Gail Kelly

Gail Kelly was born in Pretoria, South Africa. She began her banking career in South Africa in 1980, before moving to Australia in 1997. In 2002, Kelly became the first female chief executive officer (CEO) of a top fifteen ASX-listed company – St. George Bank. In 2007, Kelly was appointed CEO of Westpac Group. Since retiring from Westpac in 2015, Kelly has been engaged in a variety of roles, including with CARE Australia, an international organisation that works to combat global poverty, with a particular focus on the empowerment of women and girls.

Gail Kelly was interviewed about her life, career and hope for the future for 200 WOMEN, a book and exhibition project founded on the principle of gender equality comprising original interviews and accompanying photographic portraits. This landmark project is the realisation of an epic global journey to find two hundred women with diverse backgrounds, and to ask them what really matters to them.

Q. What really matters to you?
Making a difference has always been the factor that’s driven me. I was never focussed on becoming a CEO – it wasn’t in my long-term plan – but, throughout my career I’ve sought to try, in whatever role I’ve occupied, to make a difference and help others. There’s nothing that gives me more joy and satisfaction than being able to assist others in achieving their goals, and seeing them flourish and grow. In the Westpac context, we built this very concept into our vision to be one of the world’s great companies, helping our customers, communities and people to prosper and grow. In a nutshell, this translates into helping our customers to achieve their financial goals and life dreams, our people to grow and find fulfilment in their careers, and our communities to be strong and resilient.

In 2010, we set out to achieve a goal of women occupying 40 per cent of leadership roles by 2014. At the time, we were at about 30 per cent, and it struck me that it just wasn’t good enough – our progress was plateauing at that level. I knew from my own experience that, if you can build a culture in which everyone feels valued and respected, and if you build strong momentum, you develop a pipeline of growth that makes you stronger and richer as an organisation. The interesting thing is that we never had to articulate the business case for 40 per cent representation of women. People understood. They knew why it mattered to have strong young women coming through the system and standing alongside equally qualified men. So, in 2012, with the momentum of the organisation behind us, we absolutely smashed the target.

At a lunch not long after that, I was asked, ‘Well, what’s next?’ The immediate answer was: ‘Why stop at 40 per cent? We want to achieve 50 per cent, because that’s the right balance overall.’ Right there, I called out 2017 as the target date, Westpac’s bicentennial year. It’s a very important landmark, and a proud moment for us. We’re deeply proud of our history of diversity and once again, the organisation has stepped up to deliver.

Q. What brings you happiness?
My family; they’re my first and most important priority.

I married my husband, Allan, when I was twenty-one, and we’ve been together for over forty years. Our relationship has been the bedrock of my life; Allan has supported me throughout my career, and together we have built a strong and happy family.

I’m immensely proud of each one of our children – our beautiful, happy, centred, kind, thoughtful children – Sharon, Sean, Mark and Annie. I’m proud of the human beings that they are. They’re very different individuals, but have strong bonds between them and give me enormous joy.

Beyond my family, my biggest happiness is being able to help others. It is such a joy when you see young people grow in confidence and achieve their potential, when they step up and deliver. Now that I’ve retired from my executive career, I’m doing lots of teaching, sharing, advising and supporting. Fundamentally, I’m trying to share some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way to hopefully help others live happier, more fulfilled lives, to be stronger and better leaders of others. That gives me immense joy.

Q. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
In a personal sense, the very lowest depth of misery that I could contemplate is hurting someone or causing suffering to someone who is in my care. I haven’t been in that position, fortunately, but I know that that would just be the most painful, lowest depth of misery for me.

On a broader level, cruelty of man toward man gives me a lot of pain. There’s so much evidence of people who willingly, knowingly, deliberately inflict suffering and pain on others. Think of Aleppo, and the wrenching dislocation and suffering for men, women and children caught up in this brutal, bitter conflict. Think of the impact of terrorism on the lives of innocent victims and their families. Think, too, of the profound impact of domestic violence and sexual abuse of women and children all around the world. Hate and intolerance in all its forms create deep pools of pain for me.

Q. What would you change if you could?
Education for girls – indeed, equality for girls – is a huge area requiring change. As we know, there are many, many countries around the world – and particularly in developing nations – in which girls have serious challenges with regard to equality, and don’t have the educational access and support that they need. But we shouldn’t overlook the developed parts of the world, in which girls also have many challenges; in some respects, these may be subtler, but girls in the developed world equally don’t have access, opportunity and equality in the same way their brothers may have.

The reason I’d want to focus on this particular area for change is that girls’ education has a multiplier effect. The rate of teenage pregnancies is likely to fall, communities will be safer and stronger as empowered women deploy their skills in economic endeavour and future generations of children will be better supported.

I have seen this personally in the work that I do as CARE Australia’s ambassador for women’s empowerment. I have visited parts of the world where CARE does its wonderful work – Malawi, Cambodia, Vanuatu – and I’ve seen the programmes focussed on women’s empowerment, on equipping girls with confidence and new skill sets. I have seen first-hand how women focus on the long-term, in terms of giving back to their communities. After a cyclone in Vanuatu, one of the male leaders said that the women had been outstanding, because they thought about the needs of the whole community. Women bring inclusiveness and a long-term perspective. Quality education for our
girls will bring hope to the world.

Q. Which single word do you most identify with?
I think the single word for me would be ‘optimism.’ If you have that, you build hope and resilience, which are what the world needs these days.