Page 2465 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 31 July 2018
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I want to draw the Assembly’s attention today to yet another remarkable woman in Canberra, our very own Sophia Hamblin Wang. Sophia is the chief operations officer at Mineral Carbonation International, or MCI, this year’s winner of the 2018 resource innovator award at the Raw Materials Summit in Berlin.
Sophia completed her undergraduate degree at the ANU, graduating with first-class honours in international business. She then went on to complete her PhD in the same field, focusing her studies on corporate social responsibility. She followed her passion for sustainability, technology and the environment to become the only female member of MCI’s executive leadership team.
This year, as the chief operations officer, she led MCI to a win at the Raw Materials Summit in Berlin. At the summit, Sophia and MCI went up against four other start-ups from the US, the UK, Latvia and Germany. Before an audience of 200 guests, each company presented their plans for using non-fossil raw materials like plants and carbon dioxide to produce chemical products.
The competition, as you might expect, was fierce. But in the end it was unsurprising that MCI brought home the prize. The winning idea converted minerals and carbon dioxide from waste into materials that are useful in construction—the theme of the day. MCI’s technology will take the harmful greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere and lock it away in cement and brick. It is an ingenious way to combat climate change and to reduce the use of non-renewables. Sophia, as COO, was instrumental in MCI winning the award.
This is a woman leading a tech company. In a male-dominated industry where she is more likely to meet a man named John on her leadership team than a woman at all, Sophia is thriving. It is 2018 and Australian women, as you know, Madam Speaker, are still under-represented in leadership and management. Women make up 60 per cent of all commonwealth public servants, but only 43 per cent of the senior executive service are women. We make up about 50 per cent of the workforce, of course, but only 21 per cent of executive managers in ASX 200 companies are women. That is 381 women to 1,423 men in leadership, which is pretty appalling.
In this environment, Sophia’s role in building the company as the chief operations officer is all the more impressive. Her ability to assert the ingenuity of MCI’s technology over her competitors at the summit is proof that femininity is never a barrier to leadership.
Madam Speaker, all around us women are changing the world. We are fighting for our place. We are affixing each other’s crowns. I am sure the Assembly will join me in congratulating Sophia on leading MCI, on winning the 2018 resource innovator award and on continuing to put Canberra on the map. Sophia’s achievements are a testament to what women can achieve when they take the chance. Her success in the fields of technology innovation and management empowers men and women alike.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
The Assembly adjourned at 6.06 pm.
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