Take on Board – Details, episodes &amp; analysis

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Louise Broekman outlines the history and importance of advisory boards

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Advisory board mini-series: Sandra Gamble knows what's what about energy and sustainability sector advisory boards

Episode 304

mardi 13 mai 2025 • Duration 30:12

Today on the Take On Board Podcast, I'm speaking with Sandra Gamble about advisory boards focusing on energy and sustainability. This is part of an advisory board mini-series.

Sandra's board portfolio includes both governance and advisory boards. Let's focus on some of her advisory boards. Her advisory board portfolio includes the Australian and New Zealand advisory board for the Institute for Science on Global Policy and the New South Wales divisional Council for the Australian Institute of Company Directors, as well as an advisory board with a background in engineering regulation and government.

Sandra has worked as a board member, senior executive, and consultant in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. Currently, Sandra is the independent chair of Marinus Link Proprietary Limited, the company that will build, own, and operate a new HVDC transmission link between Tasmania and Victoria. She's also a board member of Energy Co, which coordinates investment in New South Wales' renewable energy zones.

Previous episodes in this series

Links and Resources

Sandra Gamble on LinkedIn

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Tracy Bongiorno on LinkedIn

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Tracy Bongiorno is Wild for STEM and wants more women to get wild

Episode 295

mardi 11 mars 2025 • Duration 23:57

Today on the Take On Board Podcast, I'm speaking with Tracy Bongiorno about the Wild for STEM program. We also might touch on her journey to the first boardroom.

Tracy is the CTO at Mentorloop. She has extensive experience scaling SAS businesses and fostering high-performing teams. She is passionate about people-centric cultures, collaboration, governance and building software that empowers people. Tracy also organizes Tech-Leading Ladies, a community that supports women in tech leadership. She thrives on solving complex challenges and driving meaningful change, so she's eager to increase gender diversity in Australian boards.

WILD for STEM is committed to empowering women with the knowledge, skills and support they need to excel in STEM leadership positions.

Links and Resources

Wild For STEM

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Melissa Donnelly brings strategic planning into the boardroom to maximize lived experiences

Episode 208

mardi 11 juillet 2023 • Duration 32:17

Today on the Take on Board podcast I’m speaking with Melissa Donnelly about the importance of strategic planning as a vehicle for bringing the lived experience of staff and clients/customers/members into the board room.

Melissa is the Chair, Domestic Violence Prevention Centre (Gold Coast)

Melissa has been called a brain surgeon for brands. She extracts the DNA of businesses from the CEO's brain and injects it across the organisation. In her 35 year-plus career, she's triaged, rebooted and launched brands internationally and domestically. Melissa has been a brand builder for household names like MTV, ESPN, Microsoft and Telstra, plus brands that are rock stairs in their own industries. If communications are at the heart of an issue, then chances are Melissa has seen it, mapped it and solved for it. This is the lens she brings to her Board role where Melissa focusses on building a culture of intentional communications that connects Board members, the organisation and stakeholders.

More on Melissa Donnelly

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Podcast takeover – a 4th birthday celebration!

Episode 207

mardi 4 juillet 2023 • Duration 09:50

SURPRISE! Buffy, here – Helga’s podcast producer.

Lisa – Helga’s business manager – and I reached out to the fabulous peeps in the Take on Board community to record messages in celebration of the podcast’s 4th birthday.

This episode is full of words of appreciation and gratitude for the podcast’s 4 years of sharing governance wisdom and for the evolving community which keeps on supporting and cheering on each other’s boardroom journeys.

A big thanks to everyone who took part in this podcast takeover celebration. You’re all why Helga keeps on doing this with enthusiasm and joy week in and week out.

Congratulations Helga! You’re an awesome host. I look forward to the next 4 years of great storytelling...

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Organisational Mergers: Lessons from the coalface

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Take on Board Breakfast: Riwka Hagen knows how to navigate a merger and has tips

Episode 206

mardi 27 juin 2023 • Duration 47:31

Today on the Take on Board podcast, Riwka Hagen joins me at the Take on Board Breakfast event. Riwka presents Organisational Mergers: Lessons from the coalface. Riwka knows how to navigate organisational mergers because she's successfully overseen the process.

Hear her presentation and answers to audience questions. You can learn a lot from her success and challenges!

This podcast is an edited version of the Take on Board Breakfast. Sign-up for information about future events like the breakfast. Start your day networking, meeting like-minded women and hearing about open board roles and opportunities in the Board Marketplace.

Links and Resources

More on Riwka Hagen

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Centre for Leadership Advantage

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Marcele de Sanctis has thoughts on using metrics to find the right board mix

Episode 205

mardi 20 juin 2023 • Duration 26:11

Today on the Take on Board podcast I’m speaking with Dr. Marcele de Sanctis about Board Capability and Culture

Marcele has 10 years experience working with global, ASX-listed, private and Government organisations, supporting Boards, CEOs, C-level executives and senior leaders in capability development and competency architecture, leadership assessment, leadership development, executive coaching, talent management, L&D, OD, executive search and recruitment.

She currently sits on the National Education Advisory Committee for the AICD.

Marcele commenced her career in Executive Search appointing Chairs, Directors, C-level Executives and leaders across a range of sectors including industrial, consumer, retail, education and health.

She is now the Managing Partner of Centre for Leadership Advantage, leading a team of organisational psychologists/scientist-practitioners, leadership specialists and thought-leaders who deliver leadership assessment, development, transition and wellbeing solutions throughout Australia for global, ASX-listed, large private and public sector clients. CLA takes an evidence-based approach to extraordinary leadership.

Links and Resources

Marcele on LinkedIn

Future Leadership Capability Framework

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Gina Balarin says marketers play a huge role on boards

Episode 204

mardi 13 juin 2023 • Duration 36:38

Today on the Take on Board podcast I’m speaking with Gina Balarin about her journey to the boardroom.

Gina is on the boards of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), a UK-based organisation serving an international audience and ProjectDisplaced, an Australia-based organisation helping coach Australians out of work to get their mojo back.

Gina Balarin is an inspirational TEDx and keynote speaker, storyteller and B2B marketing leader, who sits on the boards of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and ProjectDisplaced. She's an FAMI FCIM Chartered Marketer, with a Master's of education in management communication and a member of the Professional Speaking Association.

The author of The Secret Army: Leadership, Marketing and the Power of People, she loves finding the essence of information and distilling it into meaningful communication that makes positive change happen. She is the Director of Verballistics, a Marketing Communications Consultancy.

Links and Resources

Gina on LinkedIn

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View the Strategic Planning Framework diagram as mentioned in this episode

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Take on Board x Lead to Soar - How Women Can Build & Demonstrate Strategic Acumen with Helga Svendsen

Episode 203

mardi 6 juin 2023 • Duration 30:51

In this special Take on Board x Lead to Soar cross over episode, I was the guest on the Lead to Soar podcast and was interviewed by Michelle Redfern. She invited me to discuss strategy. My conversation with Michelle was part of the Lead to Soar - "How Women Can" web series.

Do you know what strategy is?

Do you know why strategy is set?

Do you know why boards are interested in strategy?

Can you describe the relationship between strategy and business outcomes?

Being able to answer all these questions means you're likely to have strategic acumen.

In this episode, Helga Svendsen FAICD and Michelle Redfern discuss Helga's experience from both sides of the boardroom table - as an executive and CEO as well as a Board Chair and Director, as well as provide practical advice about how women can build and demonstrate their strategic acumen.

Links and Resources

Lead to Soar

Michelle Redfern

Episode 133: Michelle Redfern takes lessons from the pitch into the boardroom

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Uluru Statement from the Heart

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Helga goes solo: “Be a Voice for Generations” this National Reconciliation Week

Episode 202

mardi 30 mai 2023 • Duration 20:21

This week in Australia it’s National Reconciliation Week.

So, today, I'm covering the following:

Talk about NRW 2023, the theme and what it means for all of us
Talk about NRW more broadly – it’s history and what it’s about
Talk about the Uluru statement from the Heart – I’ll read it to you
Share some ideas for your board to support the Uluru statement from the Heart
Share some resources, including showcasing the first nations women that have previously been on ToB

I'd love to hear from you about what your board or what you're doing as an individual to support some of these actions. See you next week.

Links and Resources

National Reconciliation Week

Episode 10: Amber Roberts on rethinking the meaning of ‘country’ and how we can be allies in the boardroom (re-run as episode 100 too)

Episode 19: Sheena Watt on breaking down preconceptions in the boardroom

Episode 138: Jillian West gives us the whats, whys and hows of reconciliation action plans – and the role of the board

Episode 139: Rachelle Towart OAM reveals the secrets of getting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on your board

Episode 164: Take on Board Breakfast with Jillian West. An introduction to the basics of cultural competency

Episode 194: Nareen Young explains what Australian boards get wrong about diversity and Indigenous governance

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