WA women take senior board roles

Five Western Australian women have been appointed to senior board positions, including Marion Fulker joining the Infrastructure Australia board and Samantha Tough chairing Horizon Power.

Ms Fulker was among four new board members to be appointed to the Infrastructure Australia board from around the country.

She is the Committee for Perth chief executive and an adjunct senior research fellow at The University of Western Australia.

The appointment of Ms Fulker comes as it was announced Lockwood Advisory founder and director Nicole Lockwood was leaving the Infrastructure Australia board. 

New Horizon Power chair Ms Tough is a director of Clean Energy Finance Corporation, a non-executive director of Saracen Mineral Holdings and pro-vice chancellor of UWA.

Previously, she has held non-executive positions at Synergy, WAAPA and Aerison.

Ruth Shean has been announced as president and chair of Cancer Council WA after George Yeoh stepped down from the role after six years.

Dr Shean has worked as director general of the Department of Training and Workforce Development, the Disability Services Commission and the Department for Community Development.

Prior to her 18 years in state government, she was chief executive of the Cerebral Palsy Association of WA and executive officer of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health.

Last week, Worley Perth global strategy director Amber Banfield was elected to the WA Football Commission board for a three-year term.

Ms Banfield has worked with Worley for the past 20 years in engineering, program management, marketing and communications, strategic planning, investor relations, corporate affairs, commercial strategy and business and financial planning.

Cheryl Edwardes was reappointed to the WAFC board for another three-year term and has been endorsed by the board to serve as vice-chair from January 1 2020.

Mrs Edwardes was a lawyer before running for parliament and becoming the first female attorney general in WA in 1993.

After leaving politics, she has held a number of board roles and serveral positions in law and management, the most recent being senior adviser strategic communications at FTI Consulting.