Lisa Annese
Lisa is the CEO of Diversity Council of Australia and was appointed to the Respect@Work Council in 2022. She has led ground-breaking work on diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
Lisa Annese is the Chief Executive Officer of Diversity Council Australia (DCA), the only independent, not-for-profit workplace diversity advisor to businesses in Australia. Under Lisa’s leadership, DCA has grown significantly its membership base, organisation, scope of work and spheres of influence.
Lisa has led ground-breaking, evidence-based research, including Australia’s first national index on workplace diversity and inclusion, seminal research on the economics of the gender pay gap, leading research on racism at work, and pivotal work on breaking barriers for culturally and racially marginalised (CARM) women in leadership. She has supported research in individuals being out of work, main-streaming flexible work and myth-busting workplace responses to sexual harassment and, domestic and family violence.
Throughout her career, Lisa has contributed widely to the public debate on issues relating to gender pay equity, paid parental leave, women in leadership, cultural diversity and workplace flexibility.
In 2022, Lisa was appointed to the Respect@Work Council to support the introduction of the Respect at Work Bill (2022) aiming to prevent sexual harassment in Australian workplaces. Lisa is on the Boards of Amnesty International Australia and the non-partisan organisation, Women for Election.
In 2018, Lisa was named one of the AFR’s 100 Women of Influence. She is also a member of Chief Executive Women.