Flying by an alternate path - Insights into board recruitment and governance trends with Kerryn Newton
Sep 18, 2020
Kerryn is the Managing Director of Directors Australia, a national board consulting and non-executive director recruitment firm.
In this podcast Kerryn shares her diverse background, what she’s seeing in the recruitment space and offers advice for candidates.
With her early career aspirations to fly jets not possible, Kerryn wanted to work in the control tower, but on the guidance of her father ended up studying law, albeit unenthusiastically. She tempered this by joining the Army Reserves in her first year of university to fulfil her desire to serve.
Kerryn ‘served’ for many years in various capacities while studying and working, where she excelled, winning the Sword of Honour as top student of her training regimen. She credits her time in the army as the foundation of her deep leadership and management experience.
After graduating from university Kerryn worked as a lawyer for only a short time, before literally stumbling across a job in parliament. Her initial contract was for two months on the Fitzgerald Inquiry and she ended up staying for 10 years, ascending to senior management and working at the cutting edge across 25 parliamentary enquiries.
After 10 years in parliament and separating from her husband, Kerryn moved into consulting to help her balance family and work. She purchased the name ‘Directors Australia’ knowing it was what she wanted to do and has grown the business consistently ever since.
Kerryn discusses how she joined her first board by accident and the key things she is seeing from her clients in the board recruitment space. She provides advice for candidates on the things they need to clarify when applying for a board role, including 'what value will you bring to a board?' and 'how will you brand yourself?' - which she says candidates typically don’t do well.
Kerryn
Newton
LLM, MBA, MA, Grad Dip (Applied
Finance and Investment), FAICD, FGIA, FIML
- Chief Executive Officer, Directors Australia
- Board of Trustees, Brisbane Grammar
- NED, Energy Queensland
- Kerryn Newton
- Claire Braund (host)
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