Women on Boards I Making it Real

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.

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

Warning: This podcast discusses suicide A curious child who grew up with an older brother, Julie Adams OAM started challenging gender stereotypes at an early age. “I felt empowered to speak up if I thought I was being treated differently because I was a girl,” said Julie. It was this curiosity, she says, that led to her success as an entrepreneur as the co-founder of Chemo@home -  which offers cancer patients the convenience and flexibility of receiving treatment in the comfort of their own home - and in 2024 being awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to pharmaceutical oncology. Julie was working as a Cancer Services Pharmacist in1994 when she recognised the need for home-based chemotherapy while her Dad was dying from emphysema. After being shown how to administer antibiotics for her father's chest infections, Julie's Dad was able to spend his last Christmas at home.    Over the next 6 years July researched ways to treat cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy at home, and in 2013 took a calculated gamble to co-found Chemo@home with business partner Lorna Cook.  Despite being told their business would “never survive without a male company figurehead” Lorna and Julie grew their operation to become a multi-award winning health service, employing more than 80 people across the country. The company has since been widely recognised, winning nine business awards, including Julie being named the 2016 Telstra WA Business Women's of the Year. Then in 2022 Julie's world was rocked when her 22-year-old daughter Molly died by suicide related to intimate partner abuse. In this podcast Julie shares her personal story of losing Molly, and how she hopes to expand her purpose beyond home health care and put her “out-of-the-box thinking”, entrepreneurship - and now OAM - to good use, to improve outcomes and provide support services for other women in abusive situations. “I still very much feel passionate about my business, and there's still a lot of work to be done. But I feel that all of my knowledge has now come together, and I can use it in a different area to improve outcomes for women, and also to for men who choose violence.” Podcast Host: Claire Braund OAM, Women on Boards Executive Director and co-founder. 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 Subscribe (FREE) or join Women on Boards HERE.

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.  Join or Subscribe to Women on Boards  

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.  Join or Subscribe to Women on Boards

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 Subscribe (FREE) or join Women on Boards HERE.

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

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

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) Further information please visit our website  

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

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) Further Information: WOB membership, events & services, please visit our website. To receive our weekly newsletter, subscribe to WOB as a Basic Member (free). Join as a Full Member for just for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.  

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) Further Information: WOB membership, events & services, please visit our website. To receive our weekly newsletter, subscribe to WOB as a Basic Member (free). Join as a Full Member for just for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.  

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) Further Information: WOB membership, events & services, please visit our website. To receive our weekly newsletter, subscribe to WOB as a Basic Member (free). Join as a Full Member for just for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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) Further Information: WOB membership, events & services, please visit our website. To receive our weekly newsletter, subscribe to WOB as a Basic Member (free). Join as a Full Member for just for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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: WOB membership, events & services, please visit our website. To receive our weekly newsletter, subscribe to WOB as a Basic Member (free). Join as a Full Member for full access to our Board Vacancies, support, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.  

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”.

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)   Further Information: WOB membership, events & services, please visit our website. To receive our weekly newsletter, subscribe to WOB as a Basic Member (free). Join as a Full Member for just for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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 commences on 20 October: 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. If you can't make every session recordings will be provided. The cost to attend the full series is $330 for FULL Members and $550 Non/Basic Members. Find out more https://bit.ly/3dTHzNt FOLLOW US ONLINE HERE: Website: https://www.womenonboards.net/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wome... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WomenOnBoards Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womenonboar... ABOUT WOMEN ON BOARDS We provide the personal networks, tools and resource to support your board and leadership journey at any career stage. #SecurityRisk #cyberattack #riskmanagement #cybersecurity #databreach

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.”

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) Further Information: WOB membership, events & services, please visit our website. To receive our weekly newsletter, subscribe to WOB as a Basic Member (free). Join as a Full Member for just for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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. Further Information: WOB membership, events & services, please visit our website. To receive our weekly newsletter, subscribe to WOB as a Basic Member (free). Join as a Full Member for just for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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) Further Information: WOB membership, events & services, please visit our website. To receive our weekly newsletter, subscribeto WOB as a Basic Member (free). Join as a Full Member for just for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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.” Further Information: WOB membership, events & services, please visit our website. To receive our weekly newsletter, subscribe to WOB as a Basic Member (free). Join as a Full Member for just for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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 LinkedInAmanda Mark  Claire Braund (host) Further Information: WOB membership, events & services, please visit our website. To receive our weekly newsletter, subscribeto WOB as a Basic Member (free). Joinas a Full Member for just for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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. FOLLOW US ONLINE:Website LinkedIn   Facebook  Instagram  ABOUT WOMEN ON BOARDS We provide the personal networks, tools and resource to support your board and leadership journey at any career stage. Are you board ready? Find out with this fun four-question quiz

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) Further Information: WOB membership, events & services, please visit our website. To receive our weekly newsletter, subscribeto WOB as a Basic Member (free). Join as a Full Member for just for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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. LinkedIn   Dr Marguerite Evans-Galea Claire Braund (host) Further Information: WOB membership, events & services, please visit our website. To receive our weekly newsletter, subscribe to WOB as a Basic Member (free). Join as a Full Member for just for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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) Membership, events & services, please visit our website. To receive our weekly newsletter, subscribeto WOB as a Basic Member (free). Join as a Full Member for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

Growing up in 1980s Britain, it's no surprise Sarah Fairhurst's biggest role model was Margaret Thatcher. “I was at school when she was in power and she made me realise women could do anything,” says Sarah, a WOB member with significant expertise in the energy sector, including advising governments and industry on commercialization and issues relating to the power and energy sector. 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) For further information about WOB membership, events & services, please visit our website. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter (free). Join as a Full Member for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.  

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

When independent Non-Executive Director Cheryl Dixon is asked what Board she is on, her answer is often met with raised eyebrows. With just under three decades of sales leadership and operational experience with NAB, and now a senior executive heading up PEXA - an Australian online property exchange network which supports the property industry as it transitions towards digital conveyancing - Cheryl's first Board role with the Queensland Rifle Association came as a surprise to her as well as those around her. While she admits to being a massive sports fan  - “I could sit and watch sport seven days a week,” - she was never into firearms and doesn't shoot. But as she tells Claire in this podcast, two years ago she jumped at the chance to join the Board - becoming the Board's first independent NED in the organisations' 160-year history. “The club has a mountain of history and it's been quite a journey,” says Cheryl, of her role in helping modernise the organisation. In this podcast Cheryl - who started at NAB straight after high school - talks about how on-the-job knowledge and experience gained in her professional career has translated into the boardroom, particularly around the issues of governance, structure, organisational reputation and member participation. “You can be 12 or 112 in target shooting, and people also have very different views on guns.” She also talks to Claire about her Board future, how her professional career complements her Board work, and what she's learned from Women on Boards about joining sports boards. As she says: “I've never said no to any opportunity that comes around.. It's about getting on the front foot and controlling your own destiny.” LinkedIn: Cheyl Dixon | Claire Braund (host) Further Information: WOB membership, events & services, please visit our website. To receive our weekly newsletter, subscribe to WOB as a Basic Member (free). Join as a Full Member for just for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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.” LinkedIn: Fiona David | Claire Braund (host) Further Information: WOB membership, events & services, please visit our website. To receive our weekly newsletter, subscribe to WOB as a Basic Member (free). Join as a Full Member for just for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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.   LinkedIn: Victoria Weekes | Claire Braund (host) Further Information: WOB membership, events & services, please visit our website. To receive our weekly newsletter, subscribe to WOB as a Basic Member (free). Join as a Full Member for just for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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 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. To receive our weekly newsletter, subscribe to WOB as a Basic Member (free). Join as a Full Member for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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) Further Information about Women on Boards (WOB) 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). Join as a Full Member for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

Lil Bianchi is not your box-ticking director. As a highly-experienced Non-Executive Director, Chair Audit & Risk Committee, former CEO and tech entrepreneur working across data analytics, fintech, risk and customer value Lil thrives on innovation and change and loves being around curious people. As she tells Claire in this podcast, she believes there's space in every boardroom for “weird and whacky ideas” alongside well-thought out arguments. “I've got a high level of comfort around change and entrepreneurial risk,” says Lil, who admits her “accidental career” has been a result of grabbing opportunities and running with them. Lil is currently a NED with 4D Medical, a global medical technology company working to change the outcome for millions of patients with lung disease by revolutionising respiratory imaging and ventilation analysis, and Director of Lirio. A graduate of London School of Economics, Lil also serves as Director for Australian Eco Merino Growers Co-Op Ltd, a large infrastructure implementation company. A graduate of the 2019 WOBSX Rosalind Dubbs syndicate, Lil decided to apply for the program to understand more about the lived experience of being a director. “I really believe that if you can find a way to accelerate things - for yourself or your organisation - then do it,” she tells Claire. In this podcast, UK-born Lil - who now lives in the NSW Southern Highlands - talks about how important it is for Boards to have a tech perspective, and not being afraid of being ‘switched on'. The key, she says, is having the confidence to ask reasonable questions, make sensible decisions and to use experts in your organisation. As she puts it: “Don't get bamboozled or sidetracked - just dig, dig, dig.” LinkedIn: Lil Bianchi | Claire Braund (host) Further Information about Women on Boards (WOB) 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). Join as a Full Member for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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.   LinkedIn   Mahjabeen Zaman | Claire Braund (host) Further Information about Women on Boards (WOB) 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). Join as a Full Member for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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.”  LinkedIn   Leesa Chesser Claire Braund (host) Further Information about Women on Boards (WOB) 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). Join as a Full Member for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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.  LinkedIn: Roberta Wright | Claire Braund (host) Further Information about Women on Boards (WOB) 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). Join as a Full Member for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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.”   LinkedIn: Gaye Hamilton | Claire Braund (host) Further Information:  WOB membership, events & services, please visit our website. To receive our weekly newsletter, subscribe to WOB as a Basic Member (free). Join as a Full Member for just for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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. LinkedIn: Bobbie Foot | Claire Braund (host) Further Information about Women on Boards (WOB) 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). Join as a Full Member for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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. LinkedIn   Mary Wooldridge | Claire Braund (host) Further Information about Women on Boards (WOB) WOB membership, events & services, please visit our website. To receive our weekly newsletter, subscribe to WOB as a Basic Member (free). Join as a Full Member for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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 LinkedIn   Helen Croxford Claire Braund (host) Further Information about Women on Boards (WOB) WOB membership, events & services, please visit our website. To receive our weekly newsletter, subscribe to WOB as a Basic Member (free). Join as a Full Member for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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.  Further Information about Women on Boards (WOB) 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). Join as a Full Member for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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. LinkedIn: Gina Anderson | Claire Braund (host) Further Information about Women on Boards (WOB) 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). Join as a Full Member for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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.   LinkedIn: Michele Adair | Claire Braund (host) Further Information about Women on Boards (WOB) 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). Join as a Full Member for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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. Further Information about Women on Boards (WOB) WOB membership, events & services - visit our website. To receive our weekly newsletter, subscribe to WOB as a Basic Member (free). Join as a Full Member for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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! LinkedIn: Libby Nankivell | Claire Braund (host) Further Information:  WOB membership, events & services, please visit our website. To receive our weekly newsletter, subscribe to WOB as a Basic Member (free). Join as a Full Member for just for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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. LinkedIn   Suzie Riddell | Claire Braund (host) Further Information: WOB membership, events & services, please visit our website. To receive our weekly newsletter, subscribe to WOB as a Basic Member (free). Join as a Full Member for just for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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. LinkedIn   Tanya Cox | Claire Braund (host) Further Information about Women on Boards (WOB) 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). Join as a Full Member for full access to our Board Vacancies, WOBShare (our online member platform) and more.

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