How four female leaders are changing their private-sector industries - Women's Agenda

How four female leaders are changing their private-sector industries

Melanie Brock

Melanie Brock has been regional manager in Japan for Meat & Livestock Australia since 2010. She is responsible for the marketing of Australian red meat in Japan, which is Australia’s largest beef export market.

Since taking on the position, Brock has changed the way MLA operates in Japan. She has used her position to empower women working in a conservative, male-dominated industry.

Brock developed and implemented MLA’s ‘Iron Beauty’ program, which promotes the health benefits of red meat. The program is aimed at women as they are the primary-decision makers when it comes to the family diet in Japan.

She is also chair of Australian Business Asia and the Australian and New Zealand Chamber of Commerce in Japan, and a board member of the Australian Japan Foundation. In 2011 she was named one of the 50 leading women leaders in Asia by Advance, a community of Australians making a difference around the globe.

In response to the 2011 natural disasters that struck Japan, Brock introduced the Together with Japan program, which saw her work with farmers and children from the Tohoku region to assist with their recovery. One fund-raising event orchestrated by Brock and Together with Japan helped raise $250,000 for the region.

Megan Dalla-Camina

Megan Dalla-Camina is the director of strategy for IBM Australia and New Zealand.

Over the past 18 months she has led the development and execution of a new wave of leadership at IBM called Positive Leadership, which focuses on new ways of thinking about leadership development.

Dalla-Camina has been the executive sponsor for the advancement of women in IBM for the past seven years and in 2011, working closely with IBM’s CEO, she developed a gender parity strategy. With only 17% of female graduates in science and technology, and just 23% of the workforce made up of females, developing a gender parity strategy is a significant game-changer in the industry.

In 2011 Dalla-Camina was invited to Philadelphia to speak at the World Congress in Positive Psychology. She also spends time mentoring and coaching women within IBM and the wider business community. She is a committee member and speaker for Sustaining Women in Business and recently completed her second master’s degree.

In 2012 she published her first book, Getting Real About Having It All: Be Your Best, Love Your Career And Bring Back Your Sparkle, to help professional women create a career and life they love.

Milo-Arne Peady

Milo-Arne Peady is the head of Academy and Education at AMP Horizon, an award-winning learning institution for financial planners.

Her leadership style revolves around encouraging individuals to adopt their own style of leadership. Peady runs a leadership forum focused on “doing” versus “leading”.

Over the past 12 months Peady’s innovating thinking has driven results that have exceeded business expectations.

As a result, she took on increased mandate for the education strategy for the whole of AMP Financial Planning, including 3000 planners and 1000 staff.

 Antoinette Totta

Antoinette Totta is the network manager, diversity and inclusion, at NAB. She has been responsible for chairing and leading the Connecting Women (CW) forum for NAB for several years. She has helped the network to become inclusive and to increase the participation of women across the country.

CW aims to provide equitable access to events and activities, including for NAB employees in regional or remote areas. An aim of CW is to engage male colleagues in activity to help open up the conversation about inclusiveness.

Totta has helped secure executive and senior leadership participation in flagship events within CW, enabling senior leaders to demonstrate their support for women in the workforce.

Totta is also the project manager of the global Realize program, which supports women as they transition to more senior roles. It has helped create a network of women looking to take on greater responsibility within NAB, and offers role models from around the world.

These four women are finalists in the Emerging Leader in the Private Sector category of the NAB Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards. Get your tickets to the event now.

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