The Women’s Agenda Advisory Board offers guidance, advice, feedback and inspiration to the Women’s Agenda publishing team.
It is currently made up of four women – Elizabeth Proust AO, Wendy McCarthy AO, Janine Allis and Marina Go — and chaired by Women’s Agenda associate publisher, Angela Priestley.
See full bios of our Advisory Board members below.
Elizabeth Proust AO
Elizabeth Proust, AO, has held leadership roles in the private and public sectors in Australia for almost 30 years. She has worked in local, State and Federal Government, the oil industry and in banking. She has held senior positions in the Victorian Government, Including as Secretary of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, and was CEO of the City Of Melbourne.
Elizabeth is Chairman of Nestle Australia, and of the Bank of Melbourne. She is a director of Perpetual Ltd, Insurance Manufacturers Australia, and the Sports Australia Hall of Fame. She is a member of the Catholic Church’s Truth Justice and Healing Council.
Elizabeth has a Law degree (University of Melbourne) and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from La Trobe University. She is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2010 for distinguished service to public administration and to business, through leadership roles in government and private enterprise, as a mentor to women, and to the community through contributions to arts, charitable and educational bodies.
Wendy McCarthy AO
Wendy McCarthy is an experienced manager and company director who began her career as a secondary school teacher. She moved out of the classroom into public life in 1968 and since then has been an advocate, educator and change agent in Australia and internationally.
She currently chairs headspace – Australia’s National Youth Mental Health Foundation, Circus Oz, McGrath Estate Agents and Pacific Friends of the Global Fund and is a Non-executive director of Goodstart Early Learning and Bentham IMF.
She has held many significant leadership roles in leading national and international bodies including eight years as Deputy Chair of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. In 2009 after 13 years of service to Plan International, she retired from her role as Global Vice Chair. In 2005 she completed a decade as Chancellor of the University of Canberra.
In 1995 she established her national consulting business McCarthy Mentoring which specialised in providing mentors to major corporations, the public sector and not for profit organisations. In July 2012 her daughter Sophie McCarthy took over the business and she now works for her when invited.
In 1989 she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for outstanding contributions to community affairs, women’s affairs and the Bicentennial celebrations. In 2003 she was awarded a Centenary of Federation medal for business leadership and in 2005 she was nominated by the Sydney Morning Herald as one of Australia’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals. In 2011 she was featured in the IWD publication The Power of One which profiled 100 women who have shaped Australia. In March 2013 she was inducted into the Women’s Agenda Hall of Fame for her contribution to the lives of Australian women.
She likes writing and speaking and is the author of 7 books including her memoir Don’t Fence Me In published by Random House in 2000.
Janine Allis
Janine Allis is founder and Managing Director of Boost Juice and Executive Director of Retail Zoo. She is one of Australia’s most respected business women, having been presented numerous retail, franchise and business awards. In 2014, business magazine BRW named her one of fifteen people that changed the way Australia does business in the last 35 years.
Her vision was to “do retailing differently”, delivering a unique customer experience based on the “love life” philosophy. In 2000, the first Boost Juice opened its doors in Adelaide, South Australia.
Five years later, Janine and her husband Jeff wanted to expand the Australian business. They knew the solid platform they created for Boost could support new brands because it enabled maximum growth potential.
The first acquisition was in 2007, a four-store Mexican food business, Salsa’s Fresh Mex Grill, which has grown to 49 stores Australia wide.
Boost’s holding company, Retail Zoo, acquired CIBO Espresso in December 2012. This Italian espresso bar franchise has 24 stores with expansion plans in place for the west coast of Australia. In 2014, Retail Zoo launched Hatch, chicken concept stores.
There are almost 7000 people working across the four businesses under the holding company Retail Zoo of which Janine is executive director. Retail Zoo turned over $230 million in the last 12 months.
Based in Melbourne, Janine is also a mother of four. She is an advocate for a healthy lifestyle – maintaining a five-day-a-week yoga practice and she is a very average surfer and tennis player…but loves both.
Marina Go
Marina Go is GM of Hearst Bauer Media, a joint venture between Bauer Media and Hearst Magazines International.
Marina has over 25 years of leadership experience in the media and publishing industry, having started her career as a journalist. She is the founder of Women’s Agenda and is a member of the Advisory Boards of the Walkley Foundation, The Remarkables Group and Women’s Agenda, a non-executive director of Odyssey House and a former director of Netball Australia, Sydney Symphony Vanguard and The Apparel Group.
She has an MBA from The Australian Graduate School of Management, a BA (Mass Communications) from Macquarie University and is a member of the AICD.