Jacki Johnson has had an illustrious executive career, but she came from modest beginnings. Born in Liverpool, England, her family emigrated to Australia when she was six years old. ‘My parents were £10 POMs, but children were free. So I arrived free,’ Johnson recalls. 

She describes her father as a very smart man who had to leave school at 14 in order to work. ‘His mantra was education, because he never had the opportunity. So it was expected that you do well in school and go to uni,’ Johnson says.  

Johnson wanted to be an engineer because she was good at science and maths, but says, ‘my father, working in factories, and sexist of course, thought that this was the worst thing for his daughter to do.’

So she did a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy at the University of Sydney.  ‘I landed my first job at Westmead hospital and I worked in burns, amputees and head injuries. As a 20-year-old, it was very confronting seeing people who had lost limbs through work accidents,’ says Johnson. 

‘I was fascinated about how do these accidents happen? And why should they be prevented?’

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