Australian LGBTQ+ Board & Executive Inclusion (ALBEI)

We are incredibly delighted to announce that Dawn Emsen-Hough is joining the board of ALBEI, Dawn has led ACON’s Pride Inclusion Programs since 2009 and has developed the most respected and robust workplace inclusion organisation in the country with a strong foundation of research and data. Dawn’s team has been instrumental in the acceptance and inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in the workplace and has carried out extensive education to enable inclusion in Australian workplaces. ALBEI and PID have already been collaborating successfully over the last little while and we look forward to extending that relationship with Dawn on the Board. Dawn has been recognised as one of Australia's 100 most influential women by The Australian Financial Review & Westpac and one of Australia's Outstanding LGBTQ+ Leaders by Deloitte and Google. Dawn is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and an Adjunct Senior Fellow of The University of Queensland has a Masters in Cognitive Science from UNSW and has had a stellar academic career.

A statement from DCA on the recent government census decision. Mark Baxter Anna Brown OAM Dawn Emsen-Hough (GAICD) Jacqueline Braw

It was wonderful for Penny Cole and Tosin James-Odukoya to share feedback with Mark Baxter on the diversity and inclusion journey at Quilter plc. The key-take outs are be data driven, have full board participation and support. Also, a regulatory push really helps ... fingers crossed for the ASX Corporate Governance Principles. In order to gain the hearts and minds is the need for story telling as some people don't see the need or see a problem. With enviable participation rates in the Quilter survey the sky does not fall-in when these questions are asked and the data is collected. The data really helps build an inclusive workplace. Association of LGBTQ+ Corporate Directors LGBTQ Corporate Directors Canada Diversity Council Australia Ltd Quilter Fabrice C Houdart Jane Griffith Dawn Emsen-Hough (GAICD) Lesley Traverso David Brine MAICD 🌈 David Anthony Andrew Staite

We are very pleased to announce that Andrew Staite has joined our board. Andrew leads The Pinnacle Foundation and is non-executive chair of SHK Asia Pacific, an executive search and outplacement firm he co-founded in 2007. Andrew was a non-executive director of Victoria’s Midsumma Festival from 2013 until 2016. He joined the board of The Pinnacle Foundation in 2016, and was appointed as the Foundation’s managing director and chief executive officer in 2019. We are delighted to have Andrew on board and to be able collaborate on all aspects of the LGBTQ+ community's career development is an exciting development. Welcome Andrew! Fabrice C Houdart Association of LGBTQ+ Corporate Directors Jane Griffith LGBTQ Corporate Directors Canada David Brine MAICD 🌈 David Anthony Lesley Traverso Sanjay Alapakkam

Paying it forward? The Rainbow Glass Ceiling - why is there only 4 LGBTQ+ Directors on ASX300 Boards in Australia that are happy to be "out" in their company literature. Why are there a number of others that would prefer not to be disclosed as members of the LGBTQ+ community? Are we missing out on role models in our elite leadership? Why do we have only one company in the ASX200 voluntarility disclosing all aspects of diversity beyond gender. This is a personal choice but what is stopping LGBTQ+ senior executives and directors from making the choice to be a public role model? Ryan Federo, Associate Professor at the Department of Business Economics - Universitat de les Illes Balears, Palma de Mallorca, Spain has carried out research into this issue and its a global phenomenon. In order to get to leadership positions many members of the LGBTQ+ community use behavioural strategies to mitigate against systemic barriers to promotion. I have attached an article from the The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) Business Review on this. https://lnkd.in/gT5nJHrG Lesley Traverso Andrew Staite Dawn Emsen-Hough (GAICD) David Brine MAICD 🌈 David Anthony Fabrice C Houdart LGBTQ Corporate Directors Canada Jane Griffith Association of LGBTQ+ Corporate Directors Steph D'Souza Tharani Jegatheeswaran Robbie Robertson Catherine Fox AM Nareen Young Lisa Annese Diversity Council Australia Ltd Jane O'Leary Pride in Diversity Chris Keely Christopher Nelson (he/him)

Such a brilliant thing to do - can't wait until the ASX does the same thing here for Australian LGBTQ+ Board & Executive Inclusion (ALBEI)

Thank you Julie Chai for inviting us to be part of the panel at Baker McKenzie - its important that we all share our experiences which while different share a lot of similarities. It is very important that talented people from under-represented groups become part of Australia's corporate leadership. We also believe that there is power in collaboration. We have recently seen a lot of press resisting the collection and reporting of data at senior leadership levels and it is important that we keep this conversation going. Lesley Traverso Andrew Staite David Brine MAICD 🌈 David Anthony

We are absolutely delighted to have Sanjay Alapakkam join the ALBEI team as the Company Secretary. Sanjay has already been assisting ALBEI with our submission on the ASX Corporate Governance Council proposals and has already done some great work with us. Welcome Sanjay! Sanjay is a Commercial Litigation Lawyer at Corrs Chambers Westgarth, and an active member of Corrs’ Pride Network. He is passionate about LGBTQ rights and advancement from the board room to refugee protection. Sanjay previously served on the Board of queer South Asian community and events organisation, Trikone Australia, and had a brief stint as a Legal Policy Assistant at Equality Australia in 2022. Sanjay was the recipient of the Lawyers Weekly Law Student of the Year Award in 2020, was featured on Out for Australia’s 30 under 30 list in 2021, and was Co-President of the UNSW Law Society in 2021.

Great to see Watermark Search International pushing the case for ASX300 diversity backed up by robust data. Click through to the blog... With the ASX Corporate Governance Council deliberating on the ASX Corporate Governance principles this is a timely reminder that Australian Listed companies have not moved the dial on the representation of talented people from under-represented groups. Tharani Jegatheeswaran Katrina Rathie Sally Patten Andrew Staite David Brine MAICD 🌈 David Anthony Lesley Traverso Governance Institute of Australia

We have already seen that simple gender targets have not enabled effective cultural diversity on ASX boards over the last 10 years. We need to be more like the NASDAQ rules in talking about "under-represented" groups rather than specific elements of diversity. The selection process for board renewal should target the widest talent pool possible - this is good business. Boards are too small for a mulititide of targets as stated by Ann Sherry AO and it would be unworkable and potentially tokenistic. Reporting across the spectrum of diversity is important and we don't believe we should set targets which exclude certain characteristics. In the UK we saw that as gender representation increased on the FTSE 350 boards the representation from lower socio-economic backgrounds reduced. The article states that the Diversity Council Australia Ltd is proposing that we have targets for cultural, ethnic and racial diversity but would we then have unintended consequnces for the LGBTQ+ and Disability communities who are excluded from the DCA proposal? We would like to see more inclusive targets across that take in all "under-represented" groups. https://lnkd.in/gsyxAeYe.