Director of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency Libby Lyons has been elected as an ambassador for Honour a Woman – a voluntary organisation established in 2017. The organisation aims to promote gender equality in the honours system and by 2020 have the female to male nomination ratio 50/50.
Lyons was appointed Director of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency in October 2015, the agency which was created by the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012. She oversees the statutory reporting process that gathers gender equality data from more than 12,000 employers, covering more than four million employees. Soon after starting her appointment at the Agency, Libby initiated the development of a strategic plan focused on maximising the Agency’s world-leading dataset and expanding the reach and impact of gender reporting nationally and internationally.
As part of this strategic vision, Lyons has traveled to Singapore, Chile, Vietnam, Korea and Japan to speak with government and private enterprise on the business case for gender equality and the Agency’s dataset. She also presented at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York in 2018.
In leading the Agency, Lyons is focused on working closely with employers to achieve gender equality and takes part in regular roundtable and speaking events with business leaders and their peers to share experiences, challenges and successes in creating workplaces where the skills and ambitions of employees are equally recognised and rewarded regardless of gender.
Recently, Lyons featured in 200 women who will change the way you see the world, as well as Apolitical’s 100 Most Influential People Working in Gender Policy 2018 list.
Prior to joining the Agency Lyons had a distinguished career in corporate affairs and government relations, including heading up BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam corporate affairs division, as well as senior roles at Atlas Iron, CITIC Pacific Mining, Alcoa Australia, the Western Power Corporation and Telstra.
Lyons has a strong personal commitment to public service, having started her career as a primary school teacher. She also sat on the boards of non-profit organisations SIDS and Kids WA, and was Executive Chairman for Kalparrin, a charity that supports the carers of children with disabilities.
Readers also enjoyed our story about the Police Commissioner.
