Gender Equity Victoria has appointed its first full Board of Directors to drive the strategic and economic development of Victoria’s peak body for gender equity.

New appointees include:

• Amanda Barker, Head Corporate Responsibility VicSuper, accomplished Non-Executive Director, former advisor to Carlton Football Club.
• Angela Jackson, Lead Economist at the Equity Economics, contributor to The Age and Deputy Chair of Women’s Economic Network
• Entsar Hamid, Executive Operations Manager – Registrations, Victorian Land Registry Services and board member of the Institute of Public Administration Australia.
• Sarah Styles, Head of Female Engagement, Cricket Australia.

The four newly appointed Board members will join the existing six elected board members, having rural, regional and metropolitan representation, including Chairperson Kit McMahon, Deputy Chairperson Tricia Currie, Treasurer Helen Riseborough, Secretary Leah Van Poppel and Non-Executive Directors Emma Mahoney and Elly Taylor.

“At a time when Covid19 is revealing deep and entrenched gender equities, it is more important than ever that we have a strong, growing peak organization to champion the needs of Victorian women and gender diverse people. We welcome the skilled leaders joining GEN VIC’s board today and their commitment to ensuring Victoria is gender equal during disaster and beyond,” said Kit McMahon, Chair.

“We have already accomplished so much as Australia’s first peak body for gender equity. Our New Directors strengthen the governance of GEN VIC, at a time when the organization is growing its reach and membership.”

In addition, the Board welcomes the appointment of Trish Crossin and Julia Banks to roles as Special Advisors Gender and Politics, supporting the board and staff in the development of policies and programs to improve gender equity at a local, state and federal level.

Trish Crossin, a former Senator for the NT now living in Melbourne, helped establish the first on-site childcare centre in the Australian Parliament while Julia Banks, former member for the Victorian Federal Seat of Chisholm, is an outspoken opponent of bullying and gender discrimination in political workplaces.

“To have such amazing representation across economics, sport, education, corporate and government, we couldn’t have better leadership. This marks an exciting new chapter for the organization,” said Tanja Kovac, CEO.

See below for a list of new Board member bios –  also available at https://www.genvic.org.au/about-us/our-board/

MEDIA ENQUIRIES.  Jacinta Masters; GEN VIC Manager; Ph. 9418 0921; Mob 0427 383 982; genvic@genvic.org.au

Amanda Barker

GAICD, Non Executive Director and an accomplished Senior Executive Leader, Amanda has extensive experience in education, health & community, corporate and the sports sector.  She has worked in both the Australian and Victorian Public Service Sector.  Roles have involved the development of social impact strategies, diversity and inclusion strategy development and meaningful high-level partnership/stakeholder engagement. Her commercial acumen has led organisations to achieve success in commercial opportunities creating financial sustainability. 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.

 

Angela Jackson

Angela is the Deputy Chair of WEN and a Lead Economist at the Equity Economics.

Starting her career as an economist at the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Angela has worked across tax, fiscal and social policy.  As the then Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Angela worked on the Government’s response to the GFC and major reforms across the health, education and disability sectors.

A committed feminist, Angela is also a member of the National Federation of Australian Women’s Social Policy Committee and has contributed to the NFAW annual Gender Lens on the Budget.

Angela is also a non-executive Board Member and Finance Committee Chair of Melbourne Health, which runs Royal Melbourne Hospital, and a member of the Victorian National Heart Foundation Advisory Board.  Angela provides regular media commentary on the economy and is a regular contributor to The Age on economic issues.

Angela holds a Masters in International Health Policy (Health Economics) with Distinction from the London School of Economics and Political Science, a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) from the University of Melbourne and a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Tasmania. She will submit her PhD thesis on the Economics of Disability in June 2020.

 

Entsar Hamid, Executive Operations Manager – Registrations, Victorian Land Registry Services

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).

With a background in government, legal and the private sector, she is passionate about building culture, capacity and capability, along with ensuring talent is supported to deliver excellence.

Entsar is an Eritrean refugee who came to Australia via the Unite States. She mentors women in the public service from diverse cultural backgrounds who are interested in pursuing leadership positions. Entsar is frequently asked to speak about leadership as well as issues such as racism and sexism in the workforce.

Entsar is a long time member of and Board Director for the Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA Vic Chapter), she is also a mentor with Leadership Victoria and the Victorian Endowment for Science, Knowledge and Innovation (VESKI).

 

Sarah Styles, Head of Female Engagement at Cricket Australia

Sarah is the inaugural Head of Female Engagement at Cricket Australia, responsible for driving gender equality in Australia’s national sport through to the greater inclusion and involvement of women and girls as players, athletes, fans and employees. Sarah’s tenure at Cricket Australia has seen the launch of the Women’s Big Bash League, the professionalisation of women’s elite cricket and, more recently, the world record breaking ICC T20 World Cup held in Australia.

Prior to joining Cricket Australia, Sarah was an investment banker at Macquarie, focused on mergers and acquisitions in the general industrials and resources sectors, and Senior Strategy Advisor and Investor Relations Manager at Medibank ahead of its IPO. She is also a co-founder of X-Golf, Australia’s largest network of standalone indoor golf centres.

Originally from country Victoria, Sarah is passionate about the driving national change through the platform of sport, and equalising opportunities for rural communities.

Sarah holds a Master of Finance from INSEAD, and a Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Science from Monash University. In 2018, Sarah attended The Wharton School as part of Chief Executive Women’s Scholarship Program.

 

Julia Banks

Julia Banks is an experienced Business Leader, Company Director, General Counsel Company Secretary and a former Member of the Parliament of Australia. Julia’s expertise is in the areas of governance, ethics and trust, reputation, risk, crisis and issues management, leadership development and workplace culture.

Julia has unique “dual” leadership experience in the corporate business world and as a Member of the Federal Parliament of Australia.

Julia Banks has always been a passionate advocate for gender equality and women in leadership and an active mentor and coach to aspiring and emerging female leaders throughout her business and political career.

During her business career Julia successfully launched and led gender and cultural diversity programs and spoke at various diversity & women in leadership forums.

Specifically, Julia’s advocacy the financial independence of women and equal representation of women in leadership has been in countless speeches to schools, businesses and community groups and media appearances.

During her term in office, Julia Banks made numerous speeches to the Federal Parliament which were underpinned by her passion and drive for gender and cultural equality and the impact of unconscious bias and discrimination.

Julia Banks also founded and chaired the first Federal Parliamentary Group for Women’s Health and is an ambassador for Honour A Woman, Australia

 

Trish Crossin

Trish Crossin was the first women elected to the Federal Parliament from the Northern Territory and served 15 years (1998-2013).  She is also the founder and inaugural chair of the NT Working Women’s Centre and the Timor Leste Working Women’s Centre.

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.

She was responsible for the campaign and creation of the Childcare Centre in Parliament House and having the Senate Standing orders rewritten to be gender neutral.

Trish is an experienced Director with a strong background on business, community and government boards.

She has a Bachelor of Education from Deakin University and lived in the Territory for more than 30 years, both in urban and remote areas where she worked as a teacher before joining the Education Unions as an Industrial Officer.

 

All Board member bios and photos are available from https://www.genvic.org.au/about-us/our-board/.