1. Leading with impact
Female leader profile: Emily Mather
1. What is your role?
I am the Regional Director for Marketing and Communications, Asia Pacific. In Asia, I
oversee our Asia Marcomms team. In Pacific I‟m responsible for the Pacific Marcomms
team, and the Finishing First and Client Care & Development teams.
2. What are you working on at the moment?
You may have read in a recent memo that we have a newly appointed Chief Marketing
Officer, based in New York. A key focus for him at the moment is getting to know and understand what Marketing
strategies are in place across our global regions, so I am spending a fair bit of time with him working through our
APAC plans and outputs. I‟m looking forward to getting an understanding of his plans going forward as well,
particularly around our brand strategy.
3. How did you come to your role at CBRE?
I have a background in professional services marketing and was looking for a new direction after working in both
accounting and law (in marketing and business development roles). I knew nothing about commercial property
but was interested in the challenge….!
4. What was your first job?
Apart from a large number of check-out chick and waitressing roles while at university, my first „real‟ job was at
NAB, on their graduate trainee program, going in to their Marketing team.
5. Name a business leader you admire and why?
A bit of an obscure one, but Julian Metcalfe and Sinclair Beechman – who jointly launched Pret a Manger in a train
station in London with a name borrowed from a boarded up shop. They started with a small vision of providing
fresh food at lunchtimes. I came across them in 1997 when they were a small client of BDO in London, where I was
working at the time. I loved the case study we did on their entrepreneurship and amazing growth, from such a
small but passionate start. They now have 116 stores spread across the UK, 25 of which are in New York and Hong
Kong. In the reading I‟ve done it appears they have the same spirit they had back in the 1990s – passion across
three key areas which ultimately leads to brand success. These passions are fresh food; their staff; and pride in
their business. Oh – and I love their sandwiches and am waiting for their first Sydney store!
6. What is your leadership mantra?
I don‟t know that I‟ve ever had a mantra but certainly the things I remind myself to focus on regularly, in no
particular order, are: creativity; my team; innovation; my family. I reckon if I can get the balance right across each
of this I‟m heading in the right direction.
7. What is your favorite leadership/personal quote to inspire success?
I love these two!
“Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.”
~Charlotte Whitton

2. Leading with impact
Female leader profile: Emily Mather
“A woman is like a tea bag: you cannot tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.” ~Nancy Reagan