Women on Boards - Leaders and Directors in Conversation

How do you successfully transition from leading global businesses to building a rewarding portfolio career in the boardroom? In this episode of the 20 Years of Women on Boards – Inspire | Influence | Impact podcast, Claire Braund OAM speaks with Toni Brendish FAICD about the experiences, decisions and leadership lessons that have shaped her journey from CEO to Chair and Non-Executive Director. Ton...

What does it take to build a successful board career that spans healthcare, financial services, housing, agriculture and listed companies? For experienced non-executive director Victoria Weekes, it starts with being willing to learn, embracing uncertainty and remembering that board service is about purpose, not prestige. In the latest episode of the 20 Years of Women on Boards podcast, Victoria jo...

Inspire | Influence | Impact As Engineers Australia celebrates International Women in Engineering Day under the theme Engineering Intelligence , our latest 20 Years of Women on Boards podcast with Dr Bronwyn Evans AM provides a powerful reminder that engineering is about far more than technology. One of Australia's most respected engineers, Bronwyn was the first female CEO of both Engineers Austra...

Few people have observed Australian boardrooms as closely as Kerryn Newton. For almost two decades, Kerryn has advised boards, recruited directors and worked alongside organisations navigating governance challenges across the corporate, government and not-for-profit sectors. Through her work as Founder and Managing Director of Directors Australia, she has developed a unique perspective on what sep...

Few people understand the power of regional leadership quite like Susan Benedyka. A passionate advocate for rural and regional Australia, Susan has spent decades helping communities, organisations and leaders create lasting impact. Her governance journey has taken her from community committees to influential board and leadership roles, all underpinned by a commitment to ensuring regional voices ar...

In this episode of the 20 Years of Women on Boards – Inspire | Influence | Impact series, WOB co-founder and CEO Claire Braund OAM speaks with Amanda Heyworth FAICD about building a board career while balancing executive leadership, family life and continuous professional growth. Amand is a professional company director with governance experience spanning startups to ASX 200 companies across techn...

As part of the 20 Years of Women on Boards – Inspire | Influence | Impact vodcast series, WOB CEO and co-founder   Claire Braund OAM   speaks with governance expert   Julie Garland McLellan   about board careers, governance and the changing role of women in the boardroom over the past two decades.   A non-executive director, educator, author and producer and narrator of the Directors Dilemma newsl...

In this very special episode of the 20 Years of Women on Boards podcast series, Claire Braund sits down with Ruth Medd, the original architect behind the Women on Boards idea and co-founder of WOB,  a conversation that truly reflects Inspire, Influence and Impact in action.  This episode offers a rare and insightful reflection on how one idea, sparked in the early 2000s, grew into a national movem...

Cheryl Hayman is one of WOB's longest serving and most successful Women on Boards members. Coming into boards at a relatively young age from a global marketing background, she had several hurdles to overcome. Her focus on how to build her own board brand, awareness of the need to adapt and innovate and willingness to learn and finesse her governance style has seen her step onto a range of boards a...

Inspire | Influence | Impact Lasting change begins by making opportunity visible and accessible. For 20 years, Women on Boards has done exactly that, helping reshape leadership and governance across Australia through the vision of co-founders Claire Braund and Ruth Medd. In this episode, Claire reflects on the origins of the organisation, from an informal network inspired by the Sydney Olympics to...

On the eve of WOB's 20th anniversary, Claire Braund steps into the guest seat to share the story of Women on Boards, her leadership journey and the lessons learned along the way. In the latest episode of The New CEO Toolkit podcast, hosted by WOB member Adelle Howse of Howse River, our very own Claire Braund OAM, CEO and WOB co-founder shares the story of co-founding WOB and driving lasting change...

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, an...

'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 y...

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 can...

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 Uni...

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 s...

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 ch...

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...

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 Turboch...

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 cultu...

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 a...

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 o...

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...

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. Att...