Business News asked five celebrated women about their career journeys, challenges and future plans.
IN recognition of International Women’s Day last week (March 8), Business News reached out to some of Western Australia’s most accomplished women.
Those profiled have made invaluable contributions to their varied fields and have been inducted into the WA Women’s Hall of Fame for their work in business, STEM, culture and education.
While the leadership qualities of those profiled – and those of many other successful women across Australia – is clear, recent research by Chief Executive Women found a lack of progress in terms of women’s representation in senior roles at top companies.
In 2022, women made up 27 per cent of executive leadership roles of the companies listed on the ASX 300. According to Chief Executive Women, it could take up to 100 years before a gender balance is achieved in chief executive roles.
Only 50 of the biggest ASX-listed companies have gender-balanced senior leadership teams, which was eight fewer than in 2021.
This year’s theme for International Women’s Day of ‘#EmbraceEquity’ advocates for women to be given more opportunity to be recognised for their economic and social contribution as leaders.
Groundbreaking Law giving back, improving outcomes
WORORA and Walmajarri woman Katina Law was the first Indigenous woman to be chief executive of an ASX-listed company when she joined East Africa Resources in 2012.
She was also the first Indigenous woman to chair an ASX-listed company when she was appointed to Ardea Resources in 2017.
Ms Law has also co-founded two award-winning Indigenous-owned companies. IPS Management Consultants was founded with her business partner, Damien Chalk, in 2015 to bring an Indigenous lens to government and large corporates.
“The vision with IPS was to create opportunities for Indigenous people in the professional services space,” Ms Law told Business News. “
I wanted to create opportunities for businesses to work with Indigenous people, but also the opportunity to build and grow a new group of Indigenous people with experience in consulting.”
Having worked in a male-dominated industry for so many years, Ms Law is proud to confirm 73 per cent of the 55 employees at IPS are female and 25 per cent are Indigenous.
IPS was a finalist for Telstra Best of Business Awards for Indigenous Excellence in 2022.
In addition, Ms Law co-founded Dutjahn Sandalwood Oils in 2017, a business that sells Western Australian sandalwood oil to international perfume markets.
“The idea for the company came from a group of Aboriginal men from the Central Desert,” Ms Law said.
“I helped them win our first contract, which was to write a tender to buy sandalwood from the Forestry Products Commission and then find a partner to help us build the processing facility in Kalgoorlie.”
Ms Law remains as the chair and a shareholder of Dutjahn Sandalwood Oils, which in 2019 became the first Australian organisation to be awarded an Equator Prize at the UN.
Starting work as a mining accountant, Ms Law’s career has taken her across the world to Indonesia, the UK, Hong Kong, the US and Africa.
“I wanted to stay in the mining industry because I liked it so much and the things mining brings to the world are amazing,” Ms Law said. Now, Ms Law holds positions as chair of Beananging Kwuurt Institute and director of the K Farmer Dutjahn Foundation.
“I have this underlying desire to give back,” she said.
“My goal these days is to improve the lives of Indigenous people.”
Southern Aboriginal Corporation chief executive Asha Bhat. Photo: Matt Jelonek
Bhat recognised for strong commitment to community
FINANCIAL officer turned chief executive Asha Bhat is determined to improve the lives of disadvantaged Australians through her work.
Ms Bhat migrated from India and began working as a financial officer at the Southern Aboriginal Corporation in Albany in 2008.
SAC provides a range of services and programs to support Indigenous people, communities and businesses. In 2013, the not for profit began to suffer financial hardship and Ms Bhat was promoted to chief executive to re-establish its stability.
Equipped with her tertiary qualifications in mathematics, business and accounting, she not only led SAC to recovery but helped it become an award-winning provider.
“Although not for profits exist to have an impactful purpose, it must be run like a business with budgeting done properly,” Ms Bhat told Business News.
Having witnessed disparity and discrimination in India, Ms Bhat developed a passion for supporting people in need, and her commitment to this mission has been recognised over the years. S
he won the 2017 Albany Citizen of the Year Award and was a finalist in the 2020 Telstra WA Business Women’s Awards.
In 2022, Ms Bhat won the Pro Bono Australia Impact 25 Award and later received the Order of Australia Medal for her service to WA’s Indigenous community.
“Coming to Australia and working in the not-for-profit sector, especially in an Aboriginal organisation where I’ve seen many disadvantaged people tapping into services, I believe I now have the skillset to help people who are disadvantaged and not just Aboriginal communities, but the wider community too,” Ms Bhat said.
Working at SAC, Ms Bhat said she was required to make executive decisions through a mixed cultural lens.
“I’m a migrant woman, so leading an Aboriginal corporation is such an unusual situation and has been very challenging for me,” she said.
Under her leadership, SAC established the Family Violence Prevention Legal Service to provide culturally responsive legal advice and non-legal prevention and support services to the Great Southern region.
Through Ms Bhat’s extensive research, the service was expanded to the South West and lower Wheatbelt regions.
Ms Bhat also partnered with Perth-based Aboriginal Family Legal Services to design and deliver services in the metro area.
She volunteers at Share the Dignity to support women at risk of homelessness after fleeing domestic violence. “I’m very passionate about not-for-profit and community services,” she said.
DNA Zoo Australia founding director Parwinder Kaur. Photo: Matt Jelonek
Passion to deliver data part of Kaur’s DNA
PARWINDER Kaur says it was her fascination for DNA that inspired her to conduct research in agricultural practices and the conservation of endangered species.
Ms Kaur’s career in plant protection is fuelled by a desire to improve agriculture after she witnessed the “shocking” farming practices in India, where she grew up.
“Plants are far more complicated than humans or other animals, but I wanted to meaningfully contribute to our knowledge about agriculture and farming system issues through the lens of DNA,” Ms Kaur told Business News.
As a research associate at the University of Western Australia, Ms Kaur made a global impact when she cracked the genetic code to subterranean clover, enabling the development of low methanogenic forages.
This research led to a new model for reducing the environmental footprint of the livestock industry. Ms Kaur travelled to the US and worked with scientists in Texas researching human DNA, where she continued to advocate for the investigation of plants’ genetic makeup.
Her efforts were rewarded in 2018, when the team of scientists founded DNA Zoo (global); six months later, Ms Kaur established DNA Zoo Australia at the UWA campus in Perth.
The not-for-profit organisation facilitates the conservation of threatened and endangered species by sharing chromosome-length genome assemblies of DNA online.
While open to public access, the three-dimensional genomes are primarily for the use of international conservation and research teams.
Ms Kaur led the release of the world’s first high-quality genomes of more than 50 Australian species, including the black swan and numbat.
Now, DNA Zoo has released more than 300 genomes and has more than 120 collaborating partners across nine countries.
In 2020, Ms Kaur founded Ex Planta to bioengineer synthetic isoflavones for health products. She also founded UWA-based initiative WA Genome Atlas to conserve native biodiversity by mapping out DNA of Western Australian animals and plants.
In October 2022, the initiative was awarded $1.5 million through a state government Lotterywest grant, which will fund the construction of a research hub.
“I want to put out as much data as possible in terms of the basis for different species,” Ms Kaur said.
“It has to happen sooner rather than later, before we lose them and they’re gone forever.”
Australian Greens Senator for WA Dorinda Cox. Photo: Matt Jelonek
Pursuit of social justice a key concern for Cox
Yamati-Noongar woman Dorinda Cox was elected as the Australian Greens Senator for Western Australia in 2021, becoming the first Indigenous woman to represent the state in the Senate.
Senator Cox had previously represented Greens WA as a candidate for Jandakot and Fremantle, and in 2020 she became the lead Senate candidate for WA.
She worked alongside former senator Rachel Siewert until her retirement, resulting in Senator Cox being officially elected to the position.
Senator Cox has spent her career working to help disadvantaged people and advocating for a fairer future.
She worked for the WA Police Force for 10 years, mostly as an Aboriginal police liaison officer in Perth and Kalgoorlie.
Specialising in addressing family violence and sexual assault, Senator Cox said she had a determination for social justice.
“I was very young and naïve to think I had the ability to change a massive institution that had been put in place,” Senator Cox told Business News.
“When I left the police force at 27, I really got a sense of not having learned enough in my life and I wanted to learn more.”
She moved to a position at Centrelink, as a personal adviser, where she learned about legal policy settings and their potential to affect people’s lives.
Her role looked into government and welfare reform to guide unemployed people back into the workforce.
“I returned to the sexual assault area and began working from a public health perspective providing education, training, walking beside victims and advocating for change,” Senator Cox said.
She has contributed to a number of organisations and initiatives campaigning against domestic violence, including working as the chair of the National Sexual Assault Services board.
Senator Cox recommended key law reforms and policy initiatives for the first National Action Plan for Violence against Women and Children.
In 2013, she founded Inspire Change Consulting Group to advise government bodies and departments on social issues, policy and advocacy work.
“It was for the benefit of the community, and I always maintained that as my pivotal focus and my core value system in the work I did as a consultant,” Senator Cox said.
“My aspiration is to make a difference for the next generation of children and my grandchildren, put First Nations social justice to the forefront and ultimately make the world a better place.”
In 2020, Ms Cox was awarded the Aboriginal Police Medal.
Edith Cowan University vice president Cobie Rudd. Photo: Matt Jelonek
Happiness-first focus helps Rudd with work-life balance
Cobie Rudd concedes her current role as a senior staff member at Edith Cowan University is a long way from her first career move as an artistic illustrator.
Her journey from visual artist to ECU vice-president and deputy vice-chancellor of regional futures involved about 12 career changes.
While living on the east coast of Australia, Ms Rudd started as a freelance artist drawing medical illustrations for surgeons and publishing a cartoon column.
“After a while I felt disconnected from people and the real world,” Ms Rudd told Business News.
“I wanted to get more in touch with people and I ended up taking the clinical route.”
Ms Rudd completed a registered nursing program before studying for a psychiatric nurse certificate and becoming a mental health nurse.
Four years later, she studied health science in nursing at the University of New England in NSW and completed a master of public health at Queensland University of Technology.
Ms Rudd was recruited by the Queensland health minister, who was searching for a nurse with sexual health and mental health training (and a bus driver’s licence).
“I got this gig driving a city council bus, which had an additional compartment on the back to do clinical investigations,” Ms Rudd said.
In this role, she travelled between Brisbane and the Gold Coast to deliver health services, writing and publishing a report on the experience.
In 1992, Ms Rudd was appointed by the Queensland government to a newly created position that required her to write the state’s youth health policy.
“I then became a state government policy maker, a federal government policy adviser, I researched and co-drafted national policies and I loved that intersection of government with industry and professions,” Ms Rudd said.
Determined to use her career journey to help other people, Ms Rudd was head-hunted and offered the perfect platform to give back: tertiary education.
At ECU, she worked as the university’s inaugural chair in mental health and the pro-vice chancellor for health advancement.
She also leads the Athena SWAN initiative, which is focused on gender equity and diversity in academia at ECU and addressing the gender imbalance in STEM.
“It wasn’t always easy, especially as a woman,” Ms Rudd said.
“There were many times I failed and had to get back up. “Now, I’m a big believer of work-life balance and putting happiness first."
