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CEDA Women in Leadership series 2019: Women in Leadership – Economics of Diversity and Inclusion

Tuesday, 03 December 2019

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  • CEDA Cobie Rudd presenting

    ECU's Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Cobie Rudd presenting at the CEDA Women in Leadership Series.

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On Thursday 14 November 2019, ECU’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Strategic Partnerships), Professor Cobie Rudd spoke at the final Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) Women in Leadership Series event for 2019 entitled ‘Economics of Diversity and Inclusion: Metrics and Measurements’.

CEDA has successfully held Women in Leadership events since 2010. Over the last seven years, CEDA has held more than 100 events across Australia seeking to stimulate discussion about women in leadership. Over 250 presentations have been delivered at these events where over 18,000 people attended.

With 200 guests from a cross section of government, education and private sectors in attendance, this event was held for key leaders to engage in the critical discussion of improving equality and gender diversity in WA and the metrics that support positive economic growth. Other speakers included Peter Bennett, Chief Executive Officer, Clough, and Athalie Williams, Chief People Officer, BHP. Speakers explored equality metric progress, workplace practises that have proven to be effective in achieving greater gender equality and provided examples of how these practices have and will continue to boost Australia’s competiveness and productivity.

In her presentation, Professor Rudd spoke about globalisation being a key driver of the broader economics of diversity and inclusion, highlighting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as an example and outlining how the SDGs address the global challenges related to poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice.

“We are in era where we are experiencing unprecedented change socially, economically and environmentally and the impact is being felt on a global scale,” said Professor Rudd.

Professor Rudd also highlighted the economic value of diversity and inclusion to the Australian workforce, its benefits and outlined five targeted actions that organisations can take to improve diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Peter Bennett, CEO, Clough, spoke about why gender equality is imperative to an organisation and provided comparative data on Clough’s performance against its gender equality targets. Mr Bennett said that while his organisation was making progress, “work is far from done – there is a lot to do.”

Athalie Williams, Chief People Officer, BHP, outlined BHP’s innovative people and culture strategies and programs to support the employment and development of BHP’s employees. Ms. Williams referred to BHP’s increased use of technology to facilitate flexible working arrangements as an example of an initiative that has delivered quantifiable change.

Following the presentations, the panel discussed the improvements in equality and gender diversity in WA businesses, and how diversity is increasing efficiency, productivity, innovation and creativity Australia-wide.

ECU has been a co-sponsor for the Women in Leadership series for three consecutive years (2017-2019 inclusive) and these Women in Leadership series events promote ECU’s engagement with organisations that support gender equality. Participants originate from a range of industries and the continual high numbers of attendees allows ECU to achieve real engagement with a range of partners.

For more information or to listen to the presentations from this event, please visit the CEDA Women in Leadership series webpage.

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