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I tried to cheat and get ChatGPT to help me write today’s intro, and it gave me a bunch of waffle about how Chief Executive Women sounds like a group that comes together to drink champagne and whinge about their husbands.
That tells you everything we need to know about AI bias.
In reality, CEW’s 1300 members oversee more than $750 billion in revenue, and they’re the most senior women in corporate Australia. Today’s guest is their CEO, Lisa Annese.
Lisa came on the podcast previously in her role as the CEO of the Diversity Council of Australia, where she spent a decade creating the first National Index on Workplace Diversity and Inclusion, conducting seminal research into the economics of the gender pay gap and so much more.
Now she’s working directly with the women who have the power to drive change. Lisa has been named one of the AFR’s 100 Women of Influence. She’s on the board of non-partisan organization Women for Election. She served on the New South Wales Women’s Advisory Council and the Respect@Work Council. She’s been awarded a medal for significant contribution to the Australian Public Service and is a member of Chief Executive Women alongside being their CEO.
Chief Executive Women’s mission is simple: women leaders empowering all women. If you’ve ever wondered what happens when you put 1,300 of Australia’s most successful women in a room together, you’re about to find out.
In this episode we discuss:
- How gender equality benefits everyone (not just women), and the misinformation about what gender equality is
- How Chief Executive Women makes an impact – community, aspiration and advocacy
- Why we need women in leadership positions and in politics
- Gender equity is about sharing and redistributing power more evenly, not about domination and control
- The ways men suffer, such as the loneliness epidemic, don’t arise from the women’s movement
- The women’s movement is about safety, security, prosperity, freedom for everyone and refocusing on families
- How to balance career and family – and the work you put into family comes back to you later in life
- Lisa’s own story of raising children and her village
- The general increase in women in leadership and widespread flexibility
- Barriers to women’s progress remain, and include: the reproductive journey and care, safety including workplace safety, workplace transparency and pathways to leadership, and what we think of when we think of a ‘leader’
- Talent and merit are evenly distributed across the population, and leadership should reflect that
About Lisa Annese
Lisa Annese commenced her role as the Chief Executive Officer of Chief Executive Women in January 2025 and is committed to the empowerment of women and girls across the economy. In this role, she leads a membership of 1300 women leaders across Australia to advance gender equality in Australia, focusing on increasing the representation of women in leadership across all sectors in the economy and advocating for important policy reform.
Prior to this, Lisa spent 10 years as the CEO of the Diversity Council Australia where she led a broad array of groundbreaking, evidence-based research, including Australia’s first national index on workplace diversity and inclusion, seminal research on the economics of the gender pay gap, and original work on Counting Culture and building Asian Leadership Capability, as well as research supporting individuals being ‘Out at Work’, mainstreaming flexible work and myth-busting workplace responses to sexual harassment and domestic and family violence.
Lisa has served on the NSW Women’s Advisory Council the Respect at Work Council where she was appointed by the Attorney-General to implement the legislative reforms from the Respect@Work Act. In 2018, Lisa was named one of the AFR’s 100 Women of Influence. In 2019 she was elected to the Board of Amnesty International Australia and, in 2021, to the Board of non-partisan organisation Women for Election. As well as being their CEO, Lisa is also a member of Chief Executive Women.
Lisa has had a long career progressing positive change across the corporate, government and not-for-profit sectors. Earlier in her career, at the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (formerly the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA)), she developed the first-ever census of Australian Women in Leadership, the first-ever Business Achievement Awards, the creation of the Employer of Choice for Women citation and the development and implementation of the policy framework for the EOWA Act 1999 with Australian businesses. For her contribution at EOWA, she was awarded a Medal for Significant Contribution to the Australian Public Service.