ADM sat down to chat with Dr Susan McGinty, CEO and founder of The Asstembly and 2025 ADM 30 Under 30 MC, about Women in leadership and all things STEM.
Dr Susan McGinty is the CEO and Founder of The Asstembly, and previously Aya Leadership. She is an award-winning scientist and global STEM and Security leadership development expert, speaker and author.
ADM: Why should industry invest in developing female leaders, in particular?
The ability to recruit, train and retain a highly skilled, diverse STEM workforce is fundamental to the industry’s ability to increase capability. It is essential to rapidly translate disruptive new technologies into ADF capability, develop critical technologies under AUKUS, and build a national industrial base with a capacity to scale. Investing in leadership training for emerging and early-career female leaders will extend the impact of their technical capabilities through professionalisation and leadership. This is going to help retain those highly skilled women in the sector. At an individual level women who are given access to leadership training experience significant growth in leadership confidence, communication, influence and performance capability. This growth translates into women speaking with greater authority, shaping key discussions and delivering in demanding environments – behaviours that strengthen defence sector organisations at their core. But the benefit goes beyond individual women and their organisations. The more women there are in leadership roles, the more inclusive workplace cultures become and that will attract and retain diverse skill-sets within the sector.
ADM: What are the longer term benefits when investment is made in emerging and early-career female STEM leaders?
When investment is made in an organisation’s young female STEM talent the longer-term results are measurable. The organisation becomes more attractive to future talent recruitment, there is a rapid expansion of quality leaders, and a wider more robust leadership pipeline is established. It also leads to the development of a more diverse and inclusive organisational culture that is able to more effectively adapt to rapid technological change and achieve better innovation and performance outcomes. There have been numerous studies that show, beyond all doubt, that more diverse organisations have better outcomes across all metrics including the bottom line.
ADM: Can you tell us more about your career journey and how you have ended up where you are today?
I started my career in science research with a PhD in Medicinal and Organic Chemistry. I worked for a decade in science research, including some teaching and mentoring, before moving into defence and national security as a technical specialist in the Department of Defence. I became fascinated with leadership theory and practice. At first because I wanted to understand and apply leadership effectively, but as I started to observe the impact of good and bad leadership on people, performance and innovation, I became fascinated with both the art and science of leadership as a set of behavioural traits and as a capability enabler (or disabler). Throughout my career I observed and experienced the challenges of leadership development and progression for women in male-dominated sectors like STEM and defence. Women don’t lead the same way men do, and we weren’t progressing into leadership roles and accessing opportunities at the same rate as men. I also observed some clear leadership capability gaps that were impacting team and organisational culture and performance across the sectors.
During my15 years as a leader in defence and national security I had female STEM employees and colleagues consistently asking for support in their development. However, there was no tailored leadership development specifically for women in STEM or security. I knew someone had to fill the gap; I felt so passionately that I decided I would give it a go. In 2019, I took everything I had learnt (theoretically and practically) about leadership, undertook a range of research and new leadership learning, and developed a very successful (pilot) non-traditional leadership program that unlocked leadership skills and confidence in women. I decided to continue the program and in 2020 Aya Leadership was born, as a specialised leadership development partner for STEM and Security organisations, with a strong focus on women’s leadership development, and a vision for sustained leadership diversity (50 percent female representation) across the sectors at all leadership levels. In 2022, I left the public service and transitioned to become a full-time CEO (my third career). Our suite of leadership programs expanded, demand for our expertise grew, and since 2022 we have been working with STEM and security leaders across 6 continents. We continue to have a strong focus on the defence and national security sectors. In 2025, we ran Australia’s first Women in Defence Industry Leadership Initiative, successfully expanding the leadership skills, confidence and experience of emerging and early-career female leaders in the industry.
In 2025, Aya Leadership rebranded to The Asstembly, expanding our specialisation to embed inclusive leadership and culture at the heart of STEM and security innovation. Because we know that diversity is useless to an organisation without inclusion. We are known globally for our tailored women’s leadership training and have won multiple awards in recognition of that. I feel incredibly privileged to both teach and learn from leaders at all levels, with all types of specialist expertise, all working to innovate and solve complex problems, and create team and workplace cultures that value people.
ADM: Do you have any advice for the young people just starting out in their defence industry careers?
Know what is important to you and work in an area you are passionate about. Keep learning every day. Ask for opportunities to learn, to gain experience and to contribute. Take opportunities that come your way with courage and curiosity: a squiggly career path is more fun and rewarding than a straight one. There will always be challenges, so learn to be resilient and adaptive. Don’t be afraid to speak up and share your perspectives, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Get yourself a mentor. You don’t need a strict career plan; however, you do need to be in control of your career. If you don’t feel valued in your organisation, find a new organisation. Australia’s defence industry is so broad and full of so many opportunities to try new things, innovate and make a real contribution to something meaningful.