back to the stables.

In 2015 she started her NED career when she was appointed by the NSW Minister of Gaming and Racing as an independent director of ATC in Sydney.

Now Chair, she is playing a role in securing a future for the industry - “it's really important that you have an understanding of what the next generation thinks about your product, not just the generation you're targeting” - and ensuring the welfare of the ex-racehorses as Trustee of Racing NSW Thoroughbred Welfare Fund.

LinkedIn: Trish Egan | Claire Braund (host)

Further Information about Women on Boards (WOB)

For further information about WOB membership, events & services, please visit our website.

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Join as a Full Member for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

A highly experienced corporate finance partner with Grant Thornton, Holly made the leap to look for her first board role once her children started school and she had some more time.

Claire Braund talks to Holly about the steps she undertook to achieve her first board role with Kids Giving Back (a great NFP that teaches kids about reciprocity), including how she set herself a timeframe, the courses she did and the actions she took to become board ready.

Holly also shares key tips that helped her along the way.

In the wake of the Optus cyber-attack, in this special update we talk to Matt Fehon AM, partner at McGrathNicol.  Matt has led some of the largest and highest profile fraud, corruption, and regulatory investigations in Australia.

He is one of the key presenters in our new 5-part program Security Risks and Risk Management for boards.  The program starts on the 20 October and consists of 4 one hour webinars plus a fifth panel session in Sydney at the end (also via livestream).

Here Matt provides an overview of what will be covered in the program, including: -

• His view on the key risks boards are currently facing and his perspective what boards should be taking from the Optus cyber-attack .
• Why security is so important for Boards at the moment.
• The focus of Module 1 (which Matt presents) on Risk Management Programs.
• The key takeaways you can expect from the series.

The 5 part series is availabe On Demand HERE

Module 1 | Risk Management Program with Matt Fehon AM & Caroline Mackinnon
Module 2 | Cyber Security Risk with Joss Howard & Stephanie Lo
Module 3 | Supply Chain Risk with Rhyan Stephens & Joanne Bermingham
Module 4 | National Security Risk with Sam Boarder
Module 5 | Panel Session including networking and lunch with Zorana Bull, Abigail Goldberg and Dr Sarah Morrison.

Further Information:

Find out more about Women on Boards
Visit our Events Calendar
Subscribe (free) or join Women on Boards
Follow us on LinkedIn

#SecurityRisk #cyberattack #riskmanagement #cybersecurity #databreach

This week Claire talks with Jon Brett, highly esteemed NED and Chair to WOBSX’s Rosalind Dubbs and Helen Lynch Syndicates.

Born in Johannesburg, Jon grew up in apartheid South Africa. His career began when he became a partner of Grant Thornton, and then the Deputy CEO of a large industrial conglomerate called Unidev Limited. Jon discusses managing more than 1,000 employees, nine hospitals, 32 supermarkets, 130 retail stores and two manufacturing plants. Immigrating to Australia where Jon’s sister lived, his first entry into the Australian workforce was as Managing Director of Techway Limited in 1995, the internet banking pioneer for CBA, Advance Bank and St George.

Always on the lookout for a challenge, Jon has been consistently interested in innovation and new products, of which many he has taken through to listing. He set up the First Wine Fund with a colleague and invested in five wineries, which were later acquired by Vocus group, where Jon maintained a share. From a small listed company with a market cap of $5 million, Vocus listed on the ASX in July 2010. It has grown to a market cap of over $4.8 billion in less than six years, becoming Australia's fourth largest Telco.

Jon currently sits on the boards of CTM Australia & New Zealand, Mobilcom, Moore Park Golf Club and Soho Property App, and is Chair for Stride and Equity Partners and two of WOBSX’s Syndicates. In this podcast, Jon shares some of his most notable takeaways from mentoring WOB’s highly qualified, powerful and impressive members and how to market your CV specifically to your skillset. 

LinkedIn:  Jon Brett | Claire Braund (host)

For further information about WOB membership, events & services, please visit our website.
To receive our weekly newsletter, subscribe to WOB as a Basic Member (free).
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Join Claire Braund (Founder of Women on Boards and CEO of Women on Boards in Australia) and Fiona Hathorn (Founder and CEO of Women on Boards in the UK) when they get together to reflect how things have changed in the world of the boardroom since they first talked about launching in the UK back in 2012. 

Our workplaces are constantly changing, but there hasn’t been quite a year like 2020. We have seen the integration of technological tools across all sectors, employees working from home or at least more flexibly, increased demographic of up to five generations in a workplace, and very new and different expectations of digital competency.

In this episode, Claire Braund speaks with Fiona McLean about the changing landscape for board members, the challenges and opportunities of the online frontier, and what needs to be considered if you’re in a position of governance in this brand new world. Fiona is the CEO and Managing Director of The Social Index, a unique online platform designed to help companies and individuals navigate the merging of online and offline reputations to make better career decisions.

Her many years as a Human Resources Executive taught Fiona that the reputation of a leader was more paramount than what their resume touted. In fact, it’s the most valuable and critical career asset. Cursed with an insatiable sense of curiosity, she explored the impact of our digital footprint and discovered that an individual’s reputation, level of influence and network value is now much more complicated than decades gone by. What she discovered is that employers and recruiters want to gain insight into the ‘whole’ individual — the professional and the personal — before meeting them face-to-face.

Excitingly, WOB has partnered with The Social Index to support its members to optimise their online presence through access to the service’s consent driven, time-bound, infographic reports.

LinkedIn Fiona McLean | Claire Braund (host)

It’s not often you get the chance to hear directly from Australia’s first female airline CEO, OAM and full-time Non-Executive Director, the admirable Andrea Staines. This week Claire Braund digs deep with Andrea on matters of living abroad, solo parenting, becoming NED at age 41 and why it’s crucial to understand your transferable skills.

Unlike many of her peers from country Queensland, Andrea, Australia’s first female airline CEO, OAM and full-time Non-Executive Director (NED), was fortunate to have the undivided support of her loving parents who encouraged her to be brave and to set her sights high. At age seven, she knew she would go to university and likely study medicine and become a GP for her local community. However, when she was awarded an all expenses paid for scholarship to complete her high school education in Singapore, her whole outlook on life changed. She took to international life like a duck out of water and has since worked and studied in the US, Asia and Australia.

She has been a Director in the listed, private, government, social enterprise and foundation spaces, and for the past decade, has been a full-time Non-Executive Director for a range of Australian and New Zealand entities in transport, infrastructure and retail service arenas.

Andrea worked in financial roles with American Airlines at their Dallas headquarters in the early 1990s before returning to Australia with her two young children to join Qantas. At age 38, Andrea became Australia's first female airline CEO for Australian Airlines (mk II), a Qantas subsidiary flying between Asia and Australia, which she co-launched.

At age 41, Andrea left her C-Suite career to establish herself as a Director; a decision she made to support her home life. But securing her first board role didn’t come without struggle and hustle, despite her impressive CV.

It was a further four years before Andrea scored an ASX listed position. It was her ability to step back and look at her career and skillset that gave her the insight she needed to propel her NED career.

Today, Andrea is highly sought after by companies planning significant transformation. She is the NED of Acumentis (ASX), SeaLink (ASX) and UnitingCare Queensland, and the Deputy Chair for Australia Post.

In 2010, Andrea was invited to join Australia's Chief Executive Women, and in 2019, she was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for her efforts as a role model and mentor for women. 

Hear from Andrea on why it's important to have two career themes as a NED in Australia, how to recognise your transferable skills and her reminder to be brave every step of the way.

Wendy Teasdale Smith is a woman full of surprises. As well as being the owner of possibly one of the largest collections of hairclips for anyone over 40, WOB’s quirky and energetic South Australian representative also recently won a Toastmasters humorous speaking award with her speech on having an RBF (resting bitch face), which she presented over Zoom during COVID.

Born and brought up in Elizabeth, South Australia (the inspiration for Jimmy Barnes’ song Working Class Man) she is also in a book called Elizabeth Champions celebrating people from the region.

As she tells Claire in this podcast, growing up in the working class suburbs, Wendy was a teenager when she discovered the power of hard work. “While I had a challenging childhood, one of the things that was really good about it was a strong belief from my father in education, and that it could change your life. And it certainly changed mine.”

Wendy went on to pursue a productive career in education, as a CEO, school principal, college director, as well as serving on ministerial committees and lecturing before biting the bullet and heading out into the business world.

“I enjoyed my time [in education] but wanted to be brave enough to leave and try something else.”

It was after Googling ‘women organisations’ that Wendy found WOB, and met Claire at a conference in Sydney.

Now a pioneering state rep who has led the charge for WOB in Adelaide for many years, Wendy manages a portfolio career focused on non-profit and government board and is also an experienced public speaking and presence coach, and says never underestimate the power of a strong woman. “Like Eleanor Roosevelt said: A woman is like a teabag - you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.”

LinkedIn: Wendy Teasdale-Smith
Claire Braund (host)

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Dr Catherine Ordway is an academic in sports management, and a sports lawyer, who specialises in anti corruption and integrity.

She's a sought after tribunal member, media commentator and consultant who's assisted sports including AFL, archery athletics, basketball, combat sports cricket, cycling, football, golf, handball, rowing, rugby, softball, swimming, and triathlon in governance, selection and anti-doping and code of conduct disputes.

What is less well known is that Catherine played a central role in the establishment of Women on Boards shortly after the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

In this podcast Catherine talks about that first meeting with Ruth Medd and the growth of Women on Boards and the push to have better and skills represented on state and national sports boards. As she says, it was all about moving away from “Oh, he kicked the winning goal in 1978 - he’d make a good board member,” to professionalising sports boards and setting gender targets.

Claire and Catherine also discuss the push for parity for female athletes “starting with broadcasting and sponsorship rights, pay parity, and access to facilities,” and the complex issues around trans women in sport. 

About Dr Catherine Ordway: Sport Integrity Research Lead & Associate Professor at University of Canberra; Chair, Vetting Panel, Badminton World Federation; Independent Review Board, International Cricket Council; Head Anti-Doping Hearing Panel, World Curling Federation.

LinkedIn: Catherine Ordway
Claire Braund (host)

Further Information:

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A portfolio director currently sitting on six boards (see notes), Cheryl Hayman mentored Gina McClement in 2018-19 as part of Gina’s three step plan to gain a board role.  While not the usual path, they met at a WOB event, and the rest they say, is history. 

In this podcast Claire Braund explores the history of mentoring and talks to Gina and Cheryl to uncover why Gina wanted a mentor, how the journey changed once the process started and how the process ran from a practical sense. 

While never formally mentored herself, Cheryl's passion for mentoring developed during her career as people took her under their wing.  She talks about her mentoring philosophy and reverse approach, which isn't as you’d expect.  But it gets results, with Gina adding, “I could not have asked for better outcomes than what we achieved”. 

If you're considering a mentor or how you can develop your career, this podcast will provide some great ideas and inspiration.  Warning, you're sure to be left wanting Cheryl as your mentor too.

Board Positions

Cheryl Hayman FAICD
LinkedIn
NED Clover Corporation ASX:CLV;
Digital Experts Advisory Committee;
NED Shriro Australia ASX:SHM;
NED HGL Limited ASX:HNG;
NED Chartered Accountants Australia and NZ;
NED Peer Support Australia; and
NED Women on Boards 2016-2019.

Gina McClement GAICD
LinkedIn
NED Basketball NSW

More About Women on Boards (WOB)

In this first episode of the new Women on Boards Honours Podcast Series - featuring the 12 WOB members recognised in the 2024 Australia Day Honours - WOB co-founder and Executive Director, Claire Braund, chats with Emerita Professor Lesley Hitchens.

Lesley was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to tertiary education, and to the law. This is only the second year that the majority of honours were awarded to women since the national system formally began on 14 February 1975 – nearly 50 years ago.

Lesley had a long and distinguished legal career, starting in Sydney at Allens before she headed overseas to London in the mid-1980s and became immersed in the world of legal British academia.

She returned to Australia in mid 2000 and took up roles with the University of Melbourne and then UNSW and UTS where she finished up as Dean and then Acting Provost. 

Lesley has received many honours from peers including as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law and awarded the Financial Times Australian Legal Innovator Award in 2018. She is on the board of Shopfront Arts Coop.

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This week, Claire talks to Robert Pradolin, founder of Housing for All Australians.

Robert has lived and breathed property development for the past 30 years. An engineer by trade, Robert is a loud and independent influencer on housing affordability and accessibility.

His earliest memories take him back to being three or four and constructing cubby houses under his parents’ home. Throughout his career, he has been fortunate to work with people who create communities, from land subdivisions to medium density housing through to high-rise mixed-use apartment complexes.

Robert has held General Management roles with Frasers Property Australia (formerly Australand) and has worked directly with government ministers, policy makers, community housing providers and their support services. His message is clear: housing is not a social issue — it’s an economic issue.

In 2018, he founded Housing All Australians, an Advisory and Action Group of influential leaders from the private sector who have a shared belief that it’s in Australia’s long-term economic interest to house all Australians, including those on low incomes. Robert was tired of waiting for successive governments to make a difference. In his view, it’s the private sector that can collectively and collaboratively change the future of housing in our nation.

Robert believes the long-term cost to Australia of not providing stable “housing for all” will result in future generations inheriting a significant burden with disastrous economic and social consequences. We are sitting on an intergenerational time bomb he declares.

Research by the University of NSW indicates that Australia needs 65,000 dwellings a year by 2036 to get the housing balance right. Robert and the team are working tenaciously to increase awareness that “housing for all” is essential economic infrastructure and underpins Australia’s prospects for stable, long-term economic growth.

Hear why Robert thinks capitalism needs repurposing and who is actually most vulnerable to homelessness in Australia.

Growing up in South Africa Lisa Carlin experienced apartheid in its truest form.  “I just felt this complete sense of unfairness of it all, and that's really carried with me today” she says.  Through this she has become extremely passionate about transformation to give a voice to those who don’t have one.

Lisa is the cofounder and CEO of global advisory FutureBuilders Group and author of Turbocharge weekly. Her portfolio includes mentoring founders and CEOs in the HRTech, EdTech and workplace talent sector, she is on the Advisory board for Rebelliuz and Chair of the University of Cape Town Australia Trust.

In this podcast Lisa talks to Claire about how her desire to embed transformational change stems from her upbringing in South Africa and how this has carried with her to the workplace today.  She says while it's important for organisations to understand workplace transformation on many levels, it imperative just to stay relevant and ahead of disruption.

Lisa’s professional focus is to accelerate growth transformation and scale ups, which she explains is more about strategy execution than strategy.  She stresses the importance of culture and talks about why it’s one of the main reasons that execution fails. She also discusses her appetite for risk, the reason she sits on an Advisory board and why her mantra is “Communities magnify momentum”.

LinkedIn  
Lisa Carlin (guest)

Claire Braund (host)

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