Conference Welcome

Address from Claire Braund, Executive Director Women on Boards, to the opening day of the Conference

Welcome to the 1st National Diversity on Boards Conference, hosted by Women on Boards.

We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we are gathered, The Gadigal people of the
Aeroa Nation and pay our respects to their elders past and present.

Women on Boards has come a long way since its inception in 2001 by a group of businesswomen concerned about the lack of diversity in leadership on Australian boards. The two women who organised the first event, Ruth Medd and Catherine Ordway, and the person who secured corporate support from Westpac, Julie Ankers, are at this conference. Thank-you for providing the shoulders on which we stand today.

Women on Boards grew under the auspices of the National Foundation of Australian Women, with the support of Women in Finance, Women in IT, Women Lawyers, Zonta International, Women Sport and Recreation and, a little later, the Foundation for Australian Agricultural Women.

Directors from the private, public, government, sports and not-for-profit sectors supported the initiative and slowly Women on Boards gathered momentum.

In 2003 the Commonwealth Office for Women gave us a grant which enabled the network to move online. This proved to be a pivotal point in the development of Women on Boards. The website (www.womenonboards.org.au) was developed as an administration and communication hub. Today, it remains the backbone of the company, running the subscription and events databases and payment gateways, resume/CV builder and board posting facility.

We never fax, rarely mail and print few glossy brochures in a conscious effort to reduce our carbon footprint and increase organisational, efficiency.

Moving online also meant going national and in 2004 and 2005 major events were held in all mainland capital cities with what has become the trademark Women on Boards format of established directors mentoring aspirant board members.

With 2,500 women then registered with the website and asking “What Next?” the decision had to be made about what to do with the network. We decided to shift from an informal network run with volunteer effort to a business structure that would enable us to grow and do something sustainable about improving diversity on boards.

A year after launching the new model we introduced a corporate subscription to open up opportunities for senior women to plan transitions to board roles and for junior women to gain experience as not-for-profit directors. We have had seven organisations join the program - Qantas, KPMG, University of South Australia, Piper Alderman, EDS, HSBC and Clayton Utz.

Today, there are more than 5,200 people registered with Women on Boards, representing well over 1000 organisations across all sectors. Those who have completed their resumes are actively applying for the board positions posted at a rate of five per week and making themselves visible when we search for higher level roles.

There are 880 women registered with both Women on Boards and the Federal Government’s AppointWomen website, sharing resumes across the systems and leveraging the efforts of the other to promote women onto boards.

A program of professional development and networking events are held around Australia and, in June this year, we are launching our new online series. We are also working on a complete 12-step program, using online and other resources to move women through their directorship journey.

We hope that you thoroughly enjoy the next two days. The program is very active, Simone Martin of Physical Wellbeing will be keeping your minds and bodies in tune with mini-stretching sessions during the various sessions. There are five-minute massages on offer during the breaks and the menu is deliberately healthy.

Finally, a large thank-you to the sponsors and supporters of this event: Mallesons Stephens Jaques, Defence Reserves Support, Australian Small Scale Offerings Board, Director’s Online, NSW Office for Women and our major sponsor, UBS, now in its third year with Women on Boards. We appreciate your support.

In conclusion I quote Irene Lang, the President of well-known American research and advocacy organisation, Catalyst:
“Increased globalization and shifting demographics dictate that diversity and the advancement of women in corporate leadership are strategic business imperatives that 21st-century companies cannot afford to ignore.”

Thank-you