Annual General Meeting & Panel Event
CALD Women Paving the Way on Boards: Voices, Vision, and Leadership

Formal decisions recorded in accordance with our Constitution included the acceptance of the 2023/24 AGM minutes, and both the 2024/25 Annual Finance Report and Chair’s Report, followed by a raft of exciting Board appointments outlined below.

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The 2024/25 AGM papers highlighted a very successful year for CALD2LEAD in which we awarded another 5 scholarships, celebrated 3 graduations, and boosted our revenue to over $17,500 with an income of over $13,000. This has already set us up for further success in 2025/26, having already delivered another 3 scholarships with both Community Directors and Leadership Victoria, and a current round of scholarship applications now open for multiple award-winning courses with our partners at Community Directors.

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Our focus on “walking the talk” was also highlighted by the strengthening of our governance and readiness to drive our next chapter of growth. This included the introduction of foundational policies, guidelines, a strategic execution plan and expanded communications and LinkedIn plan. Importantly it has also seen the establishment of increased engagement, impact evaluation and formal working groups to separate strategic oversight and drive operational delivery. Highlighted by the introduction of pre-and-post program surveys for our scholars, and the inaugural CALD2Connect Event involving scholars and partners, all of which led directly to our 2025 Strategy, and establishment of our CALD2Action Working Group – Enhancing Scholars’ Experience & Impact. This group inspired and created the powerful Panel event held in conjunction with the AGM.

 

Importantly, our 7th year marks our most exciting new chapter yet and sees our Co-Founders’ vision become a reality. The “three middle-aged white guys” have all now officially stepped to the back of the metaphorical room and handed our organisation’s leadership over to the vision and voices of CALD women. On this note, CALD2LEAD congratulates Sarita Narayan as in the incoming Chair, our first CALD woman and scholar to lead the organisation.

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Sarita’s inspirational and energetic leadership has made an immediate impact in the past year with us and again created a wide-ranging and powerful ripple-effect on the night of our AGM. Her first achievement as Chair was to welcome the appointment of  five new talented Board members, bringing an unprecedented depth of skills, experience and diversity to our team in 2025/26.

 

New Board members appointed at the AGM include:

• Treasurer – Valissa Warren

• Secretary – Kuni Yamada

• Director of Partnerships and Programs – Dr Kim Gordon

• Director of Scholar Engagement and Experience – Sarah Senanayake

• Director – Saran Konteh

 

Along with new members elected, two Board appointments also ensured continuity and momentum into 2025/26 through Sarah Wood, elected for another term as Deputy Chair, and Steve Lansdell elected as general Director, to support this exciting new transition phase. We look forward to sharing more details on our 2025/26 Board in coming days.

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Finally, emotions were high at the end of the night as CALD2LEAD and our community acknowledged, celebrated and heard from our outgoing Board members, Pearl Li Ng and Salima Hussaini. Both have grown and matured CALD2LEAD incredibly in their time on the Board.

 

As Salima shared on the night, while we all know starting on a Board can sometimes be تهدید آمیز (the Farsi word pronounced “tars-naak”, commonly used to describe intimidation), the culture, purpose and growth experienced on the CALD2LEAD Board and our work is something else altogether. Both Pearl and Salima have grown the organisation and shaped our direction, strategy, and helped us make better and more informed decisions with their unique experience, wisdom, insight and passion from day 1 on Board.

 

Finally, in the words of our incoming Chair:

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It’s a privilege to be nominated to serve as Board Chair. Stepping into this role is both exciting and a little nerve-wracking, but my experience working with the previous Board and our incredible scholar community has given me the confidence to take this next step. I’m committed to building on the strong foundations laid by past Boards and expanding our work to create a true end-to-end pathway, so our scholars are not only trained, but genuinely supported to secure board roles where their leadership can shine.