Fiona Reynolds
CHAIR
Fiona Reynolds was the CEO of Conexus Financial. She served as the CEO of the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) for over nine years, stepping down at the beginning of 2022. As part of her role in the UK, she was on the board of a number of organisations including UN Global Compact, Climate Action 100+, the UK Green Finance Institute, the Greening the Belt and Road Global Committee, and the Asset Owners Net Zero Alliance
Fiona has 25 years’ experience in the financial services and pension sector. She joined the PRI from the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST), where she spent seven years as CEO.
Fiona was named one of the 20 most influential people in sustainability globally by Barron’s magazine and has twice been named one of Australia’s one hundred women of influence by the Australian Financial Review.
Fiona also serves on the Board of Frontier Investment Consulting, the investment Committee of the Laudes Foundation and Advisory Boards of Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, PWC, Affirmative Investment Management and the Advisory board of BASF.
Pru Bennett
INDEPENDENT DIRECTOR and chair, financial risk and audit committee
Pru joined Brunswick Group in April 2019. Pru is a Fellow of the Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and currently holds the following positions:
– Chair of the National Foundation for Australia China Relations,
– Board member of the Value Reporting Foundation,
– Board member UN Global Compact Network Australia,
– Council member of the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Corporate Advisory Council,
– Council member Asian Corporate Governance Association,
– Council Member Oasis Capital.
Until January, 2019, Pru Bennett was a Managing Director at the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, and Head of BlackRock’s Investment Stewardship team for the APAC Region based in Hong Kong. AT BlackRock Pru was responsible for leading a team engaging with BlackRock’s investee companies on ESG issues. Pru also oversaw the proxy voting process.
Before taking on her role at BlackRock in August 2010 Pru was head of Corporate Governance at institutional adviser Regnan Governance and Research until 2010. From 1998 to 2009 Pru was a director of Australian proxy adviser Corporate Governance International, which was acquired by US proxy advisory firm, Glass Lewis & Co in 2006 and is now known as CGI Glass Lewis. Prior to working in corporate governance Pru was Investor Relations Manager for Qantas Airways Limited.
Laura McManus
DIRECTOR
SENIOR HUMAN RIGHTS MANAGER, WOOLWORTHS
Laura is a business and human rights practitioner with a keen interest in how companies develop and embed meaningful human rights due diligence in global supply chains.
Beginning her career in the NGO sector, Laura has worked in issues of child rights and youth participation in peacebuilding in Nepal and the Netherlands. As a researcher, she co-authored Tackling Modern Slavery in Supply Chains, a publication by the Walk Free Foundation, where she harnessed an interest in the role of business in human rights.
Transitioning to the corporate sector, Laura first worked with Konica Minolta Australia to develop and implement its Ethical Sourcing Roadmap and Human Rights Position Statement. For this work she was recognised by the Australian Institute of Management as NSW Young Leader of the Year in 2017.
Today, Laura is Human Rights Manager at Woolworths Group, where she oversees the implementation of the company’s human rights and anti-modern slavery programs.
Laura holds a Masters in Human Rights and Democratisation from the University of Sydney and is currently completing the AICD Company Directors Course.
Karen McWilliams
DIRECTOR AND CHAIR, NOMINATIONS AND GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE
BUSINESS REFORM LEADER, CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
Karen McWilliams is the Business Reform Leader in the Advocacy and Professional Standing team at Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. She is responsible for shaping and influencing business reform issues of relevance to Chartered Accountants, including insolvency, corporate governance, anti-money laundering, corporations law and sustainability matters.
Karen represents CA ANZ on the Advisory Board of the Deakin Centre for Integrated Reporting and ASX Corporate Governance Council and chair of the financial committee of the Climate Measurement Standards Initiative.
With over 20 years’ experience in a variety of business and advisory roles, she started her career in the specialist field of audit and has held positions with Worley Parsons, Ernst and Young, and Deloitte in London.
She is a Fellow Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and holds a Master of Arts in Mathematical Sciences from the University of Oxford.
Howard Wigham
INDEPENDENT DIRECTOR
Howard Wigham is a Non-Executive Director of the Banksia Foundation. He is also the Executive Director of Navigate Business Advisory, which helps micro, small and medium enterprises to excel by assisting them to navigate various business, organisational and personal challenges.
Howard has enjoyed a successful corporate career as a divisional CEO and subsidiary board member in a variety of sectors, including chemicals, technology, information management and supply chain logistics. His executive career has spanned more than 25 years, spending 14 years with Brambles where his roles included Managing Director Chep UK & Ireland, President of Recall Australasia and President of Chep Asia-Pacific. Howard has lived in Australia, the United Kingdom and Germany, and has worked extensively in Asia, Europe and North America.
Howard supports various sustainability causes and is an investor in early stage companies with social and environmental purposes.
Howard holds an honours degree in Chemistry and German from Aston University in the United Kingdom, has completed employer-sponsored management programmes at the London Business School and INSEAD, and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Vanessa Zimmerman
DIRECTOR AND CHAIR, BUSINESS and HUMAN RIGHTS
CEO, PILLAR TWO
Vanessa Zimmerman has been a Director of the UN Global Compact Network Australia since 2013. Vanessa chairs the GCNA’s Human Rights workstream and Modern Slavery Community of Practice. She is also a member of the Nominations and Governance Committee.
Vanessa is the CEO of Pillar-Two and a recognised global and domestic corporate sustainability expert focusing on human rights. Originally an anti-trust lawyer, Vanessa was a Legal Advisor to the UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights, Harvard Professor John Ruggie and part of the core team drafting the internationally recognised UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. She then managed the implementation of Rio Tinto’s human rights strategy for 7 years, including leading its response to the UK and Australian modern slavery legislation.
In 2018, Vanessa founded Pillar Two, an advisory firm helping businesses take a principled, integrated and practical approach to managing their human rights risks. In 2016 she was recognised as one of 100 Australian Women of Influence and in 2018 was highly commended in the Agenda Setter of the Year category in the Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards.
In addition to her work at the UN Global Compact Network Australia, Vanessa holds various expert advisory roles including as a member of the Global Reporting Initiative’s Technical Committee on Human Rights Disclosure, the Law Council of Australia and International Bar Association’s Business and Human Rights Committees, the Australian National Roundtable on Human Trafficking and Slavery, the Australian Border Force Modern Slavery Expert Advisory Group and the Department of Treasury’s Governance and Advisory Board to the Australian National Contact Point. She is also a research fellow at the Institute for Human Rights and Business.
Vanessa holds a Master of Laws from Harvard University as well as a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and Bachelor of Arts (Japanese) from Monash University, Australia.
Anna Stewart
DIRECTOR
head of sustainability GOVERNANCE & engagement, coles group
Anna has more than 13 years’ experience in corporate sustainability roles in ASX listed companies, and brings deep experience in ESG reporting frameworks and stakeholder engagement. She was recently appointed to the role of Head of Sustainability Reporting and Engagement at Coles and will commence on 9 May.
Anna spent eight years at ANZ and, until April 2022, was the Head of ESG Governance and Reporting, responsible for the bank’s external ESG disclosures (including the annual ESG Supplement), responding to external ESG assessments and supporting the bank’s key ESG governance bodies – the Board Ethics and ESG Committee and the executive Ethics and Responsible Business Committee.
Prior to joining ANZ Anna spent almost ten years at AGL, primarily in the regulatory affairs team where she focused on energy and climate policy, before moving into sustainability reporting and community investment.
Anna started her career as lawyer, working in both the corporate and community sectors, and holds a BA(Hons)/LLB(Hons) from the University of Melbourne.
Susan Mizrahi
DIRECTOR
CHIEF sustainability OFFICER, AUSTRALIA POST
Susan Mizrahi is a senior sustainability strategist and has over 20 years’ experience working in Asia, Europe, North America – as well as domestically – on international, business and human rights issues. Susan was named as a sustainability thought leader in the 2022 Sustainability Top 100 list globally (BlizClick, 2022).
Susan is committed to leading positive, systemic change on social and environmental issues and has achieved this through working collaboratively across and within the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. Susan commenced at Australia Post in 2015 and was appointed as the business’ inaugural Chief Sustainability Officer in 2019, spearheading the business’s science-based approach to achieve Net Zero and its advocacy of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Susan’s diverse subject matter expertise includes sustainability frameworks and theories; supply chain sustainability; modern slavery and labour rights; circular economy; ESG and climate risks; diversity and inclusion; and the China-Tibet issue.
Between 2017 and 2020, Susan served as Chair of the London Benchmarking Group Australia and NZ (now Business for Societal Impact). Since 2021, she has served as Chair of the Australian Retailer Association’s Sustainability Advisory Committee. Susan holds a Master in International Relations & Asian Politics (The University of Queensland) and a Master of Management (Supply Chain) (The University of Melbourne). She is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Sunita Gloster
INDEPENDENT DIRECTOR
Sunita is an experienced Non-Executive Director (NED), Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and C-suite leader with 30 years’ experience in the professional services sector. She specialises in marketing, digital, customer technology, brand management, corporate reputation and social impact.
She is internationally experienced having held significant global and regional C-suite roles. Sunita is a NED for Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, Co-Chair of the Tech Council of Australia’s Marketing sub-community and holds various advisory roles including as a Senior Advisor for Accenture Australia and UN Women Australia. She is a public speaker, a panellist on ABCTV’s Gruen and has been frequently published in Australian Financial Review’s Media and Marketing section and Marketing Trade journals.
Sunita is committed to the positive impact that strong marketing and customer strategies have on growth. She has won two President’s Awards for leadership in Marketing by the World Federation of Advertisers in Brussels and is currently ranked fifth in B&T Magazine’s Top 30 Women in Media Power List in Australia, which she has ranked in for the last eight years.
Sunita is a strong advocate for positive systemic change on social issues, in particular the acceleration of diversity and gender equality as critical business imperatives. She works collaboratively across private and not-for-profit sectors and was awarded the Industry Champion of Change by B&T Magazine in 2022 for her efforts.
Robin Mellon
DIRECTOR
CEO, BETTER SYDNEY
Robin Mellon has combined his love of the environment, passion for sustainability, experience with supply chains, and qualifications in real estate and finance to become one of Australia’s experts on sustainable supply chains. The former Chief Operating Officer of the Green Building Council of Australia, and founding CEO of Australia’s Supply Chain Sustainability School, Robin is now CEO of Better Sydney, the Project Manager for the Property Council of Australia’s Modern Slavery Working Group and Supplier Platform, and one of the International WELL Building Institute’s Global Advisory. Robin was a member of the Australian Government’s first Modern Slavery Advisory Committee and is currently Chair of Judging for the NSW Sustainability Awards and National Banksia Awards, and a member of Waverley Council’s Sustainability Expert Advisory Panel.