International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.
Every year, March 8 marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity and every person – whether female, male or non-binary can play a role in helping drive better outcomes for women.
This year’s International Women’s Day theme focuses on taking bold action with the tag #beboldforchange and it’s a fitting time to reflect on some of the incredible women of the Gold Coast who take bold action on a daily basis – not just to further the role of women in society, but to further advance society itself.
They work across diverse industries like health, conservation, brewing, film and education and have an enormous impact on the Gold Coast. Meet these incredible women below…
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Michelle Christoe | Founder – NightQuarter
Michelle Christoe is a dynamo in the truest sense of the word.
At the age of 19, she moved to LA and started her own multi-million dollar company importing high-end Australian goods. Most recently, with her partner Ian Van der Woude, she opened Helensvale’s NightQuarter in 2015.
The space has not only been a game-changing innovation in the Gold Coast’s dining scene, it has also become an important hub for live music, winning Gold Coast Music Awards ‘Best Venue’ in its first year.
It is also a thriving community hub, supporting local charities such as OzHarvest and Starlight Children’s Foundation.
Christoe says the Gold Coast is going through a big cultural change full of fresh energy and vibrancy.
“We are proud to be part of the community on the Gold Coast and to be growing the opportunities for women in business,” she says.
“We celebrate women in business with events such as Sisterhood – embracing female traders, artists, trainees and the all-female Song of the Year finalists in the Gold Coast Awards 2016.”
“We have also had some amazing talent coming through our training programs from Helensvale High School. We are really proud of the young women who have finished their traineeship program. Two have permanent roles with us, one is Assistant Manager of the Backyard Grill and another us the Marketing and Entertainment Assistant, training to manage Entertainment and Functions at our next site.”
NightQuarter crowds
NightQuarter Markets
Trish Hogan | CEO, Pindara Private Hospital
Trish Hogan has been in the health industry for more than 40 years and is currently the CEO of Pindara Hospital.
After studying nursing, she went on to develop and implement the first operating room nursing course in Queensland. She currently participates on the advisory committees at both Bond and Griffith Universities and is currently a Director of Knee Research Australia, and a Fellow in Residence at Bond University. Hogan is also a member on the Benowa State High School Council and a board member of the Titans Football Club.
In 2005 Trish was honoured as the inaugural Tweed Woman of the Year and in 2014 she was a finalist in the Telstra Queensland Business Woman of the Year awards. Hogan says in the past the health industry was predominantly made up of women but they were mostly in the lower paid category of workers.
“Today, however, there is an increasing amount of women in management positions,” she says. “Right here on the Tweed and Gold Coast across the hospital sector – both public and private – we see there is a 50/50 split of males and females in executive management positions. CEOs themselves are split at 50/50 across the six main hospitals.”
Hogan says one of the biggest changes she’s seen is the higher percentage of female medical graduates compared to males across a number of specialties. Some of these women are at the forefront of their specialty and are the driving force behind new treatments and technologies,” says Hogan.
“This was unheard of when I entered the health industry. There were certainly no female CEOs.”
Trish Hogan, CEO Pindara Private Hospital
Lynne Benzie | President of Village Roadshow
Lynne Benzie has had more than 25 years’ experience in the film industry and has worked in engineering, insurance, IT and the building industry.
She spent five years working for EMI Records and serves on the board of AusFilm as well as being Chair of Film Gold Coast. She says the most rewarding thing over the course of her career has been to play a part in the growth of Village Roadshow Studios, where she is now President.
“When I started at the Studios in 1990, there were five sound stages but I have since been involved in project managing four new stages including the largest in the Southern Hemisphere and three water tanks which have seen the Studios become one of Australia’s premier filming locations,” she says.
“Given the diverse and creative nature of the industries I have worked in, I have been fortunate enough to meet a range of extraordinary women who have all left an impression on me in some way, shape or form. The common attribute that sticks out to me is all of them had a never give up attitude.”
The Main filming tank at Village Roadshow Studios
Filming of Nims Island, Village Roadshow Studios
Criena Gehrke | CEO and Director – Gold Coast Cultural Precinct
Criena Gehrke is a name known to most of the city’s art and cultural workers. She is a passionate advocate of performance art, an experienced policy maker and public servant and now, the person responsible for delivering not just the physical infrastructure associated with the Gold Coast Cultural Precinct, but the programming as well.
Gehrke moved to the Gold Coast to work on the city’s Cultural Strategy before taking on the role of Executive Coordinator of Arts and Culture. She’s also had stints working for State Government as well as NGOs, rounding out her policy and advocacy experience.
“I fell surprisingly in love with this city – I didn’t expect to,” Gehrke says.
“My job is to take what I believe is one of Australia’s most highly regarded regional performing arts centres and small gallery spaces and create, through infrastructure and approach, the civic and cultural heartland of the Gold Coast.”
Criena Gehrke, CEO and Director – Gold Coast Cultural Precinct
Peta Fielding | CEO – Burleigh Brewing Co.
Peta Fielding is much more than the CEO of the Gold Coast’s first ever craft brewery. She sits on boards related to the Commonwealth Games, Gold Coast Tourism and Bleach* Festival and has a long and hands-on association with her alma mater, Bond University. She’s a mum to two teenagers and a lawyer by trade. But in the Fielding house, beer rules the roost.
“Burleigh Brewing is my thing and all those other things have been opportunities that have come as a result of that,” she says.
“Running a business was all I ever wanted to do. I wanted to create something that was bigger than me. But I wasn’t creative; I couldn’t sing, I couldn’t be the product. And when I met Brennan (now her husband), well he was my product.”
“I was like, ‘you need me to build a brewery for you’.”
Burleigh Brewing Co. opened in 2006 and under Fielding’s leadership has won the Telstra Queensland Small Business of the Year and Gold Coast Supreme Business of the Year. Last year Fielding won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and in 2011 the brewery won the Bob Scott Encouragement Award which Fielding says gave them “a good motivational kick along”.
The beer itself goes alright too. Its newest brew, Twisted Palm won gold at the 2016 World Beer Championships alongside its sister beer 28 (pale ale) which also won gold in 2015, 2014 and 2010. Across the range, Burleigh Brewing Co. beers hold 23 world gold medals.
Peta Fielding, CEO – Burleigh Brewing Co.
Burleigh Brewing Co. opening night
Burleigh Brewing tasting paddle
Amy Shark | Songwriter, Performer, Producer
Amy Shark grew up on the Gold Coast, graduating from Southport State High School and later working for the Gold Coast Titans.
While most people will have become aware of Shark after the release of her single ‘Adore’ in 2016 and its subsequent second placing in the triple j Hottest 100, Shark has been a long-time songwriter and performer here on the Gold Coast.
And she’s much more than that. As well as writing songs that go platinum, she’s a filmmaker and producer, creating her own stunning film clips.
Before coming to the attention of the national youth broadcaster, she was a multi-year finalist for the Queensland Music Awards, taking out the Pop Song of the Year category for ‘Golden Fleece’ in 2016. Her rise to notoriety has been swift but long-earned. Ever humble, Shark was quick to acknowledge her hometown support after her Hottest 100 success.
“I think that it’s been the biggest support network that I’ve ever seen,” she says.
“It’s the main reason I wanted to be home for the Hottest 100 countdown even though I had heaps of offers to be in Melbourne or Sydney. I just really wanted to be home.”
“The Gold Coast has just been super, super supportive. All the snapchats, insta videos, tagging – it just went nuts. A lot of it was Gold Coast love. Plus, all the magazines, all the press, the news, everyone has just been so good to me.”
Amy Shark, Songwriter, Performer, Producer
Shannon Willoughby | CEO of Study Gold Coast
Shannon Willoughby is the Chief Executive Officer of Study Gold Coast, the peak industry and city marketing body for the Gold Coast’s growing education and training sector.
Previously a long-term president of Young Professionals Gold Coast and a senior journalist at the Gold Coast Bulletin, she has been a leader in drawing attention to the city’s issues and potential.
Willoughby is currently Councillor for the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland’s (CCIQ) Gold Coast Regional Policy Council and board member of Ohana for Youth and Gen-Z Employment.
Shannon Willoughby, CEO of Study Gold Coast
Emma Moffatt | Triathlete
Emma Moffatt is among a generation of Australian triathletes who have ruled the world since triathlons inclusion in the Olympic calendar in Sydney in 2000.
Moffatt is one of the nation’s most recognisable athletes of the sport: a two-time world champion and bronze medallist at the Beijing Olympics.
At the Rio Olympics in 2016, she become Australia’s first ever triathlon triple Olympian. She has also won silver at the world championships and bronze at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Emma Moffatt
Jordyn de Boer | Co-Founder, Boomerang Bags
When Jordyn isn’t working on Boomerang Bags, you’ll find her out in the surf. The ocean is her second home and a place where she finds her inspiration and a sense of peace.
De Boer has always been actively working towards keeping oceans and the natural environment clean. With a degree in Environmental Science, she has worked in the field of conservation for a number of years. Her passion is to bring education about plastics, health, and the environment to local communities and inspire positive behavioural change towards sustainable lifestyles.
And Boomerang Bags is doing just that. The concept was always about finding a solution to the issue of single-use plastic.
De Boer and her team now engage scores of volunteers to make bags (which people can borrow and return for free) and they have expanded the model to dozens of Australian towns and gone viral on social media with international interest in the project.
Jordyn de Boer, Co-Founder, Boomerang Bags
Boomerang Bags, Gold Coast
Boomerang Bags, Gold Coast
Lauren Hall | CEO – iVvy
Lauren Hall is the Founder and CEO of iVvy – a multi-award winning technology company providing enterprise software to the events and hospitality industry. This includes delivering the world’s first real-time marketplace, with live availability and pricing of function spaces, group accommodation and suppliers.
It’s been hailed a game-changer for events and has been dubbed the Expedia or Wotif of the events industry.
Hall was chosen by Ernst and Young as a future global leader of Industry and won the prestigious International Global Stevie Awards for Best New Product of Year 2016.
In addition, she has taken out Entrepreneur of the Year Globally in 2016, Innovator of the Year 2016 and Entrepreneur of the Year Asia Pacific 2016. Most recently she was named GC Business Woman of the Year.
To top it all off, she has a second dan black belt in ITF taekwondo and was the national taekwondo champion for South Africa, competing on the international circuit for five years. She says she’s privileged to be surrounded by awesome women and acknowledged her team at IVvy.
Hall says the best thing about winning Gold Coast Business Woman of the year for 2016 is that she gets an opportunity to be a role model and ambassador for other women dreaming of having their own global business but think they may be challenged by location.
“It shines a light on the amazing talent, innovation and incredible businesses that are here which deserve support, funding and opportunities to scale into international markets,” she says.
Hall also believes Taekwondo has played a huge role in her life, particularly when it comes to perseverance.
“I am certainly not afraid of confrontation, standing my ground and fighting for things I believe in,” she says. “This has certainly translated to being highly successful in boardrooms, in capital raising and building teams that believe in my vision and dreams.”
Lauren Hall, Founder and CEO of iVvy
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