The inaugural Forbes Australia Women’s Summit, presented by NAB Private Wealth, welcomed more than 1,600 guests to Sydney’s ICC on Wednesday.
The event was lead by Sarah O’Carroll, editor-in-chief of Forbes Australia.
The day featured innovative visionaries and leaders, inspiring conversations around the theme of “The Power of Now”, unlocking new thinking and translating ideas into impact, and leveraging this pivotal time of change to build not just a successful future but a resilient and gender-balanced one.
Sarah O’Carroll
Team Global Express Group CEO Christine Holgate spoke at the Forbes Australia event about the power of resilience.
Holgate controversially resigned as CEO of Australia Post and faced parliamentary inquiry after it was revealed that in 2020 she had purchased four Cartier watches, valued at $20,000 in total, as gifts for senior management who secured lucrative deals.
It was subsequently found that for Holgate, who was appointed as CEO of Toll Global Express in May 2021, there was no evidence of fraud or corruption.
Sarah O’Carroll and Christine Holgate
Holgate shared with attendees of the Summit that during the inquiry that she suffered suicidal thoughts and faced abuse. But it was her relationship with the late fashion designer Carla Zampatti that fuelled her during her darkest hour.
Holgate recalled: “Forgive me if I get her accent wrong, but she went, ‘Darling, what are you going to wear?’ I went ‘Carla, Wear? I’m lying on the bathroom floor vomiting most days.’ And she said, ‘Darling you have to look fabulous. The whole country will be looking at you.’ It was Carla’s jacket.”
Zampatti sadly passed away a week before Holgate gave evidence. Holgate said: “Wearing her jacket that day, I felt I had her armour, her soul, her protection. I had the vibe of people like Wendy McCarthy. I had the strength.”
Holgate explained that she felt compelled to speak up in parliament despite many people telling her not to do it.
“If I didn’t do it, I would never have been able to live with myself, because if you don’t speak out, you tolerate it. How would I ever have deserved the right to lead people again and to ask those people to respect each other if I was prepared to be abused and silenced,” she said.
Miranda Kerr
Australian model and entrepreneur Miranda Kerr also spoke at the Forbes Australia event about how her organic cosmetics brand, Kora Organics, was funded by her earnings from her modelling career after her mother, Therese’s spleen cancer diagnosis.
“Obviously, I saved my money and then eventually, in 2006, I thought I still haven’t found anything that was certified organic and giving me the results I needed,” Kerr said.
“That is when I decided to create Kora Organics myself and invested all of my money, and still to this day, I own 95 per cent of the company.”
Fatima Yousufi
Additional speakers at the Forbes Australia Summit included business executive, activist and author Wendy McCarthy AO, Melbourne Victory Afghan Women’s football team captain Fatima Yousufi, Indigenous Women In Mining & Resources Australia CEO Florence Drummond, Are Media CEO Jane Huxley, SBS’s director of Indigenous content Tanya Denning-Orman, PwC’s Private Business national leader Martina Crowley, and Frank Body and Willow & Blake co-founder Jess Hatzis.
The summit also featured Diversity Council CEO Lisa Annese, Google Australia and New Zealand VP and managing director Melanie Silva, Pinterest country manager Melinda Petrunoff, as well as The Gaimaragal Group founder Susan Moylan-Coombs.
Sarah O’Carroll and Wendy McCarthy
–
Top image, left: Miranda Kerr – right: Sarah O’Carroll and Christine Holgate