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    Women in Leadership, which is an evolution of the much-loved Women of Influence program, highlights the work and achievements of those women poised to enter the upper echelons of Australia’s corporate decision-makers

    Latest

    ‘Give her a go’: New judge blasts ‘painfully slow’ progress for women

    Jane Needham blasted the “painfully slow” progress of women in law and urged barristers to consider briefing “that young woman who went to a school you haven’t heard of”.

    • Michael Pelly
    Anna Wiley, BHP’s asset president of copper South Australia; Siobhan Toohill, Westpac’s chief sustainability officer; Tammy Medard, managing director of ANZ’s Institutional in Australia and PNG.

    ‘I shot Bambi’: Women leaders on their toughest decisions

    Often the toughest decisions are those that affect other people. Here winners of the Women in Leadership awards share their hardest calls.

    • Updated
    • Sally Patten
    Productivity Commission chairwoman Danielle Wood.

    ‘You smile too much’: the early career advice Danielle Wood ignored

    Be brave and have fun, is what Australia’s leading women would say to their younger selves.

    • Lucy Dean
    AOC chef de mission Anna Meares knows a thing or two about going to the Olympics.

    Why Anna Meares chased the job of leading the Aussie Olympic team

    As one of the country’s most decorated athletes, Australia’s chef de mission knows the triumph and heartache of competing at this level better than most.

    • Zoe Samios
    Tammy Medard, Managing Director, Institutional Australia & PNG at ANZ, Danielle Wood, Chair of the Productivity Commission, and Jessica Vanderlelie, Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic and Professor La Trobe University and Bronwyn Le Grice
CEO and Managing Director of AND Health.

    The winners of the Women in Leadership Awards

    Meet the winners of the 2024 Women in Leadership Awards, in eight key economic categories.

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    June

    ‘What she’s doing is shaping not just Telstra, but Australia’

    Cybersecurity boss Narelle Devine, the winner of the Tech & Telco category, uses lessons from a decade in the Navy to fight off international hacking attacks.

    • Tess Bennett
    Danielle Handley, BUPA chief customer and transformation officer, is passionate about the way technology, data and digital continue to enable innovation.

    ‘We need to be champions of other women’

    By the time Danielle Handley arrived at health insurer BUPA, the executive who hired her had left. She had to lead a company transformation without a boss.

    • Sian Powell

    ‘You need to trust your gut’: How to build an empire

    The founder and CEO of MCo Beauty, the winner of the Retail category, knows she is underestimated. It’s what drives her to succeed.

    • Lauren Sams
    Danielle Wood, chair of the Productivity Commission; Danielle Handley, Bupa’s chief customer and transformation officer; Haseda Fazlic, Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s executive general manager.

    How COVID-19 redefined leadership for these award-winning women

    There can be no leaders without followers – and the pandemic reminded us that followers respond best when treated like human beings and not like machines.

    • Euan Black
    Anna Wiley has been handed one of the biggest jobs at BHP as asset president for copper in South Australia,

    BHP entrusts rising star with its copper mines

    Anna Wiley, a leader in the Resources category, has barely put a foot wrong in a diverse career in mining that has led her to the top job in the group’s copper operations in South Australia.

    • Brad Thompson
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    Rio Tinto chief executive of minerals Sinead Kaufman is no stranger to making tough decisions.

    Rio Tinto leader never shies away from hard talks and tough calls

    Sinead Kaufman, the winner of the Resources category, also shows great care and sensitivity for families and communities across her career in mining.

    • Brad Thompson
    Kerryn Coker and Kate West believe the cooperative model has, in addition to its benefits for work-life balance, allowed more effective strategic and operational guidance of the company.

    ‘Non-conforming bid’ that took dynamic duo to the top

    The winners of the Professional Services category are two Arup engineers who proposed a unique joint arrangement to enable them to balance leadership and family commitments.

    • Maxim Shanahan
    Siobhan Toohill, Westpac’s chief sustainability officer, is leaving Westpac to pursue a new challenge. “Challenging times can present the greatest opportunities for impact,” she says.

    The ‘utterly shocking’ moment that made Westpac leader want to flee

    Siobhan Toohill, the winner of the Financial Services - Banking category, faces a new frontier after 10 years leading Westpac’s sustainability efforts, including convincing the board to ditch new oil and gas projects.

    • Ayesha de Kretser
    Jaki Virtue was drafted in as Soul Patts’ first chief operating officer across its 120-year-plus history in 2023.

    Versatile risk-taker who shines when the going gets tough

    Washington H Soul Pattinson’s Jaki Virtue swears by the power of ‘unknown sponsorships’, as she takes out the Financial Services - Non-banking category.

    • Kanika Sood
    Ingrid Maes, CEO of W23 Global; Tammy Medard, managing director of ANZ’s Institutional in Australia and PNG; Alison Telfer, country head Australasia for UBS Asset Management.

    What’s your best career tip? Award winners share theirs

    Lead with compassion, don’t assume you know all the answers, and play to your strengths: winners in the Women in Leadership Awards share advice that has helped them.

    • Victoria Thieberger
    Danielle Wood, chairwoman of the Productivity Commission, Tammy Medard, managing director, institutional Australia & PNG at ANZ, Bronwyn Le Grice, CEO and managing director of AND Health, and Jessica Vanderlelie, deputy vice chancellor academic and professor at La Trobe University.

    ‘Inclusion, resilience, empathy’: How modern leadership is changing

    Modern leadership is about more than successfully deploying skills and industry expertise – it strongly encompasses the people side, writes Patricia McKenzie.

    • Patricia McKenzie
    Women in Leadership award winner Danielle Wood.

    The ‘magic and mundane’ leadership style of Danielle Wood

    The chairwoman of the Productivity Commission was selected as the overall winner for her contributions to economic policy and a preparedness to take an unpopular position in key national debates.

    • Sally Patten
    Tenacious’ partners (l-r) Vela Georgiev, Matthew Pryor and Sarah Nolet are celebrating a rare fundraising victory in a tough market.

    Tenacious Ventures lives up to its name with $18m raise in hard market

    Members of the Schwartz, Denholm and Murdoch families have committed money to the agricultural technology investor that has overcome hurdle after hurdle.

    • Nick Bonyhady
    • Young Leader Award
    • Jobs
    Stephanie Smith, who was appointed Trade and Investment Commissioner for Greater China when she was just 28. She jokes that she wears glasses because they make her look older.

    She was made a trade leader at 28 and pregnant

    The winner of the Young Leader category in the Women in Leadership awards has honed her leadership skills straddling two vastly different cultures and Australia’s most important trade relationship.

    • Jessica Sier
    Westpac chief executive of institutional banking Nell Hutton. “When I thought about where I could have an impact, it made sense to think about the big four [banks].”

    From Goldman Sachs to Westpac, Nell Hutton is climbing the ladder

    Having reached the top of the Wall Street giant by her mid-40s, the career banker has big plans to turn around Westpac’s once-dominant institutional bank.

    • James Eyers
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    Gender equality campaigners need to do more to get young men on board, Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz says.

    Director urges equality advocates to leave their echo chamber

    True gender equality benefits men as well as women, Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz says, but advocates need to convince boys of that or risk going backwards.

    • Hannah Wootton

    May

    Australian Energy Regulator chair Clare Savage and Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb are two of the country’s most powerful regulators.

    They battled blokey workplaces. Now these 33 women enforce the rules

    Energy regulator Clare Savage and competition chief Gina Cass-Gottlieb are among 33 women leading Australia’s regulatory bodies, once the domain of male enforcers.

    • Tom Burton
    Emma Foley is Uber’s new Australian managing director, while Ed Kitchen will run Uber Eats.

    New Uber bosses to see through gig economy transition

    There will be new heads of both Uber and Uber Eats in Australia, ahead of gig economy rules that threaten to significantly raise its cost of doing business.

    • Paul Smith

    April

    Expert360 CEO Bridget Loudon is the youngest director in the ASX 50.

    The advice that’s helped Loudon navigate the boardroom

    Bridget Loudon says some wise words from her mum have stuck with her as she’s navigated life as the director of a blue-chip giant.

    • James Thomson
    Early childhood education and care (ECEC) benefits both children and parents.

    This budget boost for working women will supercharge the economy

    We wilfully under-utilise 50 per cent of our economic potential, creating a national emergency we could easily solve.

    • Zoe Daniel