Amanda Harkness, former Group General Counsel and Board Secretary of ASX.

Amanda J. Harkness is the former group general counsel and company secretary at Australia's ASX Group.

Harkness graduated with first-class honors in law from Australia's National University, where she also received a degree in economics. In 2006, she became general counsel at ASX Group.

ASX Group was created in 2006 by the merger of the Australian Stock Exchange and the Sydney Futures Exchange, and says it is a top-10 listed exchange group, as measured by market capitalization.

ASX is a market operator, clearing house and payments system facilitator. It monitors and enforces compliance with operating rules, promotes standards of corporate governance among Australia's listed companies and educates retail investors.

It has integrated listings, trading, clearing and settlement businesses, and provides access to and exchange of capital management of risk, as well as of data and other solutions.

ASX also operates across multiple asset classes including equities, fixed income, commodities and energy. The company's activities span primary and secondary market services, central counterparty risk transfer and securities settlement for both the equities and fixed-income markets.

Prior to joining ASX, Harkness was the COO of and led the Asian business for a NASDAQ-listed internet business. During the 1990s, she was a consultant at McKinsey & Co. and held management roles at Telstra, an Australian telecommunications company. In the mid-1980s, she was a partner at an Australian law firm.

In September 2017, Harkness stepped down as ASX Group general counsel and company secretary, a role she held for a decade. She and the deputy CEO were joint ASX CEOs for six months during 2016 following the unexpected departure of the CEO.

Harkness is now a non-executive director and corporate adviser. Since 2009, she has been a non-executive director for Vodafone's Australian business. Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) is an Australian telecommunications company providing mobile voice, text and data services. VHA's 4G network covers more than 22 million Australians, and the company was scheduled to launch fixed broadband services in 2017.

VHA is a joint venture between Vodafone Group Plc and Hutchison Telecommunications (Australia) Ltd. As of June 2017, VHA's customer base was approximately 5.7 million.

Moreover, Harkness is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, the Governance Institute of Australia and the international Institute of Chartered Secretaries. She is a member of Chief Executive Women.

Harkness has been a member of Australian and New South Wales government advisory boards focused on innovation and technology development.

In 2017, she was inducted into the Australian National University's College of Business and Economics Alumni Hall of Fame and was given a Global General Counsel Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 2016, the U.K. Financial Times named her as an FT Top 30 Worldwide General Counsel. She also mentors international general counsel, and business, law and policy students and academics.