STW launches Women in Leadership Group

STW Group have formed the STW Women in Leadership Group consisting of highly skilled professional women with a clear objective to create powerful women industry leaders.

STW Group, Australia’s leading marketing content and communications services group comprises 76 companies with a high proportion either led by women or which have women in senior management roles. With such a pool of highly skilled women within the publicly-listed company, Suzanne Acteson (above, left) managing director Oceania, Buchanan Group and Women’s group chair, in tandem with Mike Connaghan (above, right) CEO STW Group are founders of the Group.

The Group has been created to better support senior female leaders who work within STW; and build existing and prospective high potential women into more powerful leaders.

Says Connaghan: “We have always had strong female leadership across the Group. This is the first time a concerted effort to harness that power has been made. I think it’s fantastic. People are our most important asset and the fact we can attract and retain the best is a true differentiator for our Group. Building support networks within our own Group will help us maintain leadership and provide growth for our people, our companies and ultimately our clients.”

Says Acteson: “We are a committee of STW women leaders who believe confident women can do extraordinary things. The Women in Leadership Group is to help women take advantage of this confidence so they can transform their businesses and community.

“There appears to be a direct business benefit to better networked female leaders and having a good balance of senior female leaders has been shown among US companies to have a very positive impact on operating margins.i We also know that it will provide a good positive positioning for STW as a company and an organization – one with enormous abilities to support and lead in the business world.

“This new program demonstrates STW’s commitment to new and exciting cultural strategies.”

Current projects on the STW women’s group calendar are to host a series of monthly events both internal and external, discussing key topics such as client networking, mentoring, knowledge sharing, the challenges of digital existence, plus the Group will work towards supporting senior leaders as well as mentoring up and coming female talent within STW.

At the recent inaugural event the keynote speaker was inspirational adventurer & writer, Heather Swan who deftly demonstrated the power of fearlessness in leading throughout her presentation. Feedback after the first event was tremendous with guests dubbing Heather’s presentation to be ‘an exhilarating & inspirational hour’ and ‘a hard act to follow.’

STW Women’s Group will also support selected local and international charities using its member’s collective expertise to provide advice and support within the realms of marketing and communications.

Says Acteson: “We are a passionate group of women who are fully behind causes which seek to better the lives of women both locally and globally and are excited about channelling some of our energy and expertise behind some very worthy causes.”

The Group includes:

STW Women’s Group Committee 2012:

Suzanne Acteson – MD Oceania, Buchanan Group

Janet Bailey – CEO, Evocatif

Elizabeth Clerke – Business Director, Ogilvy Australia

Anouk Darling – CEO/MD, Moon Communications

Michelle Holland – Managing Partner, Ogilvy One

Tanya Jones – MD, Lawrence Creative

Sally Kissane – Managing Partner, Ogilvy One

Fleur Marks – MD, Lawrence Creative

Kate Meyer – GM, Shift

Helen O’Byrne – Director Learning and Development, STW Group

Clare Robinson – Managing Partner, The Conscience Organisation (TCO)

Kate Walker – MD, Human