Women in Leadership INDUSTRY FEATURE
PICTURED: SARAH COURTNEY AND JESS GULLIVER
The Tasmanian Hospitality Association’s Women in Leadership program is up and running, with a program manager in place eager to encourage and support more females in leadership roles, while creating a more diversified outlook and direction for the future development and benefit of Tasmania’s hospitality industry. Women play an integral role within the hospitality sector – making up a vast majority of the workforce. It is therefore important there is appropriate female representation in leadership positions. However finding and developing these pathways has not always been well defined, and the Tasmanian Hospitality Association saw not only the gap but the potential for it to be filled. Following successful lobbying of the State Government, funding was secured for three years to run a Women in Leadership program with the aim of encouraging and supporting women to further their careers. Although the WIL program is in its infancy, it has hit the ground running with former hospitality minister Sarah Courtney accepting the position of chair. Jess Gulliver has also been appointed as the program manager, and she is eager to help ensure women can access training, support and pathways to take on more leadership
roles. Jess reveals her background experience below, as well as explaining her motivations for taking on the role. I have worked as an event manager in Tasmania for nearly 10 years and have organised everything from small, intimate dinners to large-scale music events and film festivals. I have had the unfortunate job of telling over 100 people in the bar line that we have run out of wine. I have been brought to tears by some amazing keynote speakers who have inspired me to chase my dreams. I have managed concerts in 38-degree heat and fundraising events in pouring rain and wind. But ask me to pour a beer or wait tables? I am hopeless. Just ask my dad. I spent my late teens and early twenties helping him out at his country pub where I got orders wrong, didn’t know the difference between spirits (what colour bottle is it in?), dropped plates, and can safely say I pour the flattest beer in Tasmania. When I saw the position of Women in Leadership Program Manager advertised, I didn’t really look at the description – the title just spoke to me. I may not be very good as a front-of-house hospitality professional, but I truly believe in the power of women lifting women up to succeed. And getting to work alongside Sarah
18 Tasmanian Hospitality Review April/May Edition
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