The Gold Industry Group’s Women in Gold Great Diversity Debate will be held in Melbourne for the first time, as part of a national tour, on Friday 15 November at River’s Edge.
With an expected crowd of more than 100 guests, the inaugural debate will see diversity take centre stage as a panel of four leading industry speakers discuss whether a diversity debate that begins and ends with gender is doomed to fail.
Cannings Purple Queensland State Director Peta Baldwin will conduct the event as Master of Ceremonies.
Adjudicator for both the Perth event last Friday and Sydney event tonight, Gold Industry Group Vice Chairperson and Gold Fields Vice President Legal and Compliance Kelly Carter will also lead an esteemed panel of speakers in Melbourne.
“We are immensely proud of the success that this event has seen in Perth over the last three years, so it is an exciting progression to now be able to showcase it to our eastern States members, and to involve representatives of those members in the debate itself.
“This was a topic that the audience really engaged with in Perth, and we certainly hope to replicate that with the event this week in Melbourne and Sydney,” Ms Carter said.
The Melbourne line-up includes Stuart Jenner, General Manager - Capability and Culture, Gold Road Resources, Director, Gold Industry Group; Giulia Savio, Principal - Diversity and Inclusion, Newcrest Mining; Felicia Binks, Environment and Community Manager, Kirkland Lake Gold; and Shae Russell, Chief Editor, Agora Financial Australia.
Gold Industry Group Director and Gold Road Resources General Manager - Capability and Culture Stuart Jenner is a people capability professional with more than 18 years’ experience in senior leadership roles across mining, government, defence, retail and private enterprise.
Mr Jenner will kick off the debate on Friday, as first speaker for the proposition.
“We have come a long way in the diversity space with gender, but are we over-focusing on gender to the detriment of diversity as a whole?” Mr Jenner said.
Newcrest Mining Principal - Diversity and Inclusion Giulia Savio has a passion for developing engaged and diverse workforces based around creating inclusive environments that both educate and support people and the wider communities in which they work.
Speaking for the opposition, Ms Savio thinks the debate will spark discussions that could lead to change.
“We often challenge one another with the statement ‘less talking and more action’, whilst I couldn’t be more supportive of real action to deliver real outcomes, I also never want to stop talking about the value and importance of diverse and inclusive work environments,” Ms Savio said.
As the Environmental and Community Manager at Kirkland Lake Gold’s Fosterville Gold Mine, Felicia Binks establishes and maintains important relationships with community and government stakeholders, raising awareness of the importance of mining to the region.
On the proposition, Ms Binks believes overuse of gender diversity terms has led to resistance towards engagement, with organisations having a responsibility to correct the imbalance before the term loses its essence.
“We need to look at diversity through various lenses in order to move forward and continue to make progress with diversity and inclusion,” Ms Binks said.
Investment analyst Shae Russell is the Chief Editor of The Daily Reckoning Australia, Rock Stock Insider and Hard Money Trader, examining the broader trends playing out around the world and offering a unique insight into global events for investors.
Keen to join the discussion on Friday evening on the opposition team, Ms Russell is also astonished that diversity statistics remain low.
“I can’t believe it’s almost 2020 and we still have to have this conversation,” Ms Russell said.
The 2019 Women in Gold Great Diversity Debate in Melbourne has been made possible thanks to sponsors Newcrest Mining, Kirkland Lake Gold, Newmont Goldcorp Australia and Cannings Purple.