Rachael Greaves, the Co-Founder and CEO of Canberra-headquartered artificial intelligence (AI) compliance software specialist, Castlepoint Systems, has been named the RegTech female entrepreneur of the year.
Greaves' award was one of two presented to Castlepoint systems, with the company awarded RegTech of the year (Australian Founded).
Judged by an expert cross-industry panel, the awards celebrate the association's members who have achieved the most significant impact over the last year.
"I am thrilled to be named the female entrepreneur of the year for 2022," says Rachael Greaves, CEO and Co-Founder, Castlepoint.
"The awards are a great honour, and it's a real privilege to be named a winner and recognised for our business growth, innovation, contribution and our active participation that benefits the entire RegTech community.
"I am also very proud of our Castlepoint team, our company and our mission, and to be recognised by the judges as the Australian Founded RegTech of 2022 is very humbling and rewarding."
The RegTech Association encourages more women into RegTech, and by giving the female entrepreneur award, they play an active role in ensuring increased gender equity.
"We must strive to achieve an equitable gender balance and employ people who represent community demographics, including younger and older people, indigenous people, migrants, people with a disability, and LGBTQIA+ people," says Greaves.
"We must actively approach people who represent diverse attributes for consideration in our recruitment activities to ensure the candidate pool is representative of the community. Although hiring decisions resulting from these activities will be based on merit, if women and other minorities are not represented in the recruitment round, none of their inherent merit can be noticed or nurtured."
Greaves also feels men need support to help challenge outdated and damaging ideas about parenting, care, and service in the community.
"When men are not empowered and encouraged to take leave for these reasons, women in their families are left to carry the weight, perpetuating the cycle of exclusion from the workplace," Greaves says.
"We must also support men to carry their share of emotional labour in the workplace, including working to make all their colleagues feel included and valued.
"It may seem counterintuitive, but my advice for other women in my position is to keep doing what we have always done – expend some of our time and bandwidth helping others. Our investment in the next generation of men and women in RegTech will pay dividends in the future."
