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 Energy Queensland Ltd and 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 Blackman was elected to the Board of UN Women National Committee Australia in November 2013 and appointed Company Secretary in November 2016.

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, where she has recently overseen a major national amalgamation, transforming the YWCA’s federated structure into a single national entity. As Chief Merger Officer, Verity acted independently of any existing operational or governance team, steering one of Australia’s oldest women’s organisations towards a new vision.

Prior to that, 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.  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, and completed the Harvard Business School Annual Program for Leaders 2018, “The Future of Work in the Digital Age”, Harvard Club of Australia.

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.

Teresa sits on a number of boards across the listed, government and not-for-profit sectors. Her current directorships include Seven West Media Ltd, Genex Power Ltd, Energy Qld and Opera Qld. She is also a member of the Foreign Investment Review Board, the Takeovers Panel and the National Housing Finance & Investment Corporation board.
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 and has has previously been Chair of the Board of Taxation and a partner of Ashurst Lawyers and Deloitte.

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 been a board member of UN Women National Committee Australia since 2014.

She worked with the Australian aid program for twenty two years and held 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 (RAMSI).

As AusAID Deputy Director General for 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.

In 2011, she was appointed 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.

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

Debra Eckersley

Board Member

In September 2018, Debra commenced as Group Executive – People and Culture at Bank of Queensland and regularly works between Brisbane, Sydney and around Australia.
Prior to this, Debra was with PwC for 24 years, most recently as a partner within PwC’s People & Organisation team where she was 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 advised on people and HR strategies, human resources policies and the design and implementation of reward strategies.

Within PwC, Debra held roles including the lead partner for gender equality, workplaces of the future and the Managing Partner for Human Capital as part of PwC Australia’s executive team.

Across these roles, she is a champion of diversity and inclusion including the introduction of “all roles flex”, gender pay equity, family violence support and achievement of PwC partner admission targets (for gender and cultural backgrounds).

Outside work, Debra is a mother of two, an avid traveler and a member of Chief Executive Women, YWCA, Institute of Chartered Accountants and Australian Human Resources Institute.

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 commercial and business development, strategy, business operations, IT and business 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. She also worked for Hogan Hartson Raue in Berlin.

Fiona has a strong passion for the development of women and is a mentor of ‘The Women’s College Sydney University Mentor Programme’ and various mentoring initiatives for the media sector and beyond. Fiona 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 where she graduated with honours.

In 2017, Fiona was awarded a CEW Scholarship from Insead to study in the area of leadership. 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.