Sam Mostyn

Samantha Joy Mostyn (born 13 September 1965) is an Australian businesswoman and climate change and gender equity advocate, and first female AFL commissioner.

Mostyn was president at Chief Executive Women in 2021–22.

She is a board member on numerous boards, including Mirvac, Transurban, GO Foundation, the Climate Council, Virgin Australia, and the Sydney Swans.

The Mostyn Medal, for "best and fairest" women in AFL Sydney, is named after her.

In April 2024, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced that Mostyn will be sworn in as the 28th Governor-General of Australia on 1 July 2024.

Samantha Joy Mostyn was born around 1965 in Canberra, ACT the eldest of four sisters.

One of her sisters has an intellectual disability, so the family was involved in the disability sector.

Their father was an army colonel, William "Bill" Mostyn, a graduate of the Royal Military College Duntroon who served for almost 40 years.

He served as a major in the Royal Australian Signal Corps at ADF's Vietnam headquarters during the Vietnam War.

Although most of her early years were spent in Canberra, being the family of a military man meant moving around a lot, and included two years of Sam living in Adelaide with her grandmother while her father was in Vietnam.

She also lived in Melbourne, the United States, and Canada.

She played a lot of sport as a child, and loved to watch Australian rules football, although not having the opportunity to play herself.

She remembers attending the ANZAC Dawn Service each year with her family.

Mostyn holds a BA and LLB from the Australian National University (1986 and 1989 respectively).

She undertook research for local chief magistrate Ron Cahill, who was a "rabid" Collingwood fan, while she studied.

Mostyn has held many non-executive roles in business and government, and has also been involved with advocacy organisations and issues that relate to climate change, gender equality, Indigenous reconciliation, and environmental sustainability.

Her work has included roles in business strategy, human resources, culture change, risk management, and community engagement.

After leaving university, Mostyn trained as a solicitor while working part-time in the Magistrates Court of New South Wales and later as an associate to Michael Kirby in the New South Wales Court of Appeal.

She worked as a solicitor for Freehills and Gilbert + Tobin.

In 1992, Mostyn joined the office of transport and communications minister Bob Collins as a senior policy adviser, specialising in intellectual property and also advising on the introduction of pay television to Australia.

She subsequently moved to the office of communications and arts minister Michael Lee, before briefly joining the Seven Network as a broadcast policy manager.

In 1995, Mostyn was recruited by prime minister Paul Keating to work in his office as a communications policy adviser.

Mostyn joined telecommunications company Optus in 1996 after leaving Paul Keating's office.

As the company's director of government and corporate affairs, she was named "one of the most powerful women in the information technology industry" in 1998 by the Australian Financial Review.

In the same year, Mostyn was recruited to join Cable & Wireless plc in London as global head of human resources.

She was also appointed by Keating to the board of the organising committee for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, where she served until 1996.

In 2022, Mostyn was appointed by the Albanese government as chair of its Women's Economic Equality Taskforce, a post which she still holds.

In 2023, this taskforce recommended that paid parental leave should be extended to a year.

In 2000, she returned to Optus as director of human resources and corporate development.

She moved to Insurance Australia Group in 2002 as group executive of culture and reputation.

In 2005, Mostyn was appointed to the AFL Commission as its first female member.

She left IAG in 2008.

In 2010, Mostyn was appointed to the board of Transurban.

ANROWS is an independent, not-for-profit research organisation which was established in 2013 by the Commonwealth and all state and territory governments in a bid to conduct and encourage research that would help to end domestic violence in Australia.

In 2021 she was on the board of Mirvac, and was named by the Australian Financial Review as Australia's "most influential" company director, serving on boards with a combined market capitalisation of over $480 billion.

Also that year, she was appointed non-executive director of Citibank Australia, and in 2015 she was appointed chair of Citi Australia's consumer bank.

She served as a commissioner until 2016 and was a key figure in the development of the Australian Football League's Respect and Responsibility Policy, as well as an advocate for the creation of the AFL Women's competition.

From 2017, she directed the Sydney Swans for six seasons.

She continues to support the community work done by the GO Foundation, established and run by former footballers Adam Goodes and Michael O'Loughlin.

On 20 April 2018 she was appointed as a director to the board of Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS), and was appointed as chair on 3 March 2022, with her term set to end on 2 March 2026.