Shirley Chowdhary
Shirley is the CEO of the GO Foundation. In 2019, Shirley was listed as one of 100 Women of Influence by the Australian Financial Review.
Shirley started her career as a lawyer at the New York law firm of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. She worked in Japan and across Asia for 8 years, as an Associate at Cleary Gottlieb and as Regional Counsel for JP Morgan Investment Management.
After working on a number of community initiatives, including writing a biography for a World War 2 Prisoner-of-War, Shirley returned to banking and finance joining the legal team at BT Financial Group and Westpac Banking Corporation. Prior to joining the GO Foundation, Shirley was Counsel in the Treasury team at Westpac.
Shirley is a strong advocate for Reconciliation and the strength that all Australians can all draw from Indigenous Australia and its heritage and culture, the oldest living culture in the world. She believes fiercely in the power of diversity and inclusion and is an advocate for increasing diversity amongst corporate and not-for-profit boards, and senior management.
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Who is GO
Founded by Adam Goodes and Michael O’Loughlin (with much help from their good mate, James Gallichan), the GO Foundation began its focus on education in 2014. With strong foundations in place, GO is now expanding its program beyond independent schools into public schools and universities.
We seek to support our students through the GO Ecosystem, a three-way collaboration with CareerTrackers and AIME, supported by corporate Australia, schools and universities and Indigenous organisations working to create a brighter future for Indigenous Australians.
The GO Ecosystem is based on the concept that by working together, we can empower Indigenous Australian youth to change their own lives. With its trusted partners, and with culture at the heart of everything we do, we provide mentoring, leadership, networks and support to GO students on their journey from Kindergarten to Employment.
HOW WE DO THIS
1 Increase the number of scholarships to Indigenous students in Kindergarten through to university. The financial assistance gives GO students access to the tools and resources they need and the Ecosystem provides them with opportunities to broaden their perspectives.
2 Make the journey through school more rich and rewarding for our scholarship students so they choose to go onto further education. Our research shows that if our students complete further education of any type, they are empowered to change their own future. By providing the tools and opportunities we believe our students will choose to go onto further education.
3 We work with our Ecosystem partners to make their workplaces culturally safe and inclusive. We believe that our Indigenous culture and heritage should be shared and celebrated within our workplaces so that all Indigenous Australians can take their authentic selves to their work, every day. This is how we will create long-lasting, systems change.