I recently announced that after almost seven years leading HVCCC, the Hunter Valley Coal Chain Coordinator, I have made the decision to move onto new challenges in my career. This part of my career will come to a close in April 2020. There has been quite a bit of interest in my decision to leave my role as CEO at HVCCC and my desire to build a Director career and further build my work on leadership.

It has been an incredible privilege to hold the position of CEO of HVCCC. I wanted complex, challenging, interesting and strategic work with a powerful focus on people, leadership and culture. I wanted to have a positive impact. My CEO role has provided all of that and more, and I have learnt and grown a great deal.

I still want those same things in my career. I believe I can increase the span of industries and organisations I am able to work across, influence and support through being a Non-executive Director. I genuinely care about the culture of organisations, their leadership and love the opportunities to change and grow organisations to better deliver to their stakeholders – customers, employees, members, shareholders, community.

I am currently on three Boards as a Non-Executive Director – HMRI, RDA Hunter and Hunter H2O. Complex, strategic challenges rise to Boards and I have found this work intensely interesting and able to deliver great value, and I love working in a team. The view from the Board table is different to being an executive, and I believe reporting to a Board has provided extra insight and juxtaposition between the two roles.

The role of Boards and Governance is drawing significant focus, and Boards play a key role in our economy, society and culture – increasingly so. I am drawn to the complexity of the issues Boards face, the balance between governance and management and supporting positive cultures and great places to work and live.

Given my passion for diversity and inclusion and the desire to see the leadership population reflect the diversity of society, I am also continuing to work via Verity Leadership on the challenges I see around diversity, equity and inclusion and how we lead for better outcomes. Current leaders will influence the future leadership population. I am keen to engage with Boards and Executives on how they plan to tackle the inequity we see in leadership ranks.

I am interested in understanding how many have an awareness around this issue or a desire to change it. I want to support those with awareness and desire for change with knowledge and capability to support change. I also want to support aspiring leaders in navigating leadership, and to assist in levelling the playing field and provide pathways, know-how and networks to support this.

I love the Region I live in, so I want to spend my time here with my family. I love travel too, and experiencing different places and cultures so broadening my career to Boards outside the Hunter also is very appealing.

There is a lot that is not known yet, but it is exciting to be working it out and connecting with so many people on what’s next. In short, I believe whole-heartedly that my work and life trajectory has led me to the fortunate position I am now in where I feel I have a lot to offer our future leaders, industry pioneers and workplaces across the country on a greater level. I have always led with an open-door policy and I welcome anyone to please reach out. This is just the beginning.