by Ted Richards Click to listen to the latest episode of The Richards Report with Susan Oliver.
Susan always wanted to be a businesswoman. She grew up in Bairnsdale, in eastern Victoria, where she had few role models for her chosen career path.
Susan attended Warrigal High School with a friend named Margaret Jackson and the pair forged similar careers. They’ve both been trailblazers for women in business with Margaret serving in prestigious positions such as Chairman of Qantas from 2000-2007.
We discuss the times throughout Susan’s career when she encountered resistance to her success simply for being a woman, and how she overcame those issues.
BOARD HISTORY
Susan had her first board membership with Transurban when it was a just a start-up. Female board members were not common in the mid 90s and she faced resistance at the time. She has gone on to sit on boards across a wide variety of industries including the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra and the Melbourne Theatre Company. Among her many current roles she sits on the investment committee for IFM Investors and chairs Scale Investors. She is also a founder of Cuuble, a platform that enables older people and people with memory, sight, dexterity and confidence barriers to go online and use social media.
SCALE INVESTORS
Scale Investors is a large angel investing network that invests in female entrepreneurs. Somewhat like the shark tank concept (but without all the cameras!), it seeks to help female-led start-ups, which attracted less than 4% of capital funding before Scale.
Her best investment? Apart from her children’s education, Susan lists two of her angel investments through Scale as well as shares in Transurban as her best investments.
To find out more about Scale Investors click here
To find out more on Cuuble click here