Celebrating the NRLW Partners that have provided our female athletes the opportunity to achieve.
In the days leading up to International Women’s Day, it is fitting that the club’s inaugural NRLW team celebrated their first ever win vs last year’s Grand Finalists, Sydney Roosters, which has made everybody on the Gold Coast immensely proud.
International Women’s Day aims to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women.
With this, the Gold Coast Titans wanted to share the stories of the influential women within our club’s NRLW Partner Network who have significantly assisted to put the Gold Coast Titans’ NRLW team on the field for our first ever season and by doing so have created opportunities for many other young Gold Coast women.
For all young female Gold Coasters, they now have more role models to look up to, greater visibility of these players, the pathways available to them and ultimately the opportunity to be a Gold Coast Titan and represent the region.
The support of our inaugural major NRLW partners is paving the way for our current female athletes to inspire the next generation of young women in our communities.
Meet some of the corporate leaders driving our NRLW program and providing female athletes with an opportunity to represent the Gold Coast on the national stage, while also leading the way in their own field.
To learn more about the influential women from within our NRLW Major Partners on this International Women’s Day, we explored their career to date and found out what IWD means to them.
Peta Newton
Executive Director Corporate Services
SEE Civil
About Peta
When news of the Titans becoming the NRLW’s sixth side started to emerge, SEE Civil immediately committed to expanding its partnership to the club’s newly stablished side.
Passionate NRLW advocate, Peta Newton, has more than 12 years’ experience, working in a range of roles across SEE Group’s operations.
Peta was appointed to her current role as Executive Director of Corporate Services in 2021 for SEE Civil, a division of SEE Group, who are a leading Gold Coast based, civil construction company currently engaged in a number of nation-wide projects.
Peta is responsible for the strategic direction of several of the group’s shared services including Workplace Health and Safety, People and Culture, Payroll, Commercial, Legal and Risk Management, Business Systems and the Integrated Management Systems.
Peta is dedicated to driving a high-performing inclusive culture, in turn creating a positive employee experience for all employees and driving effective cultural change within SEE Group’s businesses.
Anna Morgan
Practice Leader
Evolve Legal
About Anna
Anna is the Practice Leader of personal injury law firm, Evolve Legal. It has been 23 years since Anna began working in insurance law.
Not content to just be a leader within a firm, Anna also has made significant contributions outside law practice. She has spent the last decade advocating for the interests of local lawyers as a committee member of the Gold Coast District Law Association including a three-year term as President. During her presidency, she fought to raise awareness and destigmatise mental health in the profession, improve legal resources for the Gold Coast community and create networks of support and mentoring for female and young lawyers. Anna volunteers at the free advice nights of My Community Legal where she also sat on the legal clinic’s board. More recently, she founded Rotary’s first corporate club, called Gold Coast Corporate with other young professionals.
In 2016, Anna was a finalist for the Queensland Law Society’s Agnes McWhinney Award which recognises outstanding professional or community contribution by a Queensland female lawyer. And in 2021, Anna was recognised as one of the top ten Special Counsel in Australia when she was a finalist in the Special Counsel of the Year category of the Australian of the Year Awards.
What does International Women’s Day mean to you?
It is an opportunity to stop and reflect and advocate for the important role women play in society. I work in a profession which is now dominated by women. This International Women’s Day will the first year where there are now more female lawyers in Queensland than male lawyers. This year’s theme of “Break the Bias” is important as it focuses on the importance of gender equity.
Angela Chen
Head of Marketing
MyPayNow
About Angela
Angela is a Queensland based Marketing Manager with over 8 years senior management experience in QSR, FMCG, Travel & Fintech.
At present she is Head of Marketing for MyPayNow, one of Australia's fastest growing fintechs revolutionising the way people get paid. Prior to MyPayNow, she worked in travel, as the APAC Marketing Manager of Topdeck (Flight Centre Travel Group), Australia’s leading youth group touring company.
What does International Women’s Day mean to you?
A day to recognise and celebrate all the incredible women out there who have (and continue to) forge a path of progress toward gender equality. My hope is one day, for women to be celebrated for their achievements – period, and not just their achievement ‘as a woman’!
Naomi McCarthy OAM
Manager of Sport Engagement and Program Lead of the Griffith Sports College
Griffith University
About Naomi
Naomi represented Australia at two Olympic Games (2000 and 2004), winning a gold medal in Sydney 2000 and she had the honour of leading her country at Athens in 2004.
She has remained heavily involved in sport since her retirement as an athlete, serving as an Independent Director at Queensland Rugby League, a board member for the Queensland Academy of Sport and a Director of Womensport Queensland.
In her current role at Griffith University, McCarthy is the manager of the Griffith Sports College, where she works closely with many professional and Olympic sports and their elite athletes.
What does International Women’s Day mean to you?
International Women’s Day allows us to take some time to reflect on and celebrate how far we have come in the journey towards gender equity, but also recognise how much further there is still to go. It is particularly relevant for women within all forms of sport, be it as athletes (elite or participants), leaders, officials, coaches or researchers.
Renee Soutar
General Manager – Marketing
Village Roadshow Theme Parks
About Renee
Renee is a dedicated marketing and communications professional with a love for connecting consumers with brands in a meaningful and personalised way to deliver upon business objectives.
With fourteen years' experience working in a fast paced and commercially orientated business, marketing a diverse portfolio of international brands and leading a team of professionals, Renee has a wealth of experience in marketing and communications.
Throughout her career, Renee has worked closely with C Level Executives and fellow General Managers and Heads of Departments to develop and manage the strategic marketing direction of Village Roadshow Theme Parks to meet business objectives and achieve great accomplishments.
What does International Women’s Day mean to you?
For me, International Women’s Day is a wonderful platform to shine a spotlight on the amazing work of women around the globe. Everyday there are women changing lives and making breakthroughs across all walks of life and it’s a privilege to take pause to recognise and celebrate these amazing humans. A quote from one of my favourite author, Glennon Doyle (Untamed), a champion for women, sums up how I feel about this day and women everywhere:
“Here’s to The Untamed:
May we know them.
May we raise them.
May we love them.
May we read them.
May we elect them.
May we be them.”