Jillian Segal

Jillian Shirley Segal (born 5 November 1955) is an Australian lawyer, 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. She is Jewish. Moving to Sydney, 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 and 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. She has been chair of the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce since 2015.

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 the immediate past president of the "ardently pro-Israel" 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."

Israel advocacy

Segal has long been an advocate for Israel in Australia. In November 2023, she co-signed a statement condemning foreign minister Penny Wong and the Labor party for calling for Israel to "cease the attacking of hospitals", and its support for a UN resolution calling for a ceasefire.

Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism

On 9 July 2024, Segal was appointed for a term of three years Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism to the Australian Government by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. The appointment came after campaigning by Jewish communal organisations to create a position to fight the rise in antisemitism post 7 October 2023. Segal's appointment was praised by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the representative body of Jews in Australia, and received support from the federal Coalition. The Jewish Council of Australia, a community group formed in February 2024 critical of the State of Israel, opposed Segal's appointment. Segal's statements and positions on antisemitism in Australia include the view that antisemitism at universities had become 'systemic'.

In January 2025, Segal criticised lenient sentencing for antisemitic offences as a factor undermining efforts to address hate crimes against the Australian Jewish community, and called for mandatory sentencing for individuals attacking synagogues. Following an increase in attacks on synagogues and Jewish homes in the prior months, Segal called on Albanese and state premiers to convene a national cabinet meeting. She argued that urgent action is required to implement tougher sentencing guidelines and ensure more consistent prosecution of antisemitic hate crimes. In response, Albanese rejected both of Segal's requests, and stated that sentencing should be left to judges and that he would not need to convene a national cabinet as he discussed the matter with the premiers of Victoria and New South Wales.

In July 2025, Segal recommended she become a monitor of media organisations, with the ability to "readily terminate" funding for public institutions, such as universities, festivals and public broadcasters, if they fail to combat antisemitism. A judicial inquiry would be established into antisemitism at universities by the start of 2026 if the envoy determined matters had remained unaddressed.

Controversies

Donations to lobby group

In the 2023–24 financial year, her and her husband John Roths family trust, the Henroth Discretionary Trust, operating through a trustee company, Henroth Investments Pty Ltd, directed by Segal's husband and his brother Stanley made a AU$50,000 donation to conservative political lobby group Advance. This caused controversy for Segal when news website '' The Klaxon'' reported on the donation in July 2025, claiming Segal and her husband were major funders of Advance. In response to this allegation, Segal denied being involved in the donation and said that she regarded the activities of her husband as separate from her own, stating that "no one would tolerate or accept my husband dictating my politics, and I certainly won't dictate his".

See also

*List of combating antisemitism envoys

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Segal, Jillian
Living people
University of New South Wales alumni
Harvard Law School alumni
Australian women lawyers
21st-century Australian businesspeople
Officers of the Order of Australia
Australian people of Jewish descent
Combating antisemitism envoys
South African emigrants to Australia
Lawyers from Johannesburg
Businesspeople from Johannesburg
People of South African-Jewish descent
White South African people
1955 births