How Charlotte Valeur went from investment banking to build a global portfolio: The naked truth about diversity
Women on Boards I Making it Real
Release Date: 03/01/2021
On target: From banks to guns, Cheryl Dixon takes aim at Boards.
Women on Boards I Making it Real
When Cheryl Dixon is asked what Board she is on, her answer is met with raised eyebrows. With almost three decades with NAB, Cheryl’s first Board role with the Queensland Rifle Association came as a surprise to her and those around her. But six years ago she became the Board’s first woman and independent NED in the organisations’ 160-year history.
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Fiona David: Why we need a humane response to migration
Women on Boards I Making it Real
Fiona David has worked at the intersection of crime, law reform and human rights and in 2018 was appointed inaugural Research Chair of Minderoo Foundation. Fiona's career has seen her travel to some of the most dangerous corners of the globe while listening to the personal stories of human trafficking. As she says: “I am an adventurer deep in my heart. I feel compelled to do what I can to help others and to try and understand why people would put themselves in these incredibly risky situations.
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Building a Portfolio Career, Mustering Cattle and Surviving the witness box in the Banking Royal Commission
Women on Boards I Making it Real
In this episode Claire talks to highly accomplished board director Victoria Weekes about her board journey to an enviable portfolio career. She talks openly to Claire about her period of renewal, surviving the witness box in the Banking Role Commission, the importance of establishing and consistently following your values, humility and how we really haven’t come as far as we think with the gender pay gap.
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Turf love: How horse lover and Australian Turf Club Chair Trish Egan harnessed her passion
Women on Boards I Making it Real
Trish Egan is a born and bred Sydney girl, but she has had a lifelong love of horses from a young age. Looking back, 12-year-old Trish - who secretly penned a letter to the Chairman of the Australian Jockey Club asking how to become a strapper - would never have thought she’d be taking the reins as Australian Turf Club Chair decades later. Despite being told “stables were not the place for young ladies” Trish never gave up on her racehorse dream.
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Taking charge: Engineering’s first lady Dr Bronwyn Evans PhD AM
Women on Boards I Making it Real
It’s no surprise Dr Bronwyn Evans AM sticks by the mantra ‘everyone’s an engineer’. As CEO of Engineers Australia she can’t understand why everyone doesn’t want to work in her chosen field. It's Dr Evans belief that all children have the potential to become engineers. In this podcast, Dr Evans talks about why it’s time to get the gender balance right in STEM, how COVID has paved the way for more technology reforms and why problem-solving engineers are the perfect fit for the boardroom.
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Bringing the Tech perspective to Boards
Women on Boards I Making it Real
Lil Bianchi is not your box-ticking director. As a highly-experienced NED, Chair Audit & Risk Committee, former CEO and tech entrepreneur working across data analytics, fintech, risk and customer value Lil thrives on innovation and loves being around curious people. In this podcast, Lil says there’s space in every boardroom for “weird and whacky ideas” and talks about the importance of Boards to have a tech perspective. As she puts it: “Don’t get bamboozled or sidetracked - just dig, dig, dig.”
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Fashion to financial markets: How Mahjabeen Zaman found her voice
Women on Boards I Making it Real
Fashion designer, newsreader, banker, lecturer: Mahjabeen Zaman has had all these careers in her sights since growing up in Singapore with her Pakistani-born parents. Now living in Australia, Mahjabeen can add three of those four jobs to her resume. Currently working as a senior investments specialist and part-time lecturer, after also running her own fashion label in Asia, Mahjabeen talks to Claire about her passion for finance and why having a culturally diverse Board should never be ignored.
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Leesa Chesser: From Politics to the Boardroom
Women on Boards I Making it Real
If anything can prepare you for battle in the boardroom, it’s being a politician in the middle of a crisis. Former SA Mental Health Minister Leesa Chesser was thrust into the spotlight when allegations of elder abuse of dementia patients at the state-run Oakden nursing home were exposed leading, in part, to the aged care royal commission. In this podcast Leesa talks to Claire about what it was like being at the centre of a political scandal, and how vital lessons learned helped in her boardroom journey.
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Roberta Wright: The day my life turned upside down
Women on Boards I Making it Real
Resilient and tenacious - no two words could better describe long-term Women on Boards member Roberta Wright. Despite being left totally blind after a brain operation then having to fight to keep her adopted baby - on the back of losing her brother to a drug overdose and father to cancer - Roberta is always looking to the future. In this podcast she talks about overcoming adversity, learning to adjust and the challenges of raising a child as a blind single parent.
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Premiership Winning Material: Gaye Hamilton and her Wild Ride
Women on Boards I Making it Real
She’s spent years working with children and animals (a combination many of us would steer clear of) and yet Gaye Hamilton says the transferable skills gained in secondary science education and zoo management paved the way for her varied and fascinating career and board journey, including over a decade with the Western Bulldogs AFL club.
info_outlineFormer Danish investment banker, Charlotte Valeur, is an internationally renowned and highly experienced Non-Executive Director and Chair who is committed to increasing levels of good governance globally through value-based leadership. Always destined to live and work abroad she admits, at the age of 22, Charlotte transferred from Denmark, her home, to London with the bank she was employed with at the time and has remained there ever since. Raised by an adoring father who encouraged and supported all of her choices, his words of advice have been key to her every success: “Jump life before life jumps you.” In this episode, Charlotte reminds that everything that happens to us in life is based on our personal decisions and no one else’s.
Intrigued by the behaviour of people, Charlotte studied psychology when she took some time off work when she had her children. It is these soft skills, paired with her innate knowledge of investment banking, that have set her apart in the Boardroom. Charlotte has extensive Board level experience with IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, and restructuring, and her portfolio of sectors range from construction, infrastructure, renewable energy, private equity, property, finance/investments/debt, higher education and the third sector. When she entered the world of Board governance, she had a feeling that the overriding principles of best practice were the same, no matter the country or the organisation. From Board composition, to risk management and oversight, to stakeholder engagement, she found from her lived experience that the principles were in fact the same.
When Charlotte first stepped into the Boardroom, she was alarmed that she was the only woman most of the time. Male Board members would justify the polarisation by saying there were no women with Board experience. This motivated Charlotte to establish Board Apprentice Ltd, a not for profit organisation that collaborates with Boards, governments, academia, the third sector and businesses in many different countries to achieve greater equality, diversity and inclusion for women and minority groups.
Today Charlotte is Non-Executive Director for Liang O’Rourke and NTR plc, Chair for Blackstone Loan Financing Ltd and FSN Capital GP and Advisory Board Member for multiple organisations.
When she first began chairing 15 years ago, the appalling slow pace of governance shocked Charlotte. Following the 2007, 2008 and 2009 financial crises, and now COVID, she confidently says we are witnessing a push for better governance and leadership.
Hear about Charlotte’s upcoming book, why her Autism diagnosis has in many ways made her a better Board member, and the benefits of her many transferable skills.
LinkedIn Charlotte Valeur | Claire Braund (host)