Karen Chester

Karen has been a member of Chief Executive Women since 2017 and was appointed a CEW Board Director in 2024. Karen is currently a member of the Grattan Institute’s Public Policy Committee, volunteers as an Executive Mentor at Kilfinan and a crisis support worker at LifeLine Narrm. An economist and executive in government and business for close to four decades, Karen’s career began in the Hawke Keating government, working on major reforms in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and then the Treasury. At Treasury, Karen was the first woman promoted to the senior executive. In business, Karen was the inaugural CEO of Access Economics, a partner at Access Capital Advisers and a global Partner at Mercer. At Mercer, Karen established and led their global infrastructure advisory business with large pension plan clients in North America, Japan, Korea, the UK and Australia. Karen’s return to the public sector in 2014 was as Deputy Chair of the Productivity Commission where she presided on 15 inquiries, including the competitiveness and efficiency of Australia’s superannuation system, Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage, IP rights and natural disaster funding. In 2019 Karen was appointed as the Deputy Chair at ASIC, implementing the Hayne Royal Commission reforms and becoming a member of the Council of Financial Regulators during and following the COVID pandemic. Karen is a specialist in infrastructure investment, superannuation, general insurance and the nexus between good commercial and consumer outcomes. Karen's policy and regulatory work has also focused on better outcomes for First Nations people and communities. Karen has been a director on major infrastructure company boards and chaired ASIC's Regulatory and Risk Committees. Karen has a first class honours degree in economics from the University of Queensland and in 2017 was awarded a Honorary Doctorate in Economics by the University. Karen is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the 2022 recipient of the Economics Society of Australia’s Distinguished Public Policy Fellow Award. Karen is also a LifeLine trained crisis support worker (her most recent qualification, and the one she is most proud to have completed).