What is the 2026 International Women's Day theme in Australia?

The 2026 IWD theme, announced by UN Women Australia, is "Balance the Scales." It calls for urgent, collective action to address systemic barriers and create a fair, inclusive, and safe society for all women and girls, covering safety, economic equality, and structural inclusion.

Who are prominent women leaders in Australia's data centre industry?

In 2026, notable women in consequential roles across Australia's data centre and AI infrastructure sector include Rianne Van Veldhuizen (VP and Managing Director, AWS ANZ), Belinda Dennett (CEO, Data Centres Australia), Stela Solar (Managing Director Data and AI, Accenture ANZ), LuLu Shiraz (Country Head, Vertiv ANZ), and Eloise Leaver (Manager Industry Growth, National AI Centre).

What is Data Centres Australia and who leads it?

Data Centres Australia (DCA) is Australia's peak representative body for the data centre sector, established in November 2025. It is co-founded and led by CEO Belinda Dennett, whose background spans government relations at AirTrunk, corporate affairs at Microsoft Australia, and federal ministerial advisory roles in the digital economy.

What is the National AI Centre and what does it do?

The National AI Centre (NAIC) is a federal government body under the Department of Industry, Science and Resources. It works to build AI confidence and adoption across Australian industry, publishes guidance frameworks for responsible AI governance, and maps the national AI ecosystem to support enterprise and government decision-making.

IWD 2026: Five Women Shaping Australia's Data Centre and AI Infrastructure Sector

In the days leading into International Women's Day 2026, a wave of commentary from women across Australia's technology and infrastructure sector landed with a notably consistent tone. Lauren Ryder, CEO of Leading Edge Global, wrote in IT Brief Australia that women are 16% less likely than men to use generative AI tools for work, and that the gap is widest among Gen Z. LuLu Shiraz, Country Head of Vertiv ANZ, argued in the same publication that an industry drawing from a narrow talent pool limits its own capacity to grow. May Mitchell, CMO of Qualys, writing in TelcoNews, pointed to what Women in Digital calls the "missing middle", the mid-career years where 49% of women believe having children hinders progression. The five women in this spotlight are working across exactly that landscape, in data centre infrastructure, AI policy and enterprise strategy, right now.

Rianne Van Veldhuizen - VP and Managing Director, AWS Australia-New Zealand

As Managing Director of AWS ANZ since 2021, Rianne Van Veldhuizen stood alongside the Prime Minister and the AWS global CEO in June 2025 to announce the AU$20 billion investment commitment, an increase on the AU$13.2 billion figure announced just two years prior.

Before AWS, Van Veldhuizen spent 15 years at IBM, ultimately serving as Asia Pacific Chief Digital Officer. That background, spanning enterprise transformation and large-scale infrastructure, is directly relevant as Australian organisations accelerate AI adoption and the demand on data centre capacity grows with it.

Belinda Dennett - CEO, Data Centres Australia

As co-founder and inaugural CEO of Data Centres Australia (DCA), established in November 2025, Belinda Dennett is responsible for translating a multi-billion dollar investment surge into coherent policy settings with government. She spent over a decade as Head of Government Relations at AirTrunk, followed by more than ten years leading Microsoft Australia's Corporate Affairs and Policy team, and earlier served as a Federal ministerial adviser with a digital economy focus. She holds qualifications in both law and business.

When independent groups called for public interest principles to govern new data centre development in early 2026, Dennett responded directly on behalf of DCA: "Principles developed independently of the industry are inherently limited. Without grounding in operational reality, commercial feasibility and the existing regulatory landscape, well-intentioned proposals risk producing outcomes that are counterproductive." She has also pushed back on inflated water-use narratives, distinguishing between peak flow requests and actual base demand, and making the case for data centres as a net positive for grid stability.

Stela Solar -- Managing Director, Data and AI, Accenture ANZ

Stela Solar served as the inaugural Director of the National AI Centre, co-chaired the Commonwealth AI Consortium, and helped develop Australia's Voluntary AI Safety Standard before moving to Accenture ANZ as Managing Director for Data and AI in late 2024. Before the NAIC, she held global senior positions at Microsoft, including Global Director of AI Solution Sales.

At Accenture, her team leads enterprise organisations through AI transformation and generative AI adoption at scale. She also sits on the Data and AI Advisory Council at Beyond Blue.

LuLu Shiraz - Country Head and Senior Director, Sales, Vertiv ANZ

LuLu Shiraz leads commercial operations for Vertiv across Australia and New Zealand. Vertiv designs and manufactures the power, cooling and physical infrastructure systems that data centres depend on to function, and its hardware is deployed inside facilities operated by NEXTDC, CDC, Equinix and most major colocation operators in the country.

Shiraz brings more than 20 years of experience across IT, telecommunications and enterprise sales, with previous senior roles at Telstra, Oracle and Dell EMC. She joined Vertiv in 2021, and her role was expanded to Country Head for Australia and New Zealand in February 2026.

Writing in IT Brief Australia this week, she noted: "When an industry relies on a narrow talent pool, it limits innovation, increases operational risk and ultimately constrains its ability to grow."

Eloise Leaver - Manager, Industry Growth, National AI Centre

Eloise Leaver leads industry engagement at the federal government's National AI Centre (NAIC), a role she moved into in March 2025 having previously served as Industry Program Manager at the same organisation since July 2023.

In October 2025, she led the public launch of the NAIC's Guidance for AI Adoption at the CEDA AI Leadership Summit, a framework setting out six essential practices for responsible AI governance across Australian enterprise. In September 2025, she hosted the NAIC's national webinar on the launch of Australia's AI Ecosystem Report alongside CSIRO. In January 2026, the NAIC publicly recognised her as one of Women in Digital's 2026 Women to Watch in AI and Machine Learning.

Rianne Van Veldhuizen — VP and Managing Director, AWS Australia-New Zealand

Belinda Dennett — CEO, Data Centres Australia

Stela Solar — Managing Director, Data and AI, Accenture ANZ

LuLu Shiraz — Country Head and Senior Director Sales, Vertiv ANZ

Eloise Leaver — Manager, Industry Growth, National AI Centre

A note: the women featured in this spotlight were not contacted ahead of publication. All roles, activities and quotes are drawn from verified public sources. If any of them would like to add context or correct anything, we welcome that conversation.

Written by CertifiedStrategic Editorial Team

CertifiedStrategic.com - Australia's independent data centre index tracking capacity, certification and market news across the country's critical infrastructure providers.