Where were you raised and what influenced your career?
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I grew up in the country - on a farm near Ebor in northern NSW. We still own the land and I think of this as my spiritual home. My grandmother and father were the greatest influences on my early life and what they taught and exemplified remains at the core of who I am. Ebor was where I shaped the values which have sustained me throughout my career and the ups and downs of life. I call them the three R's: having Respect for others; taking Responsibility for my own actions; and developing Resilience to go out into the world and be the change I want to see.
You did a Bachelor of Communications after school. What were your early career roles?
I was a graduate of the BA (journalism) degree at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst and had an early career as a journalist in Armidale, the Hunter Valley and Tasmania, where I worked as a political reporter on the Launceston Examiner in Hobart. The biggest story I covered was the Port Arthur massacre of 1996 - a harrowing experience which became a career changing moment, as I left the profession shortly afterwards to take a job as media manager for Australia's peak body in the cotton industry. This lasted only a year before I was head hunted to run the fledgling Australian Beef Association, where I built a membership of 1,300 beef producers inside 12 months before being sacked as Executive Officer by a newly elected board led by a a male who clearly thought women might be more suited to secretarial duties! This was another career changing moment and the start of the realisation that there were some big obstacles to women with ambitions to lead.
Why did you found Women on Boards in 2006 and what board experience did you have?
Following a few years consulting in media to NSW Fisheries in the Eddie Obeid years, I formed a small business with my partner, investigating publishing opportunities in the online space. The focus on agriculture and science shifted to women in leadership when a board role on the Foundation for Australian Agricultural Women led to an opportunity to be part of a pilot project to increase numbers of women on boards. What started as a loose project of well-intentioned women's organisations was turned by myself and my business partner, Ruth Medd, into a business that has been at the vanguard of moving women into board roles for the past 15 years through innovative programs and services and strong advocacy.
In 2011 I received a Churchill Fellowship to examine policies and programs in the UK, Norway and France to increase the number of women on boards and in management/ executive roles. I interviewed more than 60 people, presented to a professional women's network and a university forum and attended a global women's forum. A key outcome was the founding of Women on Boards in the UK, where it continues to go from strength to strength as does the Australian business.
WOB is now 15 years old. What services does it offer women and how is it financed?
WOB offers a broad range of high quality programs, events and services, all offered at sizable reductions to our members (joining fee of $220 per annum).
Its programs cover:
Leadership and career development
Pathways to the boardroom, including a board-ready CV and better ability to understand and talk to your transferable skills
Access to a wide range of board positions and personal support to assist women through the interview process.
A members only online community - WOBShare
What will be your key message at the Business and Professional Women event in Newcastle?
At WOB we always say that there is a board role for everyone - it's just a matter of finding the right one and getting yourself aligned and organised to get onto the board. In my address I will also cover:
This was another career changing moment and the start of the realisation that there were some big obstacles to women with ambitions to lead.
- Claire Braund
An overview of where we have come from and where we are at now viz-a-viz the data around women on boards.
Practical suggestions for women who aspire to get on a board or two but don't know where to start.
The intangibles of 'fit' for a board role.
Aligning your values with your opportunity to serve.
What expectations you should have when you are appointed to a board.
What do you think is critical in getting women into the boardroom?
To paraphrase the famous words of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, at a reception in Paris in 1910: To gain a board role you need to be in the arena, to strive valiantly, to err and to fall short again and again. In other words, you need to be ready to accept knockbacks and feedback over and again, but in the end if you persist you will know the triumph of high achievement and you will succeed.
Tickets to Claire Braund's address on May 29 at the Business and Professional Women Newcastle event are via Eventbrite