Cathryn Lyall (1982–1984), a venture capital (VC) investor and non-executive director of various fintech initiatives, grew up along the eastern coast in Kiama, New South Wales. The daughter of two educators, she attended agriculture-based Dapto High School and was heavily involved in the Australian Junior Slalom Canoeing team.
She enrolled in the Australian National University at 17 and started her academic career in Economics until finally settling on an Arts degree with majors in Political Science and English.
‘After graduation’, said Cathryn, ‘I was accepted into DFAT to go into Foreign Affairs. However, before stepping into the role at DFAT, I decided to take a year off for travel.
‘I worked on Hayman Island, travelled around Australia and overseas, and came back to Sydney, where [my then-boyfriend] was working in Financial Markets. I was going to waitress for the final few months, but he suggested I get a job as a Futures Broker, so we would both be working in capital markets.
‘He took me to a popular bar for capital markets traders and bankers in the Sydney CBD on Thursday night, and by 10 o'clock I had a job starting on Monday. The company was Allstate's Futures, which was one of the five official dealers in interest rates with the Reserve Bank at that time, and I was the newest trainee Client Advisor.
‘But Monday was the 19th of October in 1987, the infamous Crash of ’87.’
Despite never even having seen a Futures floor, Cathryn was thrust into the chaos, handling phones and taking orders in the office and transmitting them to the open-outside Sydney Futures Exchange trading floor.
Though the experience was a trial by fire, Cathryn found the work fascinating, and after deferring her DFAT entry for another year she ended up working on the trading floor as a client advisor and trader, navigating the ups and downs of the floor and markets for the next 12 years as one of only a handful of women brokers, traders and ultimately a Trading Floor Manager for the State Bank of NSW.
Although she faced numerous challenges, including having to design a special box to stand on to be seen and heard over her taller male colleagues in the trading pit, she thrived, and worked hard to mentor and uplift her team members as she progressed.
As technology advanced and she transitioned to electronic trading, Cathryn continued to break barriers, eventually moving to London where she worked for 18 years, setting up and managing businesses for renowned institutions like the Chicago Board of Trade, NASDAQ, the London Stock Exchange, ICAP, establishing the Brazilian Exchange B3 in London, and landing a role on the Deutsche Bank UK Bank Board.
Years later with a veteran career behind her, she pivoted towards seeking more board roles, which allowed her greater flexibility to pursue motherhood. She decided to set up her own venture capital fund in the UK with three other partners, focusing on investing in early-stage capital markets fintech.
‘When you're kid-free and especially if you're younger, that's the time to travel and take those risks, to do those bigger, very time-consuming jobs’, said Cathryn. ‘But I knew with kids, it was going to get hard. So, I started telling everyone I wanted to do board roles, and I wanted to do something in capital markets, but there weren’t a lot of women on boards back then.’
Recognising another opportunity to uplift and empower others, Cathryn founded WILD (Women In Listed Derivatives) in the UK, an organisation dedicated to increasing female representation in senior roles in the derivatives industry and financial services more broadly, becoming the inaugural WILD Board Chair.
‘We worked hard to get women promoted into senior roles and it was very successful. We saw some global heads of derivatives appointed in the banks on the back of raising their profile, giving them speaking opportunities and chances to show what they could do in different forums’, said Cathryn.
Her extensive professional experience, coupled with her advocacy for greater women’s representation on finance industry boards, laid the groundwork for her current Non-Executive Director board roles for both Listed and Unlisted companies, and her position as Partner for Seed Space Venture Capital, a VC firm that supports early-stage innovative financial service technology companies driven by strong leadership and purpose-oriented missions.
She’s also the proud mother of 11-year-old twin girls, and despite living and travelling all over the world, she has once again found her home in Kiama, closer to family.
Cathryn says her Burgmann ties remain strong, and she’s grateful for the fond memories of her time at College.
‘I remain engaged with the ANU via my ANU UK Foundation Board Director role, but my lifelong friends and connections all stem from Burgmann. You have so many experiences together, and there are so many rich opportunities to join clubs and activities, and of course the social life is so important. I learnt a lot about myself as much as any of my academic studies and that enabled me to carve out a career in a very non-traditional work environment for women at that time.
‘The early ’80s were a special time at Burgmann where many regional young people like me were living and learning with peers from the cities, and it was a very egalitarian culture. That environment set me up to thrive in the frenetic and challenging trading floor environment and I am forever grateful for that.’
Recently, Burgmann residents invited Cathryn to a Round Table event where she shared her stories of her days at College, her professional trajectory, and her insights on career development.
‘Follow your heart. If you are passionate about something, it’s not work, it’s a purpose’, she said. ‘But always take time to step back and assess: “Do I have balance in my life?”
‘Your time at university will be some of the most enriching and fun years of your life, but I promise, through the highs and lows of carving out your purpose in this world, you will have many, many more enriching experiences. Build your personal “board” around you; seek out peers, mentors and advocates at every stage of life, and most importantly, leverage the incredible network of connections Burgmann gives you.
‘My incredible Mum gave me a little quote to hang on my wall at Burgmann when I left home. She was an educator with a PhD who was skilled in building teams at every educational institution she led. While she is a natural introvert, she encouraged me to always remember Oscar Wilde’s quote, “Life is too important to be taken seriously”.’
