The Architect of Accountability, Why Lisa Annese belongs in the Hall of Fame

Some leaders change organisations. Lisa Annese has changed the operating system Australian workplaces use to measure, discuss, and act on gender equity. Her impact is not a single campaign or a catchy framework, it is the scaffolding behind the progress we can now prove, the benchmarks we can interrogate, and the expectations employers can no longer dodge.

If your organisation has ever referenced the Employer of Choice for Women citation, tracked representation data, or treated gender equality as something that must be evidenced, not simply promised, you have been influenced by work Lisa helped build early in her career. At the Workplace Gender Equality Agency and its predecessor, she contributed to the policy framework underpinning the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act 1999,

and helped develop enduring accountability tools including Australia’s first census of women in leadership, the Business Achievement Awards, and the Employer of Choice for Women citation. She was awarded a Medal for Significant Contribution to the Australian Public Service for that work.

That theme, making equality measurable, followed her into her decade as CEO of Diversity Council Australia. Under her leadership, DCA grew to around 1,400 member organisations and became a national engine room for practical, evidence based inclusion capability. The research agenda was not about noise or symbolism. It was about tools leaders could use: the Inclusion at Work Index, research on the economics of the gender pay gap, work that mainstreamed flexible work, myth busting on workplace responses to sexual harassment and domestic and family violence, and work on Counting Culture and building Asian leadership capability.

Here’s the emphasis that makes this Hall of Fame nomination different, Lisa’s superpower is institutional design.

She has repeatedly taken messy, emotional, deeply human problems, who gets heard, who gets promoted, who feels safe, who leaves, and turned them into credible structures that boards, executives, and policy makers must take seriously. When inclusion becomes a metric, and when equity becomes a risk and opportunity lens, progress stops being dependent on goodwill. It becomes part of governance.

That is also why her leadership travels so well across sectors. Her career spans corporate, government, and not for profit environments, and she has consistently built coalitions rather than echo chambers. Her broader service includes the NSW Women’s Advisory Council, the Respect at Work Council where she was appointed by the Attorney General to implement reforms arising from the Respect at Work legislation, and board roles with Amnesty International Australia and Women for Election, alongside her membership of Chief Executive Women. She was named one of the AFR’s 100 Women of Influence in 2018.

In January 2025 she stepped into her current role as CEO of Chief Executive Women, leading a membership of 1,300 women leaders across Australia, and pushing for reform that lifts representation of women in leadership across every sector of the economy.

And this is where the story becomes Hall of Fame level.

In 2025, Lisa has amplified CEW’s public voice, including bringing the CEW Senior Executive Census into national attention, and sharpening the message that targets without consequences do not move systems. Where progress stalls, accountability must tighten, including serious proposals such as linking gender targets to executive remuneration. This is the logical next step in a career spent building the architecture of transparency, capability, and now, consequences that match commitments.

Hall of Fame nominees are not just people who have worked hard for a long time. They are people whose work outlasts them, whose influence becomes invisible because it becomes standard.

Lisa Annese belongs in the Hall of Fame because she has made gender equity auditable. She has helped shift the national default from aspiration to evidence, from isolated initiatives to embedded systems, and from good intent to real accountability. That is impact you can measure, and it is exactly the kind that changes futures.