AWARD appoints four female leaders to council
The Australasian Writers and Art Directors Association (AWARD) has appointed four female senior creatives to the AWARD Council in a progressive move to ensure a greater diversity of gender and experience on its leadership team.
Kara Jenkins (creative director at Isobar Australia), Jane Burhop (co-founder of Common Ventures), Justine Metcalfe (creative partner @ YOLO), and Niccola Phillips (head of art at M&C Saatchi) have been appointed today following a call for nominations in May which received an impressive list of female leaders put forward.
AWARD’s call for greater gender diversity came as figures released by The Communications Council in May highlighted only 13.5% of those progressing to the levels of creative director or executive creative director in 2013 were female – the lowest percentage of any area of the industry, and yet a department which thrives on diversity of talent and creative thinking. With a reflective, male-dominant Council, AWARD’s goal was to trigger positive change from the top.
Says Mark Harricks, AWARD chair: “We have been absolutely overwhelmed by the support, enthusiasm and calibre of applicants – it is a real testament to the strong commitment that exists within our industry to fostering creative excellence. I am delighted to welcome Kara, Jane, Justine and Niccola to the Council. Their experience and creative thinking will help us shape a new look AWARD into the future.”
The Council has already begun exploring additional ways of promoting diversity in the area of creative, including introducing blind judging to AWARD School assessments as a way of eliminating potential for unconscious bias.
The full Council now comprises 12 industry leaders. The new members will join:
Mark Harricks (Chair), The Works Sydney
Wilf Sweetland (Deputy Chair), The Sweet Shop
Julie Faktor
Christian Finucane, Core / 12:20
Ian Fowler
Chris Gillespie
June Laffey, McCann Health
Peter Ogden, Dentsu
Pictured clockwise: Kara Jenkins (creative director at Isobar Australia), Jane Burhop (co-founder of Common Ventures), Justine Metcalfe (creative partner @ YOLO)
Niccola Phillips (head of art at M&C Saatchi)
13 Comments
I wish the headline read ‘AWARD appoints four very talented leaders to council’ as that is probably how these four would rather be known.
Placing someone based on their sex is still sexist!
Justin Metcalfe is the smartest person I’ve met in the industry. An absolute champion of a human as well.
Excellent. About bloody time.
Erhh, why are they “female leaders” and not just leaders? Talk about undermining their achievements.
Why aren’t any of them at the lunch today?
This is the sad point though. It IS news that women are included.
Also – given males get every head start in this industry already, any small advantage a woman gets can hardly be called out as sexist.
Overall, great to see talent (who happen to be women) included.
Let’s hope they’ll get an invite to lunch.
And that, my friends, is why AWARD is absolutely stuffed. The Communications Council have turned AWARD into a politically correct mess, where the ‘appearance’ of doing the right thing is more important than actually doing the right thing. The mandate of AWARD is to rise creative standards, not to place more women, men, young people or ethnic minorities into the council. What makes advertising great is that it is actually a meritocracy, where the people that make the great work rise up and the people that don’t, well, they don’t. Stop turning AWARD into a tepid, toothless mess Comms Council. AWARD doesn’t exist to satisfy your bullshit agendas. It is here for the work, pure and simple. Or at least, it was back then.
Congratulations Justine. It wouldn’t matter if you were a man, woman, budgie or ardvaark, you’ll make a great contribution to the industry on the committee.
ML
Super stuff, Justine! Congrats
Good job Kara!
Hey, you leaders should have been at the legends lunch last week. (Needed to be there.)
Wonder if the headline would have been “Award appoints four male leaders” if that was the case. My guess is…. not.
Geez females are really coming a long way aren’t they? Creative and everything.
Well deserved recognition to creative talent. Full stop.
A man.