MEDIA: The Age

One of Australia's leading female executives has urged women to throw in their corporate jobs and start their own businesses...

Deena Shiff, the Group Managing Director of Telstra Business, said women already ran a third of the nation's small to medium enterprises, and the proportion rose to half when home-based businesses were included. ''And these are not pin-money businesses; some are phenomenal and they are less burdened by debt and more likely to turn a profit more quickly,'' she said yesterday. Ms Shiff was addressing a lunch organised by Executive Women Australia on the topic: ''Will Gender Balance Boost the Bottom Line?''

For Paula Ward, leaving the corporate world to start her own business has been a positive move. Formerly the Director of Human Resources at Goldman Sachs JBWere, she wanted a more general management role. She has now founded a sports education business... 

Read the full article which appeared in The Age on 2 March 2011.