Women on Boards

Workshop & Conference Program

Click here to download the program (PDF)

Wednesday 27 April: Boardroom Readiness Workshop

What does it mean to be a director? What are you signing up to when you say yes to a board role in terms of time, tenure, interaction with your colleagues, board performance and a host of other unstated but very real issues? What are some of the insights you could use from a practising director on analysing financials and business models? How can you set yourself up to succeed and achieve your aspirations? Do your strategies for success include a coach or mentor to help you along the way? Do you need a powerhouse presence and can you use your voice to better effect? All of these topics and more will be canvassed in this comprehensive pre-conference workshop.

SPEAKERS

Claire Braund, Executive Director Women on Boards
Ruth Medd, Chair Women on Boards
Denise Aldous, Non Executive Director & former CEO Pacific Operations International Finance Corporation (World Bank)
Eileen Doyle, Director Boral & GPT
Ruta Asimus, AsAmI Coaching & former head HR with IBM Australia
Mariette Rups-Donnelly, Powerhouse Presentations
Lucy Cornell, Inspiration Officer at Voice COACH
Robin Powis, Personal Image Stylist from Defining Style and Style Guru Women on Boards

FEE: $1,990 when you combine it with the two day conference and director's dinner or $550 workshop only for WOB subscribers

Thursday 28 April: Gender Matters Conference

Welcome & Opening Session

Start the conference with an overview that puts women firmly in the frame in terms of what has been achieved, what hasn't and where effort is still required. Be inspired, engaged and motivated to make the most from the event.

SPEAKERS

Claire Braund, Executive Director Women on Boards (MC)
Ruth Medd, Chair Women on Boards

Plenary Session I: The importance of role models

When you are a female leader it is not about you, but the need for those who follow to have a role model. This session will see several outstanding women speak about the impact of role models on them, the importance of being visible and how they achieved their success.

SPEAKERS

Therese Gattung, Chair AIA and former CEO Telecom New Zealand
Elizabeth Bryan, Chair Caltex & UniSuper, director Westpac Bank & AICD

Plenary Session II: CEO champions

2010 was the year a number of companies publicly stepped up on the issue of gender diversity. Commonwealth Bank was one of those that saw the benefits of ensuring a diverse senior leadership team and set a target of having 35 per cent women in senior roles by 2014. How will CBA meet its targets, why are they important and will the company culture change? Austar was the quiet achiever, a young company that came to our attention when three of the nine women in the 250 top earners list came from its executive ranks. Austar has 47 per cent women in executive roles - a stand out performance in the ASX. How does this company achieve such a great result?

SPEAKERS

Alan Kohler, Business journalist & company director (Session Chair)
Ralph Norris, CEO Commonwealth Bank Australia
John Porter, CEO Austar

Concurrent Session I: Sector Showcases

SPORT

Sport dominates the Australian culture, yet our female sports stars battle hard for recognition and dollars. Is it a cultural thing and can it change? What might we do to turn around the perception and value of womens participation in sport in Australia?

Simone Thurtell (session chair) - Host ABC Grandstand
Damian Irvine, Chair Cronulla Sharks Football Club & Cronulla Sutherland Leagues Club
Danni Roche OAM, Olympic gold medallist and director Hockey Australia
Lynn Ralph, Director Sydney Swans
Paula Ward, Director Know The Game

FINANCIAL SERVICES

At 28 per cent, the financial services sector has one of the largest gender pay gaps of any industry in Australia. It is also one of the largest employers of women. What is, can and should be done about changing the culture and practices in the financial services sector to make it a fairer place for women to work?

Ruth Medd (session chair), Chair Australian Ethical Superannuation & Women on Boards
Victoria Weekes, Chair Women in Financial Services Institute of Australasia
Fiona Reynolds, Chief Executive Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees
Peter Wilson AO, National President of the Australian Human Resources Institute

Concurrent Session II: In the Chair

In these parallel sessions two highly respected journalists will interview six leading chairs on a wide range of topics including leadership, gender diversity and being a good director. A highlight of the Women on Boards Conference the interviews with chairs give participants an usually frank insight into board processes and the opportunity to question and debate these leading public figures.

Interview with Catherine Fox

Dr Erica Smyth, Chair Toro Energy
The Hon. Warwick Smith AM, Chair Australian Sports Commission
Peter Andrews, Chair UFS
Theresa Gattung, Chair Wool Partners International

Interview with Helen McCombie

Malcolm Broomhead, Chair Asciano
Elizabeth Crouch, Deputy Chancellor, Macquarie University
Dr Eileen Doyle, Chair Hunter Valley Research Foundation

WOB Mentoring Dinner

MC: Jane Caro, author, commentator and regular on radio shows and the ABC's Gruen Transfer

The WOB Mentoring Dinner is a highlight of the Gender Matters Conference. The focus of the 2011 dinner is on fostering and leveraging female leadership talent in all spheres of Australian corporate and community life. Each table of eight is anchored by an experienced (usually ASX) director, who chairs the hypothetical board meeting. Guests work through a case study in an informal and convivial atmosphere. Alternating between the serious and hilarious, the dinner is a great event - a must for anyone attending the conference or who wants a great night out in the name of professional development.

Friday 29 April: Conference Day Two

Plenary Session III: Quotas and targets

The 40 per cent quota law for Norway’s Public Listed Companies has been in place since 2008 and has done its job in terms of women on boards of public companies. However it has had little spill over effect on the numbers of women in senior management and executive roles. A survey of 503 male and 370 female directors by the Norwegian Institute for Social Research at the University of Oslo in late 2009 found less than five per cent of CEOs and only 10 per cent of senior managers in public listed companies were women. In Australia we are resisting implementing a quota for boards and have been talking about the pipeline for 20 years as the means of addressing the paucity of women directors on the ASX. Join high profile Norwegian public company director, Mai-Lill Ibsen (who was opposed to the quota law), and Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick (who supports quotas), as they discuss the quota law, how it worked in Norway, if it would work in Australia and how it affects women in management roles.

Mai-Lill Ibsen, Non-Executive Director, Norway
Elizabeth Broderick, Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner

Plenary Session IV: Diverse directors

Do you need to be a lawyer or investment banker to get a gig on an ASX board? Or is the selection criteria broadening? With her strong background in advertising and traditional and Internet publishing, Kim Anderson was deemed an ideal women to make the all male board of carsales.com a more diverse place. Josephine Sukkar, co-founder of the highly successful private company Buildcorp, keen philanthropist and rugby union fanatic was the first woman to join the board of the highly traditional Trust Company. Hear them talk frankly about how their varied careers are bringing benefit to their respective boards.

Session Chair: TBC

Christine McLoughlin, director nib Holdings
Josephine Sukkar, director The Trust Company & Buildcorp
Michelle Tredenick, director Bank of Queensland

Plenary Session V: How to make gender programs work

Getting more women into senior management in businesses is essential to build a pipeline of new female directors. A panel of leading gender diversity practitioners will discuss some of the best practice programs and initiatives that can be implemented to bring greater gender balance into organisations with a focus on increasing the number of women in those top management roles.

Session Chair: Kate O'Reilly, Director Optimiss Consulting