Elizabeth Alexander

AO, BCom (1964), MCom NSW (1966)

Elizabeth Alexander AO became the first female partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Australia in 1977, paving the way for women in leadership roles and significantly influencing risk management and corporate governance practices across the industry.

An appointment as a partner by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in 1977 made Elizabeth Alexander the first woman to gain a partnership in one of Australia’s largest accounting firms.

This achievement established Alexander’s leadership credentials. She introduced risk management and corporate governance services to PwC and influenced many accounting firms to follow.

Her authority in accounting led to another impressive first in 1988, when she became the first national and state president of the Australian Society of Accountants. In 2011, Alexander was appointed Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, the second woman of only three who have held the role in the University's 170-year history. The Australian Accounting Hall of Fame honours Elizabeth Alexander as a pioneer female practitioner, mentor, standard setter and regulator in accounting and auditing.

Elizabeth Alexander was born in Melbourne in 1943.

She graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce from the Faculty of Economics and Commerce in 1964, with only 26 other women and 200 men.

Very few women in the 1960s were accountants, and only a handful were senior accountants, but Alexander was undeterred in her early business ventures. In 1977, aged only 34, she became a partner at her firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers. This achievement was remarkable in the 1970s: of the 36,928 members of the Australian Society of Accountants at the time, only five per cent were women.

Winning the international Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman of the Year award in 1981 highlighted Alexander’s achievements. New leadership roles followed in the 1980s, when Alexander became a director of the Gas and Fuel Corporation and a member of the Small Business Council and the Australian Film Commission. In 1988, Alexander became the first woman in the role of state and national president of the Australian Society of Accountants. By then, women made up 25 per cent of all members. In 1990, Alexander was awarded the AM for her "services to the accounting profession".

Alexander took up further directorships and memberships in the private and public sectors. She was a director of CSL Limited for twenty years (1991–2021) and spent five of those years as chair. Alexander was a non-executive director of Medibank Private for 12 years (including as the chair for seven years), a non-executive director of the DEXUS Property Group and adviser to Blake Dawson's corporate team, the independent chair of the Audit Committee of the Australian Prudential Regulator (APRA), and a director at Amcor for ten years (1994–2005). She was a member of the Takeovers Panel and Deputy Chair of the Financial Reporting Council.

Alexander included 22 years as a member of the University of Melbourne’s Council (1994–2016) into her impressive executive portfolio, where she "was invaluable" to the Finance Committee and its chair for nineteen years. Her distinguished leadership on the council and as a business leader culminated in her becoming the University’s chancellor from 2011 to 2016. The Faculty of Business and Economics’ citation for Elizabeth Alexander highlighted her passionate leadership in Australian businesses for over 40 years.

She specialised in risk management and corporate governance issues and was instrumental in the establishment of these practices in Australian firms. Elizabeth empowered businesswomen by mentoring and modelling participation and representation on boards and committees. Elizabeth was awarded her AO for "distinguished service to higher education administration, to accounting and corporate governance, and as a role model", according to the 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours.

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