Yasmin Allen AM, Chair and Independent Director, brings extensive experience as a Director and Chair across a wide range of sectors, including financial services. In addition to the experience gained in her current positions, she brings governance expertise from various former board roles and her professional executive experience as a senior investment banker.

As a successful senior investment banker in the 1990s, Yasmin Allen AM asked her CEO for a promotion to the executive leadership team. A reasonable question as she was Head of Industrial Research and on the quality review committee for corporate transactions. 

A week later the CEO phoned her: “We want you to keep doing what you’re doing. But we don’t think you should join the team because we meet over dinner at night and don’t think our wives would like it.”  

Yasmin’s response was simple. She left.  

She immediately started a portfolio career and very successfully worked her way up again. Today she is a non-executive Director for five companies operating across a wide range of sectors. Previous board roles include the Insurance Australia Group and the Macquarie Group’s Global Infrastructure Funds.  

She is also Chair of Tic:Toc, a digital home loan platform company; the Harrison Riedel Foundation, a charity supporting young mental health; and the Future Skills Organisation. In addition, Yasmin is the Acting President of the Australian Takeovers Panel and a member of Chief Executive Women. 

This year Yasmin was recognised in the King's Birthday Honours List. She was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to finance and business, and the not-for-profit sector. 

COMMON THEMES  

“There are two common themes I’m seeing across every sector I’m involved with,” said Yasmin. “The first is the need for a ‘speak up’ culture where people feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and concerns openly. This is so important when things are moving at pace because some things will go wrong. If you get the culture right, people aren’t afraid to speak up, and innovation happens.” 

She says the second is the impact of technology across every industry, “It is pervasive, in terms of your customer, your internal processes, the work you are doing, the products — everything is impacted by technology. 

“As a result, I realised a few years ago that both my own tech skills and those of the companies I worked with needed to evolve, so I wanted to get more involved in technology." 

DISRUPT AND TRANSFORM       

Yasmin’s first pure tech role was as Chair of Faethm.ai, a groundbreaking workforce AI and predictive analytics company. 

Set up in 2017, the company developed a platform that uses AI to forecast the impacts of technologies on workers, companies and industries. It rapidly grew under her leadership and was bought by Pearson, the global learning company, in 2021.  

“It was a great experience and fun, so I decided to do it again,” said Yasmin, who as Chair of Tic:Toc has helped turn the home loans process on its head. 

Just as she helps businesses disrupt and transform the markets in which they operate, she wants the FSO to disrupt the education system and the VET sector.   

IMPACT AT SCALE 

"Every company I deal with has a skills shortage, and they predict that the shortage will get worse," says Yasmin, who adds that industry understands the challenges the FSO is tackling and is curious about the solutions. 

“I want the FSO to have an impact at scale and the only way to do that is to completely disrupt the sector as a whole. We need to change the way qualifications are developed. There is too much input at the start of a qualification, which slows everything down.  

“Speed is so important in digital because the market moves so fast. Carpentry doesn’t change at the same pace as digital skills, which need a different approach.” 

It's also hard to find enough teachers. “It’s difficult to find the skills in digital, let alone the people who are qualified to teach digital, because those people are often working in the digital sector and earning more than they can in the VET sector. 

“We must get up-to-date qualifications that are relevant, modern and what employers want, then we must teach them fast and find enough people who can teach these skills. To make a real impact, we have to change a lot of things first."  

HELPING YOUNG PEOPLE 

Yasmin’s successful portfolio career is also focused on the not-for-profit sector which she believes forms a significant part of the nation’s wealth and social inclusion. She spent 10 years on the board of the Salvation Army and since 2017 has been Chair of the Harrison Riedel Foundation.  

“The average time between the onset of mental health symptoms and when someone receives help is 11 years. That’s 11 years too late. The mission of the Foundation is to reduce the time between young people needing help and receiving the help they need,” says Yasmin. Amongst the Foundation’s programs is a free app that promotes communication with known and trusted people and opens the door to young people seeking help. 

 As a busy mother of three, she doesn't have a lot of free time, but when she does, she enjoys the arts.  

“I have a lot of friends who are artists and I collect as well. I love contemporary abstract works and I have some indigenous art. I am doing up a place and I literally have more art around than furniture,” said Yasmin, who has also been a director of Film Australia and the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra. 

So, what about that CEO who blocked her banking career?  

“Those behaviours feel antiquated now,” she says. “Today nearly 36 per cent of directors on ASX300 boards are women. So thankfully we have come a long way since then.”

3 QUICK-FIRE QUESTIONS

What's the best advice you’ve been given?  

My father said, ‘never close doors.’ He said always keep your options open and be open to new ideas and new challenges. 

A simple thing that makes you happy?  

Walking in the countryside. 

What book are you reading currently?  

Mark Carney, Value(s): Building a better world for all.