Clare Burton Memorial Lecture

Join us for this year’s Clare Burton Memorial Lecture.

Building on the rich legacy of Dr Clare Burton’s research and advocacy for women in the workforce, QUT Chancellor, Ann Sherry AO, will deliver a lecture that reminds us: gender equality is everyone's business.

EVENT: Free public lecture, followed by light refreshments. All welcome.

DATE: Tuesday, 10 October

TIME: Doors open at 4.30pm, event 5.00pm - 6.30pm

About the speaker

QUT's Chancellor Ann Sherry, AO is one of Australia's leading business executives with a career that spans Government, Banking and Cruise Tourism. She is an active philanthropist with a passion for improving opportunities and removing barriers for women in STEM and sport, and supporting opportunities for Indigenous Australians.

She began her working life as a Radiographer, before moving to work in public sector roles in the UK and Australia, progressing to First Assistant Secretary of the Office of the Status of Women between 1992 to 1994. Ann advised the Prime Minister on policies and programs to improve the status of women and was Australia’s representative to the United Nations forums on human rights and women’s rights.

She moved into the banking industry and between 1994 and 2007 held executive management positions within the Westpac Group in Australia and New Zealand (NZ), including CEO Bank of Melbourne and CEO Westpac NZ.

Ann is the former Chairman and was Chief Executive Officer of Carnival Australia for a decade. Carnival Australia is the largest cruise ship operator in the Australia/Pacific region. Ann has also held a number of other executive and non-executive positions at significant corporations and public sector bodies. She is currently a non-executive director of the National Australia Bank, Chair of the Enero Group, UNICEF Australia, the Port of Townsville, and Queensland Airports Limited. 

The Australian Government awarded Ann the Centenary Medal in 2001 for her work on providing banking services to disadvantaged communities. In 2004 she was awarded an Order of Australia for her contribution to the Australian community through the promotion of corporate management policies and practices that embrace gender equity, social justice and work and family partnerships. In 2015 Ann was named as the overall winner of the Australian Financial Review 100 Women of Influence Award.

Ann has a Graduate Diploma in Industrial Relations and Labour from QUT, 1980, a Bachelor of Arts (BA), University of Queensland, 1977 and has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from the University of Sydney, University of Queensland and Macquarie University and was an Adjunct Professor, National Institute for Governance, University of Canberra, 2000 – 2003.

About the Lecture

The Clare Burton Memorial Lecture commemorates the significant contribution made by Dr Clare Burton (1942 – 1998) to gender equity and organisational change. Clare was a leading researcher, public sector administrator, academic, consultant and writer on employment equity. In 1989 she was appointed as Head of the New South Wales Equal Opportunity and Public Employment Office. In 1992 she was appointed as Commissioner for Public Service Equity in the Queensland Government. As a consultant she reviewed gender equity within universities, the Defence Force, and other bodies. Her work as a social theorist contributed significantly to the industrial relations agenda in Australia during the 1980s and 1990s.

The Clare Burton Memorial Scholarship

In 1998, Dr Burton’s family, friends, and fellow workers in the fields of gender and equity established a fund to commemorate her life and continue her work by providing a scholarship in Clare’s name. QUT is proud to manage the fund, which is open to students of all Australian universities who are undertaking research degrees at the master and doctoral levels. More information is available here.