Our Advocates

PATRON AND AMBASSADORS

Our Patron and Ambassadors are leading advocates for family-friendly workplace culture in Australia.

Family Friendly Workplaces provide a certification program to embed family-friendly policies and practices, and training for employers, leaders and employees for ongoing implementation, measurement and management.

Ann Sherry

Patron & Former Chair of UNICEF Australia

Why Family Friendly?

“I am delighted to offer my support for the Family Friendly Workplaces initiative. As a business leader, I have always been driven to progress equality, and have consistently championed the importance of work/life balance and staff wellbeing in the organisations I have led. The flow-on effects of this initiative are significant – we know that family-friendly workplace practices benefit children, but they also promote inclusion and gender equity, increased workforce participation for women and caring opportunities for men. The productivity gains are not just for individual businesses, but for the wider economy.

We all benefit when children are supported to thrive and given every opportunity to achieve their potential.”

Ann Sherry

Emma Walsh

CEO, Parents At Work

Why Family Friendly?

“People want to work for organisations that consider and respond to their family responsibilities outside of work. Your organisation’s culture has an impact on the health and wellbeing of your employees and therefore the wellbeing of your business.”

Emma Walsh

Tony Stuart

CEO, UNICEF Australia

Why Family Friendly?

“As CEO, I’m proud that UNICEF Australia has partnered with Parents At Work to deliver the Family Friendly Workplaces initiative.
UNICEF has shared a global call to action for workplaces to be redesigned to be more family friendly. Australia is playing a leading role in responding to this call through the introduction of this initiative, and the first set of national Work and Family Standards.

We know that family friendly workplaces will drive real impacts for families and the community – they benefit children, improve gender equality, and boost productivity for businesses and the economy.

It is so important we enable working parents and carers the flexibility to play the nurturing, responsive role we know children need.

There is no greater contribution we can make as a workplace or as a community, than that which allows every child the opportunity to thrive.”

Tony Stuart

Lisa Annese

CEO, Chief Executive Women

Why Family Friendly?

‘I, and many other leading employers, have long recognised the productivity and business benefits of supporting parents, through family-friendly policies like paid parental leave and flexible working. As well as being the right thing to do, these policies attract and retain talented employees. They protect the significant investment it takes to train and develop staff before they become parents. And of particular importance to me is the fact that family policies – ones that allow both women and men to experience work-life balance – help female employees stay in paid work, and go a ways to reducing the gender pay-gap. It’s time every workplace understood, and embraced the benefits of family friendly workplaces.’

Lisa Annese

Alan Docherty

Group Executive Financial Services & Chief Financial Officer, Commonwealth Bank

Why Family Friendly?

“When people with diverse family needs feel supported in their workplace, not only do they benefit but their families and the broader community benefits too. As one of Australia’s largest employers, we have an important role to play fostering a culture of care, equality and respect so that our people can be at their best at work and at home.”

Alan Docherty

Dr David Cooke

Executive Director, ESG Advisory / Adjunct Professor, UTS Business School

Why Family Friendly?

“The creation of family friendly workplaces is one of the most significant initiatives that any board or executive team can make to the well being of an organisations people and through them to the performance of the organisation as a whole”.

Dr David Cooke

Annika Freyer

President, Foundation CHANEL

Why Family Friendly?

“It’s time to shift the conversation. We need to focus on enabling every employee to balance care and work at every stage of their lives. Care isn’t just a women’s issue; it’s a societal one. Everyone will need to give or receive care at some point, whether for children, aging parents, or other loved ones.”

Annika Freyer

CHAMPIONS

Our champions include a high-profile group of industry influencers dedicated to making Australia one of the best places to work for families. Made up of global thought-leaders, subject matter experts and advocates, they cover major private sectors of the economy and include representatives from business, community and not-for-profit organisations.

Ariane Virtue

Chief People Officer, UNICEF Australia

Why Family Friendly?

Ariane Virtue is the Founder of Ariane Virtue Consulting, a leading consultancy that focuses on humanising the modern workplace to increase productivity, improve employee health and wellbeing, reduce operating costs by embedding and normalising hybrid working strategies through to implementation.

Ariane Virtue

Felicity Empson

Chief People Officer, Randstad Australia

Why Family Friendly?

“I am delighted to have the opportunity to join the advisory group for Family Friendly Workplaces. I believe that our work and family lives should be able to exist in harmony. This is only made possible by organisations being inclusive, proactive and intentional in their Family Friendly policies and work practices. Everyone has a family in some form, if we are able to find this balance it certainly makes for happier employees …and more broadly happier people.”

Felicity Empson

Pip Dexter

Chief People & Purpose Officer, Deloitte

Why Family Friendly?

“My family and I have benefited greatly from me working at Deloitte, a Family Friendly Workplace. For many of us, our most important job in life is being a parent or carer for family members (young or old) – done well, it has a positive impact on society and the economy. Organisations play a critical role by creating the environment for people to bring their best self to work, as well as home.”

Pip Dexter

Shiona Watson

Chief HR Officer, Australia Pacific & Group Functions, QBE Insurance

Why Family Friendly?

Shiona is passionate about organisations which place their employees at the heart of delivering positive customer experiences. Shiona brings 20 years of broad industry experience in human resources, organisational transformation, change management and people strategy. Her industry experience spans consumer goods, construction, aviation and agriculture, having previously worked for companies including PepsiCo, Foster’s Group, Boral and Ansett Airlines.

Shiona Watson

Catherine McNair

Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing, QBE Insurance

Why Family Friendly?

As head of diversity and inclusion for QBE Australia and New Zealand, Catherine McNair has more than 10 years of experience delivering innovative and impactful diversity and inclusion strategies with people at the centre. McNair is passionate about working collaboratively with senior leaders and organisations to enable future thought leaders and workplaces. Over the past two decades, she has worked for a range of industries and organisations, including Minter Ellison, King Wood Mallesons and Deloitte.