Sandra Yates AO

" For me, the joy of coaching is the opportunity to work with emerging leaders and help optimise their potential. Helping over-achievers over-achieve is what I love to do."

An impressive career in advertising and publishing has provided Sandra with the skills to develop in her coaching clients the type of “out of the box” thinking that separates followers from leaders.

With a wide network of contacts in media, government, business and the community, Sandra says she draws on her intuition, empathy, energy and diagnostic skills to help her clients sharpen their strategic focus and achieve change and success.

In particular, her experience in managing several national political campaigns ensures that she can communicate behavioural insights, discipline, and an intensity of focus for clients transitioning to major roles.

An independent company director with broad, international management experience, particularly in consumer marketing, Sandra was formerly chair of multinational advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi from 1996 to 2004, and she retains strong links with the firm.

Prior to joining Saatchi & Saatchi in 1996, Sandra had a long history in the print media, both in Australia and the US. She was publisher of Time magazine from 1990 to 1993, steering the magazine to its current position as the leading news and business magazine in Australia. Sandra also worked  for the Fairfax organization for almost a decade in both newspapers and magazines.

Included in Sandra’s contributions to the community, Sandra has been chair of the Australian Council for Women, the body established to advise the Government on its participation at the fourth UN Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. She was chair of the NSW TAFE Commission Board from 1998 to 2007, and is a former President of Chief Executive Women and the YWCA of Sydney. Sandra is currently Chair of the Sydney Writers’ Festival.

In 2002, Sandra was honoured with an appointment as Officer in the Order of Australia for services to vocational education and training, women’s organizations and the advertising industry.