Word from the CEO

Last month 125 directors commenced their appointment (or reappointment) to the boards of Victorian water corporations, CMAs and the Victorian Environmental Water Holder. In her announcement, the Minister for Water Harriet Shing drew attention to an increase in diversity on boards with 57% female representation, 55% regional representation, 19% of board members from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and 19 out of 28 sector boards now having an Aboriginal board member.

One of VicWater’s strategic priorities is to advance member capability and performance through strengthening sector governance and leadership. The new cohort of board directors joining our sector gives us an opportunity to put this into practice by offering development support to complement organisational inductions.

Today we ran a webinar in partnership with Vic Catchments, to welcome the new directors and raise their awareness of what our respective organisations do, and encourage them to get involved and take advantage of joining such a highly networked and collaborative sector. We heard from John Bradley, Secretary of DEECA, who outlined the government’s expectations and priorities for water sector boards. We also held a panel discussion with former board directors who shared insights and reflections from their tenure to help new directors as they commence their board journeys.

Other initiatives that VicWater is undertaking to support new directors – in fact, all board directors regardless of how long they’ve been in the sector – include the Director Development Forum which we are running in partnership with DEECA and Vic Catchments in February 2024; the VicWater Director Masterclass Program which will run again in 2024 after a successful launch this year; and the Women in Water Directors Network (WWDN) which exists to support women directors and gender diversity more broadly in the sector. We’ll be sending out more information about all these initiatives in the coming weeks, so keep a look out.