Diana Taylor is a remarkable AFL administrator and leader who serves on the board of the Geelong Football Club. Diana is one of 13 women who received a scholarship through the Australian Sports Commission’s Sport Leadership Grants and Scholarships for Women (SLGSfW) 2009–10 program. The SLGSfW program was established as a way to assist women to reach their leadership potential on the sporting stage as coaches, officials and administrators.

Diana, who works as a commercial lawyer in Melbourne, has achieved a lot within Australian rules football. She was the first woman to be appointed to the Victorian Football League tribunal and appeals boards and the first female president of a men’s Melbourne metropolitan football league (the Western Region Football League, 2008-09). As president of the Western Region Football League, Diana established the Women’s Football Foundation, an organisation that encourages and promotes the role of women in Australian rules football.

Earlier this year Diana was appointed to the Board of the Geelong Football Club. To help her prepare for this role she used her SLGSfW scholarship to fund study towards a diploma from the Australian Institute of Company Directors and to take a media training course.

Diana has found the SLGSfW program extremely valuable. She is especially enthusiastic about the residential leadership workshop, in which she participated in October last year.

‘The residential weekend enabled me to take time out to focus on what is important to me in sport, what I want to achieve and how I might achieve these goals.’

‘It is an invaluable part of the scholarship experience and also provided me with the opportunity to meet many inspiring women from across Australia who are passionate about sport and want to take on greater leadership roles within their respective organisations.’

Diana believes the SLFSfW program offers women remarkable opportunities to grow as leaders in sport that have never previously been available and encourages any woman who wants explore their leadership potential to apply.