Rose wins scholarship to US

BHP Billiton manager Kirsten Rose is heading to one of the world’s top universities this month for a leadership course after being selected for a Chief Executive Women scholarship.

Perth-based Ms Rose will be participating in a six-day course run jointly by MIT, formerly the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and IMD, a business school based in Switzerland.

Chief Executive Women president Kathryn Fagg said the scholarships enabled accomplished women to build their leadership skills and advance their careers.

“The aim of CEW’s scholarship program is to fast-track the careers of talented women and improve the representation of women in senior leadership roles in Australia,” she said.

Ms Rose joined BHP in 2016 and is currently head of low-emission technology and innovation partnerships.

She said the US course, titled Driving Strategic Innovation, was perfectly suited to her career situation.

“One of the challenges we face is driving innovation through a very large and fairly traditional corporate culture,” Ms Rose told Business News.

“This course is all about that.”

Ms Rose said her goal was to work at the intersection of innovation, sustainability, technology and science.

This included working with startups and others who may introduce great ideas to BHP.

She said the assessment process for the scholarship included a series of interviews and a panel interview.

SEEK’s strategy director international, Tennealle O’Shannessy, was also awarded a Chief Executive Women scholarship.

The Driving Strategic Innovation program brings together the latest technology research from MIT Sloan and the latest leadership knowledge from IMD, and provides participants with the opportunity to learn how to manage innovation within their organisations.

It knits together innovation, marketing and product development, business-model opportunities, value-chain design, project execution and talent management in an end-to-end roadmap for achieving breakthrough performance. 

More than 150 women have been awarded CEW scholarships to business schools in Australia and internationally since CEW commenced its executive program in 1992.

The scholars program is funded through the CEW annual dinner and the support of sponsors including platinum sponsor King & Wood Mallesons, airline sponsor Qantas and technology sponsor Telstra.

Chief Executive Women represents more than 420 of Australia’s most senior women from the corporate, public, academic and not-for-profit sectors.