About Minutes by boardcycle: Directors | Executives | Governance
The Minutes podcast by Boardcycle brings snappy insights and and bite-sized learnings from the boardroom to you. Our host, Richard Conway, interviews Australia’s most prominent boardroom leaders on:
• how they approach making an organisation’s mission-critical decisions
• how they forged their boardroom careers
• practical tips and advice on working with, and as part of, a board.
With each episode less than 20 minutes, directors, executives and governance professionals alike can learn from the best that Australia’s boards have to offer.
www.boardcycle.com
Effective Transformation Governance with Julie Coates, Director, Scentre Group & Wesfarmers & Former CEO, CSR
"All transformation should come from strategy." - Julie Coates
Julie Coates, Director of Wesfarmers and Scentre Group, led the OneCSR transformation programme as CEO and Managing Director of CSR Limited — a programme that contributed directly to CSR's acquisition by Saint-Gobain at a significant premium. In this episode, Julie explains the governance architecture she put in place: the board's oversight role, the management board's accountability for driving change, a steering committee chaired by Julie herself, and the program office that ran all individual projects.
Drawing on her current NED experience, she also explains what non-executive directors should be focused on when overseeing a transformation — and why the quality of questions asked in the boardroom matters more than most directors appreciate.
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Note: Julie Coates was interviewed in September 2025. Since this interview, Julie has ceased to be a director of the Green Building Council of Australia and been appointed as a director of Scentre Group.
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Follow Podcast Host Richard Conway (www.linkedin.com/in/richard-conway-au) on LinkedIn
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Visit the boardcycle website (https://www.boardcycle.com/)
16 May 2026
Practical Board Planning in an Uncertain World with Greg Ridder, Chair, Life Without Barriers & Kogan.com
"There's an inherent danger that we lapse into just being operational." - Greg Ridder
Greg Ridder, Chair of Kogan.com, Life Without Barriers and Bridge It, and Director of the PNG Sustainable Development Program, discusses how to build board forward plans that add real value when the planning environment keeps shifting.
Greg explains why the drift from strategic thinking into pure operational focus is a genuine governance risk — and what distinguishes a planning process that keeps the board looking beyond the horizon from one that just manages what's immediately in front of it. He shares what he actually asks company secretaries to put together for the coming 12 months, how he structures the board cycle to ensure major decisions don't arrive as fully-formed proposals, and why the most useful thing a company secretary can do when forward planning feels futile is pay attention to the quality of their relationship with the chair.
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Follow Podcast Host Richard Conway (www.linkedin.com/in/richard-conway-au) on LinkedIn
Follow boardcycle (https://www.linkedin.com/company/boardcycle/) on LinkedIn
Visit the boardcycle website (https://www.boardcycle.com/)
2 May 2026
Governing Across Borders and Cultures with Audette Exel AO, Chair & Founder, Adara Group & Former Director, Westpac & Suncorp
"There's a real risk to fall into the trap of believing... 'Oh, that's just how it's done there.'"— Audette Exel AO
Governing across borders is not just a compliance exercise — it requires a clear view of where global standards must hold firm, and where local knowledge must lead. Audette Exel AO has been doing this for nearly three decades through Adara Group, which operates across Australia, Nepal, Uganda, and Bermuda, and through board roles at Westpac and Suncorp.
In this episode, she talks through the real differences between governing large institutions and small purpose-driven organisations, the practical challenges of oversight in low-infrastructure environments, and why she believes local teams are not just an operational necessity but a governance priority.
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Follow Podcast Host Richard Conway (www.linkedin.com/in/richard-conway-au) on LinkedIn
Follow boardcycle (https://www.linkedin.com/company/boardcycle/) on LinkedIn
Visit the boardcycle website (https://www.boardcycle.com/)
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Spotify
3.9 / 5
7 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 32 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
51
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
31
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