PROFILE-Jill Yelland

IF Jill Yelland could dine with any leader in history, Queen Elizabeth I ranks second, behind Nelson Mandela.

Not an advocate of affirmative action, she believes women should earn their positions on boards of companies, as well as top management and decision-making roles.

But as the state president of the Women Chiefs of Enterprises International (WCEI), Ms Yelland is on a personal crusade to advance women in business throughout Western Australia.

And according to the world-renowned glass artist, who has been a WCEI member for 14 years, WA, like much of the country, has come a long way in terms of equality.

WCEI is a global not-for-profit professional organisation that originated in France in 1945 to provide women with a nurturing environment of support networks to grow and develop in their business and professions.

About 40 years later it was established in Australia, where there are now more than 250 members across all states; WA has 10 per cent of that membership.

And if Ms Yelland’s strategic plan comes to fruition in the next few years, that number could soon spike.

Since she took over the reins from Lee Best in August 2009, Ms Yelland has looked to expand membership by generating more networking programs.

“I really want to get to a broader cross-section of women,” she told WA Business News.

“This organisation was set up so it’s by invitation only and we don’t have any more than two or three from the same profession, so we have a broad spectrum of members.

“But our numbers are down and haven’t really grown in the past few years so I’d like to do a lot more networking and recruit some more members.”

With a national conference in Canberra set for September with Westpac chief executive Gail Kelly as keynote speaker, Ms Yelland says WCEI members are exposed to the top echelons of business as well as small business owners.

As a glass artist and owner of Belmont-based glass and serigraphy studio designMERGERS, Ms Yelland understands the frustrations of being a business owner and the importance of groups like WCEI.

Schooled at Perth College, Ms Yelland later trained in graphic design at the WA Institute of Technology, which is now Curtin University of Technology.

The entrepreneur moved to Melbourne from 1969 to 1970 and then lived overseas, where she stayed for five years.

After working at an advertising agency in Frankfurt and later undertaking various jobs in Paris, Ms Yelland did a post-graduate degree in graphic design at The Basel School of Design.

Reflecting on her experiences, she remains satisfied with the progress women have made in the business world since the 1960s and ’70s.

“The whole time, though, I didn’t work under a female [boss], it was always male dominated, but I think we’ve come a long way,” she says.

“Most of my friends went into professions too and they’re educated women, and back then we couldn’t even get a loan without your father or a male going guarantor for you.

“And yet we had good jobs, were well-paid, educated.

“At the time I was really peed off, and they had the women’s movement and all that, but that didn’t do anything for us that left a lot of women at home disgruntled.

“They were told they should be out in the workforce but it didn’t do anything for women already in the workforce.

“I think it was all a bit of a sham.”