Caravan Industry Association of Australia recently held their annual elections with a welcomed change of gender composition amongst the National Board.
Australia’s largest companies in even the most male dominated industry sectors have welcomed women into the boardroom and senior leadership roles recognising the value brought to decision making and strategy discussions. In fact, there are now no ASX-200 companies who do not have at least one female board member amongst their composition. Historically, however the caravanning and camping industry has continued to have been dominated by men in senior positions of leadership and customer facing sales and service – both within industry businesses and representative bodies. But this is changing and quickly.
At the recently held Caravan Industry Association of Australia – Annual Board Elections, three of the six announced board members were women: Kate Meldrum – COO of Tourism Holdings Australia Pty Limited, Nikki Milne – CEO of Tasman Holiday Parks, and Margaret Shannon – GM of Tiona Holiday Park and Future Leaders Committee Chair. These additions brought the total to four out of nine board members, which is well above the 26.8% average (2018-19) of female directors in the non-public sector as reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in the Gender Indicators report. This was on the back of nearly 50% of all nominations received being women.
Importantly, each successful board member did so on merit and not based around a forced quota.
There have been trailblazing women within the industry in the past, but they have always been heavily outnumbered around the board tables across the nation. The current mix is very much encouraged and welcomed, with further programs being planned on how to empower more women in our industry to raise their profile and nominate for key industry positions.
Initial efforts are already paying dividends and we are already seeing increased prominence by women as they carve their own career paths within leading industry businesses. The emergence of highly motivated and successful young women are reflected in four of the past five National Future Leader winners being female. Three current state association CEO’s are women, and the current president of Caravanning Tasmania is also an incredibly busy young woman. Highly talented women are taking leadership roles involved in technical, engineering and trade positions, including within the peak body’s own compliance team. At the recently held Queensland trade awards, the salesperson of the year was also female, holding off a strong field of her male colleagues.
If as an industry we are to continue to improve, and better supply products which meet consumer and community expectations and standards, this progression of prominent women holding leadership positions must continue to gain momentum. With so many opportunities ahead of us as a caravanning community, we welcome the influence and expected balanced debate that a diverse board will bring to industry direction and strategy discussions.
