How an ‘unusual director' rose to the boardroom at age 32
Bridget Loudon-Harris says she is an 'unusual director', whose appointment to the Telstra board ruffled feathers with some institutional investors.
On Thursday night she was named winner of the Alvarez & Marsal award in the inaugural Financial Review BOSS Director Awards. The special award is for leaders whose values and actions clearly align with Alvarez & Marsal's principles and positioning, which emphasises leadership, action and results.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

AU Financial Review
a day ago
- AU Financial Review
How AI and tax reform could drive a white-collar squeeze
With the eyes of the world rightly trained on Iran, Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy's warning to his employees about artificial intelligence's threat to their jobs feels like a bit of a sideshow. But in the long run, Jassy's gloomy prediction may turn out to be a deeply consequential moment for many Australians. Jassy's warning that Amazon will end up with a smaller workforce because of AI isn't necessarily new. The potential threat posed to white-collar jobs from the technology has been recognised by several Australian chief executives, including Telstra boss Vicki Brady and Commonwealth Bank's Matt Comyn. But there's a bigger shift already under way in the labour market that could compound the impact of AI.

Sky News AU
3 days ago
- Sky News AU
Business leaders to participate in Vinnies CEO Sleepout amid cost-of-living crisis
Pfizer Australia's Managing Director Anne Harris discusses the Vinnies CEO Sleepout fundraiser for homelessness in Australia.' It's my fourth year actually … homelessness is a critical issue with rising costs of housing, rising costs-of-living,' Ms Harris told Sky News host Ross Greenwood. 'Now is the time to continue to raise awareness, raise funds. 'Many, many people experience this day after day, year after year, it's one thing that I think business leaders can do to help.'

Sydney Morning Herald
6 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Amazon boosts Australian investment to $20 billion to meet AI, data demands
Seattle: Global tech giant Amazon Web Services will increase its spending on data centres in Australia to $20 billion over the next five years, company chief executive Matt Garman says. In a joint announcement alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the company's 'Amazon Spheres' building in Seattle, Garman said additional spending was needed so the company could meet increasing demand for access to artificial intelligence, cloud-based storage and more for some of Australia's biggest companies. Those companies include the big four banks, Telstra and Optus and a range of other IT and services companies, including Atlassian and Canva. The company, which is investing heavily in a range of power technologies including nuclear and renewables across the world to meet the huge electricity demands of artificial intelligence, will also invest in two new solar farms in Victoria and one in Queensland, an increase from the eight it currently invests in and uses. Amazon already has 37 major data centre 'regions' across the world, including one in each of Melbourne and Sydney, and the expanded investment will see these centres significantly expanded. The US-based company, best known for its ubiquitous online shopping services, has already spent about $9 billion in Australia and had planned to increase its spend to $13 billion, but surging demand for its web services meant the company's investment would rise to $20 billion by 2029. 'We think that AI has really the ability to change every industry, and we look at a couple of our customers. First, we look at a customer like CommBank. CommBank is launching an AI factory powered by AWS to completely change how they do innovation,' Garman said. 'They expect that AI will allow them to drive innovation up to four times faster than they do today ... We can look at the Australian national swimming team, we used AI to help their swimmers improve, and actually led to improvements in their performance in the pool, helping them win seven gold medals in the Paris Olympics.'