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Domini Stuart

I write about business, the boardroom, insurance and health for hard copy and online publications. I have a particular interest in the role the corporate world plays in promoting social justice and human rights.

Please scroll down to see examples of my work.

My Articles

Company Director •

A guide to joining your first NFP board - AICD

Some see a seat on an NFP board as the first step to a boardroom career. Experienced directors may be keen to “give back”, while others are drawn to a particular cause as a result of personal experience with, for example, disability or chronic illness. 
Whatever your motivation, the day you join your first NFP board, you become legally part of the leadership team, exposed to the directors’ liabilities and responsibilities. These risks are not to be taken lightly, as Steven Bowman FAICD, managing...
Company Director •

How to navigate the productivity crisis in Australia through strategic governance - AICD

Productivity means output divided by input — the measure of how efficiently inputs such as time, labour, capital or materials are converted into outputs such as goods or services. It has been the single most important contributor to the growth in our living standards.
“One hundred years ago, Australians worked longer hours,” says Productivity Commission chair Danielle Wood. “They obviously had less income, so less capacity to buy goods and services. They were far less healthy with a much shorter...
Company Director •

How the AFL balances varied stakeholders for sustainable business success

The Australian Football League (AFL) is big business. Eighteen clubs attract revenues of between $60m and $100m a year, and the 2024 annual report discloses an annual total revenue of $1.039 billion. Each match of the 2024 season attracted an average crowd of 38,344 and nearly one in 20 Australians are members of an AFL club.
The AFL also presents a unique set of challenges for its club directors.
“The board is effectively governing a medical, entertainment, consumer and community organisation,...

How to embed modern slavery human rights due diligence into strategy - AICD

Australian boards must place basic civil rights in every aspect of a company’s culture or the country will lose its status as the global leader in the fight against modern slavery. That’s the view of Professor John McMillan AO, who in 2023 handed down the results of a three-year independent review that had been built into the Modern Slavery Act 2018 legislation.
That report included multiple recommendations. While most of them are still under review, the government has appointed a dedicated Anti...
Company Director •

How design thinking aids problem solving - AICD

Australian businesses have a critical lack of perception regarding design thinking, which limits their strategic potential, according to Catherine Livingstone FAICDLife. “I fear Australia has a blind spot when it comes to the value of design and design thinking,” she warned delegates at the Australian Governance Summit in 2024.
Emphasising the importance of collaborative debate involving boards, senior management and their direct reports, Livingstone advocated for conversations that encourage qu...

What directors need to know about aged care regulation shifts - AICD

Australia’s aged care sector faces imminent and profound change as the new Aged Care Act approaches, amid urgent community demands for major reform. Critical funding shortfalls, chronic workforce issues and significant gaps in home-care availability have dominated headlines in the aged care environment.
Stakeholders have lamented delays in acting on findings from the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety some four years ago. According to the ABS, more than a third of older Australia...
Company Director •

Succession planning is simply good governance - AICD

On 8 November 2023, an Optus outage affected more than 10 million customers and 400,000 businesses across Australia. Less than two weeks later, CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin had resigned, CFO Michael Venter had stepped in as interim leader, and the company was searching for a permanent replacement.
Since then, four of the top 10 ASX companies have changed their CEOs — Woolworths, Westpac, NAB and, most recently, ANZ. Other significant CEO departures in 2024 included Star Entertainment, Myer, Nine Ent...

What boards must know to stay afloat

High interest rates, inflation and lingering pandemic effects are driving persistent financial strain and mounting cost pressures on Australian businesses.

The road ahead could be bumpier than many Australian boards are used to, according to John Park, senior managing director and head of Australian corporate finance and restructuring at FTI Consulting. “They’re facing higher inflation, rising interest rates, supply chain disruptions, global unrest and fundamental changes to the demands and...
Business Research and Insights •

Meet the doctors advancing fertility with science plus love

When Dr Haider Najjar left Baghdad, the city was still reeling from the 1990-91 Gulf War and the rumblings of the Iraq War had already begun.
“I came to Melbourne to complete my [medical] training and gained a completely different perspective on life,” he says. “When you arrive in Australia from a war-torn country, the opportunities seem limitless.”
With an interest in female health, his ambition was to be part of a state-of-the-art women’s health clinic that would provide excellent care to wome...

A double materiality assessment looks at the impact of ESG issues

Double materiality considers the impact of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues from two different perspectives. Financial materiality, or the “outside in” view, focuses on how moves towards greater sustainability could introduce risks or opportunities capable of affecting a company’s financial performance. Impact materiality — the “inside out” view — looks at the impact an organisation has on people or the environment. In the European Union, double materiality is central to corpora...

Boards must monitor AGM expectations and developing trends

The single biggest change to Australian annual general meetings (AGMs) has been the introduction of virtual and hybrid formats. Share registry Link Group has been credited with holding the first true hybrid AGM in 2016, although it was COVID-19 restrictions that changed the landscape by leaving companies with little choice but to adopt a technology-driven approach. The benefits quickly became obvious and, as a result, a significant number of AGMs are now conducted either entirely online or in a...

Technology is redefining business models

Board members are highly experienced and, in the past, this was all it took to do a good job. Ongoing education was shrugged off as unnecessary. Times are changing.
“We have to recognise that what we knew yesterday will not serve us well tomorrow,” says Associate Professor Lynn Gribble of the UNSW School of Management and Governance, known for her work with AI and higher education. “Even if we desire just to stay where we are, that requires constant learning and constant adaptation.”
The develop...

Guidance on section 180 compliance

Are directors facing a growing burden of oversight? Section 180 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) outlines the duty of care and diligence required of directors and officers of a corporation. Regulators have pulled sharper focus on whether directors are adequately discharging their duty in relation to the growing number of non-financial risks, from work, health and safety, employee entitlements, cybersecurity, data protection and AI to anti- money laundering, and anti-bribery and corruption laws...
Company Director •

Tim Beresford aims for more visible AFSA - AICD

When Tim Beresford FAICD was appointed CEO of the Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA) in 2022, his vision was for a robust organisation serving the Australian community. “AFSA plays a vital role in the economy by regulating the personal insolvency system and the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR),” he says. “We also manage the proceeds of crime. For example, when the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Taxation Office uncovered a $105m tax fraud scheme during Operat...

Succession planning is simply good governance - AICD

On 8 November 2023, an Optus outage affected more than 10 million customers and 400,000 businesses across Australia. Less than two weeks later, CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin had resigned, CFO Michael Venter had stepped in as interim leader, and the company was searching for a permanent replacement.
Since then, four of the top 10 ASX companies have changed their CEOs — Woolworths, Westpac, NAB and, most recently, ANZ. Other significant CEO departures in 2024 included Star Entertainment, Myer, Nine Ent...
Company Director •

The Australian Business Growth Fund is helping SMEs access funding

“The two biggest limiting factors to SME growth in Australia are access to funding and to the right sorts of skills,” says Anthony Healy MAICD, CEO and managing director of the Australian Business Growth Fund (ABGF). “We set up ABGF as an innovative way to overcome these challenges.”

ABGF is a public-private partnership between the federal government and six leading banks — National Australia Bank (NAB), Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac Banking Corporation, Australia and New Zealand B...
Business Research and Insights •

Pioneer's next move | Business Research and Insights

Dr Derek Mahony was a trailblazer in early orthodontic intervention in Australia. Now he’s set to extend his successful model into a whole new market. When Dr Derek Mahony moved to the UK in 1988, he left a traditional dental practice behind. He returned to Australia three years later with a life-changing business plan.
“Completing a Master’s degree in orthodontics in London introduced me to the concept of early intervention,” he says.
“The traditional approach to orthodontics is to wait until...

How boards need to work collaboratively for better outcomes for First Nations people

The relationship Australia has with its First Nations people is one of the most, if not the most, important issues facing the country today, according to Colin Carter AM FAICD, senior adviser at The Boston Consulting Group. He was speaking at the 26 May webinar, National Reconciliation Week: How organisations can create lasting social impacts, moderated by Louise Petschler GAICD, General Manager, Education & Policy Leadership AICD. Joining Carter on the panel were Cath Brokenborough GAICD, execu...

UniSA pursues lead for First Nations enrolments

Uncle David: The University of South Australia (UniSA) has a proud and celebrated history in Aboriginal education. The university’s founding legislative function is to provide education opportunities for Aboriginal Peoples and its mission is built on the work of pivotal antecedent organisations, including the Aboriginal Studies and Teacher Education Centre (Western Teachers College), Aboriginal Task Force, Anangu Tertiary Education Program, and the School of Aboriginal and Islander Administratio...

Championing First Nations Art Through Reconciliation Action Plans

As a peak body for museums, galleries and Aboriginal cultural centres, prioritising First Nations art and cultural heritage has always been key to our work.
Our first RAP was developed soon after our organisation held a Keeping Places & Beyond summit in 2011. One of the recommendations from this summit was the establishment of the Aboriginal Culture, Heritage and Arts Association (ACHAA), an Aboriginal-led peak body for Aboriginal cultural centres across NSW with M&G NSW playing a secretariat ro...

Human-centred design in the insurance industry

Within one year of its launch in 2020, Singapore-based insurtech company bolttech achieved unicorn status. Series A funding of US$210 million — said to be the highest ever in this sector — lifted its valuation to over US$1 billion. Within two years, the company had a presence in more than 30 countries across the Asia Pacific, Europe and the Americas.

“The vision of bolttech is really quite simple — to connect people with more ways to protect the things they value,” the company’s chief customer...
ACUITY •

How are women shaping the future of AI?

When AI creators are mostly men, there’s a danger that bias will disadvantage women. Here’s how one group is preventing this.By day, Angela Kim is head of insights, reporting and data analytics and AI at health insurance provider AIA. In her free time, she volunteers as ambassador and chief education officer at the not-for-profit Women in AI (WAI).
Launched in Paris in 2016, WAI has grown from a small Facebook group into a community of more than 8000 members in 140 countries. It has a mission to...

Navigating risk in the evolving D&O insurance landscape

In 2018, the big news in Directors and Officers (D&O) insurance was soaring premiums. Successive years of underpriced capacity and rising claims activity had triggered a “hard market” phase that was to last for four years. Today, higher rates are attracting new carriers, increasing competition and driving down costs — at least for the time being. Insurers may need to increase premiums to offset increases in the cost of defending a claim and any compensation caused by global inflation.
“During th...

Technology is redefining business models

Board members are highly experienced and, in the past, this was all it took to do a good job. Ongoing education was shrugged off as unnecessary. Times are changing.
“We have to recognise that what we knew yesterday will not serve us well tomorrow,” says Associate Professor Lynn Gribble of the UNSW School of Management and Governance, known for her work with AI and higher education. “Even if we desire just to stay where we are, that requires constant learning and constant adaptation.”
The develop...
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