{"id":3050,"date":"2024-03-07T01:34:48","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T01:34:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.talentweb.com.au\/?p=3050"},"modified":"2025-01-03T06:22:10","modified_gmt":"2025-01-03T06:22:10","slug":"the-most-powerful-women-in-australian-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.talentweb.com.au\/the-most-powerful-women-in-australian-business\/","title":{"rendered":"The Most Powerful Women in Australian Business"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>\n  body {<br \/>    font-family: Arial, sans-serif;<br \/>    line-height: 1.6;<br \/>    margin: 0; \/* Remove margin *\/<br \/>  }<br \/>  .textbox {<br \/>    background: linear-gradient(to right, #59dad8 0%, rgba(89, 218, 216, 0) 100%);<br \/>    padding: 10px;<br \/>    margin-bottom: 20px; \/* Increased margin-bottom for better spacing *\/<br \/>  }<br \/>  .textbox h2, .textbox h3 {<br \/>    margin-top: 0;<br \/>    margin-bottom: 0px;<br \/>  }<br \/>  .women {<br \/>    margin-left: 30px; \/* Adjust the indentation *\/<br \/>  }<br \/><\/style>\n<p><strong><b>With all the talk of progress towards gender equality in Australia, the fact remains that women are still underrepresented in one of the most important areas in business \u2013 at the leadership table.<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Just 32.5% of key management positions in Australian companies are occupied by women, while only 19.4% of CEOs are female, current WGEA data shows. With women comprising 51% of the workforce, these figures are a stark reminder of the work that needs to be done.<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s International Women\u2019s Day calls for more investment in women to accelerate progress. What could be a better investment for diversity in the Australian workplace than investing in the women leaders of tomorrow? And to invest in these leaders, having powerful female role models provides vital inspiration.<\/p>\n<p>To commemorate International Women\u2019s Day, here\u2019s a few of the most influential women in the Australian business landscape.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox\">\n<h2>TalentWeb\u2019s Guide to Australia\u2019s Inspirational Female Leaders<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"textbox women\">\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3>Vicki Brady, Telstra Group Limited<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p>Appointed CEO of Telstra in March 2022, Brady was Telstra\u2019s first female chief executive, working up through the ranks of the telco giant to take the top job.<\/p>\n<p>Brady gained years of telco experience at Optus, SingTel and KPMG after graduating from Australian National University with a Bachelor of Commerce; she also holds a Master of Science in Management from Stanford University\u2019s Graduate School of Business. Her management style? As she\u2019s famously told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, \u201cI don\u2019t need to be aggressive, I don\u2019t need to yell, (and) I don\u2019t need to bang the table\u201d.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox women\">\n<h3>Leah Weckert, Coles Group Limited<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p>Weckert, previously a McKinsey &amp; Company alum, became CEO and MD of Coles Group in May 2023, after more than 10 years with the company. She wisely gained leadership experience across several business units within Coles before her appointment as CEO, including strategy, people and culture and a stint as CFO during the demerger of Coles from Wesfarmers. Her advice for women leaders? \u201cBe bold and be willing to take risks \u2013 that\u2019s what unlocks opportunities and leads to personal growth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- Insert other influential female leaders here --><\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox women\">\n<h3>Shemara Wikramanayake, Macquarie Group Limited<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p>Appointed head of Australia\u2019s \u2018millionaire factory\u2019 in 2018, Wikramanayake is one of few female CEOs in the male-dominated world of investment banking. At Macquarie since 1987, she is a graduate of UNSW and Harvard Business School, and ranked 24th in the list of Most Powerful Women in the World for the Year 2021 by Forbes.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox women\">\n<h3>Marnie Baker, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p>Raised in a small town in northern Victoria, Baker has run Bendigo and Adelaide Bank as CEO since July 2018. She has been with the Group since 1989, working up to positions including Chief Customer Officer, Chief Information Officer, Group Treasurer and as the first female CEO of Sandhurst Trustees. \u201cComing from a small country town, working in a regional centre and having a family; none of this stops you from being able to reach your full potential. And it shouldn\u2019t stop you,\u201d Baker says.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox women\">\n<h3>Carmel Monaghan, Ramsay Australia<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p>Having been with Ramsay, Australia\u2019s largest private hospital operator, for 22 years, Monaghan became CEO in 2020. Educated in Queensland, Monaghan has a background in marketing and communications and her previous roles at Ramsay have included Group Chief of Staff and Group Head of Marketing and Public Affairs.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox women\">\n<h3>Vanessa Hudson, Qantas<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p>With Qantas since 1994, Hudson was instrumental in navigating the Flying Kangaroo through the COVID crisis as CFO and was appointed CEO in September 2023. It\u2019s no small feat to take over the role from a well-known (and to an extent, controversial) incumbent like Alan Joyce, but Hudson seems well poised to handle the challenges of her new position.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox women\">\n<h3>Katie Page, Harvey Norman<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p>CEO of Harvey Norman since 1999, Page has been instrumental in lifting the famous retail brand from a turnover base of $3 million into a multi-business-line powerhouse earning more than $9 billion (as of FY23) with hundreds of stores in eight countries. \u201cIt is essential to keep investing in your employees. During the GFC, Harvey Norman had 600 people working in Ireland and the company chose to support them throughout the financial crisis. We\u2019re now doing really well in Ireland and achieved a 20.3% profit increase,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox women\">\n<h3>Julie Coates, CSR Limited<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p>Managing Director and CEO of industrial brand CSR since September 2019, Coates has decades of senior leadership experience, including Woolworths (as MD), Coca-Cola Amatil, Spotless, and Goodman Fielder. Coates passionately advocates for increasing the representation of women in positions of leadership, as highlighted by her involvement with the Champions of Change National Group, to support women leaders in traditionally male-dominated fields.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox women\">\n<h3>Meg O\u2019Neill, Woodside<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p>An MIT graduate with degrees in Ocean and Chemical Engineering, O\u2019Neill became CEO and MD of Woodside in 2021 after joining in 2018 as Chief Operations Officer. Her career in oil and gas spans almost three decades, including senior leadership roles with ExxonMobil in Asia, Europe and the US.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSaying \u2018yes\u2019 has opened a number of doors for me. Being flexible, being open-minded, taking on whatever challenges have been posted has paid huge dividends for me,\u201d O\u2019Neill says.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox\">\n<h2>Hire Inspirational Female Leaders with TalentWeb<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<p>Here at TalentWeb, we\u2019re proud champions of diversity in the workplace and supporting organisations to hire inspirational female leaders. As a Certified B Corp business \u2013 and the first B-Corp recruitment agency in New South Wales \u2013 we\u2019re committed to building a more sustainable future with ethical business practices. For help with hiring inspirational leaders for your team, contact us today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With all the talk of progress towards gender equality in Australia, the fact remains that women are still underrepresented in one of the most important areas in business \u2013 at the leadership table. Just 32.5% of key management positions in Australian companies are occupied by women, while only 19.4% of CEOs are female, current WGEA&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-market-update"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talentweb.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talentweb.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talentweb.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talentweb.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talentweb.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3050"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/www.talentweb.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3393,"href":"https:\/\/www.talentweb.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3050\/revisions\/3393"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talentweb.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/3084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talentweb.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talentweb.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talentweb.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}