Article by
Karen McWilliams FCA
Sustainability and Business Reform Leader
Karen McWilliams is the Business Reform Leader in the Advocacy and Professional Standing team at Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ). She is responsible for shaping and influencing business reform issues of relevance to Chartered Accountants, including insolvency, corporate governance, anti-money laundering, corporations law, climate change and sustainability matters.
In Australia, Karen represents CA ANZ on the ASX Corporate Governance Council, the AASB/AuASB Sustainability Reporting Advisory Panel, the Advisory Board of the Deakin Centre for Integrated Reporting and the G100 Sustainability Steering Group. Globally, Karen is co-chair of the GAA Sustainability working group and the Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) Accounting Bodies Network. She is also a technical adviser to CA ANZ’s representative on IFAC’s Professional Accountants in Business Advisory Group and represents CA ANZ on the ISSB Technical Reference Group and Chartered Accountants Worldwide Sustainability Working Group.
Karen is also a non-executive director on the UN Global Compact Network Australia Board and is a member of their Finance, Risk and Audit Committee.
With over 20 years’ experience in a variety of business and advisory roles, she started her career in the specialist field of audit and has held positions with Worley Parsons, Ernst and Young, and Deloitte in London.
She is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and holds a Master of Arts in Mathematical Sciences from the University of Oxford.