Former Mirvac CEO Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz says change needed to advance women in business

The former Mirvac boss has been recognised for her contribution to the real estate industry. But she says more must be done on the gender front across corporate Australia.

Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz, the former chief executive of Mirvac, has been made a Member of the Order of Australia for her significant service to the property sector. Picture: James Croucher

Former Mirvac boss Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz cuts a familiar figure in Australian and global boardrooms and she is using that currency to deliver a message: there must be pathways to ensure more women are in the top echelons of the business world.

Ms Lloyd-Hurwitz was an outlier even while running property developer Mirvac, where she was chief executive from 2012 to 2023. She was the only female CEO of a major real estate company.

She has been made a Member of the Order of Australia for her significant service to the property sector through trailblazing jobs at LaSalle Investment Management in London, and senior executive positions at MGPA, Macquarie Group and Lendlease.

A key part of the turnaround job she undertook at the developer, bringing it out from the shadows of the global financial crisis and making it a leader in apartments and offices, was in sustainability and gender initiatives. Since leaving the listed $9bn developer, Ms Lloyd-Hurwitz has combined corporate boards and policy leadership roles.

She is president of Chief Executive Women and chairs the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council, while also being a director at Rio Tinto and Macquarie. This is atop roles at the Sydney Opera House Trust, the University of Sydney Senate, business school INSEAD, and chairing the Australian Centre for Gender Equality and Inclusion@ Work Advisory Board.

Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz in her Mirvac days. Picture: John Feder

A lasting part of her contribution in business is simply Mirvac’s buildings towering over Australian cities. But bringing Mirvac back as a viable force in property – surviving the last downturn and the pandemic well ahead of its peers – makes her post-executive career advocacy more powerful.

Ms Lloyd-Hurwitz says she came into the company in “very difficult circumstances” when it was without a clear strategy. But it managed to “reignite” the flame that Mirvac co-founder Bob Hamilton lit by focusing on customers and boosting staff engagement, while also driving industry reform.

“We we were able to put in place really meaningful sustainability measures, not just window-dressing,” she said.

Her legacy at Mirvac also includes leadership on cutting carbon emissions and pioneering built-to-rent at a time when “everyone said it couldn’t be done”. Ms Lloyd-Hurwitz is most proud about the developer being named the most gender equitable company twice in her tenure, defying the constraints of a traditionally male-dominated sector.

“It signalled that we were genuinely drawing from the best talent from 100 per cent of the population, not just half of it,” she said. Her pride in the company’s gender and sustainability transformation is not just personal.

“There is this progressiveness in Australian corporate life that we never really acknowledge,” Ms Lloyd-Hurwitz said. “I think we can be hard on ourselves … [and] sometimes we don’t pause to acknowledge the efforts and the achievements that have been made.”

Mirvac's EY building at 200 George St has received international recognition for its design and construction since opening in mid-2016.

Her tenure as president of CEW has been marked by efforts to shift the framing of why gender equality is important. “It’s not a tick the box exercise, it’s not virtue signalling, it’s not about men versus women. It’s not even about equity. It’s fundamentally about getting the best talent to focus on the really difficult issues of our time, drawing from 100 per cent of the population, not just half of it,” she said.

With men making up 91 per cent of ASX 300 CEOs and 46 per cent of these companies with no women in the “CEO pipeline”, the problem runs deep. “We are clearly under-utilising a very large part of a talented workforce at a time when we’ve got a skills shortage,” Ms Lloyd-Hurwitz said.

“While we’ve still got this imbalance in feeder roles, we’re never really going to shift away from having 90 per cent of ASX 300 CEOs being men, and that that just can’t be drawing on the best talent on a merit basis,” she added.

Ms Lloyd-Hurwitz says the “complicated” problem arises from a range of causes, some unspoken and very subtle, and some that are quite blatant. “Even when we’re on high alert for gender bias, it creeps in and so there are so many factors that just make it difficult for women to get into CEO pipeline roles.

“I also think, incidentally, that we should broaden our definition of CEO pipeline roles,” she said.

Originally published as Former Mirvac CEO Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz says change needed to advance women in business