Australia’s biggest companies are doing a better job than the broader corporate sector of appointing female chief executives, with five women now in leadership roles among the top 20, pushing the share up to 25 per cent from 15 per cent a year ago.
ASX 20 company CEOs Vicki Brady, Telstra; Meg O’Neil, Woodside; Shemara Wikramanayake, Macquarie; Leah Weckert, Coles; Fiona Hick, Fortescue.Among the ASX 200, the proportion of companies headed by women has also doubled, but to a much lower ratio. Analysis byshows that 21, or 10.5 per cent, of ASX 200 companies are run by women, up from 10 in July last year.
For Diane Smith-Gander, a high-profile company director and former president of Chief Executive Women, progress on gender diversity was too slow.