Jillian Segal

Jillian Shirley Segal is an Australian lawyer and business executive and Australia's Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism. She is known for her contributions on the boards of government, commercial and non-profit organisations.

Early life and education
Segal was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. Moving to Sydney, Australia, she completed her education at Kambala School in 1973. She then graduated from the University of New South Wales with a BA/LLB and won the University Medal in Law in 1979. Segal received an LLM from Harvard Law School.

Career
Segal's first job was associate to Sir Anthony Mason, judge in the High Court of Australia. She joined Allen, Allen and Hemsley as a senior associate and was promoted to partner, before leaving to serve as a commissioner and subsequently deputy chair of the Australian Securities & Investments Commission.

From 2003 to 2015 she was on the board of the Australian Securities Exchange and from 2004 to 2016 on the board of the National Australia Bank. She served on the Council of the Australian War Memorial from 2014 to 2017 and was deputy chancellor of the University of New South Wales from 2010 to 2019.

Since 2008 Segal has been chairman of the General Sir John Monash Foundation that administers the John Monash Scholarships. She has served on the board of the Sydney Opera House Trust since 2014.

Segal was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2005 Queen's Birthday Honours for "service to business law in Australia, particularly in the areas of financial services reform and market regulation, and to the community through a range of organisations". She was promoted to Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2019 Australia Day Honours for "distinguished service to the banking and financial regulation sectors, to not-for-profit organisations, and to women".

As of 2022 Segal is a community representative on the Council for the Order of Australia. She has been a board member of the Garvan Institute since 2009. She is also the immediate past president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ).

On 11 October 2023 in a rally for Israel vigil after 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, Segal, then President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said "Our world has changed, the barbarians have breached the gates,"

Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism
On 9 July 2024, Segal was appointed for a term of three years Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism in Australia to the Australian Government by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Her appointment was praised by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the representative body of Australian Jewry, and received bi-partisan support from the federal Coalition. The appointment came after campaigning by Jewish communal organizations to create a position to fight the rise in antisemitism post October 7, 2023. The Jewish Council of Australia, a left-leaning organisation formed earlier in 2024, stated they were concerned that Segal would not be able to distinguish between criticism of Israel and antisemitism.