Mirvac’s CEO Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz has been named the Telstra Business Woman of the Year for the private and corporate sectors in the same week as the company reached a 50/50 gender balance on its board.
Hurwitz was appointed CEO of Mirvac in 2012, making her one of few women in senior leadership positions in the property and real estate industry. In fact, the industry performs second to worst when it comes to promoting women in senior leadership positions, according to data released this month by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
Only 1.5% of CEOs in the industry are women, and only 15.8% of employees in key management positions are women. Hurwitz is among those women breaking down barriers and driving change in the industry. Before her appointment as CEO at Mirvac, she was the managing director of LaSalle Investment Management. Prior to this, she held senior executive positions as Lend Lease and Macquarie Group.
Hurwitz was awarded the private and corporate Business Woman of the Year award for her achievements since taking the top job at Mirvac. She has driven a growth strategy for the business, culminating in a record-breaking sale of 174 apartments in one weekend at Green Square earlier this year.
On top of this strategy, she has focused her leadership on strengthening the business’s emphasis on employee development.
“A culture of learning and investment in people had become a low priority at Mirvac during the financial crisis, and I have focused on re-establishing learning and development as a high priority,” she said.
“Over the last 18 months, I have led Mirvac from a record of financial impairments and underperformance financially, to a position of Best Employer Range staff engagement, accolades from the market and financial outperformance.”
Hurwitz said she hopes her success will “inspire and encourage other women to reach to be their best.”
Hurwitz also reflected on the changing working landscape for professional women when accepting her award on November 26th.
“I was reflecting today listening to the amazing stories of the women here tonight that there is no straight line from A to B for any of us… A career is more like a spider’s web or one of those climbing frames in a children’s playground than a ladder. Everyone here has a different journey: you can go up it, round it, through it, down it and up it again, and there is plenty of room for everybody on the spiders web, as opposed to the ladder,” she said.
Other Business Woman of the Year award winners were UnitingCare Queensland CEO Anne Cross, Assistant Police Commissioner Donna Adams, entrepreneur Kate Weiss, Evolve Housing CEO Andrea Galloway and young businesswoman Tina Tower.
Telstra COO Kate McKenzie said the awards, now in their 20th year, signal that Telstra takes a leading role in forwarding the careers of Australia’s businesswomen.
“Australia’s economic future depends on the leadership and innovation of women like these and the inspiration they’re giving younger women,” she said.