E16 | Joanna Brand: From Brazil to Boards to Bitcoin

Senior executive, lawyer, company secretary and experienced director Joanna Brand has built a career across corporate governance, capital markets, infrastructure, energy, aviation and the arts.

In this episode of the 20 Years of Women on Boards podcast, Joanna joins Women on Boards CEO and Co-founder Claire Braundd OAM to reflect on the experiences that shaped her career, the value of curiosity and adaptability, and the governance challenges boards cannot afford to underestimate.

Born in Brazil, Joanna spent her early childhood moving between Trinidad, the United States, the Netherlands and Australia before returning to the US alone at 17. She credits this international upbringing with building the resilience and adaptability that have remained central throughout her career.

Her father’s strong belief in education also had a lasting influence. Joanna went on to study commerce and law at the University of Melbourne, arts and political science at Duke University and law at Harvard.

While learning has always supported her career, Joanna says curiosity is also deeply personal.

“I am an intensely curious person. I get bored really easily, so I read a lot and I go to a lot of CPDs and I’m always thinking about what course I can sign up for.”

Joanna’s executive career has taken her across banking, energy, retail and aviation, including senior legal and governance roles in complex, highly regulated organisations. She describes her preferred roles as ‘T-shaped’: positions that combine deep functional expertise with the opportunity to contribute across the whole business.

At Jetstar, being part of the executive team meant having a view not only on legal and governance matters, but also on issues such as aircraft interiors, catering and operational crises.

Her career has included helping complete a NASDAQ listing, selling a bank, responding to regulatory investigations and working across multiple jurisdictions. Yet one of the achievements she values most is the impact she has had on people.

During a Powerlink board exercise, fellow directors were asked to identify each other’s ‘superpower’. Every response Joanna received focused on the genuine care she showed for people across the organisation.

“If that is what people take away from working with me, I’m super happy with that.”

Joanna also offers a practical perspective on the evolving role of the company secretary. While the position can include a great deal of administration, she believes its strategic importance is often underestimated.

Company secretaries work closely with chairs and directors, observe board dynamics and play an increasingly pivotal role as governance, risk, cyber, artificial intelligence and ESG converge.

That intersection is particularly important in fast-moving sectors where there is no established governance playbook. Joanna shares lessons from her time at IREN, a renewable energy-powered data centre business that began in Bitcoin mining before expanding into AI computing.

She explains that emerging industries can face additional complexity because regulators, investors and service providers may not fully understand the business model. Governance systems must therefore evolve quickly while the organisation continues to operate and grow.

Looking ahead, Joanna believes boards are still underestimating the scale and speed of change that artificial intelligence will bring.

Rather than maintaining a separate AI strategy, she argues that boards must consider how AI supports the organisation’s core objectives, how returns will be measured, what the organisation’s risk appetite is and when decisions should be escalated from technology to people.

She also cautions that the human impact of AI will be critical.

“How your organisation does with AI will be made or broken around that human engagement with your staff and your employees.”

A long-time Women on Boards member and participant in the Next Generation of Female Leaders program, Joanna also reflects on the importance of networks and community throughout a board career.

One piece of advice has stayed with her:

“It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you and what you want to do.”

As technology becomes an even greater part of professional life, Joanna believes these human connections will become more valuable, not less.

Asked to describe her journey in three words, Joanna chose:

Resilient. Adaptable. Curious.

Learn more about Women on Boards www.womenonboards.net