Earlier this month, I had the privilege of joining a remarkable cohort of multicultural leaders as a Fellow of the 2025 Dr John Yu Fellowship, held at the University of Sydney Business School.
It was three days of deep reflection, energising dialogue, and courageous conversations about who we are, how we lead, and what it really means to bring cultural identity into leadership spaces.
Despite having worked in the field of inclusion and cultural diversity for more than two decades, my time in the Fellowship still surprised and moved me in ways I didn’t anticipate.
It asked me to look inward, not just outward. To question how I show up, not just what I advocate for.
A Moment of Discomfort
There was one moment that stayed with me.
One of our facilitators, the brilliant Dr Tim Soutphommasane, reflected on his time as the Race Discrimination Commissioner and the silence that so often follows conversations about cultural diversity in Australia, especially when it comes to leadership. The lack of urgency. The invisibility of the issue. The missing voices.
I felt a pang of discomfort. Here I was, a daughter of migrants, a professional dedicated to building inclusive, human-friendly workplaces and yet, I had to ask myself: Have I always used my voice loudly enough? Have I challenged exclusion where it lives, not just where it’s obvious? Have I been complicit in the silence, even when I thought I was doing the work?
That moment was humbling and necessary. Only days later we’re seeing protest rallies calling for the remigration of non-European peoples and a brewing anger that feels a lot like a hot spark that could ignite a powder keg. So what are we going to do about it now? Silence will not help sanity prevail.
Leading with Cultural Identity
Growing up, I didn’t see many people who looked or sounded like me in positions of power. I didn’t imagine myself as a CEO, or a lawyer, or a board chair. I certainly didn’t imagine I’d one day be speaking on global stages about inclusion, or building sponsorship programs for underrepresented talent.
That’s the power of visibility. When we see someone who looks like us leading, it unlocks something. It makes space. It shows us what’s possible.
The Dr John Yu Fellowship reminded me how much that still matters especially in a country where boardrooms, newsrooms, and parliaments are still far from representative of the communities they serve. The 2025 Board Diversity Index from AICD and Watermark confirms just how far we still have to go:
- 91.9% of ASX 300 board seats are held by directors from Anglo-Celtic backgrounds, up from 91.2% the year before
- Just five directors across the entire ASX 300 openly identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, holding only seven positions in total
So, while gender diversity shows slow and steady progress, broader cultural diversity is stagnating or even going backwards. We need both top-down and bottom-up leadership to shift this.
Boardrooms must open space for new voices. Communities must nurture future leaders. And all of us must step up to ensure visibility is matched with opportunity and different voices are given space to be heard.
What I’m Taking Forward
This experience reaffirmed my commitment to:
- Champion the visibility of multicultural leadership not as an afterthought, but as a strategic advantage
- Help organisations build pathways that make career progression possible for those who have historically been excluded
- Use my platform to challenge the silence and invite others to speak, share, sponsor and advocate
- Hold space for conversations that are sometimes uncomfortable but always necessary
Because leadership isn’t just about what you know. It’s about how you make others feel seen. And if we want organisations to be more human, they need to reflect all of humanity.
Final Thought
I’m incredibly grateful to the team at the University of Sydney Business School and the visionary facilitators of the Fellowship for creating a space where we could be honest, challenged, and inspired.
To my fellow Fellows thank you for your wisdom and courage. To those reading this who’ve ever felt like leadership wasn’t for “people like you” (like I did for so long) please know, you belong. We need your voice, especially now. And the future is stronger when it includes all of us.
Let’s keep making the invisible visible.