Every leader in the room on Tuesday 5 May had something in common: they are being asked to guide their organisations through a transformation they are still learning to understand themselves. That shared reality – not a technology problem, but a leadership one – set the tone for our AI & The People breakfast in Melbourne, where senior executives gathered to examine what AI transformation actually requires of organisations, their people functions, and their leaders. The internet took decades to reshape business. AI is compressing similar changes into years, sometimes months, and waiting for certainty is not an option. We were privileged to have Peter Tonagh and Jenny Bryant join us as guest speakers – both navigating this transformation firsthand, not observing it from a distance. Five themes shaped the conversation. This is a leadership moment – not a technology decision AI is not primarily a question of which tools to buy. It is a question of how value gets created in an organisation, and who takes responsibility for leading that shift. The organisations pulling ahead are not the ones that have AI figured out – they are the ones learning to experiment intelligently while others hesitate. The most effective leaders are approaching this as conductors of human-AI teams: setting direction, making judgement calls, and ensuring AI amplifies their team's capabilities rather than displacing their critical thinking. That requires adaptive leadership, evolving cultural awareness, and a genuine commitment to bringing people with them through the change. This also reframes where accountability sits within organisations. AI transformation is not an IT project. It is a workforce capability shift – which means HR, learning and development, and operational leaders need to be at the centre of it. Adoption is the constraint – not capability When senior leaders use AI visibly in their own work – for writing, analysis, and decision-making – adoption accelerates across the organisation. Where leaders delegate it to an innovation team, uptake stalls. The tone is set from the top. AI capability is advancing well ahead of organisational uptake. Most businesses already have access to powerful tools but are significantly underutilising them. The gap is not about access or functionality – it is about behaviour, confidence, and whether AI has been genuinely embedded into daily workflows. Many organisations are still treating AI as a procurement decision when it is, in reality, a usage problem. When AI tools are positioned as specialist or optional, adoption stays low and uneven. When they are treated as standard infrastructure – available to everyone, expected to be used, as commonplace as email – adoption normalises quickly. The organisation that emerges looks different As individuals become more capable with AI support, the rationale for traditional management layers is shifting. Where a manager's primary function has been information aggregation and reporting – and AI can do much of that work – the case for that layer weakens. This does not mean fewer leaders. It means leaders operating with broader remits, and decision-making moving closer to the front line. The nature of the work itself is changing too. As AI absorbs routine, process-driven tasks, roles are becoming more focused on judgement, problem definition, creativity, and communication. That shift is not straightforward – the cognitive load on people can increase, and organisations need to be realistic about supporting teams through it. As AI tools become widely available, competitive advantage is shifting to how deeply they are integrated with internal data, knowledge systems, and the specific context of the business. The proprietary knowledge organisations hold becomes more valuable, not less, when AI is properly grounded in it. That grounding requires deliberate effort and consideration – providing AI with the context of the organisation's actual situation, its people, its way of working. The organisations doing this well are building human intelligence into their models, not just deploying generic tools and expecting meaningful results. Beyond organisational structure, AI is also changing how people functions operate in practice. Leaders are using AI to support coaching conversations, sharpen performance management, and improve the quality of feedback to their teams. Used well, AI does not replace those human interactions – it helps leaders show up better in them. Build broadly before you narrow Rather than concentrating effort on a small number of high-impact use cases, the organisations making the most progress are enabling broad, distributed adoption. Hundreds of small improvements across individuals and teams compound into significant productivity gains – individually modest, collectively meaningful. The practical approach: create the conditions for open experimentation without over-structuring it early. Allow teams to test different tools, discover what’s possible for the whole business through different perspectives, styles and responsibilities, share what they are learning, and let value emerge before formalising investment decisions. More mature organisations are beginning to focus on a small number of enterprise-wide priorities – customer experience, supply chain, and contact centres among them – but they arrived there through exploration, not by picking their bets upfront. Explore widely, then narrow with evidence. Talent strategies are evolving – and so is the baseline Hiring is shifting toward the attributes that enable individuals to keep pace with change: curiosity, critical thinking, learning agility, and resilience. Technical skills are increasingly table stakes. The differentiator is how quickly someone can learn, unlearn, and relearn as tools and roles continue to evolve. Building that capability internally is more scalable than chasing scarce external talent. The organisations making progress are treating AI literacy the way organisations treated digital literacy a decade ago – as a baseline expectation built through training, coaching, and everyday use, rather than a specialism held by a small number of experts. The conversation was a reminder that the leaders thriving through this period are not waiting for certainty. They are turning uncertainty into opportunity – experimenting intelligently, bringing their people on the journey with them, and building AI fluency from the inside out across the whole workforce. Our thanks to Lindsay Every , Group Managing Partner at Derwent, for hosting the morning, and to Peter and Jenny for sharing their experience and expertise with such honesty and depth. Continue the conversation For further insights or to explore how Derwent can support your organisation's approach to AI and workforce transformation, connect with our team at melbourne@derwentsearch.com.au To register your interest in future Derwent events, please reach out to us at events@derwentsearch.com.au .

What was once viewed as a temporary stopgap is now recognised as strategic capability. As organisations operate leaner than ever, through automation, AI-enabled processes, and efficiency drives, the pressure point is clear: when major initiatives arise or executive roles become vacant, there is little capacity left to absorb the workload. Interim executive leadership bridges the gap, maintaining momentum and delivering change at pace – while a quality permanent search secures the right long-term appointment. What's Driving This Shift Lean Operations Creating Capacity Walls Organisations that have successfully streamlined operations are vulnerable to the trade-off: when major initiatives emerge, there’s little capacity in the system. A private equity-backed logistics organisation acquiring two competitors can’t pause organic growth to integrate the acquisitions. A publicly listed financial services firm implementing new regulatory requirements can’t pull their Chief Financial Officer off business as usual for nine months. The permanent executive team that runs lean operations brilliantly often lacks the bandwidth for the strategic initiatives that drive growth. Business Continuity During Leadership Transitions Leadership transitions may be more frequent than boards would like. According to FTI Consulting’s 2024 Global CFO Report, 61% of Chief Financial Officers globally report average tenure of less than five years, and Chief Executive Officer turnover follows a similar pattern. When an executive exits, organisations face a choice: rush a permanent appointment, redistribute workload across an already stretched team, or maintain momentum with interim leadership while a thorough permanent search runs in parallel. Without interim support during the transition, the risk is real – critical decisions get delayed, strategic projects stall, and team morale suffers when colleagues absorb additional responsibility. From Stopgap to Strategic Capability Private equity firms are expert at leveraging flexible, high-calibre leadership into their portfolio companies to execute value creation plans without long-term fixed costs. The model is powerful and accessible with the right partner – proven interim executives (sometimes referred to as fixed-term contractors) are brought in to deliver defined outcomes while the permanent search identifies the right long-term appointment, then transitioned out when that person is in place. In many cases, the interim executive becomes the permanent appointment – an effective de-risking mechanism that lets both the organisation and the individual assess fit before committing long-term. We’re now seeing this model adopted well beyond private equity – ASX-listed companies and large private enterprises are building interim capability into how they plan, not just how they respond. The Delivery Advantage When organisations face major initiatives, many have historically turned to consulting firms. The interim executive model offers something fundamentally different: accountability from the inside. An interim executive integrating an acquisition isn't engaged alongside the business – they're embedded within it, leading teams, owning decisions, and driving outcomes as part of the leadership team. What This Means For Private Equity Firms and Portfolio Companies: The model of running assets lean whilst executing rapid transformations is being adopted more broadly across the Australian corporate landscape. Interim executive talent provides senior capability precisely when and where it is needed, without inflating the fixed cost base. When that interim executive is also a potential permanent appointment, the engagement becomes a live assessment – providing a powerful de-risking mechanism on both sides of a critical hire. Boards and C-Suite Executives: Major transactions, transformation projects, and unexpected executive departures no longer require a choice between overwhelming the permanent team, rushing critical appointments, or engaging consulting firms. Executive interim leadership provides a fourth option: proven leaders who own delivery, integrate with the organisation, and transition out when the initiative is complete or the permanent appointment is in place. Talent and Human Resources Leaders : The calibre of interim executive talent now accessible, and the speed at which it can be deployed, is reshaping how talent leaders advise the business on leadership capacity. Building those relationships before capacity constraints or leadership transitions emerge is the difference between a reactive conversation and a strategic one. The organisations getting this right aren’t treating interim leadership as a fallback – they’re building it into how they think about leadership capacity and talent strategy. Interim and permanent executive search are powerful partners: one buys the time the other needs to ensure you get the right talent solution for your organisation. If you're exploring how interim executive leadership works in practice, reach out to John O'Leary , Partner – Interim. To learn how interim and permanent executive search could work together for your organisation, contact us here . We'd welcome the conversation. Derwent brings together executive search, interim solutions, and board search, partnering with your organisation to find and connect the right high-impact talent to support your leadership needs, now and into the future.

Advancing women in technology has been a priority for most organisations for years. The gap between intention and outcome has barely moved. At our recent Leadership Unfiltered breakfast in Sydney, senior tech executives gathered to move beyond awareness into the kind of candid, practical conversation that rarely happens in public. We heard from Brendon Riley , Former Chief Executive at Telstra Infraco, and Duncan Hewett , Former Senior Vice President and General Manager Asia Pacific and Japan at VMware – two of Australia's most respected technology leaders – who drew on their careers to share the specific actions, missteps, and sponsorship moments that helped women on their teams break through to senior roles. Sheryl Carroll , Integrative Health Practitioner and Women's Health Coach, brought a complementary and often overlooked perspective: how women's health and wellbeing intersects with career advancement at every stage – and what organisations are missing by not accounting for it. The dimension organisations aren't accounting for Sheryl opened a conversation that is largely absent from leadership forums: the physical and hormonal arc of a woman's working life. From significant health challenges that can affect energy, focus, and confidence at any career stage, to pregnancy and parental leave, to the cumulative weight of the invisible load – the domestic and emotional labour that disproportionately falls on women – the biological reality of the working experience is rarely factored into how organisations are designed or how leaders are prepared. The response doesn't require a complex program. It starts with genuine awareness and leaders who ask how someone is really doing – and mean it. From directing to unlocking Both Brendon and Duncan were candid about getting it wrong first. Early in their careers, both led through instruction — pushing harder, assuming effort and direction from the top was what drove performance. The shift that changed how they led was moving from directing to removing the barriers that prevented people from performing at their best. The insight, when it came, was the same: the potential was already there. The role of the leader was to surface it, not manufacture it. For both, that realisation didn't come from a leadership program – it came from paying closer attention to what was actually happening around them. The relationship gap that costs you talent One of the harder themes of the morning: the cost of leader relationships that don't go deep enough. When leaders don't know what's really happening in someone's life – their ambitions, their constraints, the pressures they're managing alongside their role – they can't support them effectively. Women, both speakers observed, tend to manage the whole picture. They are often highly capable of compartmentalising and getting on with it, even when significant things are happening beneath the surface. That places a real responsibility on leaders to ask the second question – and to build enough trust that the real answer feels safe to give. Confidence is the barrier – and it's addressable What most often holds women back isn't capability. The women in these conversations weren't lacking skills – they were navigating environments where visibility was inconsistent, sponsorship was patchy, and the path forward was unclear. The response that works isn't more training. It's active, deliberate sponsorship – advocating in rooms where the person isn't present, creating visibility, and building the conditions for women to see themselves in the role ahead rather than just knowing it exists in theory. This isn't theoretical. Leaders in the room had tested it at scale – running programs designed to address the skills gap in women returning to technology, only to find the skills gap wasn't the issue. Confidence was, every time. The double burden of emotional intelligence A question that surfaced in discussion: if the qualities that make women effective leaders – holding the whole picture, asking the deeper question, attending to the wellbeing of the team – are also the qualities that can quietly add to their load, how do women embrace them without being typecast by them? The answer that emerged wasn't to dial those qualities back. It was for organisations and leaders to recognise them for what they are – a strategic asset – and to stop treating them as an informal tax. When emotional intelligence is expected but unacknowledged, it becomes invisible labour. When it's recognised and valued in how people are assessed, promoted, and supported, it becomes a genuine differentiator. The responsibility sits with the organisation as much as the individual Design it in – don't bolt it on Brendon spoke to the difference between retrofitting diversity into an existing culture and designing it in from the start. When the opportunity exists to build something new, the early decisions about who is in the room and what behaviours are rewarded shape everything that follows. Brendon referenced research on representation suggesting that when a minority group reaches around 25% – a tipping point – the dynamic in the room shifts. The culture changes. Interactions change. Getting there requires deliberate choices made early, not after the habits have already formed. The role male leaders play What made this conversation distinctive was its framing. This wasn't a discussion about what women need to do differently. It was two senior male leaders reflecting honestly on the specific decisions – and the specific failures – that shaped the women on their teams. The consistent thread: they weren't giving women an advantage. They were removing disadvantages that had always been there. Sponsoring people into rooms they weren't in. Creating space for contribution before it felt warranted. Backing someone before they felt ready, because the leader could see what the person couldn't yet see in themselves. For male leaders in technology, the ask is clear: the question isn't whether to be involved in this work. It's whether the decisions being made every day are advancing it – or quietly undermining it. The conversation didn't stop in Sydney. The following week in Canberra, Claudine Beltrami , Former ANZ Head of Public Sector at Verizon Business, and Lucy Poole , Deputy Chief Executive Officer – Digital Strategy, Policy and Performance at the Digital Transformation Agency, brought their own experience of senior leadership in technology to a roundtable of women in the industry. Our thanks to Katharine Whittaker for facilitating both conversations with the honesty and depth they deserved, and to Brendon, Duncan, Sheryl, Claudine, and Lucy for their honesty and generosity. Continue the conversation For further insights or to explore how Derwent can support your organisation's approach to women in technology leadership, connect with our Digital & Technology Practice team at sydney@derwentsearch.com.au To register your interest in future Derwent events, please reach out to us at events@derwentsearch.com.au .

Moving from a senior executive career to a Non-Executive Director role is a transition many aspire to, but fewer approach with the deliberate strategy it requires. At our recent Pathway to the Boardroom event in Perth, senior executives heard directly from two experienced directors on what it actually takes to make that shift a success. We were joined by Amber Banfield , Non-Executive Chair of SRG Global and Non-Executive Director of Perseus Mining and Cyprium Metals, who brings over 25 years of experience across resources, energy, sustainability and new energy markets, including a senior career with Worley Limited. And Lui Pangiarella , Co-founder and Co-Managing Director of WayFinder Capital, an Independent Non-Executive Director and Board Chair with a career spanning SaaS, fast-moving consumer goods, disability services, manufacturing, and construction – including Chair positions with iconic Australian brands and high-growth software businesses. Their conversation covered the practical realities of the pathway, and what separates those who navigate it successfully from those who stall. Four themes stood out. Know your value before you knock on the door Before pursuing board roles, the most important question to answer is: what do I actually bring? Look at your current skill set honestly and identify where the gaps are. If your experience is narrow, use the time you still have in an executive role to broaden it deliberately. Boards are looking for directors who can contribute across multiple dimensions, not just deep expertise in one lane. Beyond functional skills, boards assess how you show up. Curiosity, the ability to hold your view lightly, and a genuine commitment to collective decision-making matter as much as your resume. Your network is your pipeline – treat it that way Almost every board role both speakers had held came through a relationship, not a formal process. Lui's first board appointment came from an organisation he'd approached simply out of interest. Amber's subsequent roles grew from recommendations by fellow board members who'd seen her work. The practical takeaway: tell people you're interested in board roles and let those conversations develop. Perth in particular is a tightly networked market, and reputations travel fast. Be specific about the kinds of organisations you want to serve and make sure the conversations you're having are equally specific. Choose your boards as carefully as they choose you Both speakers were emphatic: joining a board requires more rigour than accepting an executive role, not less. The starting point is the executive team – are they people you can trust, with the capability to take the organisation where it wants to go? If that answer is uncertain, the conversation should end there. From there, the other key considerations should include the Chair's reputation and how they run the room, the culture of the board itself, and in private settings, the dynamics of the shareholder group. Lui recommended observing at least one board meeting before committing. Amber recommended speaking to the person you're replacing to find out why they left. Don't be afraid of a challenging organisation either; some of the most formative board experiences come from companies navigating difficulty. The director mindset takes time – give it that time The shift from executive to director is real, and both speakers were honest about how long it takes to fully internalise. Amber's rule for the first six months is to listen. Understand the board, the dynamics, the executive team. Resist the urge to add value before you understand the context. Creating unnecessary work for management – such as emails that don't need to be sent, questions that serve curiosity rather than governance – gets executives offside quickly. Lui described his own evolution: the instincts that make an executive effective – drive, accountability, pushing hard – can actively damage board relationships if brought in unchecked. The consulting mindset transfers better; ask good questions, synthesise well, and help the group make the best possible decision rather than advocating for your own. The conversation was a reminder that the pathway to the boardroom is neither quick nor accidental. It rewards those who prepare deliberately, build relationships with intention, and approach the director role on its own terms. Our thanks to Michelle Gardiner and Julie Colvin , Managing Partners at Derwent, for hosting the morning, and to Amber and Lui for sharing their experience with such practicality and honesty. Continue the conversation For further insights or to explore how Derwent can support your transition to board directorship, connect with our team at perth@derwentsearch.com.au . To register your interest in future Derwent events, please reach out to us at events@derwentsearch.com.au .

Senior executives navigating the transition from executive to Non-Executive Director roles face a pathway that's less organic and more deliberate than many expect. Derwent delved into this important topic with 50 senior executives in Brisbane last week at our Pathway to the Boardroom event. Despite different journeys throughout their executive careers and into a Board portfolio, our speakers, Susan Forrester AM and Teresa Dyson , shared their wisdom across the decisions that support your transition to Director, the importance of leveraging networks across your career, value addition and the shift from an operating mindset, and the importance of thorough due diligence. Key Themes & Takeaways Pathway from executive to non-executive The pathway is not easy during transition from an executive career. You need to be “eyes wide open and have a thick skin” – there will be individual and market circumstances that will test your resolve and motivations. A deliberate and formal transition to a Board career can make the path clearer – especially for the networks that are trying to advocate for your Board candidacy. Many individuals expect that they will organically end up on boards after their executive career; however, in reality it’s a long process that requires patience, intent, and effort. The power of your network Leverage your network of experience and draw on different periods of your career journey for introductions and conversations that might lead to Board opportunities. Map out a plan of who you should be talking to, including existing Board members, other well-networked senior executives, Board communities (such as AICD), and relevant experts such as Board search partners. By letting broad networks know of your intention and desire to join Boards, it can provide opportunities to get a foot in the door. Get out there and plant a lot of different seeds! The importance of your value-add proposition Many aspiring Board Directors can tick a lot of the boxes when it comes to the criteria for Board candidacy, but the difference can be the fit to specific organisations. Your value addition can be identified across various facets, including your functional or industry expertise, your broader career achievement or success (such as major transactions, industry changes, working in different settings or ownership structures, etc), and personal or ethical alignment. Part of developing your individual proposition is sharing the unique elements of your profile with your networks, including the personal experiences and drivers that can be as important as your professional experience. Director mindset versus executive mindset New Directors often try to prove their executive and sometimes technical expertise, and need to make the shift to a mindset of governing over managing – “noses in and fingers out”. There’s a style of thinking from an executive career that allows you to draw on your experience and add real value to a Board setting. A change in mindset is required in order to add value in the critical areas for a Board member, such as setting and agreeing strategy alongside management, managing risk, and selecting the CEO. Conducting due diligence as you explore Board opportunities Due diligence is mutual – both for companies bringing on a Board member, and Board members looking to join an organisation. Exploration may include reading previous annual reports, talking to brokers or customers, and most importantly meeting the Chair, committee members, and other Directors if possible. Each Board has its own risk appetite, so it’s important to understand the values and risk alignment. Building relationships with other Board members to have open and honest conversations can take time and trust. “Boards are like a team – they don’t train together often, but they come together to play”. Our thanks to Michelle Gardiner , Managing Partner from our Board practice, for hosting this event, and to our guest speakers and attendees for their valuable contributions. Continue the conversation We'd love to hear your perspective on this topic! For further insights or to explore how Derwent can help you or your organisation, connect with our team at brisbane@derwentsearch.com.au . To express your interest for future Derwent events, please reach out to us at events@derwentsearch.com.au .

Australian boardrooms are confronting an unprecedented convergence of regulatory complexity, technological disruption, and stakeholder scrutiny. With mandatory climate reporting, rising cybersecurity threats, and AI disruption accelerating across industries, boards are making decisive talent moves to reposition their organisations. The focus is shifting from traditional oversight to strategic, innovative leadership in an increasingly complex environment. Moving from shareholder-only management to multi-stakeholder governance has become central to these strategies. Critical Talent Trends Artificial Intelligence: The New Governance Frontier – AI has emerged as perhaps the most significant governance challenge facing Australian boards with immediate implications. Board members need to ask two fundamental questions: What can AI do for our organisation? What risks does AI bring? Yet many Australian boards remain unprepared for voluntary AI reporting recommendations, opting to wait for potential mandatory frameworks in the future. This represents a fundamental shift from traditional technology oversight, now requiring directors capable of navigating complex AI implementation, risk assessment, and strategic deployment across business operations. Cybersecurity: Critical Board Responsibility – the cybersecurity landscape presents stark challenges that demand board-level attention, with Australian data revealing the magnitude of this threat: cybercrime reports reached over 87,400 in FY24, with incidents logged every six minutes. We're witnessing emerging directors with strong commercial experience and contemporary cyber skills securing board positions ahead of more experienced candidates who lack these specialised capabilities. This pattern suggests a growing recognition of cyber expertise as increasingly valuable in boardroom composition, reflecting the evolving threat environment and the rising importance placed on directors who possess relevant digital risk management capabilities . Climate Governance: From Aspiration to Action – climate governance has fundamentally shifted with the AICD's analysis showing that Australian boards are moving from aspiration and ambition to action, but progress is uneven. The regulatory framework is now concrete, with the introduction of mandatory climate reporting under globally-aligned standards representing a major milestone and requiring boards to increase oversight of climate risk, transition strategy, and scenario analysis. This transition demands directors who understand both the technical aspects of climate reporting and the strategic implications of sustainability transformation across business models. Board Diversity: Progress and Challenges – substantial progress has been made in gender diversity, with women representing nearly half of board appointments to ASX 300 boards over the last two years and holding 35% of ASX board positions overall. However, broader diversity challenges remain significant. There is still work to be done with 91% of ASX 300 Directors having an Anglo-Celtic background and only six openly LGBQTIA+ ASX directors. Consensus is forming around the AICD's and 30% Club's objective of securing 40/40/20 (40% men/40% women/20% of any gender) representation, but investors are applying pressure to see broader ethnic diversity that will better reflect businesses' customer bases and operational footprint. Shareholder Pressure – the shareholder activism landscape has intensified significantly, with Qantas’ shareholders rejecting the company's remuneration plan with a near-record 82.9% opposition following corporate scandals, demonstrating how reputation directly impacts board accountability. This escalating scrutiny requires directors who can navigate complex stakeholder relationships while maintaining strategic focus and delivering sustainable performance outcomes. Corporate Culture Accountability – corporate culture accountability has transformed from aspiration to a regulatory requirement. The events at Qantas, Mineral Resources, WiseTech and Nine Entertainment demonstrate that investors will hold boards accountable for cultural failures. Industry Super Funds have pioneered this change, with Aware Super requiring its fifty largest investments to answer eleven questions focusing specifically on conduct risk. This reflects broader stakeholder scrutiny, with over 10% of ASX 300 businesses receiving votes against their remuneration reports last year – the largest proportion since legislation was introduced.

With AI transformation being a key focus for organisations, maximising the opportunities lies in understanding the leadership requirements and the approach to people engagement. Derwent explored this critical topic with senior executives in Sydney last week at our AI and The People breakfast event, examining three areas shaping the future: How people functions can support AI transformation. How AI is reshaping people management and operations. How leadership and team recruitment criteria are evolving in an AI world. The panel discussion delivered practical insights on how leading organisations are navigating AI workforce transformation, including the real changes, challenges, and opportunities they're experiencing. We heard from Peter Tonagh , Chairman at Quantium, and Catherine Walsh , Group Chief People Officer at Qantas, who shared their perspectives on leading AI transformation we’re still learning to understand ourselves. Highlighting that as leaders we cannot wait for certainty, or we will remain behind. We must adapt to lead through more ambiguity than we have faced before. Key Themes & Takeaways The Leadership Imperative : AI represents a fundamental leadership moment defining competitive advantage, with success being 80% about people and 20% about technology. Discussion emphasised leaders must reimagine value creation, shift from the "department of no" to AI-enablers, and take a holistic approach addressing mindset, skillset, and toolset together. Leaders must become 'Chief Excitement Officers' providing permission with guardrails while managing cognitive load impacts within their organisations, recognising that employees will use AI regardless of policy and that organisations not offering AI tools will lose talent. Strategic Implementation and Human-AI Partnership : The conversation outlined starting everything with AI as the default approach, focusing on capability over tools and customer benefit through clear use cases as competitive necessity. Successful implementation augments human judgement with AI enhancing HR practices including performance management and coaching with examples of enhanced performance reviews and recruitment outcomes. Leaders must become conductors of human-AI teams through effective engagement, setting direction and making judgement calls while ensuring AI amplifies capabilities, maintaining oversight while AI tools help leaders become better coaches, and addressing bias as a user problem requiring active correction. Future Talent Strategy and Trust Evolution : Critical attributes for AI-ready talent emerged as curiosity, critical thinking, persistence, agility, and optimism, challenging myths about graduates who are actually more AI-attuned than before. The conversation addressed balancing innovation with care, building trust through transparency, and ensuring continuous evolution while maintaining human connection as irreplaceable. Discussion emphasised continuous tool evolution requiring adaptable capabilities, documenting and sharing learnings, and ensuring people develop judgment to question AI appropriately. These insights underscore the critical need for Australian business leaders to embrace AI strategically while overcoming conservative risk tolerance. The conversation provided a comprehensive roadmap for organisations navigating AI transformation, from immediate implementation challenges to longer-term competitive advantages that will define future success. Our thanks to Lindsay Every , Group Managing Partner at Derwent for hosting this panel discussion, and to our guest speakers and attendees for their valuable contributions. Continue the conversation We'd love to hear your perspective on this topic! For further insights or to explore how Derwent can help you or your organisation, connect with our team at sydney@derwentsearch.com.au . To express your interest for future Derwent events, please reach out to us at events@derwentsearch.com.au

On Wednesday 25 June, Derwent was delighted to host a breakfast event in Perth to discuss "Building Resilience for Organisational Excellence” . The event bought together over 50 senior HR leaders, offering a unique opportunity for professional development and networking. The session explored the question: How do we help leaders and organisations build resilience to deliver sustainable success? Today's business environments are more complex, and conventional notions of leadership are no longer fit for purpose. The challenges for leaders in 2025 are not just about making the right moves, but the ability to make them under extreme uncertainty – political and international tensions, market volatility, the ongoing evolution of AI, technological advancements, and shifting customer expectations. Layered into this are greater expectations and focus on regulatory changes, sustainability, transition to net zero and psychosocial safety – all while remaining focused on strategy, budgets and creating long-term value for shareholders, customers, teams and other stakeholders. We were joined by Ben Pronk , co-author of The Resilience Shield and a specialist in Risk, Resilience and Leadership in high pressure situations, and Megan McCracken , experienced Executive, Board Member and Leadership Coach. Ben and Megan shared their perspectives on: What makes a resilient leader? What are the signs of organisational resilience – green flags, red flags? How can we improve resilience in organisations to achieve better outcomes? What are the key considerations for talent – current and future? Some key themes and takeaways included: High functioning organisations are characterised by “agreeable disagreement”, where healthy conflict is fostered and a culture of “ritual dissent” is the norm. The relationships between Chair, Board and CEO play an important role in cultivating a resilient culture. They “set the tone to do the things they are here to do”. Decisions should have a strong link to the purpose and vision of the organisation. The adoption of personal mindfulness practices offers a huge opportunity to enhance performance through some relatively simple changes in approach. This is supported by scientific data and an important practice to share with leaders. Psychosocial safety has a significant impact on organisational resilience. Organisations that prioritise psychosocial safety are better equipped to navigate challenges, adapt to change and maintain high performance levels. Personal traits for resilience include internal calm, curiosity, self-efficacy, and courage to respectfully challenge – importantly, these traits can be cultivated and taught. Businesses that continue to invest in personal and organisational resilience and leadership through the cycles are the most likely to have sustainable success. We extend our thanks to Eliza Alford , Principal HR & Legal, and Mike O’Sullivan , Managing Partner, for hosting the event. A special thank you to our guest speakers, Ben and Megan, and to all attendees for contributing to such a valuable and engaging discussion. If you’re interested in learning more or attending a future event, get in touch with us at events@derwentsearch.com.au

Private Equity (PE) is orchestrating a fundamental shift in portfolio company leadership, with the implications reshaping organisations and C-suites across industries. As PE firms continue to adjust to a rapidly changing business landscape, their leadership strategies are evolving to meet new challenges and opportunities. The Strategic Imperative With uncertain exit timelines and valuations under increasing scrutiny, private equity owners are making decisive talent moves to position their assets for the next phase of growth. Many portfolio companies have been held for longer periods, and the need to be “investor-ready” requires an executive team that is future-focused, energised, and able to deliver tangible impact. The shift from traditional leadership to growth-driven teams has become a central component of these strategies. Critical Talent Trends