Peggy O'Neal (lawyer)

Peggy O'Neal is an Australian lawyer who, as of October 2013, serves as the president of the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL), the first woman in AFL history to serve as a club president. The Australian Financial Review has named her in its list of "Top 100 Women of Influence".

O'Neal was born and raised in the small mining community of Killarney, West Virginia, which is now a ghost town. She comes from a family of coal miners, and was the first in her family to go to university, studying law at the University of Virginia. O'Neal moved to Australia in 1993, after falling in love with an Australian backpacker while on holiday in Greece. She settled in the suburb of Richmond, Victoria, where she was introduced to football by friends. O'Neal worked as a lawyer with Herbert Smith Freehills and later with Lander & Rogers, and served on the boards of MLC Limited and the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation. She was also chairman of the Law Council of Australia's superannuation committee and served as a consultant to the Rudd Government's review of the superannuation system.

In 2005, O'Neal was elected to the board of the Richmond Football Club. She chaired the board's risk and compliance committee and was a member of the governance committee, as well as being chair of the Tigers in Community Foundation. O'Neal was elected club president in October 2013, in place of the retiring Gary March. She defeated two other candidates, investment banker Maurice O'Shannassy and former International Cricket Council CEO Malcolm Speed, becoming the first woman elected president of any AFL club. As president, O'Neal oversaw Richmond's 2017 premiership win – the club's first since 1980 – as well as its successful bid for an AFL Women's team, set to enter the competition in 2020. Following a disappointing 2016 season, she had been subject to an unsuccessful board challenge.

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