The Most Powerful Women in Australian Business

With all the talk of progress towards gender equality in Australia, the fact remains that women are still underrepresented in one of the most important areas in business – at the leadership table.

Just 32.5% of key management positions in Australian companies are occupied by women, while only 19.4% of CEOs are female, current WGEA data shows. With women comprising 51% of the workforce, these figures are a stark reminder of the work that needs to be done.

This year’s International Women’s Day calls for more investment in women to accelerate progress. What could be a better investment for diversity in the Australian workplace than investing in the women leaders of tomorrow? And to invest in these leaders, having powerful female role models provides vital inspiration.

To commemorate International Women’s Day, here’s a few of the most influential women in the Australian business landscape.

Appointed CEO of Telstra in March 2022, Brady was Telstra’s first female chief executive, working up through the ranks of the telco giant to take the top job.

Brady gained years of telco experience at Optus, SingTel and KPMG after graduating from Australian National University with a Bachelor of Commerce; she also holds a Master of Science in Management from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. Her management style? As she’s famously told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, “I don’t need to be aggressive, I don’t need to yell, (and) I don’t need to bang the table”.

Weckert, previously a McKinsey & Company alum, became CEO and MD of Coles Group in May 2023, after more than 10 years with the company. She wisely gained leadership experience across several business units within Coles before her appointment as CEO, including strategy, people and culture and a stint as CFO during the demerger of Coles from Wesfarmers. Her advice for women leaders? “Be bold and be willing to take risks – that’s what unlocks opportunities and leads to personal growth.”

Appointed head of Australia’s ‘millionaire factory’ in 2018, Wikramanayake is one of few female CEOs in the male-dominated world of investment banking. At Macquarie since 1987, she is a graduate of UNSW and Harvard Business School, and ranked 24th in the list of Most Powerful Women in the World for the Year 2021 by Forbes.

Raised in a small town in northern Victoria, Baker has run Bendigo and Adelaide Bank as CEO since July 2018. She has been with the Group since 1989, working up to positions including Chief Customer Officer, Chief Information Officer, Group Treasurer and as the first female CEO of Sandhurst Trustees. “Coming from a small country town, working in a regional centre and having a family; none of this stops you from being able to reach your full potential. And it shouldn’t stop you,” Baker says.

Having been with Ramsay, Australia’s largest private hospital operator, for 22 years, Monaghan became CEO in 2020. Educated in Queensland, Monaghan has a background in marketing and communications and her previous roles at Ramsay have included Group Chief of Staff and Group Head of Marketing and Public Affairs.

With Qantas since 1994, Hudson was instrumental in navigating the Flying Kangaroo through the COVID crisis as CFO and was appointed CEO in September 2023. It’s no small feat to take over the role from a well-known (and to an extent, controversial) incumbent like Alan Joyce, but Hudson seems well poised to handle the challenges of her new position.

CEO of Harvey Norman since 1999, Page has been instrumental in lifting the famous retail brand from a turnover base of $3 million into a multi-business-line powerhouse earning more than $9 billion (as of FY23) with hundreds of stores in eight countries. “It is essential to keep investing in your employees. During the GFC, Harvey Norman had 600 people working in Ireland and the company chose to support them throughout the financial crisis. We’re now doing really well in Ireland and achieved a 20.3% profit increase,” she says.

Managing Director and CEO of industrial brand CSR since September 2019, Coates has decades of senior leadership experience, including Woolworths (as MD), Coca-Cola Amatil, Spotless, and Goodman Fielder. Coates passionately advocates for increasing the representation of women in positions of leadership, as highlighted by her involvement with the Champions of Change National Group, to support women leaders in traditionally male-dominated fields.

An MIT graduate with degrees in Ocean and Chemical Engineering, O’Neill became CEO and MD of Woodside in 2021 after joining in 2018 as Chief Operations Officer. Her career in oil and gas spans almost three decades, including senior leadership roles with ExxonMobil in Asia, Europe and the US.

“Saying ‘yes’ has opened a number of doors for me. Being flexible, being open-minded, taking on whatever challenges have been posted has paid huge dividends for me,” O’Neill says.

Here at TalentWeb, we’re proud champions of diversity in the workplace and supporting organisations to hire inspirational female leaders. As a Certified B Corp business – and the first B-Corp recruitment agency in New South Wales – we’re committed to building a more sustainable future with ethical business practices. For help with hiring inspirational leaders for your team, contact us today.