Weekend edition: Anastasia Clarke - pivotal moments on the way up
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Why is International Women’s Day a fitting backdrop for discussing female leadership in finance?
Sunday is International Women's Day. You might be surprised to learn it was actually founded in 1911 before the First World War. So here we are, 115 years later. Is it achieving its aim of encouraging gender equality? Well, let's talk to an Australian who's climbed to the senior ranks of Australian business and get her view on why the glass ceiling for hair hasn't been so much of a problem. But have there been pivotal moments along the way that That's this week. The morning call from Nab with Phil Dobby.
The weekend edition.
So Charter Hall is one of Australia's leading property investment groups with over eighty-four billion under their management, and seeming as it's International Women's Day this Sunday, we thought it would be good to talk to Anastasia Clark, Chief Financial Officer at Charter Hall. A big job. You are the CFO of a large ASX listed business. So d do you feel it's th the fight has been is is harder for you than it would have been for a man? That's the obvious question. Did you get where you were because you had to have more persistence, more grit and determination than a man would have to do? Or have changed have times changed a little bit?
Uh good question, Phil. And it's always hard to understand or know what the counterfactual is. So I I do feel genuinely supported in much of the career growth that I've been able to enjoy. And some of that support, a lot of that support has come from male mentors and male leadership. But equally, you know, there were areas of time where it was quite a struggle and I felt unnoticed and I really had to push hard against. Those barriers um to I guess uh allow myself to get to the level that I've been able to do. Right, but that could that
could apply to anyone, any you know, I felt unnoticed uh actually for large parts of my career I have to say. Uh so I mean it's is that because you're a woman you are being unnoticed or Oh, it's difficult to tell, I guess.
Um, well, I I will give you one example that I do think was probably singled to being a woman, but I agree with you there are many setbacks for many people, so it's probably a shared experience. Uh but I was given an example that I wasn't looked at because I was thought to lack ambition because I had young children. And uh I think that was a grave mistake because uh they're quite the counter. Yeah,
well exactly. That's right. If you can help bring up kids, I mean that's a uh that's a success story in its own right, isn't it? I'm looking at a uh a a piece from the AFR last month reporting on the the CFO pay report, your job, which says there's been a clearing out of top financial chiefs, female financial chiefs. So at the end of twenty twenty five, just fifteen percent of the top twenty highest paid CFOs were women. Against twenty five percent a year earlier. So by that measure, we are going backwards a bit.
Well, yes, if you look at that headline, but what I would say if you read deeper into the article and you possibly have, is that many of the higher paid, uh, successful women CFOs have actually made their way into CEO positions. Uh so, you know, they have had advancement, whether you're talking the Qantas, Telstra, um, you know, senior appointments are of CEO women. Um, in terms of You know, then that next crop of women coming through the CFO role.
How did male mentorship shape Anastasia Clarke’s rise to CFO at Charter Hall?
I do think there's some excellent talent and I do think that CFO roles are more uh being filled by women today than they ever were even only ten years ago. Well it's
it is often seen, isn't it, as the the familiar route Irrespective of what the industry is, you go from CFO to CEO if you if if the company is looking for an in internal placement. I just wonder is that too rigid? If there's a i I mean, are there women taking other roles rather than CFO roles that could still make good CEOs? Is it too rigid a pathway, do you think, for businesses?
Yes, I think it is too rigid and and I think over the long period of time Many CEO appointments, obviously many of which were majority men, haven't come from the CFO role. They've come from engineering backgrounds, uh, or or what we, you know, have commonly called revenue lines of the business.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why is International Women’s Day a fitting backdrop for discussing female leadership in finance?
0:01–3:09
2
How did male mentorship shape Anastasia Clarke’s rise to CFO at Charter Hall?
3:09–7:02
3
What barriers did she face as a mother in a senior finance role, and how were they overcome?
7:02–11:03
4
Why are women increasingly moving into revenue‑focused positions at Charter Hall?
11:03–14:23
5
How does the ‘40:40:20’ leadership model influence talent pipelines and gender balance?
14:23–17:58
6
What impact does greater female representation have on Charter Hall’s $92 billion funds under management?
17:58–21:49
7
How is the commercial property market expected to perform amid higher interest rates and inflation?
21:49–24:50
8
What actions can businesses and society take now to accelerate gender equity in senior finance roles?
24:50–27:45