As one of Australia’s earliest successful board directors in agriculture, Kathy Grigg had a long journey to catch up in a mere hour at the Euroa Library’s First Thursdays Conversation last week. In the year's penultimate monthly chat of the library’s new flagship guest program, Ms Grigg spoke to an audience of 25 about the challenges and experiences of the period the wool industry went through back when she was appointed to the then-named Australian Wool Cooperation in 1991. “During that period of time, it was probably the early days of increasing numbers of females going on to boards,” Ms Grigg said. “So often, you were the only one or two females there." Although she said that at the start of her journey it was ‘quite at the forefront’ of appointing women to boards, she said she preferred to talk about what companies were doing rather than gender equality. “Gender balance on a board does not dominate everything you do,” she said. “It's just one of the factors when you're recruiting board members, you want to have some sort of gender balance. “But then saying that too, you've got to be careful that when you go on a board, you are hired for the right reasons." Grigg's stellar executive career was in wool trading and marketing with her holding various positions in general management, culminating with the role as finance director of a group of international wool companies. After this she was appointed to various non-executive directorships and chairs in a range of different industries and served as a council member of Deakin University from 2009 to 2021 including as Deputy Chancellor. In 2023 she was awarded Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the King's Birthday Honours List. Ms Grigg spoke on Thursday about her experiences in the wool industry and the past challenges due to the ‘inevitable’ volatility of agricultural industries, and how nothing could affect her personal career satisfaction. “Being a female in a male-dominated area at the time wasn't the biggest deal," she said. “You're not hired because you're a female - you're hired because you bring whatever skills it is to the board that they want on that board. “That's an important thing, and I just happened to start that journey at a time where it was becoming more open to putting more women on boards. “I was given the role and I thoroughly enjoyed it – I was absolutely satisfied. “If you're not satisfied with something, you get out – you don't stick at something that doesn't work.” Grigg will be retiring from the boards of both GrainCorp and Agriculture Innovation Australia Ltd in February, to put her time into running the family's Black Angus property at Gooram. First Thursday Conversations coming up: December 4th - Sean Dingwall and Phil Marshall from Blue Gum Farm will discuss the Australian thoroughbred industry. February 5th - Andy Wilson from The Euroa Gazette will wax lyrical about almost anything from natural selection to conspiracy theorists, in 'Metaphysical poetry it ain't'
