How five days can change your career

Experienced company director and start-up guru, Dr Katherine Woodthorpe has had an impressive career inside and outside the boardroom. She explains the impact that the AICD’s Company Directors Course ™ has had in shaping her career for the long term.

Over the past 20 years close to 40,000 people have completed the Australian Institute of Company Directors’ flagship

Company Directors Course ™. Dr Katherine Woodthorpe faicd knows as well as anyone the long-term benefits of continuing professional education.

At the conclusion of her time at the helm of the Technology Industries Exporters Group in 1997, Woodthorpe joined the board of an ASX listed company. She found that despite her depth of experience in public affairs, the tech and superannuation industries and private equity – Woodthorpe was CEO of peak body, AVCAL, between 2006 and 2013 – she was in need of a course that would bring her up to speed on governance, corporations law and her directors duties and responsibilities. “As a scientist and later a business person who had only worked in technology organisations, I was sorely lacking in the broader skills needed on a board. The Company Directors Course ™ gave me those skills and an understanding of my role and responsibilities that I didn’t have previously,” Woodthorpe explains.

Acknowledging that the course was “an absolute foundation to my career as a director,” Woodthorpe says the course remains as valuable to her now as it was when she completed it 18 years ago. “The course underpins all my knowledge about governance onto which I have built my experience to bring me to the level I am at today.”

Today Woodthorpe chairs Australia’s largest start-up community, Fishburners; the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre; and HEARing CRC, in addition to her roles as a non-executive director. She considers the five-day investment in the course invaluable for anyone interested in being a professional director in the long term.

The Company Directors Course ™ develops skills by exploring the role and responsibilities of directors, and is updated annually to ensure it remains current, relevant and reflective of good practice.

The courses benefits are widely recognised by boards, chairs and search firms. “The Company

Directors Course ™ has become the default requirement for directors, and now, when I am looking for new directors to join my boards, I make it a requirement,” she says.

Contact the AICD for more information on how five days can change your career.

"The course underpins all my knowledge about governance onto which I have built my experience to bring me to the level I am at today." – Dr Katherine Woodthorpe faicd