How Top Hong Kong Lawyer Turned Around The Brisbane Women’s Club

Brisbane Women’s Club CEO Balveen Ajimal. Heath Missen

Author: Matthew Cranston

When the former senior legal counsel at Dutch pension fund APG, Balveen Ajimal, went looking for a social network in her new home of Australia she found the Brisbane Women’s Club, but to her surprise it was nearly dead.

In an era of proliferating women’s associations and online groups, the 107-year-old club had lost its clout and arguably its relevance.

It had sold off its property and after more than a century its membership base had dwindled to about 13.

In Brisbane, other clubs, such as the once great Irish Club and the Polo Club, have also lost their sparkle and both have had to sell off their property holdings too.

But for Ms Ajimal, the history, the structure and the value of the Brisbane’s Women’s Club was too much to let go.

“It got to a point where it was all or nothing,” she said.

After doing several months pro-bono work sorting out the club’s business plan she decided to take up the position of chief executive. She put the clubs’ finances in a trust and, with her ability to present a not-for-profit agenda to businesses, brought in sponsorship such as PwC, McCullough Robertson, Pitcher Partners, and power corporation Stanwell.

Through special events, a new website and her own networking the club’s membership has now grown to more than 50.

“Throughout its history the club has had such a great track record of support from organisations and that hasn’t been publicised,” Ms Ajimal said. “With so much happening in women’s organisations I didn’t think it would work from a standing start but it is.”

Besides all heavy lifting Ms Ajimal most important move was to give the club a clear, disciplined focus and that has been to provide women across all industries with practical help for professional growth.

The club is not in competition with the separate female organisations within the medical, engineering or legal fraternities but instead it seeks to provide what they cannot – a sort of safety net. This is proving popular by the success in partnerships with other female groups such as Women in Mining and Resources Queensland which is supported by The Queensland Resources Council.

UMBRELLA ORGANISATION

“My personal ambition is to aim to develop the club into a broker and umbrella organisation for women’s groups, organisations and supporters in Brisbane.”

She said people in charge of diversity in a large organisation are good at identifying road blocks and making structural changes but at times can lack the ability to provide leadership and life skills for young women especially when they come into leadership positions.

Having members from across a broad spectrum of professions means the club can help provide practical tips on such skills. One small tip, at least for Brisbane, is ensuring some level of formality.

Ms Ajimal, who read law at Oxford University, knows the importance of formalities and how they are meant to help not hinder.

“The lack of formality in Brisbane really struck me coming from Hong Kong where the culture is formal. There are those set pieces which make it easy to know how to interact. When it’s casual it makes it more difficult for you to know how to behave in the workplace.”