CEO MONTHLY | Female CEO of the Year Awards 2024 13 International Business Community CEO of the Year 2024 (APAC): April Palmerlee AmCham is the largest and most prestigious international business organisation in the country, serving as a critical hub that offers connections and access to opportunity. With offices across Australia, AmCham provides assistance to both American and Australian companies, as well as promoting trade, commerce, and investment to and from Australia. The organisation is helmed by CEO April Palmerlee, who has been recently named in the Female CEO of the Year Awards 2024. Below, we speak with April to learn more. Founded in 1961, AmCham provides its members with a competitive advantage that enables them to grow their businesses efficiently and intelligently, possessing almost 610 members from both the US and Australia. The organisation caters to clientele hailing from a diverse range of sectors, including banking and finance, defence, emerging technologies and innovation, education and academia, energy and resources, healthcare and life sciences, infrastructure, manufacturing, retail, and telecommunications. AmCham is successfully steered by April Palmerlee, who was appointed CEO of the company in 2017. Having lived in Sydney for over two decades, April has worked closely with the Chamber for many years prior to her appointment, primarily as a speaker, member, and contributor. Born in America, April holds a dual-citizenship and a unique perspective that allows her to oversee AmCham with an expert eye. Before joining AmCham, April has held a diverse range of roles from a variety of organisations, such as Executive Position to the President for the Spanish Institute, Assistant and Accessory Designer Coordinator for Oscar de la Renta, Senior Coordinator for International Women’s Issues for the US Department of State, and as Academic Staff in the US Studies Centre at The University of Sydney. This extensive career history, spanning across sectors and continents, enables April to steer AmCham towards success, driven by a wealth of skills and expertise that can only be developed through first-hand experience. April has celebrated significant achievements over the years, though she cites her biggest accomplishment to have happened in the early 2000s, during her role of Senior Coordinator for International Women’s Issues for the US Department of State. “I started working at the State Department immediately after the terrorist attacks of 9/11,” she recalls. “During my tenure, I was privileged to have the opportunity to make a real, tangible difference in the lives of women and girls in Afghanistan. As part of the reconstruction efforts, we built schools for girls who had never attended a class, we created micro-loans for women to start small businesses and support their families, and we launched the US-Afghan Women’s Council.” The US-Afghan Women’s Council is a non-partisan, public-private partnership that assembles governments, civil society, and the private sector around the goal of supporting the education, healthcare, economic empowerment, and leadership of Afghan women and girls. The US-Afghan Women’s Council leverages both public and private resources to advance memberdriven initiatives, in addition to highlighting the experiences and needs of women and girls across Afghanistan. Throughout the course of her career, April has aided and empowered countless women through her operations, whether through the formation of the Council or through providing some much-needed representation as a powerful female figure. “As the inaugural female CEO of AmCham in its 60-year history, I suppose I shattered the glass ceiling,” she says. “Although women are typically over-represented in the notfor-profit sector, the leadership of business chambers seems to track more closely to the ASX, where males make up the vast majority of CEOs. Today, I’m pleased to have several female counterparts at other business chambers in Australia and at other AmChams in the Asia Pacific. I think that as leadership in the corporate sector has diversified, the chambers have followed suit. In our own chamber, I’m proud to have 50/50 diversity amongst my General Managers, which has happened without quotas or targets.” Looking ahead, April tells us that AmCham has exciting plans for the future, including celebration and expansion. The organisation is poised to take 2025 by storm, and we at CEO Monthly have no doubts that with April, the International Business Community CEO of the Year 2024 (APAC), at its helm, AmCham will see nothing short of success. “In 2025, we will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement and look at where our next economic opportunities lie to guarantee the next 20 years of prosperity,” April tells us. “AmCham will continue to take delegations of Australian CEOs to the United States on trade missions and study tour to bring our leaders face-to-face for inperson engagement with key US decision-makers at an important juncture for a new era of indispensable economic and security alliance.” Contact: April Palmerlee Company: AmCham Australia Web Address: www.amcham.com.au
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