Dame Quentin Bryce, Australia’s 25th Governor-General, has led an exceptional career spanning academia and Australian public service.

Dame Quentin was one of the earliest women to be admitted to the Queensland bar having graduated from the University of Queensland with Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts degrees in 1965. In 1968 she became the first female appointment at the T. C. Beirne School of Law at the University of Queensland from 1968 to 1983, when she served as a lecturer in law.

In parallel she gained prominence in a variety of quasi-public sector roles. The first of which, an appointment to the National Women’s Advisory Council, highlighted what would become a career long advocacy for gender equity at all levels of government and public sector leadership. She would eventually convene the Council in 1982. Through the mid-1980s and early 1990s she was variously the first Director of the Queensland Women’s Information Service, the women’s representative on the National Committee on Discrimination in Employment and Occupation, the Queensland Director of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, as well as the Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner.

Admiral Gilday served more than 38 years as a Surface Warfare Officer before retiring from the U.S. Navy in October 2023 as the 32nd Chief of Naval Operations and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

At sea, he served on destroyers, cruisers, and aircraft carriers. Gilday commanded the guided missile destroyers USS HIGGINS (DDG 76) and USS BENFOLD (DDG 65) as well as Destroyer Squadron 7, where he served as Sea Combat Commander for the RONALD REAGAN Carrier Strike Group.

As a flag officer, Gilday commanded Carrier Strike Group 8 embarked aboard USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (CVN 69). He also served as Commander of U.S. 10th Fleet and U.S. Fleet Cyber Command.