Bronwyn started her medical career working on the lung cancer unit at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne and the devastating impact of tobacco on her patients left a deep impression.
In 2010 after discovering that her superannuation fund portfolio included investments in the tobacco industry, a discovery that hit her and her colleagues hard, Bronwyn began discussing tobacco-free investment with the finance industry. While continuing to practise as a radiation oncologist, she then founded Tobacco Free Portfolios, which has contributed to over 30 Australian Superannuation Funds divesting tobacco stocks. The initiative now has global reach with Tobacco Free Portfolios working with 100+ pension funds, Sovereign Wealth funds, banks, insurers and fund managers.
As CEO of Tobacco Free Portfolios, a not-for-profit organisation, she collaborates with the world’s largest financial organisations to drive global change towards tobacco-free finance. Tobacco-free finance policies have since been implemented by more than 40 Australian superannuation funds as well as Sovereign Wealth funds, banks, insurers and fund managers in ten countries, including BNP Paribas, AXA and Australian Super. She has made a global impact in this space, with more than AU$12 billion diverted away from investment in tobacco and as such is arguably responsible for the saving of countless lives around the world.
In March 2015, at her urging, the Union for International Cancer Control launched the Global Task Force for Tobacco Free Portfolios to expand this initiative to a global platform. In 2016, Tobacco Free Portfolios was delighted to see tobacco-free investment policies implemented by AXA (1.8B Euro divested), AP4 - one of Sweden's largest pension funds, Fonds de Reserve pour Les Retraites - France's largest pension fund, the Irish Sovereign Wealth Fund and CalPERS, the largest pension fund in the USA.
In August 2018 La Trobe University was a founding signatory and the first university to sign up to the world’s first Tobacco-Free Finance Pledge. The Pledge’s aim is to ‘de-normalise’ tobacco by ending all business and financial ties with the industry, and reduce the annual death toll of 7 million who die from preventable, tobacco-related illnesses. Launched on 26 September at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, finance leaders joined with world leaders from government and health to launch The Pledge, with over 120 Founding Signatories and supporters.
Bronwyn is married to another radiation oncologist, Dr Mark Shaw, and together they have two young boys. By her own admission, she is not the poster woman for work life balance but credits the support from her husband, parents and nanny in helping her keep up with an extraordinary number of professional commitments and her role as a mum to two young sons. Her boys, she hopes, will come to understand the dedication and sacrifice it takes to become a passionate agent of change.
She sums it up in one of her favourite quotes:
‘There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life.’ – Alain de Botton