Annual Dinner

Chief Executive Women’s Annual Dinner is one of the most prestigious events in Australia’s corporate calendar. It is attended by CEW Members, Sponsors, CEOs and their management teams from across the country. The dinner is CEW’s most important fundraising event and these funds are used to support CEW Scholarship Program and programs run by CEW to enable more women leaders in Australia.

In 2020, to keep our community safe and COVID free, the CEW Annual Dinner this year will take place as a virtual event:

Resilience, CEW's Annual Virtual Event

Keynote Speaker: Shemara Wikramanayake

CEW President: Sue Morphet

Thank you to all our sponsors, special guests we could not have managed this event without you.

Resilience, a live broadcast to be presented nationally and free to members, sponsors, the Connect community and guests. Resilience featured special guests, live entertainment and fundraising to support CEW’s Scholarship Program, and to further our advocacy and thought leadership work.

Celebrating gender equality and women in leadership.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Shemara Wikramanayake
Managing Director and CEO, Macquarie Group

Shemara joined Macquarie in 1987 in Macquarie Capital in Sydney. In her time at Macquarie, Shemara has worked in six countries across several business lines. She established and led Macquarie’s corporate advisory offices in New Zealand, Hong Kong and Malaysia, and the infrastructure funds management business in the US and Canada. Shemara has also served as Chair of the Macquarie Group Foundation.

As Head of Macquarie Asset Management for 10 years before her appointment as CEO in 2018, Shemara led a team of 1,600 staff in 24 markets. Macquarie Asset Management grew to become a world-leading manager of infrastructure and real assets and a top 50 global public securities manager.

In 2018, Shemara was appointed a Commissioner of the Global Commission on Adaptation, a World Bank-led initiative which seeks to accelerate climate adaptation action and create concrete solutions which enhance resilience. In 2019 she was appointed by the UN’s Special Envoy for Climate Action, Michael Bloomberg, to the Climate Finance Leadership Initiative which seeks a six-fold increase in climate mitigation investment from the private sector.

Shemara holds Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws degrees from UNSW and completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 1996.

Shemara is a member of CEW.