Founding Director of RedBalloon and Shark Tank investor Naomi Simson says it never occurred to her that she couldn’t launch her own business in tech, because she’d always had strong female role models to look to.
Most importantly, when she was a child, her mother had worked in computers, so the idea of innovating in the tech space was familiar.
“It never occurred to me that I couldn’t do it and that’s because it was my default,” Simson told the audience at Elladex’s International Women’s Day event in Sydney on Thursday morning.
“This is why we must have more women in leadership, why we just have more introverts in leadership, why we must have more difference in leadership.”
To mark International Women’s Day 2022, Simson joined the Elladex event, hosted by founder Shivani Gopal, alongside the Chair of Adore Beauty and non-executive board director Marina Go, and broadcaster and writer Faustina Agolley.
All of the women spoke about what it took them to pursue successful careers, and their advice for women looking to further their careers.
Marina Go, who holds a portfolio of non-executive board director positions across companies like Transurban, Energy Australia and Netball Australia and was the founding publisher of Women’s Agenda, spoke about her rise through the media industry to become one of the most prominent names in Australian business.
Go encouraged the audience to voice their ambitions, as she had done in her early career, telling anyone who’d listen that she wanted to be the editor of Dolly magazine (a goal she achieved before moving into the business of publishing).
She said to build her career on boards, she made sure that was introduced to as many people as possible.
“People have to know you, if they don’t know you, they won’t consider you,” Go said. “A lot of directors know each other, in the business world they don’t know who you are unless you’re in business.”
Go spoke about what it was like to join the board of Energy Australia, saying it made a difference that the company had a female CEO at the time, who encouraged her after the first board meeting she attended.
“I was really nervous, but the thing that made a difference was having a female CEO,” Go said. “She came up to me after the first board meeting and said the questions I asked were really great and they are useful to her team.”
Faustina Agolley, recognisable from her prominent role as the host of Video Hits, where she interviewed everyone from Alicia Keys and Adele to Lady Gaga, spoke about her belief in “following the joy”.
Agolley spoke about her experiences with racism and homophobia, having grown up as a bi-racial, lesbian woman, and why she now commits to pursuing joy as a radical act of resistance.
“It felt wild to me that the outside world had so many opinions about me, and my family growing up,” she said.
“Now I see the [International Women’s Day theme] cracking the code, as about taking quantum leaps forward.”
Naomi Simson also called for a commitment to free, universal early childhood education and care, labelling it one of the keys to achieving equality in the workplace for women.
“If we don’t have affordable safe and accessible childcare, we will never get there. Until we get it available, all parents, will be doing this shuffle.”