‘Worrying trend of female CEOs leaving’: Sport chiefs vow to turn tide of women leaving power positions

Australia’s best female administrators and managers are leaving sport in droves. EMMA GREENWOOD reports how the nation’s most powerful are going to arrest the trend.

Two of the most powerful figures in Australian sport will turn their attention to the “worrying” female brain drain from some of the most significant sporting roles in the country.

Speaking at the announcement of $6 million in Federal Government funding for netball in Brisbane on Friday, Sports Minister Anika Wells said she met with the new chair of the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) Kate Jenkins this week, the pair discussing the “worrying trend” of women leaving high-powered roles in the sporting sector and what could be done to stem the tide.

In starting to compile this masthead’s annual list of the most powerful and influential women in Australian sport earlier this year, the most shocking observation in reassessing our 2023 top 30 was that six women had left their position of significant power.

Sports Minister Anika Wells announcing $6 million funding for Netball Australia. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Just one athlete - former national cricket captain Meg Lanning, who announced her retirement from international cricket last year - was among the group.

The rest - former Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, WA Cricket boss Christina Matthews, former Netball Australia (NA) CEO Kelly Ryan, Swimming Australia chief executive Eugenie Buckley and ex AFLW general manager Nicole Livingstone - were leaders and policy influencers of significant gravitas who have stepped away from their roles.

ASC chair Josephine Sukkar also left her spot after the publication of the list.

Happily, some of those women have been replaced by others.

Stacey West has been appointed the new chief executive of NA, while Emma Moore will start as the AFLW general manager next month.

And Wells appointed former Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner Jenkins as ASC chair last month, where she will serve a five-year term.

Anika Wells is concerned about the number of females in powerful positions leaving the industry. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Wells doubled down on statements earlier this year that the loss of significant women in the sporting sector was at the forefront of her mind.

“I met with Kate Jenkins, the new chair of the Australian Sports Commission (on Thursday) to talk about what I hoped she might achieve in her time in the role (and) what she hoped that she could work with me on,” Wells said.

“We agree that there is a worrying trend of female CEOs leaving sport in Australia.

“We’ve observed the pattern and we agree that we’re going to look into that because I really think that’s not good enough.”

Speaking at the announcement of $6 million in funding for the 2027 Netball World Cup, which will be held in Australia and standing alongside a quartet of Diamonds players, coach Stacey Marinkovich, NA boss West and junior players at Brisbane’s Downey Park, Wells spoke of the need for more women in positions of responsibility in sport.

“We need to have not just more (Australian netball captain) Liz Watsons, we need to have more Stacey Wests, as well,” she said.

“We need women in every single corner of Australian sport. We need more women coaches, we need more women officials, we need more women leaders, we need more women CEOs.

“And I’m really excited by the fact that we’ve got Kate Jenkins in there now and she and I have identified that this is an area that we’ve got to work on.

Anika Wells is calling for more women to be involved in every element of sport. Picture: Steve Pohlner

“It’s a worrying trend that Kate and I want to work on - and we’ll be looking into.”

The Government’s boost for netball is a welcome flip for the sport after it lost $18m in funding last year after an abysmal grant proposal.

But a change of leadership seems to have been welcomed by government officials and Wells said there was confidence in CEO West and chair Liz Ellis to lead the code forward.

“I’ve been really impressed with Stacey (West) from when she’s come through as interim CEO and we’ve worked together over a period of months now,” Wells said.

“I think she, Ali (NA First Nations lead Ali Tucker-Munro) and Liz - we should recognise Liz Ellis, the new chair of Netball Australia, I mean, if anyone’s got clout and confidence of the Australian people, Liz Ellis does when it comes to netball - I’m confident that this team working together with myself, with our state leads will really be able to deliver for the girls and women who love netball.

“We love netball, we want to back netball and now Netball Australia has given us every reason to do that and I’m really pleased to be doing it today.”