Diversity Council Australia (DCA) has appointed Catherine Hunter as chief executive officer (CEO), set to commence in March 2025.
She replaces Lisa Annese, who announced in October that she would be stepping down after spending more than a decade with the organisation.
Hunter joins DCA from Woolworths Group where she served as group GM inclusion and belonging from 2021. Prior to this, Hunter spent more than 16 years at KPMG Australia, most recently as partner, corporate citizenship. During her time at KPMG, she held several key leadership roles, including co-lead of KPMG Indigenous Services, director and head of corporate citizenship, and manager of community partnerships and the KPMG Foundation.
Her leadership positions extend beyond the corporate sector, with previous roles as state manager of the Australia Business Arts Foundation and as a development executive at the Sydney Opera House Trust.
DCA Board Chair Sunita Gloster AM welcomed Catherine on behalf of DCA.
“Catherine has a deep understanding of how to engage leaders across business, government and community in diversity and inclusion,” Gloster said.
“Her role leading inclusion at one of Australia’s largest employers, coupled with her experience in ESG, specifically in business and human rights, will be invaluable as DCA works to support its members’ needs and address Australia’s workplace opportunities and challenges.
“DCA’s membership base comprises a broad cross section of Australian workplaces – from ASX 100 business and government agencies through to small business. Through our members and our research, we know that workplace inclusion promotes innovation, enhances collaboration, and is key to better business performance. Catherine’s proven track record in building and delivering inclusive workplaces for the benefit of individuals, business outcomes and the broader Australian community made her a standout choice for the leadership of DCA.”
In addition to her corporate experience, Catherine also brings significant governance experience. She is currently a Non-Executive Director for Studio Schools Australia, a groundbreaking innovation in Indigenous education seeing outstanding results in achieving higher school attendance for First Nations children in remote areas. Catherine also served as founding Director and Chairperson of the UN Global Compact Network Australia, the principal sustainability initiative for business in Australia, from 2011 to 2019.
Catherine is excited to step into the role of CEO and looks forward to leading DCA.
“I’m thrilled to be joining DCA at such a vital time for diversity and inclusion across Australia’s workplaces,” Hunter said.
“Building upon the strong foundations laid by former CEO Lisa Annese and the DCA team, I look forward to working with our members as their trusted partner to strengthen their inclusive work practices that enable people to thrive and perform at their best.”
Hunter will commence as DCA CEO in March 2025. DCA deputy board chair, Chris Lamb will continue to serve as Interim CEO until then and will work alongside Hunter during the early stages of her tenure to ensure a smooth transition.
Hunter’s appointment comes at a time of stress for workplace diversity initatives and programs in Australia. Several of the major US tech companies have cosied up to US President Donald Trump, whose anti-DE&I stance is manifesting itself in some rather baffling ways.
As well as signing an executive order compelling all government bodies and agencies to end “illegal DEI discrimination and preferences“, Trump bizarrely blame the recent crash between a passenger plane and US Army helicopter Washington DC. He claimed that the Federal Aviation Authority wanted “people with severe disabilities” to be air traffic controllers.
“The Biden Administration egregiously rejected merit-based hiring, requiring all executive departments and agencies to implement dangerous “diversity equity and inclusion” tactics, and specifically recruiting individuals with “severe intellectual” disabilities in the FAA,” a White House memo later said.
Locally, it appears brands and companies are trying to work through the mess created in the US. Meta’s Australian arm, for instance, told B&T that it would continue with hiring a diverse workforce.
“This doesn’t change our approach to hiring diverse teams in our workforce, which include people from different races, sexuality, political views and so on because we believe diverse teams perform better,” a spokesperson for the owner of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp said.
“We continue to believe in having a multi-talented workforce made up of cognitively diverse teams. We will always value teams with differences in knowledge, skills, political views, backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences. They are better at innovating, solving complex problems and identifying new opportunities, ultimately helping us deliver on our ambition to build products that serve everyone.
“We have never hired talent on the basis of race, sexuality and other identity characteristics, and this will continue.”
