Shirley Chowdhary

Shirley Chowdhary is a Non-Executive director on the boards of Northrop Engineering and the Australian Associated Press, and the Chair of Women for Election. She sits on the Advisory Board of Propel, an organisation that works with boards and leaders to enhance and protect digital reputation, and Mentor Walks, providing accessible mentoring for over 6,000 women across Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Dubai and Singapore. Shirley also chairs a peer-to-peer CEO mentoring group with the Leadership Think Tank, and consults and volunteers with a number of charities.

Shirley’s current portfolio aims to create commercially sustainable services and products for all members of our community. She is a passionate advocate for Indigenous empowerment, gender equity and inclusion, and she aims to create a strong connection between people, place and purpose through her work. Her work was most recently recognized in 2024 when she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Sydney for her contribution to the law, business, gender and Indigenous affairs. Previously, she was also recognised as a 2019 AFR 100 Women of Influence.

Shirley is an internationally experienced leader with diverse experience across law, financial services, the NFP sector and journalism. She is admitted to practice law in NSW and New York and has worked in the corporate and for-purpose sectors across Asia, the US, Europe, Australia and Canada for almost 30 years. Recently she spoke publicly about her 10 year career gap from the traditional workforce and has shared her story about the challenges she faced.