In 2019 I began a Macquarie University Research Fellowship (MQRF) in their management department on “Networks of trust, knowledge and power: Interlocking directorates in Australian corporations over the twentieth century”. It was fantastic to be in a business school that had such strength in unorthodox and historical research, and I learnt so much from my colleagues in leadership, strategy, corporate governance and international business. I examined an important but neglected area of scholarship – Australia’s corporate elite, the nature and cause of inter-firm connections, and the various impacts of companies that are too closely connected to one another. Understanding the lives and careers of top company board members identified some women with formal company roles since the 1980s, and the importance of family and marriage for women’s agency in the corporate sector throughout the twentieth century.

The data and insights of the MQRF was the basis of my current Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow (2022-25), “Above the glass ceiling: Australian women in corporate leadership, 1910 – 2020”. I have happily remained in a management department, but have moved to the UTS Business School to continue learning and growing as a scholar and colleague. I am thrilled to be teaching again, this time in ‘Business and Social Impact’, as part of the Business School’s extensive Masters suite. I also coordinate diversity and inclusion courses, doing my best to make activist and changemakers of our undergraduates!