Sandra Yates is a consultant to business and government, and an executive coach. She was most recently the chair of the NSW TAFE Commission Board (1998 – 2007), and is currently the Chair of Sydney Writers’ Festival, a position she has held since 2000. During that time, the Festival has grown to become the largest literary Festival in Australia, and one of the largest in the world, with annual attendances in excess of 80,000.

In addition, Sandra chairs Get Reading! on behalf of the Australia Council for the Arts. Get Reading! (formerly known as Books Alive) is a Federal Government initiative, and grew out of the Book Industry Assistance Package. Launched in 2003, Get Reading! Is the largest promotion of books and reading in Australia.

In 2008 she chaired a review of the National Art School on behalf of the NSW Government, and was subsequently appointed to its Board, when the School was granted its independence, in line with the recommendations of the review.

She was Chairman of the multi-award winning advertising firm, Saatchi & Saatchi Australia from 1996 to 2004, and during that period led two national election campaigns on behalf of the Australian Labor Party.

In 1994-95, she was the Chair of the Australian Council for Women, the Australian Government’s advisory body for the 4th United Nations Conference on Women held in Beijing in September 1995. In that capacity, she was a Government adviser and delegate to the Conference.

She was previously the publisher of Time magazine - a position she held from 1990 - 1993. Under her leadership, Time became the No 1 news and business magazine in Australia in both circulation and readership, and increased advertising revenue by 50%.

Prior to that, Sandra was President and CEO of Matilda Publications Inc., a company she founded with her then business partner, Dr. Anne Summers, in New York in 1988, when they raised $20,000,000 on Wall Street, and completed the second woman-led LBO in US corporate history.

The company successfully launched Sassy (a magazine for teenage girls) and led Ms magazine to its highest ever circulation.

She was employed by the John Fairfax organisation between 1980 - 1988, working in both newspapers and magazines. Following a successful turnaround of the advertising sales performance of the magazine group, she was selected to attend the Advanced Management Program of the University of Hawaii, and was subsequently appointed Deputy to the Chief Executive of Fairfax Magazines, a position she held until her departure for New York. At that time, Fairfax Magazines (which was subsequently absorbed into the ACP Publishing Group) was the second largest publisher of magazines in Australia, selling in excess of 30,000,000 magazines annually.

Sandra is a Past President of Chief Executive Women, and the YWCA of Sydney, and a former board member of the NSW Major Events Board, UNICEF, Musica Viva, and the Taronga Foundation. Sandra is a Past President of the Magazine Publishers Association of Australia, and a former director of the Magazine Publishers Association in the US.

In June 2002, she was admitted as an Officer in the Order of Australia for services to women’s organizations, vocational education and training, and the advertising industry.