Kate Harper

Throughout her career, Kate has been driven by a passion to support females in leadership across Executive and Board positions and most recently entrepreneurs. For the past 3 years, as CEO of Not-For-Profit Apropela, formerly known as Heads over Heels, Kate has run a team on a mission to eliminate gender discrimination and provide tools for female founders to grow their companies. During her tenure Kate has identified and confirmed three new partnerships with Ashurst Lawyers, Optus and most recently a Family Office. She has also renewed partnerships with Macquarie, NAB and Steadfast Insurance for up to 5 years. Kate has also taken the organisation through a rebrand, from Heads over Heels, to Apropela. This rebrand involved global trademarking so that Apropela will be able to grow operations anywhere in the world, in the future. Following legal study in Cambridge, Kate began her career in the mid1980s with 15 years running small Investment Banking teams (up to 10) in London. She later moved into the search industry where she consistently coached and mentored female leaders, particularly within Financial Services, to better their careers. Kate founded her own board consulting practice in 2018 focusing on coaching and mentoring women into Australia’s boardroom and later folded this into Johnson Partners (after COVID hit), where she was part of the Partner group reporting to the CEO. Other leadership roles that Kate has undertaken include Head of Sydney office for Gerard Daniels, managing a delivery team of consultants for 3 years and Head of Swaps Marketing for Westpac, London.