Winners of the 2017 Hunter Diversity Awards demonstrate outstanding commitment to addressing the myriad issues that lead to equity gaps in business and the wider Hunter community.
The awards are the initiative of the Equal Futures Project and recognise and celebrate individual and industry champions making a positive impact in their organisations and communities.
The winners are:
• HVTC was awarded Workforce Flexibility Champion; and
• Varley Group was the recipient of the Inclusive Workplace Champion.
The individual Hunter Diversity Champion was:
• Moray and Agnew’s Managing Partner, Sean O’Sullivan.
Diversity Awards Chair, Ellen Tiedeman said that the winners shared qualities of innovative leadership and were recognised for developing programs and initiatives that promoted flexibility, equity and inclusive cultures that embrace difference.
The awards were launched at the International Women’s Day breakfast which was held earlier this year. The breakfast also included a panel of industry leaders who shared their experiences on the progress being made to achieve gender equity and broader diversity goals.
The panel was facilitated by local business leader Shivani Gupta and included Tim Reardon, SecretaryTransport for NSW, Michelle Lawson, Financial Controller Glencore, Dr Pau Craven Director of Newborn Services at the John Hunter, Marko Njavro, co-founder and Director of Flex-Careers, Louise Gallagher, Director, Public Schools NSW (Lake Macquarie)and Claire Robbs, CEO Life without Barriers.
Nearly 500 people attended the event, which provided an important opportunity to create awareness around ongoing challenges, the experiences and journeys of those on the panel and ideas to create change to enable greater equity and diversity in the community, the workplace and across leadership in the region and beyond.
Chair of Equal Futures Project, Dr Kirsten Molloy said that the breakfast had an additional goal of raising money to support equity and diversity outcomes in the Hunter.
“Equal Futures project is proud to announce donations of $9,000 each to HMRI and the Hunter Women’s Centre,” Kirsten said.
“The donationto HMRI will support leadership development programs for female researchers while the community-based Women’s Centre will benefit from additional funds to prioritise services to women who are marginalised, experiencing disadvantage or having difficulty in accessing services elsewhere.”
The Diversity Awards are supported generously by Strategic Group as Event Sponsor, with Award Sponsors ARTC, Sparke Helmore and the University of Newcastle.
IMAGE | 2017 Hunter Diversity Award winners.
