Board

Kathy Hirschfeld

President

Kathy Hirschfeld has been a board member of UN Women National Committee Australia since 2013 and was elected President in 2017.

An independent non-executive director with experience on ASX, NYSE, private company and government boards, Kathy brings to her board roles corporate and commercial experience as a CEO of a complex manufacturing business; as well as expertise in operational risk management, safety, corporate governance and a passion for leading people.

Kathy is a chemical engineer with 20 years of leadership experience with BP in oil refining, logistics and exploration, located in Australia, the UK & Turkey.  In 2015 she was named as one of Australia’s AFR/Westpac 100 Women of Influence, and in 2014 she was the 9th woman recognised by Engineers Australia as an Honorary Fellow.

Kathy is currently a non-executive director of Toxfree Solutions Ltd and Energy Queensland Ltd, having recently stepped down from the boards of Broadspectrum and InterOil.  She is also a board member of the University of Queensland.

Kathy is a Fellow of the Academy of Technology and Engineering, the Institution of Chemical Engineers and the Australian Institute of Company Directors.  She is a member of Chief Executive Women and was an officer in the Australian Army Reserve for over 20 years.

Verity Blackman

Board Member

Verity has a background in strategy, stakeholder management, corporate communications and fundraising for not-for-profit organisations. She is currently Chief Merger Officer at YWCA Australia, overseeing a national merger seeking to transform YWCA’s federated structure of 12 organisations into a single national entity. Verity was General Manager, Sustainability and Public Relations at Lifeline Australia for three years, responsible for generating ongoing income to support Lifeline’s national operations, and overseeing Lifeline’s marketing, communication and media. Prior to this she was Director, Corporate Partnerships & Communications at YWCA Canberra.

Verity has more than twenty years’ experience in sponsorship and event management including ten years as commercial sponsorship manager and then corporate social responsibility manager at HSBC Bank Australia.

Verity has a Graduate Certificate in Marketing and Management from Macquarie Graduate School of Management, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sydney. She is a member and graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Verity was elected to the Board of UN Women National Committee Australia in November 2013.

You can find Verity on Twitter @VerityBlackman

Anna Johnson

Board Member

Anna Johnson was elected to the Board of UN Women National Committee in 2017. She is a government solicitor in Perth, and in addition to her law and arts degree from the University of Western Australia, holds a Master’s degree in Gender from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is a former Board member of South Coastal Women’s Health Services in Rockingham, Western Australia, and in 2012 was named Junior Woman Lawyer of the Year by the Women Lawyers Association of WA.

Anna was a committed grassroots volunteer with the UN Women National Committee from 2010-2013.  In 2012 she was selected as the UN Women Australia Youth Delegate to the UN Commission on the Status of Women. She travelled around Australia consulting with young women and other stakeholders about gender-based violence, and attended CSW in New York, including organising and presenting a side event on the role of young people in preventing gender-based violence.

Between 2013 and 2017 Anna lived in the United Kingdom. She worked as a professional fundraiser for Oxfam Great Britain in Oxford, helping establish a new fundraising programme connecting lawyers with Oxfam’s access to justice work

Teresa Dyson

Board Member

Ms Teresa Dyson has leadership and governance experience across the private and public sectors. Through her legal practice, Teresa has been closely involved in business issues affecting the financial services sector, not-for-profit sector, transport services, infrastructure projects and the energy and resources industry.

In her legal practice at McCullough Robertson Lawyers, Teresa provides tax and structuring advice on infrastructure arrangements, merger and acquisition activity, social infrastructure and financing arrangements. Teresa specialises in advising on taxation issues and also on governance and operations in the not-for-profit sector.

Teresa was named Woman Lawyer of the Year in 2011 by the Women Lawyers Association of Queensland. She is the Deputy Chair of the Gold Coast Hospital & Health Services Board, Chair of the Law Council of Australia, Business Law Section and a member of the Audit and Risk Committee of Lifeline Australia.  Teresa has previously been Chair of the Board of Taxation and a member of the Board of SEQ Water Grid Manager.

Chantelle Berenger

Board Member

Chantelle is member of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. She is a qualified Medical Professional in both Australia and the United Kingdom.

With over decade of experience, Chantelle has significant clinical experience and has developed a particular interest in Paediatric and Women’s health.  Over the years, she has worked on a number of intentional aid projects and has both taught and practiced in a number of South East Asian Countries.

Alongside her clinical roles, Chantelle has extensive experience advising government and non-profit organisations on health policy.  She has served as a member of the NSW Australian Medical Associations’ Doctors in Training Committee and was on the executive board of the Australian Medical Student’s Association, 2008.

In 2006, Chantelle co-founded Hope-4-Health a non-for profit with the vision of ending world health inequalities. Since it’s inception the organisation has developed numerous community health projects including building a hospital in Dabaa, Ghana.  The hospital’s primary function is to champion women’s and children’s’ health and provide essential obstetric and paediatric services to a remote Ghanian community.

Chantelle holds bachelor degrees in Medical Science from Sydney University and a Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery, Griffith University.

Catherine Walker 

Board Member

Catherine Walker has had a twenty-two year career with the Australian aid program. She has worked in senior development roles overseas, including in East Timor as the Chief of Donor Coordination with the United Nations and in Solomon Islands as Development Coordinator with the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands.

As AusAID’s Deputy Director General of Global Programs, she served on the Executive of the Agency and led the large scale expansion of Australia’s aid program activities in Africa, the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as managing the Government’s humanitarian, emergencies and refugee program.  She also managed the aid program’s relations with the International Financial institutions, the United Nations development and humanitarian agencies and national and international NGOs.

Before retiring from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in May 2014, her most recent appointments were to lead the aid program’s policy and program work in fragile and conflict affected states, humanitarian and emergency response, including disaster risk prevention and preparedness programs, and the development of the Australian Civilian Corps (ACC).

She was appointed in 2011 by the UN Secretary-General to the United Nations Advisory Group on the Central Emergency Response Fund and served as its chair from 2012 – 2014.

Catherine Walker received the Public Service Medal in 2011 for her work in development and humanitarian assistance.

She was appointed in 2014 to the Board of UN Women National Committee Australia.

Debra Eckersley

Board Member

Debra is a partner within PwC’s People & Organisation team and is responsible for the leadership and delivery of a wide range of human resources consulting assignments to help clients enable their people to be a sustainable source of competitive advantage. Debra regularly advises on people and HR strategies, human resources policies and the design and implementation of reward strategies.

Within PwC, Debra is the lead partner for gender equality and Workplaces of the Future and has, until recently, been the Managing Partner for Human Capital. In these roles, she is a champion of diversity and inclusion throughout PwC including the introduction of “all roles flex”, gender pay equity, family violence support and achievement of our partner admission targets (for gender and cultural backgrounds).

Outside work, Debra is a member of Chief Executive Women, a Board member of UN Women National Committee Australia and mother of two awesome teenagers.

Fiona Lang

Board Member

Fiona currently works full time as the Chief Operating Officer of BBC Worldwide ANZ. In this role Fiona is responsible for strategy, business development operations and legal. Prior to joining BBC Worldwide, Fiona worked both at Herbert Smith Freehills and Gilbert & Tobin as a corporate lawyer specialising in mergers and acquisitions and corporate advisory.

Fiona Lang is an experienced and qualified board member, having served on the board of the not-for profit company, ‘Women For Election Australia’. This entity aims to address the low participation of women in elected office and leadership positions through training and development programs.

Fiona is a mentor of ‘The Women’s College Sydney University Mentor Programme’ and has worked with ‘The Dream Collective’ on several initiatives. She is often invited to speak at conferences addressing the needs of women in leadership roles in corporations.

Fiona has completed a diploma of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a graduate diploma in Applied Finance (FINSA) and bachelor degrees in Law and Economics at the University of Sydney.

In 2016, Fiona was appointed to the Board of UN Women National Committee Australia.

Inma Beaumont

Board Member

Inma is a Fellow of the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (UK). She has over 25 years’ Experience as a Finance Professional with a strong track record in Audit, Risk, Financial Control, Strategy and Process Improvement within domestic and major multinational institutions in Banking, FMCG and Oil and Gas, both in the UK and in Australia. Most recently Inma has become a Fundraising Professional (Development and Philanthropy) with The University of Queensland. She has a passion for helping organisations in education and not for profit sectors enhance their reputation and pursue diversified funding.

A member of the Dragons Abreast Board and a past member of the Redkite Queensland Regional Council and the Queensland Women in Finance Committee.

She holds Bachelor degrees in Mathematics and in Commerce/Economics from the University of Valencia in Spain.

Inma speaks English, Spanish, French and Italian.