NFAW Directors
Kate Gunn – President
Kate Gunn is the Chief Executive Officer of Balance! Healthcare Pty Ltd. Balance! provides health services to corporate organisations.
Kate has over 20 years of business experience in the private sector, and has served as Managing Director and General Manager of various organisations. In 1999 Kate was a finalist in the Telstra Business Woman of the Year in South Australia. She has also been recognised with business entrepreneurship awards from the National Enterprise Development Institute, ACT Minister for Business, ACT Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Cosmopolitan/Clairol.
Jenni Colwill– Vice-President
Jenni is the Managing Director of Leapfrog Leadership Pty. Ltd., an organisation that specialises in advice and assistance on leadership, structural and people management issues.
Previously she was in senior executive roles in the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department and the Public Service Commission, and was HR Manager for Centrelink. In the private sector Jenni has worked in executive search and recruitment, management consulting and leadership development.
Her voluntary roles have included the Chair of the Gorman House Arts Centre Management Committee, a Board member for Lifeline Canberra, and a Fellow and ex-Board member of the Australian Institute of Management (ACT). Currently she is also a member of the ACT Performing Arts Advisory Committee.
Kate Bosser – Secretary
In her career in the Commonwealth Public Service Kate specialised in industrial relations and employment issues, particularly in the public sector. In 2001 she was awarded a Public Service Medal for her contribution to the development of the 1999 Public Service Act.
Kate worked for a number of Commonwealth bodies including the Public Service Board, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations and the Australia Council. She has two Arts degrees from the Australian National University including an honours degree in Sociology.
Molly Lee - Treasurer
Molly is a business professional with 15 years experience in general accounting, taxation, financial planning and internal controls. She has worked in various multi national organisations both locally and in the Asia Pacific region, IT start ups and small business.
Molly is a Certified Practising Accountant and is a member of CPA Australia, Women on Boards and the Australian Institute of Management.
Vicki Buchanan
Vicki has been involved with issues relating to women’s equality most of her life, including heading up the Women’s Information Service in Tasmania, and in the role of State Director for HREOC in Tasmania. She has strong networks with many women’s organisations, and is keen to establish an NFAW group on the Central NSW Coast, incorporating Newcastle.
Anne Buttsworth
Anne is a member of the AWAP Management Committee and convenes the ACT AWAP Committee. She is also a member of the Management and Social Policy Committees.
A former public servant, she held senior positions in the Department of Transport and Communications and the Commonwealth Public Service Board before resigning in 1995 to work for five years as the International Relations Manager with Ansett Australia.
Susan Forrester
Susan Forrester possesses a valuable combination of legal, finance and strategic management skills. Now the Chief Executive Officer of the CEO Institute in Queensland, her previous roles include General Manager of an architectural services firm and HR Director with Queensland Treasury Corporation and Allens Arthur Robinson Lawyers. She is on the Board of Arkhefield Architects Pty Ltd, Deaf Services, Queensland and the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries.
Prof Patricia Grimshaw
Patricia Grimshaw is Max Crawford Professor of History and Deputy Dean of Arts at the University of Melbourne where she teaches Australian and American history and contributes to the Gender Studies Program.
Her recent publications include the co-authored Equal Subjects, Unequal Rights: Indigenous Peoples in Britain's Settler Colonies, 1830 to 1910 (University of Manchester, 2003) and Women's Rights and Human Rights: International Historical Perspectives (Macmillan, 2001); and with Elizabeth Nelson and Sandra Smith, the co-edited Letters from Aboriginal Women of Victoria, 1867 to 1926 (Melbourne University History Monographs, 2002).
She is deputy editor of the Women's History Review, and serves on the editorial boards of Australian Feminist Studies, Gender and History and the Journal of Women's History. She is a member of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. For five years she was President of the International Federation for Research in Women's History.
Ruth Medd CPA, MAICD
Ruth is the Executive Chair of Women on Boards. She is also on the Board of Australian Ethical Superannuation. She is the principal of "All About Money" series of investment seminars which aim to educate women about investing.
Ruth started in IT in the seventies. Since then she has been a senior public servant, a broadcasting regulator, the inaugural Company Secretary at Telstra and the Executive Director of an industry association.
Georgina Somerset
Georgina Somerset lives near Kingaroy, and is a beef producer who is frequently sought as a commentator and speaker on rural issues. She has a wide range of experiences and skills, including communication, marketing consultancy and strategic planning. Amongst many other activities, she is currently a member of the National Rural Advisory Council, the Rural Skilling Industry Advisory Group and was previously a member of the Queensland Women’s Consultative Council.
Alexandra Wedutenko
Alexandra is a corporate partner in Clayton Utz. Her career has involved both government and private sector experience; she was previously General Counsel to the then Department of Communications and the Arts.
Alexandra has extensive experience in advising on procurement and procurement strategy, governance, IT and in negotiating contracts. Her legal practice focuses particularly in the areas of select sourcing, IT, telecommunications and major capital equipment. She has advised on privatisation, governance and the statutory regulation of commercial activity. She regularly speaks on topics including procurement, IT contracting, alliances, service level agreements and governance.
Jacqueline Woodman
Jacqueline has extensive experience working with charities, peak bodies and membership organisations, and is experienced in policy research and advocacy. She is currently the Executive Director of the Australia Writers Guild.