Julie Kun - Chair
Julie is a gender equity leader and consultant specialising in gender equity and financial well-being. Julie has previously held a position as the CEO of WIRE – Victoria’s only services that provides support information and referral to women and gender diverse and nonbinary people on any issue. Julie established and ran Jewish Care’s Blue Star a culturally appropriate home and respite care service for the diverse Jewish Communities of Melbourne and worked with the Australian Services Union Tasmania Division as an organiser, with a focus on gender equity.
Leigh Svendson - Deputy Chair
Leigh has more than 30 years’ experience in Industrial Relations, working for health unions since 1987, lastly with the Health Services Union. Her recent focus has been in the VET Sector, governance and compliance matters, women’s engagement in the union, and policy development. She has been a member National Committee of EMILY’s List Australia for several years, including time as treasurer, and is the current national co-convenor. Her pervious board experience includes Loddon Mallee Women’s Health and Positive Women Victoria.
Entsar Hamid
Entsar holds 13 years’ experience in building government capability, driving operational excellence, and change and transformation with a central focus on improved stakeholder management. Entsar has held Manager and Director positions across the Department of Premier and Cabinet, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning. In 2018 she was the youngest awardee for the Top 50 Women in the Public Service (Vic).
Amanda Barker
Amanda was honoured with an Australian Day Public Service Medal Award 2012 for outstanding work in the community. At board level, highlights include her appointment as a Non Executive Director with the Credit & Investments Ombudsman where she provided strategic guidance and governance to management and the board, to promote and further develop the Ombudsman scheme. Currently Amanda has been appointed onto the Australian Sustainable Finance Initiative, established to set out a roadmap for realigning the finance sector to support greater social, environmental and economic outcomes for the country.
Trish Crossin
Trish Crossin was the first women elected to the Federal Parliament from the Northern Territory and served 15 years (1998-2013). Trish is an advocate for gender equity, and supporting women into politics. During her time in the Senate, Trish was Chair of the Status of Women Committee and her work contributed to the implementation of paid maternity leave, a national plan to reduce violence against women and including breastfeeding as a ground for discrimination in the Sex Discrimination Act.
Jenny Davidson
Jenny Davidson is the CEO of Council of Single Mothers and their Children, a non-profit organisation that supports and empowers single mother families and advocates for change, and a single mother. She is a values-based leader with a passion for growing equality and creating opportunities for others to flourish. Twenty years working in the non-profit sector has resulted in expertise in strategic leadership, operations, service delivery and stakeholder relations, reinforced by an MBA from Melbourne Business School. Jenny’s experience ranges across women’s, youth and health organisations in Australia and overseas, with a focus on women’s rights.
Jade Blakkarly
Jade Blakkarly is the current CEO of WIRE Women's Information Referral Exhange. She previously held the position of CEO for Juno in 2017 where she has initiated and led ground-breaking projects focused on achieving positive outcomes and sustained change for people experiencing disadvantage in family violence, homelessness, justice, health, drug and alcohol sectors and in Aboriginal health. Her expertise lies in strategic leadership, operations and system design, policy and program innovation.