Christine Holgate

Christine Holgate (born 1963/1964) is a British-Australian business executive who is the chief executive of Team Global Express, having held similar roles at Australia Post and Blackmores. She was the first woman to be named as the "CEO of the Year" by CEO Magazine, in 2015.

She came to media attention in 2020, while at Australia Post, for having purchased four Cartier watches worth , equivalent to in , for senior management executives. After being grilled by a Senate committee and being pressured into resigning by prime minister of Australia Scott Morrison, an independent investigation later reported that she had done nothing wrong.

Early life and education Christine Holgate was born in 1964 or 1965 in England. in Cheshire, England. Holgate's father was an entrepreneur and ran a construction company. When Holgate was 15, she cleaned windows with a friend and had a van selling ice–creams. In London, Holgate met Florence Knight, who financially supported her to pursue a business degree at the University of North London. She gained her diploma in management in 1986 and completed her Master of Business Administration degree in 1991. After graduating from university, she worked for Allied Healthcare and BBC News. In 1988, she joined the telecommunication company Cable & Wireless and started her international career. During her 12 years at Cable & Wireless, Holgate directed the company’s marketing department, In 2000, Holgate joined J.P. Morgan as the "Managing Director of Marketing" of its European subsidiary. She was the only woman in J.P. Morgan's executive team in Europe during her incumbent period. and became the marketing director.

Blackmores In 2008, Holgate left Telstra to join health supplements company Blackmores as chief executive officer and managing director.

Within her first two months, Holgate identified that Blackmores operations in Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan were neglected. In 2009, she appointed Peter Osborne to direct Blackmores business in Asia and minimise the entry barriers. Osborne had worked in Asia for more than 20 years before his appointment. The proposal of Blackmores caused "national outrage" and the "strong level of public concern". To help increase sales of Blackmores in the Chinese market, she was photographed with the president of China Xi Jinping and Australian prime minister Tony Abbott. Her picture with the two leaders was widely circulated in China and helped attract local consumers. At the end of 2014-15, Blackmores sales in the Chinese market increased to $50 million and they reached $500 million in 2015-16. and Christine Holgate was named the first female CEO of the Year in November. into the major health supplement exporter to Asia.

Australia Post Holgate resigned from Blackmores in 2017 to become CEO of Australia Post, the first woman in that role. Her job was to manage the modernisation of Australia Post’s logistics system and its 33,000 workforce. Holgate had no previous experience in managing logistics systems. She also had direct experience as a Christmas postal worker while a student in North London. which was done preserving traditional red livery and name Australia Post.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Holgate had to deal with a number of problems at Australia Post, including significant delays and cuts in service, allegations of the intrusive surveillance of staff, the planned payment of executive bonuses at a time when public servants were expected to take pay cuts, a bipartisan Senate committee accusing Holgate of attempting to avoid parliamentary scrutiny of Australia Post, and Holgate's personal intervention in the attempted delivery of Pauline Hanson's One Nation-branded stubby holders to locked-down public housing towers in Melbourne after Hanson made inflammatory comments about tower residents.

Further controversy arose when Holgate revealed at an appearance before a Senate committee on 22 October 2020 that Australia Post had purchased four Cartier watches in total worth , equivalent to in , as gifts for senior management executives who secured a lucrative deal with three Australian banks. On 2 November 2020, she offered her resignation, stating that she would not seek financial compensation. A subsequent report by law firm Maddocks, commissioned by the government, found that no specific policy that would support provision of Cartier watches had been identified, and that there was no evidence of fraud or corruption. Toll In May 2021, Holgate was appointed CEO of Team Global Express.

Other roles and memberships Holgate is or was an inaugural chair of the board of the Australia-ASEAN Council. She was one of 20 business leaders invited to the 2014 G20 Brisbane summit.

Holgate is a board member of the Collingwood Football Club.

Awards and recognition In 2011, Holgate won a Chief Executive Women scholarship and attended the Women's Leadership Forum at the Harvard Business School.

In 2015, Holgate won the "Women in Leadership" award at the Australian Growth Company Awards.

In October 2015, Holgate was named one of the "100 Women of Influence" in Australia by the Australian Financial Review.

In November 2015, Holgate was awarded "Australian CEO of the Year" by The CEO Magazine, the first woman to win the award. In 2016, Holgate was runner-up in the Australian CEO of the Year award.

In 2019, Holgate received the Sir Charles McGrath award from the Australian Marketing Institute.

She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2026 King's Birthday Honours in recognition of her "significant service to business through a range of executive roles".

Personal life In January 2016, Holgate married Michael Harding, the chairman of the Downer Group, She has a close relationship with her nephews Brian and Eddie, the sons of Holgate's late sister, Elizabeth, which was the reason for the wedding being held in England.