Fewer than half of Australia's 200 biggest companies have any women in top operational roles, a survey has found, suggesting that the pipeline for female chief executives remains thin.

Demonstrating the downside of the narrow pipeline, the survey by Chief Executive Women found that only two of the 25 chief executives appointed to an ASX 200 company over the past 12 months were female – and one of them was to a New Zealand company. In the 12 months to August 1, Jolie Hudson was appointed CEO of digital services company Spark New Zealand, while Shemara Wikramanayake took over as chief of investment banking group Macquarie Group.