Women on corporate boards give firms a competitive advantage, says Australian Governor-General
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Ms Sam Mostyn said global challenges call for adaptive leadership, supported by diversity in management.
ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO
Follow topic:
- Sam Mostyn says diversity on boards offers competitive advantages, including better risk assessment.
- Mostyn highlights her experiences in AFL and a superannuation fund.
- Singapore is recognised for its leadership in board diversity, and Mostyn urges businesses to see it as a value creator, not "wokeness".
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SINGAPORE – The case for including women on boards should go beyond representation, as doing so is a competitive advantage for companies looking to navigate risks and secure new investments, Australian Governor-General Sam Mostyn said on Aug 5.
Speaking at a luncheon attended by Australian and Singaporean business leaders, she said global challenges like climate change and inequality “demand something called adaptive leadership, which needs to be supported by diversity in boards and management”.
“When you see that diversity... it means that you know where risk is lying ahead, because you have people around you who look at the world differently and have different values, different channels of information,” Ms Mostyn said.
“It means that you’re ready to understand the opportunities, because you have more capability around the table to understand where those opportunities might come from.”
For these reasons, many stakeholders view diversity on boards as essential, said Ms Mostyn, who has sat on the board of directors for companies including property group Mirvac and airline Virgin Australia.
She added that the board of an Australian superannuation fund, which she led, considered “diversity in management” before making long-term investments of billions of dollars.
Ms Mostyn held leadership roles in the public and private sectors before being appointed Australia’s 28th governor-general in July 2024.
She is the second woman to hold the largely ceremonial role representing the British monarch.
Ms Mostyn said her appointment drew criticism, because she was seen to have benefited from a “quota appointment” reserved for women.
She said she faced a similar experience when she was named the first female commissioner of the Australian Football League (AFL) back in 2005, a move initiated by then AFL chairman Ron Evans, who saw the need for a woman in the sport’s leadership.
Ms Mostyn said: “After 100 years of football being played in Australia, the commission had never had a woman on the governance board, and yet 50 per cent of all fans of Australian football are women.
“Men thought it would soften the game. I was sent threatening letters. Of course, all these things were nonsense, but they were very deeply felt.”
She urged business leaders to move past debating the existence of quotas, to recognising the impact of having women in leadership.
Ms Mostyn was behind the setting up of the AFL Women’s league, “which is now probably, economically, the most successful thing that AFL has done in the last couple of years, because it’s built new audiences to compete against other sports, and has rebuilt the connection with community”.
The number of women on the AFL commission has since grown.
“It takes some tenacity, from both the men who see that as an opportunity and the women who show up, who want to open the door for other women and other people of diversity,” she said.
“This is not theoretical. This is not some form of wokeness. It actually is about creating real, lasting value, and we should pay attention.”
Businesses appear to be catching on. The number of women on the boards of companies listed on Australia’s ASX 300 index has nearly doubled over the last decade.
Ms Mostyn also said Singapore has shown “great leadership” in the area.
According to a report by the Council for Board Diversity, women directors made up more than 25 per cent of the boards
The report took into account the 100 largest firms by market capitalisation with primary listings on the Singapore Exchange.
Ms Mostyn is on her first state visit to Singapore.
The Aug 3-6 visit comes in Singapore’s 60th year of independence and the 60th year of Singapore-Australia diplomatic relations.
Earlier on Aug 5, Ms Mostyn laid a wreath at the Kranji War Memorial and visited the Changi Chapel and Museum.
On Aug 4, she attended a state banquet hosted by President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and had a separate meeting with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.
