Mining executive wins top WA business women’s award
12 Oct 2010
The managing director of the world’s leading exporter of solar salt was named today as the 2010 Telstra Western Australian Business Woman of the Year.
Denise Goldsworthy is Managing Director of Rio Tinto subsidiary Dampier Salt (DSL), a business that produces industrial salt by solar evaporation of seawater at Dampier and Port Hedland and from underground brine at Lake MacLeod.
Appointed to head DSL in August 2008, Ms Goldsworthy was appointed in January 2009 to managing director of HIsmelt, a Rio Tinto joint venture that has an iron making plant at Kwinana, Ms Goldsworthy is responsible for 500 employees and a global customer base, principally chemical industry markets in Asia.
After winning a university medal and graduating with an honours degree in metallurgy in Newcastle, Ms Goldsworthy worked for BHP Steel for 17 years at its Newcastle Steelworks. She joined Rio Tinto in 1998, spending five years in senior roles in its iron ore business before moving to its minerals division and heading the operations of its Asia Pacific salt, gypsum and talc businesses from 2006.
Ms Goldsworthy also won the Hudson Private and Corporate Sector Award at the sixteenth Telstra Western Australian Business Women’s Awards, announced today in Perth.
Other winners were Jan Ford, owner of Jan Ford Real Estate in Port Hedland; Jo Harrison-Ward, CEO of the Fire and Emergency Services Authority in Perth; Jessica Blackwell, owner of Equestricare in Marangaroo; and Lee Broomhall, an executive at Workpower Incorporated in Osborne Park.
Telstra Chief Marketing Officer and Telstra Business Women’s Awards Ambassador Kate McKenzie said the winners of the Western Australian Awards were successful business women whose leadership qualities and achievements would provide inspiration for women across the State.
“Denise Goldsworthy has demonstrated steady growth and broadening of her skills in a career spanning 28 years in the resources sector,” Ms McKenzie said.
“She has created a culture of innovation at Dampier Salt where her key achievements include record sales earnings, improving safety by reducing lost time injuries significantly, increasing workforce engagement and reducing staff turnover.”
The CEO of Hudson Australia/New Zealand, Mark Steyn, said Hudson has been a very proud sponsor of the Awards for the past nine years. “It is a privilege to be associated with an event that showcased the calibre and quality of talented women working across Australia,” he said.
“Employment participation by women has been increasing over the past 40 years but it is still well below the rate for men and lower here than in many other developed countries. That is why we are keen to recognise the vital role that women play in the Australian workforce. This year’s line-up of finalists in the Hudson Private and Corporate Sector Award, including Denise Goldsworthy, is an exemplary group of Australia’s finest business women and we commend them on their achievements,” he said.
The Western Australian winners proceed to the national finals of the 2010 Telstra Business Women’s Awards which will be announced in Melbourne on 11 November. They will join the alumni of more than 430 winners of the Telstra Business Women’s Awards since the program was launched in 1995.
Winners of the 2010 Telstra Western Australian Business Women’s Awards are:
Telstra Western Australian Business Woman of the Year
Denise Goldsworthy, Rio Tinto, Belmont.
Commonwealth Bank Business Owner Award
Jan Ford, Jan Ford Real Estate, Port Hedland.
Jan Ford is principal and licensee of Jan Ford Real Estate, an agency that she opened in April 2000 in the northern town of Port Hedland and which has grown to employ 13 people. Ms Ford, whose grandparents were born on a remote cattle station in the north of WA, is also developing a 46-unit project to overcome accommodation shortages in Port Hedland. She is passionate about community development and expanding the infrastructure of the town and is a board member of the Port Hedland Port Authority.
Hudson Private and Corporate Sector Award
Denise Goldsworthy, Rio Tinto, Belmont.
White Pages Community and Government Award
Jo Harrison-Ward, Fire and Emergency Services Authority (FESA), Perth.
Jo Harrison-Ward was the first woman to be Executive Director of WA Emergency Management Services and the first woman to be Executive Director of WA Police. Today, as the first woman heading the Fire and Emergency Services Authority, she has responsibility for 1400 staff and 30,000 volunteers. As CEO since 2006, Ms Harrison-Ward has transformed a predominately male culture to a more balanced, family-friendly one and instigated innovative programs to encourage volunteer recruitment.
Nokia Business Innovation Award
Jessica Blackwell, Equestricare, Marangaroo.
Jessica Blackwell established Equestricare, a mobile health service for horses, in 2007. The business now has more than 400 clients whose horses receive a range of services including sports massage and laser therapy. Ms Blackwell is developing a new product, the ‘Equine Sports Therapy Health Care Package’, an annual package that includes eight treatments, a nutritional assessment, saddle fit, monthly newsletters and emergency call-outs.
marie claire Young Business Women’s Award
Lee Broomhall, Workpower Incorporated, Osborne Park.
As Executive Manager of the People, Performance and Strategy division of Workpower Incorporated, Lee Broomhall manages the head office of the non-profit organisation that creates employment for people with disability and mental illnesses. Workpower employs 150 staff and 300 people with disability and mental illness. She is also Executive Manager of Qualipac Plus, Workpower’s commercial business that oversees the employment of people with disabilities into the packaging and manufacturing industry.
Further information on the Telstra Business Women’s Awards can be found at www.telstrabusinesswomensawards.com
Media contact:
John Hanrahan
Lighthouse Communications
Ph: 02 9262 3868; M: 0411 212 965
Telstra:
Kathryn McFarland
0419 850 201
Download press release
Telstra Business Women's Awards Network