From Rural Australia to Royalty: ASX Chair Gina Anderson on how she nailed networking

Women on Boards: Leader, directors & subject matter experts in conversation with Claire Braund

It is testament to experienced company director Gina Anderson’s adaptability and genial nature that she has been able to turn her hand to every opportunity afforded to her.

Born in country NSW and sent off to boarding school at 12, Gina Anderson attributes her boardroom success to maintaining those strong friendships forged at an early age and regularly checking in on old mates - as well as a touch of serendipity.

Keeping in touch with her large network, as well as simply ‘being in the right place at the right time’, has seen Gina secure many board roles - as well as “the job of a lifetime” as personal assistant to the Crown Prince El Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan in the early 90s.

As Gina tells Claire in this podcast, she was even involved in the peace treaty between Jordan and Israel before another chance meeting at a friend’s wedding back in Australia drew her back into the corporate world and a seven-year stint in HR and senior management at Westpac.

It was a banking contact who sang Gina’s praises when she applied for a position on the board of Philanthropy Australia. “After I got the job, I was told I had been at the bottom of the list,’ she tells Claire. She went on to be Executive Director and CEO for five years.

Now Gina is Chair of GDI Property Group and NED of GDI Funds Management as well as NED with The George Institute for Global Health.

She has also been an advisory board member of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, was co-founder and Chair of Women’s Community Shelters and is Philanthropy Fellow at University of NSW’s Centre for Social Impact.

In this podcast, Gina talks about the importance of networking and maintaining those contacts, describes what it was like going from struggling to find work during the recession in Australia to working for Jordanian royalty, and the reality of learning on the job.

LinkedIn: Gina Anderson | Claire Braund (host)

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