During their visit, they met with people involved in the Equality and Diversity agenda at Swansea University, and shared their experience of accelerating equity, diversity and inclusion at Sydney, including their experiences of participating as the only University in the very successful Australian Male Champions of Change Programme. 

Fiona Krautil has more than 20 years of experience advising government, business and not-for-profits and is the former head of the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (now the Workplace Gender Equality Agency) and was formerly the Executive Head of Advancement of Women & Diversity for ANZ Banking Group. She is recognised as a preeminent diversity practitioner in Australia, having shaped leading business practice and government equity policy. She is also currently the Director of Equity & Diversity Strategy at the University of Sydney.

Emeritus Professor Robyn Overall is Chair of Women in Science at the University of Sydney, and a lead in that institution’s Science Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) initiative modelled on the UK Athena SWAN program. She has been working to address the gender imbalance at senior academic levels in the Division of Natural Sciences through a successful strategic promotion advice and mentoring (SPAM) program.

Following the visit, Professor Hilary Lappin-Scott, Swansea University Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor, said: “I am delighted to have hosted the leading figures from the University of Sydney on equality and diversity. We are ensuring we fully use all of our talent so sharing best practice with colleagues from globally leading universities will help us build a supportive, inclusive culture. This follows from my visit to Sydney earlier this year and we will continue to build our interactions for the benefit of both universities”.