Our Values

OUTGOING President’s message - kate mason

Hello wonderful IWFA ‘sistas’, 

Let me start by saying how incredibly proud I am to have worked with the IWFA board for the past five years and to have represented the membership throughout an incredible 2019. Our program throughout the year has been ambitious and diverse with our board delivering a compelling and dynamic range of programs and events that are aligned to our purpose:  

Connect as women, grow as leaders and shape the next generation of women leaders in Australia.

Key priorities for 2019 Included: 

Delivering the inaugural IWF Australian Symposium: Responding to many requests from across our membership, we were tremendously excited to hold the Symposium on May 3-4, 2019, in South Australia. The event was a resounding success and an incredible opportunity for members of all states to come together as one sisterhood to connect and grow as women and leaders for the very first time. What an energising event this was, from the diverse range of speakers and stimulating panel discussions to dine around events and hotel piano singalongs at the end of the night! The feedback from you, our members was that the quality of speakers, program and delivery were absolutely world class. Special thanks to Events Director Bronwyn Klei, Membership Director Maria MacNamara, Treasurer Catherine Curry-Hyde, Communications Director Nikki May and the organizing committee for your incredible skill in delivering a national IWFA event that truly raised the bar for all our members.

Membership Diversity: We have been committed to continuing to focus on diversity and be truly representative of the entire Australian community. I’m pleased to report that we have introduced 28 new members as a first step in achieving our key membership goal to attract women from Indigenous and other underrepresented cultural backgrounds, female military officers and CEOs of ASX listed companies.

Membership Centricity. As a Board, we are very focused on making the membership experience the best it can be. This year we committed ourselves to ensuring we were sharing more IWF stories at the on-boarding stage and with thanks to Communications Director Nikki May, have produced a video for new and prospective members which incorporates our voices, our passion and our language. With 37 events this year, we created approximately 320 face-to-face connection opportunities for our members, which to date has resulted in 100% active engagement across all platforms from you, our members for the majority this year! What an inspiring result!

Growing the Leaders of Tomorrow. In May this year our fabulous Chris Gilles lead a hugely successful six month pilot series of The Emerging Leaders Program in Melbourne. Twenty participants took part, learning from both the professional and personal experiences of our members. We have been thrilled at the feedback from all participants in this breakthrough IWFA mentorship concept, one which will be continued in the years to come.

Sustainability and Succession Planning. This has been a high priority topic for the Board and the Nominations Committee with the succession planning and handovers of the roles of President, Vice President, Communications Director and Treasurer now complete. After five amazing years, we’ve undertaken these fundamental changes with our board, as per the remits of our constitution and we have now created a robust foundation for the next five years of the IWFA. I am excited to welcome the amazing Ruveni Kelleher as incoming IWFA President, along with Brett Torossi as Vice President, Karina Marcar as Treasurer and Bronwyn Klei in the newly combined role of Events and Communications Director. I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to our retiring directors Michelle Loader as Vice President, Nikki May as Communications Director and Catherine Curry-Hyde as Treasurer. Your contributions of generosity, strength and spirit, along with expert levels of skill in your respective roles have been key in creating the secure foundation the IWFA enjoys now, as we celebrated our five year milestone in 2019.

Delivering on these key goals in 2019 has not only drawn us, the collective of the IWFA sisterhood closer, but created tangible waves of change within Australia’s professional landscape, and indeed the world. 2019 saw IWFA become an exemplar IWF chapter, receiving numerous endorsements from our international sisters who look to us for models of best practise and strategic inspiration and have emulated our sisterhood in their own chapter.   

2020 and Beyond 

I’m very excited to be part of the continued evolution of our unique and amazing sisterhood where we connect as women, grow as leaders and shape the next generation of leaders.  

The new executive board will be meeting in early 2020 and our incoming President Ruveni Kelleher will be outlining the strategy for the next couple of years.

 It has been one of the greatest privileges of my life to serve as your President for the last 3 years  – it is a time that I will continue to cherish and build from and will remain 100% committed to the IWFA sisterhood particularly as a Board Director in 2020 and will always continue to do my part to make this the best organisation for connecting, growing ourselves and our careers, supporting and sharing as a collective.

- Kate Mason

membership update - Maria MacNamara

2019 has been an enormous year where we saw an increase in our membership to 151 sisters. This year, we welcomed the Hon. Dr Annabelle Bennett AO, SC, Dr Lesley Braun, Mary-Beth Brinson, Fiona Brown, Lynn Dang, Libby Day, Marta Dusseldorp, Emma Grey, Mariam Issa, Sybille Kreiger, Bobbi Mahlab, Jane Matthews, Jacqui McGill, Natalie Nguyen, Kylie Osgood, Lisa Sonnabend, Robi Stanton and Arlene Tansey, Lauren Thompson, Professor Jacqui True and Catherine West!

Welcome to our sisters in Canberra!

This year, we also activated a new community in Canberra. Joining Gretchen Gagel, Simone Wilkie are Sarah Pearson and Anna Moore. Welcome! In 2020 we are very excited to work on an expansion of our network in Brisbane. 

Transfers and returns

We are also delighted to welcome sisters from the US, the UK including Professor Jana Matthews, Priscilla Brown and Michelle Hutton. We congratulate Allira Hudson-Gofers and Jane Moran who join us after completing the WABN program and qualifying for membership as a result of their broader investment in their careers and their engagement with the IWFA. 

The shape of things to come

We have a little over 50 members in both Melbourne and Sydney and 23 in Adelaide. Our top 5 roles include CEO’s, non-executive directors, those in the C-Suite, founders and Board Chairs. Almost 30% of our members provide advice to a client, just over 10% work in the public sector, and about the same are in the not-for-profit sector. Around 9% work in the financial services industry and the same number hail from the health sector. If you map the date of birth provided, you’ll find an almost normal distribution with most members born between 1961 and 1970. We will have more to say about our priorities for 2020 membership drive, until then, please feel free to share your new member ideas with us by completing the application and sending it to your State Council Chair. 

Coming together

We had many opportunities to connect as women and grow as leaders this year. At the heart of each engagement was a desire to come together so that we can be greater than the sum of our parts. Whether we gathered over a breakfast briefing, celebrated a sister at the lectern of a major event, joined a dine-around or perhaps a game of golf, attended drop in drinks or travelled to the inaugural IWFA Symposium in Adelaide - we took up the opportunities and came together to celebrate each other. And that simply put, is the joy of our IWFA community. 

events update - bronwyn klei

Member Events

2019 saw the IWFA host 37 events Australia wide, in addition to the presenting the inaugural IWFA Symposium. Curated by the State Chairs, this year’s events ranged from our “Cornerstone” Dine Arounds to breakfasts, supper clubs, cricket matches, artistic events and everything in-between!

IWFA Inaugural Symposium

In response to our national survey which told us that Members want more chances to be together, it was decided that the IWFA would host its first Symposium in the city of Adelaide. In recognition of Adelaide being named as the home of the new Australian Space Agency, the event was themed “The Sky is No Longer the Limit” and hosted at the Adelaide Zoo.  

With an action-packed agenda, 53 members got to hear from world renowned speakers sourced both nationally and from within the talented membership base of the IWFA.  The event was complmented by local Dine-Arounds and culminated in a truly memorable dinner held at the Adelaide Art Gallery. Member feedback was that the Symposium lifted our gaze and was truly inspiring.

Thanks and acknowledgement must go to the fabulous organising committee of Maria MacNamara, Tracey Habron, Kate Thiele and Louisa Rose for their contribution to this amazing event.