Late last week we joined in a fond farewell to Judith van Unen, SEA’s President until early this year. Judith recently passed away after a well-fought battle with cancer.
Judith’s Memorial service was last Friday 3rd June. Here’s her Memorial page.
Judith was an inspiration. As a serial entrepreneur she started her first business while at school. Her qualifications included Interior Design and Manufacturing Engineering.
She was a Business Performance Strategist with consultancies across international corporations, small business, all levels of government and not-for-profit organisations.
Her passion was women in the workplace. An important part of her work involved business training in post-conflict and post-disaster countries. She was particularly skilled in international relations covering policy, nonprofit organisations. She had been a civil society expert advisor for the Australian government at the United Nations and numerous government consultative bodies.
Judith was a prominent activist for women in business and the economy, nationally and internationally. She attended the UN Commission for the Status of Women annually since 2000, was a member of the United Nations Association of Australia and a highly active member of Business & Professional Women.
As a board member of SEA, then our President, Judith was instrumental in overseeing our campaigns on ATO reform, ‘beefing up’ unfair contract laws and guiding our Not Above the Law campaign to prosecute the Victorian government over its Hotel Quarantine disaster in 2020.
Judith’s contribution to small business—particularly women in small business—was major, both nationally and internationally. For that we thank her heaps and miss her skilled guiding hand.