Louise Adams is an Australian civil engineer. As of April 2023 [update] she is Aurecon's chief operating officer.
Louise Adams graduated from the Wharton Business School in 2018, [1] through the Chief Executive Women scholarship. [2]
Adams has worked as a civil engineer for over 25 years. [3]
She served as the chief executive for Australia and New Zealand at Aurecon, overseeing a workforce of 4,300 people. [3] In 2013, Adams became the first woman to serve as executive director on Aurecon's Global Board and is Aurecon's global spokesperson for Women in Leadership. [4] As of April 2023 [update] Aurecon's chief operating officer. [3] [5] Previously
Adams has said that the engineering sector has a "significant lack of cultural and gender diversity". [1] She said that: "For decades, our industry has been positioned as a male-centric profession. Promoted with images of hard hats and heavy machinery, a profession most suited to men. I believe this has narrowed our thinking, our perspectives, it has created a gender imbalance, siloed cultural profiles and above all – stifled potential for diversity of thought and, in turn, innovation." [1]
In 2020, Adams was awarded Australian CEO of the Year by The CEO Magazine. [3]
In 2021, she was recognised as a Deakin University Alumni of the Year. [6] [2]
In November 2021 Adams was elected a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering. [5]
In 2023, she was made the Australian Business Champion to Vietnam by the Australia Vietnam Policy Institute. [7]
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate executive charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization.
Deakin University is a public university in Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1974, the university was named after Alfred Deakin, the second Prime Minister of Australia.
Kevin John Roberts is a British businessman. He was the chief executive officer (CEO) of the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi from 1997 to 2014. In September 2006, Saatchi & Saatchi won a US$430 million JC Penney contract because of the idea of lovemarks, which was invented and promoted by Roberts. Roberts became executive chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi in 2015, then non-executive chairman in 2016. He resigned in August 2016 to focus on the marketing and leadership consultancy he founded in 1995, Red Rose Consulting.
Business in the Community (BITC) is a British business-community outreach charity promoting responsible business, CSR, corporate responsibility, and is one of the Prince's Charities of King Charles III.
The phrase women in business refers to female businesspeople who hold positions, particularly leadership in the fields of commerce, business, and entrepreneurship. It advocates for their increased participation in business.
Catherine Brighid Livingstone is an Australian businesswoman who has held positions in the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, CSIRO, Macquarie Bank, and Telstra.
Megan J. Smith is an American engineer and technologist. She was the third Chief Technology Officer of the United States and Assistant to the President, serving under President Barack Obama. She was previously a vice president at Google, leading new business development and early-stage partnerships across Google's global engineering and product teams at Google for nine years, was general manager of Google.org, a vice president briefly at Google[x] where she co-created WomenTechmakers, is the former CEO of Planet Out and worked as an engineer on early smartphones at General Magic. She serves on the boards of MIT and Vital Voices, was a member of the USAID Advisory Committee on Voluntary Aid and co-founded the Malala Fund. Today Smith is the CEO and Founder of shift7. On September 4, 2014, she was named as the third U.S. CTO, succeeding Todd Park, and serving until January, 2017.
Tracey Gaudry is an Australian sport administrator, former professional cyclist and current chief executive officer of Comm Unity Plus Services Ltd.
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Guillaume Johannes "Giam" Swiegers is a South African-born Australian business executive. Swiegers was the Global CEO of international engineering company Aurecon from 2015 to 2019, and was previously CEO of Deloitte Australia for twelve years.
Ann Sherry is an Australian public servant and businesswoman.
Gender representation on corporate boards of directors refers to the proportion of men and women who occupy board member positions. To measure gender diversity on corporate boards, studies often use the percentage of women holding corporate board seats and the percentage of companies with at least one woman on their board. Globally, men occupy more board seats than women. As of 2018, women held 20.8% of the board seats on Russell 1000 companies. Most percentages for gender representation on corporate boards refer only to public company boards. Private companies are not required to disclose information on their board of directors, so the data is less available.
Gender diversity is equitable representation of people of different genders. It most commonly refers to an equitable ratio of men and women, but also includes people of non-binary genders. Gender diversity on corporate boards has been widely discussed, and many ongoing initiatives study and promote gender diversity in fields traditionally dominated by men, including computing, engineering, medicine, and science. It is argued that some proposed explanations are without merit and are in fact dangerous, while others do play a part in a complex interaction of factors. It is suggested that the very nature of science may contribute to the removal of women from the 'pipeline'.
Cindy Hook is an American-Australian business executive. She was the chief executive officer of Deloitte Asia Pacific from 2018 to 2022, and CEO for Deloitte Australia from 2015 to 2018, making her the first female CEO of an Australian big four professional services firm, and championed diversity and inclusion while in that role. She is the chief executive of the organising committee for the 2032 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Kathleen Hogan is executive vice president for human resources and chief people officer at Microsoft.
Kathleen "Katie" Patricia Taylor is a Canadian business executive who is the chancellor of York University. She was the chair of the board of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) from 2014 to 2023, and is the first woman to chair the board of a major Canadian bank. Taylor became chair of the board in January 2014, having served on the board since 2001; she previously chaired the human resources and corporate governance committees, and served on the audit and risk committees.
Melanie Perkins is an Australian technology entrepreneur, who is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Canva. She owns 18% of the company.
Julie Terese Sweet is an American business executive and attorney. She is chair and chief executive officer (CEO) of Accenture, a multinational professional services company.
Brenda Bailey is a Canadian businesswoman and politician who has represented the electoral district of Vancouver-False Creek in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia since 2020. A member of the British Columbia New Democratic Party, she is currently the Minister of Finance. Previously, she was the Minister of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation of British Columbia.
Lisa S. Jones is an American businesswoman and entrepreneur, best known for being the founder of Atlanta-based video email company EyeMail Inc. As both a black and woman-owned business, EyeMail Inc. is classified as a Minority Women Business Enterprise (MWBE). Her company began as a start-up, eventually growing exponentially through partnerships with Microsoft, Delta Air Lines, Time Warner, Porsche North America, the Atlanta Tech Village, PepsiCo and, most notably, The Coca-Cola Company, through which EyeMail Inc. got selected by Microsoft as a premier MWBE supplier in digital marketing. Prior to dedicating herself to entrepreneurship, Jones worked in supplier diversity for telecommunications provider AT&T, and continues to develop a career as a thought leader and public speaker in the matter.