Minutes by boardcycle: Directors | Executives | Governance
"All transformation should come from strategy." - Julie Coates
Julie Coates, Director of Wesfarmers and Scentre Group, led the OneCSR transformation programme as CEO and Managing Director of CSR Limited — a programme that contributed directly to CSR's acquisition by Saint-Gobain at a significant premium. In this episode, Julie explains the governance architecture she put in place: the board's oversight role, the management board's accountability for driving change, a steering committee chaired by Julie herself, and the program office that ran all individual projects.
Drawing on her current NED experience, she also explains what non-executive directors should be focused on when overseeing a transformation — and why the quality of questions asked in the boardroom matters more than most directors appreciate.
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Note: Julie Coates was interviewed in September 2025. Since this interview, Julie has ceased to be a director of the Green Building Council of Australia and been appointed as a director of Scentre Group.
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