The Chair’s Mentoring Program is the AICD’s flagship board diversity initiative. This year’s cohort of mentees are women linked by their sense of purpose, digital acumen and innovative ways of thinking.
In an increasingly complex world of business, the careers of directors are being shaped by seismic economic, technological, regulatory, political, environmental and social change that is moving at pace. Yet, in the throes of change, an accomplished group of women directors who will be mentored by experienced chairs nation-wide as part of the AICD’s 2025 Chair’s Mentoring Program, say it’s a moment of great opportunity.
The program comes as the number of women directors on ASX-listed boards is rising. However, few are progressing to chair positions, according to AICD’s latest board diversity data. The research revealed that at the end of 2024, 38.3 per cent of director positions on the ASX 200 were held by women, and 12.9 per cent of chair positions.
Directors participating in this year’s Chair’s Mentoring Program speak about their board careers, their motivation to take on director duties and the forces that shape the boards they serve.
Pip Marlow GAICD
Who or what has inspired you to "March Forward" throughout your director career?
"As a mother of two daughters, my inspiration to “March Forward” throughout my director career has always been rooted in them and the values I strive to instill. I want my daughters to see that leadership is not just about personal success but also about using that success to give back and create a better world for others. I’m also driven by the opportunity to leave a meaningful impact — on customers, employees, and communities — through thoughtful leadership. Inspiration has come to me from women like Tracey Fellows, Kate Burleigh and Kirstin Ferguson who have shown that courage, compassion, and purpose define true leadership. Their examples, and the hope of inspiring my daughters, keep me moving forward with determination and heart."
The director career of Pip Marlow GAICD has gained considerable momentum over the past 12 months. After concluding a long tenure as a non-executive director at Rugby Australia last December, she has just clocked her first year as a non-executive director of ASX 50 digital marketplace CAR Group, and as a member of Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Australian advisory board.
Marlow has also served as a director at Rugby World Cup and as chair of the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum.
Her transition from management into the boardroom has been an organic process, led by curiosity and a desire to “give back” to companies, says the former CEO of Salesforce ANZ and ASEAN. She was also previously customer CEO at Suncorp and MD of Microsoft in Australia, the culmination of a 20-year stint at the tech giant that took the New Zealand-born Marlow to the US for eight years, and then to Australia.
Her role at Suncorp marked a “defining moment” in her early exposure to boards while in the C-suite, she says, noting that she learned much from successive chairs Ziggy Switkowski AO and Christine McLoughlin AM FAICD.
“Obviously, being in so much proximity [to the board], I realised the impact it has on how management operates, which then flows through an organisation,” says Marlow. “It gave me a whole new perspective. Ziggy was a masterful chair at making sure everybody contributed. He would solicit people’s points of view — you could never just sit there and be a passenger, he was always pulling people in.”
Transitioning from C-suite to boardroom required a shift, not just in her skill set, but also her mindset. “I had to train myself not to read those papers and show up like the CEO,” says Marlow. “For years, I’d been showing up like the operator, looking at the performance. I had to think about if I saw something in the papers — what was I seeing and what was the best way to ask questions? When you’re CEO, you can question the business in a certain way. If you do the same on the board, you may alienate your management team.”
While Marlow’s tech experience may seem an obvious asset to the boardroom in our digitally driven economy, she cites an additional lens — “customer-centricity”. She thinks it important for companies to consider what they do in service of their customers, and says directors require “more optics” to be successful today.
Her Suncorp experience also helped to expand her perspectives about stakeholder management. “You’re not just making decisions for shareholders,” she says. “You’re making decisions for your employees, customers, community and planet.”
Meet this year’s impressive cohort of mentees in the AICD Chair’s Mentoring Program: Rosina Hislop FAICD, Anna Leibel GAICD, Shirley Chowdhary GAICD and Gorana Saula GAICD.
This article first appeared under the headline ‘Emerging Directors’ in the March 2025 issue of Company Director magazine.
AICD’s Chair’s Mentoring Program is sponsored by Allens and Corrs Chambers Westgarth. Find out more HERE.
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