Juliet Bourke

Juliet has over 30 years' executive experience as a lawyer, entrepreneur and workplace consultant. For the first third of her career, Juliet worked as a lawyer in (Australian) State and Federal Governments (in criminal law, human rights law, discrimination law and employment law). For the second third, she co-founded and led a boutique workplace consulting firm, which she successfully sold into Deloitte. And for the final third, she was a partner in Deloitte, providing strategic workplace advice to global leaders and board members on a broad range of people issues including culture, leadership and the future of work, as well as diversity and inclusion. Her clients included the UN, BHP, Apple, Qantas, Gilead Sciences, Johnson & Johnson, APRA and the Reserve Bank of Australia. 

Juliet now sits on a number of advisory boards including Julia Gillard’s Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London, the AICD’s 30% Club Education Committee and UNSW Business School’s HR Board. She is currently completing her PhD at Brunel University London. 

Juliet is a well-known speaker and writer. She has spoken at over 500 global conferences (including TEDx and APEC) and authored over 30 publications, including Which two heads are better than one? and articles in the Harvard Business Review, Australian Financial Review and Huffington Post. She has received numerous awards including the UNSW’s Alumni Award and the Women Lawyers’ Association’s Achievement Award, and in 2019 she was recognised by the AFR as one of Australia’s Top 100 Women of Influence.

In terms of pro-bono work, Juliet has chaired a number of not-for-profits including the Taskforce on Care Costs and the EEO Network of Australasia. She is currently the Chair of Save Centennial Glen group. Juliet is also an Adjunct Professor in the School of Management, UNSW Business School, UNSW Sydney. Juliet holds a BA, LLB and LLM (Hons).

I have no doubt that my time at UNSW Law School set me up for success in terms of laying strong foundations for my career opportunities, publications and public speaking experiences. I owe a deep debt of gratitude to the wonderful lecturers (people like David Brown and Jill Hunter) who provided much needed guidance to a young student who had lots of passion but an abundance of knowledge gaps. Not only did my wonderful lecturers fill those gaps, but they taught me to think critically and logically, and to appreciate the importance of using the right word, in the right place, at the right time. Perhaps even more importantly, the values of UNSW Law School gave me confidence to follow a career road less travelled – a road that has always aligned to my strong sense of social justice. I loved my time at Law School, not only for its gifts of knowledge and encouragement, but for the wonderful set of friends I developed who have stayed with me for a lifetime.