Jillian Segal: Power of immigrants

Jillian Segal was just five when her family came to Australia from South Africa after the Sharpeville massacre of 1960.

Jillian Segal receives an AO in the Australia Day honours. Picture: James Croucher

Jillian Segal was just five years old when her family came to Australia from South Africa after the Sharpeville massacre of 1960.

In the decades since, Segal — who receives an AO for her services to the banking and financial regulation sectors; not-for-profit organisations; and women — has built a career that owes much to that immigrant experience.

“Immigrants always instil two qualities (in their children),” she says. “The importance of working hard and gratitude for the country they come to, a keenness to give back and do something important and relevant.”

Important and relevant work has defined Segal since she took law degrees at the University of NSW and Harvard — attracted by the law’s “precedent and analysis … the legal framework is such an important thing to a strong society and a well-functioning society and that has always attracted me”.

After several years with law firm Allens, she served as a commissioner and later deputy-chair of ASIC.

In 2003, she opted to pursue a non-executive career and has since served as a director and chair of many corporates and not-for-profits. She is a board member of Rabobank; a director of the Grattan Institute and the Garvan Institute; and a trustee of the Sydney Opera House. She is the chair of the independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority; the Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce, NSW; the Sir John Monash Foundation; deputy president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry; and deputy chancellor of the University of NSW.

Segal has previously been a director of NAB, and the Australian Securities Exchange; and a council member of the Australian War Memorial. She is passionate about her not-for-profit roles and, along with her husband John Roth, has been a generous donor to a range of organisations and causes. She was appointed an AM in 2005.

Segal is widely seen as a highly effective and strategic operator but demurs when asked about her strengths.

“Other people might say that I am very persistent,” she says. “I don’t give up easily.”

She has been an advocate for more women on the boards of listed companies but also urges young women to stay in executive roles as long as possible — despite the problems many face in juggling careers and families — to gain as much wisdom and knowledge as they can.

Young people of both genders are a “joy” and one of her favourite roles is leading the Sir John Monash Foundation that awards postgraduate scholarships for overseas study.

“There is so much talent out there and young people are so optimistic about the future and the opportunities that are there,” she says. “When we get depressed about all the challenges in the world, I think it’s as well to remember that we have enormous talent in the young people of this country.”

Segal leads annual trips of women leaders to Israel to look at that country’s start-up sector.

“We should have more start-ups than we do. We are naturally entrepreneurial.”